Learn a specific Chinese verb compliment, which when added to specific verbs may be tricky to catch
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是 (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: And we’ve got elementary season 1, Lesson 25. |
| Echo: Rush Hour on the Beijing Metro. |
| David: Right. We are finally out of the restaurant. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And we are back on the subway going home. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: The bad news is, it is rush hour. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: And so the metro is packed. |
| Echo: Very crowded. |
| David: Yes. So that’s our dialogue for today in casual Mandarin as always. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Before we get there, we want to remind you. If you have problems making out any of the lines or words in our dialogues, we have line by line recordings on chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: Which is really useful. |
| David: Right. You can play them until people around you start complaining but you will remember them. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So with that said, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 天哪，这趟车太挤了，我们肯定进不去。(Tiānna, zhè tàng chē tài jǐle, wǒmen kěndìng jìn bu qù.) |
| B: 现在是高峰时间，每趟车都很挤。(Xiànzài shì gāofēng shíjiān, měi tàng chē dōu hěn jǐ.) |
| A: 我动不了了，哎哟，我的脚！(Wǒ dòng bù liǎo le, āiyo, wǒ de jiǎo!) |
| B: 这没什么，每趟车都这样。(Zhè méi shénme, měi tàng chē dōu zhèyàng.) |
| Once more slowly. |
| A: 天哪，这趟车太挤了，我们肯定进不去。(Tiānna, zhè tàng chē tài jǐle, wǒmen kěndìng jìn bu qù.) |
| B: 现在是高峰时间，每趟车都很挤。(Xiànzài shì gāofēng shíjiān, měi tàng chē dōu hěn jǐ.) |
| A: 我动不了了，哎哟，我的脚！(Wǒ dòng bù liǎo le, āiyo, wǒ de jiǎo!) |
| B: 这没什么，每趟车都这样。(Zhè méi shénme, měi tàng chē dōu zhèyàng.) |
| Once more, with English translation. |
| A: 天哪，这趟车太挤了，我们肯定进不去。(Tiānna, zhè tàng chē tài jǐle, wǒmen kěndìng jìn bu qù.) |
| A: My Gosh! This car is too crowded. There's no way we can get in. |
| B: 现在是高峰时间，每趟车都很挤。(Xiànzài shì gāofēng shíjiān, měi tàng chē dōu hěn jǐ.) |
| B: It's rush hour right now. All the cars are crowded. |
| A: 我动不了了，哎哟，我的脚！(Wǒ dòng bù liǎo le, āiyo, wǒ de jiǎo!) |
| A: I can't move. Ahh, my foot! |
| B: 这没什么，每趟车都这样。(Zhè méi shénme, měi tàng chē dōu zhèyàng.) |
| B: This is nothing. Every car is like this. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So Echo, you like riding the subway. |
| Echo: Not in the rush hour. |
| David: Okay not in rush hour. |
| Echo: No. |
| David: Which is understandable. It’s not as bad as in Tokyo but in Beijing and Shanghai, it can get pretty crowded. |
| Echo: Yes pretty bad too. |
| David: Yeah and if you are not at the end stations, you are not going to get a seat. |
| Echo: Oh you are talking about a seat! No…I am talking about place to stand. |
| David: Huh anyway our vocab for today is all about how crowded it can get. Subways, trips. |
| Echo: Yep. |
| David: So let’s get to that. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 趟 (tàng) |
| David: Measure word for journeys. |
| Echo: 挤 (jǐ) |
| David: Crowded. |
| Echo: 肯定 (kěndìng) |
| David: To be certain. |
| Echo: 高峰时间 (gāofēng shíjiān) |
| David: Rush hour. |
| Echo: 脚 (jiǎo) |
| David: Foot. |
| Echo: 地铁 (dìtiě) |
| David: Subway. |
| Echo: 进去 (jìnqù) |
| David: To go in. |
| Echo: 进去 (jìnqù) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. Our first word is the measure word for journeys. |
| Echo: 趟。(tàng.) |
| David: Fourth tone. |
| Echo: 趟。(tàng.) |
| David: You might say |
| Echo: 他去过一趟中国。(Tā qùguò yī tàng zhōngguó.) |
| David: He went to China once. |
| Echo: 他去过一趟中国。(Tā qùguò yī tàng zhōngguó.) |
| David: So in our dialogue when we hear |
| Echo: 这趟车。(Zhè tàng chē.) |
| David: We are not talking about the subway [*] so much as the trip. |
| Echo: 这趟车太挤了。(Zhè tàng chē tài jǐle.) |
| David: This trip is too crowded. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And that word for crowded |
| Echo: 挤。(Jǐ.) |
| David: Third tone. |
| Echo: 挤。(Jǐ.) |
| David: Is also one of our words. It’s an adjective it means obviously. |
| Echo: Crowded. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 挤。(Jǐ.) |
| David: So you could describe the subway as extremely crowded. |
| Echo: 地铁非常挤。(Dìtiě fēicháng jǐ.) |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 高峰时间的地铁太挤了。(Gāofēng shíjiān dì dìtiě tài jǐle.) |
| David: The subway is too crowded at rush hour. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 我挤不上去。(Wǒ jǐ bù shàngqù.) |
