Learn how to reduplicate Chinese adjectives to add emphasis to the quality they describe
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好 (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo) Welcome to chineseclass101.com. 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: And 我是 (Wǒ shì) David. |
| Echo: Today we have elementary season 1, lesson 24. |
| David: Cleanliness in China. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: And this is actually another restaurant dialogue. |
| Echo: Yes. Two friends are in a restaurant. |
| David: Right and they are going to be complaining about the cutlery. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: So we are going to take you through the dialogue as always and Echo, before we do that, you had something to remind people. |
| Echo: Yes comments, comments, comments |
| David: Yes if you have questions or if you have comments, we’ve got a discussion section online at |
| Echo: Chineseclass101.com |
| David: So come visit us, check it out and we will look forward to seeing you on the site. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And now the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 我的叉子有点儿脏，能换一把吗？(Wǒ de chāzi yǒu diǎnr zāng, néng huàn yī bǎ ma?) |
| B: 不脏，这不是干干净净的吗？(Bù zāng, zhè bù shì gāngānjìngjìng de ma?) |
| A: 不脏？你看这儿！(Bù zāng? Nǐ kàn zhèr!) |
| B: 哦，好像是有一点儿脏。我给你拿个新的吧。(ò, hǎoxiàng shì yǒu yī diǎnr zāng. Wǒ gěi nǐ ná ge xīn de ba.) |
| Once more slowly. |
| A: 我的叉子有点儿脏，能换一把吗？(Wǒ de chāzi yǒu diǎnr zāng, néng huàn yī bǎ ma?) |
| B: 不脏，这不是干干净净的吗？(Bù zāng, zhè bù shì gāngānjìngjìng de ma?) |
| A: 不脏？你看这儿！(Bù zāng? Nǐ kàn zhèr!) |
| B: 哦，好像是有一点儿脏。我给你拿个新的吧。(ò, hǎoxiàng shì yǒu yī diǎnr zāng. Wǒ gěi nǐ ná ge xīn de ba.) |
| Once more, with English translation. |
| A: 我的叉子有点儿脏，能换一把吗？(Wǒ de chāzi yǒu diǎnr zāng, néng huàn yī bǎ ma?) |
| A: My fork is a little dirty. Can I change it? |
| B: 不脏，这不是干干净净的吗？(Bù zāng, zhè bù shì gāngānjìngjìng de ma?) |
| B: It's not dirty, this isn't clean to you? |
| A: 不脏？你看这儿！(Bù zāng? Nǐ kàn zhèr!) |
| A: Not dirty? Look at this! |
| B: 哦，好像是有一点儿脏。我给你拿个新的吧。(ò, hǎoxiàng shì yǒu yī diǎnr zāng. Wǒ gěi nǐ ná ge xīn de ba.) |
| B: Oh. Looks like it is a little dirty. I'll give you a new one. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So we hope you never have this dialogue in China. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Although practically speaking you will. |
| Echo: And sometimes the problem is you can’t see but it doesn’t mean that it’s not dirty. |
| David: Right. There is a 90% solution now which is disposable chopsticks. |
| Echo: Umm yeah. |
| David: Although some places do reuse chopsticks. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So you are going to watch out for that anyway. We’ve got a lot of vocab here. And the vocab is all about cleanliness and dirt in cutlery and stuff. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: Okay. 脏 (zāng) |
| David: Dirty. |
| Echo: 换 (huàn) |
| David: To exchange. |
| Echo: 把 (bǎ) |
| David: A measure word for things with handles. |
| Echo: 干净 (gānjìng) |
| David: Clean. |
| Echo: 拿 (ná) |
| David: To fetch. |
| Echo: 卫生 (wèishēng) |
| David: Hygiene. |
| Echo: 洗 (xǐ) |
| David: To wash. |
| Echo: 双 (shuāng) |
| David: Pair. |
| Echo: 双 (shuāng) |
| David: Okay. Since we are in a restaurant, the first thing we want to do in our vocab section is review the names of cutlery. In an earlier lesson, we taught you the words for fork. |
| Echo: 叉子。(Chāzi.) |
| David: Knife. |
| Echo: 刀子。(Dāozi.) |
| David: Spoon. |
| Echo: 勺儿。(Sháo er.) |
| David: In today’s lesson, we learn the measure word for all of these. |
| Echo: Yes which is 把。(Bǎ.) |
| David: One fork. |
| Echo: 一把叉子。(Yī bǎ chāzi.) |
| David: Two knives. |
| Echo: 两把刀子。(Liǎng bǎ dāozi.) |
| David: Three spoons. |
| Echo: 三把勺儿。(Sān bǎ sháo er.) |
| David: And that measure word. |
| Echo: 把。(Bǎ.) |
| David: Is used for anything with handles. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Right. So that’s why it’s being used for cutlery. In the previous lesson, we also taught you the word for chopsticks. |
| Echo: 筷子。(Kuàizi.) |
| David: How do you say a pair of chopsticks? |
| Echo: 一双筷子。(Yīshuāng kuàizi.) |
| David: Right and that measure word is in our vocab today too. |
| Echo: Yes 双。(Shuāng.) |
| David: We will use that for a pair of things. |
| Echo: 一双筷子。(Yīshuāng kuàizi.) |
| David: What else comes in pairs? |
| Echo: 比如说:一双袜子。(Bǐrú shuō: Yīshuāng wàzi.) |
| David: A pair of socks. |
| Echo: 一双手套。(Yīshuāng shǒutào.) |
| David: A pair of gloves but not a pair of pants. |
