Learn some essential Chinese clothing vocabulary
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dave: Hi and welcome back to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. I am Dave and I am joined in the studio by Echo. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo) |
| Dave: And today, we kick off season 2 with lesson 1 where we are going to talk about clothing. |
| Echo: 衣服 (Yīfú) |
| Dave: And you will learn about a question that is not a question. |
| Echo: 嗯？那是什么？ (Ń? Nà shì shénme?) |
| Dave: You will find out soon enough. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Dave: We will start off with the dialogue. This dialogue takes place between a husband and a wife. |
| Echo: And they are at home. |
| Dave: And speaking casually as usual. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: But before we go into that, let me just remind you that if you don’t already have one, stop by chineseclass101.com and sign up for your free life time account. You can sign up in less than 7 seconds. |
| Echo: Right. Very fast. |
| Dave: Okay now let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你买什么了？(nǐ mǎi shénme le?) |
| B:什么也没买。 (shénmeyě méi mǎi.) |
| A:啊？为什么？你不是想买衣服吗？ (a? wèi shénme? nǐ bù shì xiǎng mǎi yīfu ma?) |
| B:毛衣、牛仔裤、大衣，什么都卖完了。 (máoyī, niúzǎikù, dàyī, shénme dōu mài wán le.) |
| Dave: Let’s listen to that a bit slower. |
| A:你买什么了？ (nǐ mǎi shénme le?) |
| B:什么也没买。 (shénmeyě méi mǎi.) |
| A:啊？为什么？你不是想买衣服吗？ (a? wèi shénme? nǐ bù shì xiǎng mǎi yīfu ma?) |
| B:毛衣、牛仔裤、大衣，什么都卖完了。 (máoyī, niúzǎikù, dàyī, shénme dōu mài wán le.) |
| Dave: Now with the English translation. |
| Echo: 你买什么了？ (nǐ mǎi shénme le?) |
| Dave: Did you buy anything? |
| Echo: 什么也没买。(shénmeyě méi mǎi.) |
| Dave: I didn’t buy anything. |
| Echo: 啊？为什么？你不是想买衣服吗？ (a? wèi shénme? nǐ bù shì xiǎng mǎi yīfu ma?) |
| Dave: Hah! Why? I thought you went to buy clothes. |
| Echo: 毛衣、牛仔裤、大衣，什么都卖完了。 (máoyī, niúzǎikù, dàyī, shénme dōu mài wán le.) |
| Dave: Sweaters, jeans, coats, everything was sold out. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dave: So Echo, do you enjoy buying clothes? |
| Echo: 没错，我喜欢买衣服。 (Méi cuò, wǒ xǐhuān mǎi yīfú.) |
| Dave: Yes I suppose a lot of girls do enjoy shopping for clothes. |
| Echo: Yeah actually I think 很多人都喜欢买衣服 (Hěnduō rén dōu xǐhuān mǎi yīfú) no matter if they are girls or they are boys. |
| Dave: That’s true. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: And even if you don’t like shopping for clothes, you still need to wear them. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Dave: So it’s very important to ______ (0:02:42) talk about them. So with that in mind, I have some vocabulary words about clothing. So let’s get to those now. And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 衣服 (yīfu) |
| Dave: Clothing. |
| Echo: 毛衣 (máoyī) |
| Dave: Sweater. |
| Echo: 衬衫 (chènshān) |
| Dave: Shirt. |
| Echo: 裤子 (kùzi) |
| Dave: Pants. |
| Echo: 大衣 (dàyī) |
| Dave: Coat. |
| Echo: 卖完 (mài wán) |
| Dave: To sell out. |
| Echo: 牛仔裤 (niúzǎikù) |
| Dave: Jeans. |
| Echo: 夹克 (jiākè) |
| Dave: Jacket. |
| Echo: 什么 (shénme) |
| Dave: Anything. |
| Echo: 袜子 (wàzi) |
| Dave: Socks. |
| Echo: 袜子 (wàzi) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dave: Okay let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases in this lesson. Now Echo, |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: You know, one great thing about talking about clothes is you can use it to compliment people. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Dave: To say things about how you like someone’s shoes or their jacket. |
| Echo: Yeah, yeah. People really like that, yeah. |
| Dave: Yeah it’s a great way to make friends. So with that in mind, let’s go through some example phrases complimenting people clothing. |
| Echo: Great. |
| Dave: Okay. The first one, your jacket is not bad. |
| Echo: 你的夹克不错。 (Nǐ de jiákè bùcuò.) |
| Dave: Your jacket is not bad. |
| Echo: 你的夹克不错。(Nǐ de jiákè bùcuò.) |
| Dave: Now in English, this doesn’t really sound like much of a compliment… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: Because not bad is; it doesn’t have a very positive meaning but in Chinese |
| Echo: Yeah it’s different. |
| Dave: Yeah. It’s quite positive. It essentially means good. |
| Echo: Yeah. It means quite good. |
| Nǐ de jiákè bùcuò. |
| Dave: Let’s try another one. I like your shirt. |
| Echo: 我喜欢你的衬衫。 (Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ de chènshān.) |
| Dave: I like your shirt. |
| Echo: 我喜欢你的衬衫。 (Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ de chènshān.) |
| Dave: Next one. I like your pants. |
| Echo: 我喜欢你的裤子。 (Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ de kùzi.) |
| Dave: I like your pants. |
| Echo: 我喜欢你的裤子。 (Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ de kùzi.) |
| Dave: So Echo, another way to compliment someone’s clothing… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: Is to ask them where did you get it? |
| Echo: Oh so in the west, people do that too. |
| Dave: It’s a way of… |