| David: And that would be I can’t push my way in. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: All right. So it’s a sense of jostling and of being pressed in on all sides. |
| Echo: Yes 我挤不上去。(Wǒ jǐ bù shàngqù.) |
| David: Right. Now we’ve got the word for subway later in our dialogue. |
| Echo: 地铁。(Dìtiě.) |
| David: Subway. |
| Echo: 地铁。(Dìtiě.) |
| David: So the Beijing subway is |
| Echo: 北京地铁。(Běijīng dìtiě.) |
| David: And the Shanghai subway would be |
| Echo: 上海地铁。(Shànghǎi dìtiě.) |
| David: However if you are looking for subway stations |
| Echo: Right like specifically. |
| David: Yes. |
| Echo: You should say 地铁站。(Dìtiě zhàn.) |
| David: Subway station. |
| Echo: 地铁站。(Dìtiě zhàn.) |
| David: For instance, in Beijing |
| Echo: We have 王府井地铁站。(Wángfǔ jǐng dìtiě zhàn.) |
| David: The Wangfujing Subway station. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Or you could ask 请问“亮马桥地铁站”在哪儿？(Qǐngwèn “liàngmǎqiáo dìtiě zhàn” zài nǎ'er?) |
| David: Excuse me, where is the |
| Echo: 亮马桥地铁站 (Liàngmǎqiáo dìtiě zhàn) |
| David: Right which is one of the new ones built for the Olympics. |
| Echo: Yes Line 10. |
| David: Yes okay. So that’s our vocab for today. We’ve got a great grammar point. Let’s get to it. |
| Echo: 好的 (Hǎo de) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| It’s grammar time. |
| David: A lot of people reading the dialogue were probably confused. Have you guys made a typo? |
| Echo: Yeah the answer is no. |
| David: Yes you see those repeated characters there. |
| Echo: In this line 我动不了了。(Wǒ dòng bùliǎole.) |
| David: They are different. We don’t have two 了right after each other. |
| Echo: Yeah 我动不了了。(Wǒ dòng bùliǎole.) |
| David: And what that means is I can no longer move. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: But let’s step back and dissect this a bit. First of all, we’ve got an interesting sound on the first one. |
| Echo: 了。(Le.) |
| David: Third tone. |
| Echo: 了。(Le.) |
| David: This is an archaic pronunciation. It comes to us from classical Chinese. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And the meaning comes from classical Chinese too. |
| Echo: Means finish. |
| David: Yes or stop. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And here we are seeing it as a resultative verb complement. |
| Echo: Right 动不了。(Dòng bùliǎo.) |
| David: In a previous lesson, we touched on negative resultative verb complements. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Like |
| Echo: 听不懂。(Tīng bù dǒng.) |
| David: To hear but not understand. Here we’ve got |
| Echo: 动不了。(Dòng bùliǎo.) |
| David: To move but be unable to finish. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: So really when you see this after a verb, it means to be unable to. For instance |
| Echo: 吃不了。(Chī bùliǎo.) |
| David: To be unable to eat. |
| Echo: 我太饱了，吃不了了。(Wǒ tài bǎole, chī bùliǎole.) |
| David: I am too full, I can’t eat anymore. |
| Echo: Right or 去不了。(Qù bùliǎo.) |
| David: To be unable to go. |
| Echo: 我还有工作，去不了。(Wǒ hái yǒu gōngzuò, qù bùliǎo.) |
| David: I’ve still got work. I can’t go. So in review, what we’ve got is a vestige of classical Chinese. You will run into this pronunciation occasionally. |
| Echo: 了。(Le.) |
| David: But the most common usage is as a resultative verb complement. |
| Echo: right Something, something 不了。(Bùliǎo.) |
| David: Right to be unable to do something. As always, this can be a bit tricky to remember if you’ve just got the audio. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So make sure to drop by chineseclass101.com and pick up our premium PDF transcripts. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: We’ve got all of the stuff written down in the grammar notes. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
Outro |
| David: So it’s easy to review and that being said, that’s our lesson for today. |
| Echo: Right and if you have any questions, you can leave your comments on the site or write to us at contact us at chineseclass101.com |
| David: Right. Echo reads them all and she will get back to you. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: That’s it. That’s our podcast. So thank you for listening. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: And we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 我们网上见吧 (Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba) Bye bye. |
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