| Echo: No |
| David: No. |
| Echo: 一条裤子。(Yītiáo kùzi.) |
| David: Right that’s a long thin thing. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: A long thin pant or object. |
| Echo: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| David: So that’s cutlery and those are the two measure words. The rest of the vocab is about cleanliness. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: We have the word clean. |
| Echo: 干净。(gānjìng.) |
| David: Clean. |
| Echo: 干净。(gānjìng.) |
| David: This fork is not clean. |
| Echo: 这把叉子不干净。(Zhè bǎ chāzi bù gānjìng.) |
| David: Right and another word for not clean is |
| Echo: 脏。(zāng.) |
| David: Dirty. |
| Echo: 脏。(zāng.) |
| David: And there is a slight difference there. Dirty means you know it’s got dirt and stuff and not clean just means |
| Echo: 有点不干净。(Yǒudiǎn bù gānjìng.) |
| David: Yeah. So there is one more word we’ve got for cleanliness here. |
| Echo: 卫生。(Wèishēng.) |
| David: This is a more formal word. It means hygiene. |
| Echo: Yes 卫生。(Wèishēng.) |
| David: So you will hear of the hygiene department. |
| Echo: 卫生部。(Wèishēng bù.) |
| David: Right and other such things. So most of the time you want to be going with dirty. |
| Echo: 脏。(Zàng.) |
| David: In our grammar point for today, we are going to talk about a really strange thing we had in the dialogue. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It’s related to that. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| It’s grammar time. |
| David: Okay I know a lot of our listeners are confused at this point. Some may even be panicking because while we taught the word clean |
| Echo: 干净。(Gānjìng.) |
| David: That’s not what we heard in the dialogue. |
| Echo: Yes we heard another word. |
| David: Yes. |
| Echo: 干干净净。(Gàn gānjìng jìng.) |
| David: It’s actually the same word. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Okay. I am not making stuff up here. What’s going on Echo? |
| Echo: It’s a two-character adjective duplication. |
| David: Yes which is another way of making people panic. Basically it means you can do this in Chinese. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: You are adding extra emphasis if you’ve got a two-character adjective like. |
| Echo: 干净。(Gānjìng.) |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 高兴。(Gāoxìng.) |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 清楚。(Qīngchǔ.) |
| David: Right. You can’t do it in every single case. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But for a lot of them, they do this reduplication. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: For instance. |
| Echo: 干净 (Gānjìng) becomes 干干净净。(Gàn gānjìng jìng.) |
| David: Right which is like going from clean to really clean. |
| Echo: Yes 高兴 (Gāoxìng) becomes 高高兴兴。(Gāo gāoxìng xìng.) |
| David: From happy to really excited. |
| Echo: Yes and 清楚 (Qīngchǔ) becomes 清清楚楚。(Qīng qīngchǔ chǔ.) |
| David: Really, really clear. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Let’s hear this in context. |
| Echo: 我的房间里总是干干净净的。(Wǒ de fángjiān lǐ zǒng shì gàn gānjìng jìng de.) |
| David: My room is always spotless. |
| Echo: 他高高兴兴的来了。(Tā gāo gāoxìng xìng de láile.) |
| David: She came very happily. |
| Echo: 我们的合同上写的清清楚楚的。(Wǒmen de hétóng shàng xiě de qīng qīngchǔ chǔ de.) |
| David: Our contract is written very clearly， right or if someone asks you, do you understand, you can answer |
| Echo: 清清楚楚。(Qīng qīngchǔ chǔ.) |
| David: I am really clear about it. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: So a really simple grammar point, don’t let the word reduplication scare you. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: Very simple. |
| David: Yeah. It’s very simple. |
| Echo: 简简单单。(Jiǎn jiǎndān dān.) |
Outro |
| David: Right and with that, we are at the end of our lesson for today. Echo, before we go, you wanted to remind people about our one on one teaching. |
| Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) If you are interested, you just write us the email and we will set up a free trial lesson for you. |
| David: Right. So you can test things out and see for yourself why 1 on 1 teaching is much more effective than traditional classes. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: That said though, if you have any questions, let us know. Our email address is |
| Echo: Contact us at chineseclass101.com |
| David: And we look forward to seeing you on the site. |
| Echo: Yes 我们网上见吧。(Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba.) |
| David: Bye bye. |
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