| Echo: So I think it’s global, international stuff. |
| Dave: Yes. Well you are essentially asking someone, where can I buy one? |
| Echo: Yeah exactly. |
| Dave: I want one too… |
| Echo: Yeah, yeah exactly. |
| Dave: So with that in mind, the next phrase is, your coat where did you buy it? |
| Echo: 你的大衣在哪买的？ (Nǐ de dàyī zài nǎ mǎi de?) |
| Dave: Your coat, where did you buy it? |
| Echo: 你的大衣在哪买的？ (Nǐ de dàyī zài nǎ mǎi de?) |
| Dave: Now at this point, I think we should talk a little bit about the difference between jacket and coat. |
| Echo: Right. Jacket is 夹克 (Jiákè)and coat is 大衣. (Dàyī) Yeah, you know in China, I think the coat is like longer and heavier… |
| Dave: Right. |
| Echo: Right. Usually yeah we wear it in the winter. |
| Dave: A winter coat. |
| Echo: Yeah winter coat 大衣。 (Dàyī.) |
| Dave: And a jacket is lighter and shorter. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Dave: And something you would wear in spring or summer. |
| Echo: 没错，夹克更短、更轻。 (Méi cuò, jiákè gèng duǎn, gèng qīng.) |
| Dave: Okay. So after you ask someone where to buy the coat, perhaps you would go there to buy one for yourself. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: But unfortunately they say, we are all sold out. |
| Echo: 我们都卖完了。 (Wǒmen dōu mài wánliǎo.) |
| Dave: We are all sold out. |
| Echo: 我们都卖完了，真不好意思。 (Wǒmen dōu mài wánliǎo, zhēn bù hǎoyìsi.) |
| Dave: What a shame! |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: Since you are already there and you’ve come all this way, you might as well buy some – so maybe you say to them, I want to buy a new sweater. |
| Echo: 我想买一件新毛衣。 (Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yī jiàn xīn máoyī.) |
| Dave: I want to buy a new sweater. |
| Echo: 我想买一件新毛衣。 (Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yī jiàn xīn máoyī.) |
| Dave: Okay. And that about wraps it up for the vocab section. It’s grammar time. At the beginner level, we learned that the word |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: 什么 (Shénme) |
| Dave: Means what. |
| Echo: Right 什么 (Shénme) |
| Dave: As in what’s that? |
| Echo: 那是什么？ (Nà shì shénme?) |
| Dave: What’s this? |
| Echo: 这是什么？ (Zhè shì shénme?) |
| Dave: And what are you doing? |
| Echo: 你在做什么？ (Nǐ zài zuò shénme?) |
| Dave: But in this lesson, something different is happening. The word |
| Echo: 什么 (Shénme) |
| Dave: Does not mean what here but instead it refers to an indeterminate object. |
| Echo: 呃，那是什么？ (È, nà shì shénme?) |
| Dave: Well basically it means anything. |
| Echo: Ah okay. |
| Dave: Right. Anything or everything. So in this dialogue and we hear, I did buy anything |
| Echo: 我什么也没买。 (Wǒ shénme yě méi mǎi.) |
| Dave: Really here it means anything. |
| Echo: 什么 (Shénme) |
| Dave: Okay. Let’s give some examples of other phrases that use the same grammatical construction. |
| Echo: Yep. |
| Dave: First. Not doing anything. |
| Echo: 什么都不做。 (Shénme dōu bù zuò.) |
| Dave: Not doing anything. |
| Echo: 什么都不做。 (Shénme dōu bù zuò.) |
| Dave: Didn’t say anything. |
| Echo: 什么也没说。 (Shénme yě méi shuō.) |
| Dave: Didn’t say anything. |
| Echo: 什么也没说。 (Shénme yě méi shuō.) |
| Dave: It’s all good. |
| Echo: 什么都行。 (Shénme dōu xíng.) |
| Dave: It’s all good. |
| Echo: 什么都行。(Shénme dōu xíng.) |
| Dave: Can’t do anything. |
| Echo: 什么都不会。 (Shénme dōu bù huì.) |
| Dave: Can’t do anything. |
| Echo: 什么都不会。 (Shénme dōu bù huì.) |
| Dave: So Echo, I noticed in all these phrases, each one uses one of two words. |
| Echo: Right. One is 都 (Dōu) and the other is 也 (Yě) after 什么。(Shénme) |
| Dave: And in each case, it means all. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: Or to include everything. |
| Echo: Exactly. It’s to emphasize. |
| Dave: And then some of the phrases also use the word no. |
| Echo: 不。 (Bù) |
| Dave: In which case it makes the meaning closer to nothing. |
| Echo: Right such as our first example like 什么都不做。 (Shénme dōu bù huì.) |
| Dave: Which we had as not doing anything. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: But you could also say it in English as doing nothing. |
| Echo: 什么都不做。 (Shénme dōu bù zuò.) |
Outro |
| Dave: Okay. That should about do it for the grammar section. We have one more for you. |
| Echo: Yep. Hopefully you will never use it. |
| Dave: Yes hopefully you will never use it. It’s forgot everything. |
| Echo: 什么都忘了。 (Shénme dōu wàngle.) |
| Dave: Right. I forgot everything. |
| Echo: 我什么都忘了。 (Wǒ shénme dōu wàngle.) |
| Dave: So hopefully, you will never have to say that. So if you do forget everything, just come to chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: Where you will be able to subscribe to a life time account in no time at all where you have plenty of materials for you to be able to review and hopefully remember this and learn Chinese. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: From Beijing, I am Dave. |
| Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| Dave: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you next week. |
| Echo: 下周见吧 (Xià zhōu jiàn ba) Bye bye. |
| Dave: Bye bye. |
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