Learn a grammar pattern that compares two sentences that have an unsure outcome and then shrinks them into one
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Dave: Hi and I am Dave and welcome to chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: Right and thanks again for being here with us for this elementary series, season 2 lesson. |
| Dave: Yes this lesson is lesson 7. Who Will Get the House? |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: So in this lesson, you will learn a new grammatical structure that will allow you to turn two sentences into one. |
| Echo: Right. This conversation takes place in a funeral parlor. |
| Dave: And the conversation is between three family members. |
| Echo: The speakers are relatives. So they are speaking casually. |
| Dave: Don’t forget. You can leave us a comment on this lesson. So if you have a question or some feedback, please just go to chineseclass101.com, click on comments, enter your comment and your name and that’s it. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: We look forward to hearing from you there. Okay now let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:爷爷死了... (yéye sǐ le ...) |
| B:哦...那谁会分到他的房子？ (ò ...nà shéi huì fēndào tā de fángzi?) |
| A:肯定是我！ (kěndìng shì wǒ!) |
| B:为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| A:我非常听话。 (wǒ fēicháng tīnghuà.) |
| B:肯定不是你，肯定是我！ (kěndìng bù shì nǐ, kěndìng shì wǒ!) |
| A:为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| B:我常给他做饭。 (wǒ cháng gěi tā zuòfàn.) |
| A:你们都不是，是我！(nǐmen dōu bù shì, shì wǒ!) |
| B:为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| A:因为我是他的律师，遗嘱是我写的。(yīnwèi wǒ shì tā de lǜshī, yízhǔ shì wǒ xiě de.) |
| Dave: One more time a bit slower. |
| A:爷爷死了... (yéye sǐ le ...) |
| B:哦...那谁会分到他的房子？ (ò ...nà shéi huì fēndào tā de fángzi?) |
| A:肯定是我！(kěndìng shì wǒ!) |
| B:为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| A:我非常听话。(wǒ fēicháng tīnghuà.) |
| B:肯定不是你，肯定是我！ (kěndìng bù shì nǐ, kěndìng shì wǒ!) |
| A:为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| B:我常给他做饭。 (wǒ cháng gěi tā zuòfàn.) |
| A:你们都不是，是我！ (nǐmen dōu bù shì, shì wǒ!) |
| B:为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| A:因为我是他的律师，遗嘱是我写的。 (yīnwèi wǒ shì tā de lǜshī, yízhǔ shì wǒ xiě de.) |
| Dave: One more time, with English. |
| Echo: 爷爷死了... (yéye sǐ le ...) |
| Dave: Grandpa is dead! |
| Echo: 哦...那谁会分到他的房子？ (ò ...nà shéi huì fēndào tā de fángzi?) |
| Dave: Who is going to get his house? |
| Echo: 肯定是我！ (kěndìng shì wǒ!) |
| Dave: Certainly it will be me. |
| Echo: 为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| Dave: Why? |
| Echo: 我非常听话。 (wǒ fēicháng tīnghuà.) |
| Dave: I was very obedient to him. |
| Echo: 肯定不是你，肯定是我！ (kěndìng bù shì nǐ, kěndìng shì wǒ!) |
| Dave: Definitely not you! It will definitely be me. |
| Echo: 为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| Dave: Why? |
| Echo: 我常给他做饭。 (wǒ cháng gěi tā zuòfàn.) |
| Dave: I often cooked for him. |
| Echo: 你们都不是，是我！ (nǐmen dōu bù shì, shì wǒ!) |
| Dave: Neither of you are going to get anything. It’s going to be me. |
| Echo: 为什么？ (wèishénme?) |
| Dave: Why? |
| Echo: 因为我是他的律师，遗嘱是我写的。 (yīnwèi wǒ shì tā de lǜshī, yízhǔ shì wǒ xiě de) |
| Dave: Because I was his lawyer and I wrote his will. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dave: So Echo, who do you think should get the house? |
| Echo: None of them. They all seem pretty selfish. |
| Dave: You know, I went to a university, Rice University where the founder was killed by his butler. |
| Echo: Really? |
| Dave: Yeah and then the butler changed his will so that the money would not go to start the university. |
| Echo: Hoh! |
| Dave: But the lawyer saved it. |
| Echo: Oh that’s good. |
| Dave: Right. So the lawyer was the good guy in that one. |
| Echo: That’s good. |
| Dave: And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 爷爷 (Yéyé) |
| Dave: Grandpa. |
| Echo: 分到 (Fēn dào) |
| Dave: To get a share, to get a portion. |
| Echo: 肯定 (Kěndìng) |
| Dave: Certainly. |
| Echo: 听话 (Tīnghuà) |
| Dave: Obedient. |
| Echo: 做饭 (Zuò fàn) |
| Dave: To cook food. |
| Echo: 律师 (Lǜshī) |
| Dave: Lawyer. |
| Echo: 遗嘱 (Yízhǔ) |
| Dave: A legal will. |
| Echo: 遗产 (Yíchǎn) |
| Dave: Legacy. |
| Echo: 法律 (Fǎlǜ) |
| Dave: Law. |
| Echo: 法律 (Fǎlǜ) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dave: Now let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Echo: So the first phrase we will look at is 分到。 (Fēn dào.) |
| Dave: To get a share or a portion of something. |
| Echo: 分到，我分到了二百万。 (Fēn dào, wǒ fēn dàole èrbǎi wàn.) |
| Dave: My share is $2 million. |
| Echo: 我分到了二百万。 (Wǒ fēn dàole èrbǎi wàn.) |
| Dave: For my share, I received $2 million. |
| Echo: Umm that’s a lot of money. |
| Dave: Yeah it is. |
| Echo: Okay next one 肯定。 (Kěndìng) |
| Dave: Certainly or definitely. |
| Echo: 肯定。 (Kěndìng) |
| Dave: You are certainly capable. |
| Echo: 你肯定行! (Nǐ kěndìng xíng!) |
| Dave: You certainly can do it. |
| Echo: 听话。 (Tīnghuà) |
| Dave: Obedient. |
| Echo: 听话。 (Tīnghuà) |
| Dave: Obedient. |
| Echo: 她的孩子很听话。 (Tā de háizi hěn tīnghuà.) |
| Dave: Her child is very obedient. |
| Echo: 她的孩子很听话。 (Tā de háizi hěn tīnghuà.) |
| Dave: Her child is very obedient. |
| Echo: So Dave, when you were little, 你是一个听话的孩子吗？ (Nǐ shì yīgè tīnghuà de háizi ma?) |
| Dave: No, not at all. Actually I wasn’t that bad. My sister was terrible. |
| Echo: Really? |
| Dave: Yeah until we were teenagers and then I was terrible and my sister was good. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Dave: Yeah. Now I think I am the good one again. I am not sure, we keep trading. |
| Echo: Next one 做饭。 (Zuò fàn.) |
| Dave: To cook food. |
| Echo: 你会做饭吗？ (Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?) |
| Dave: Can you cook? |
| Echo: 你会做饭吗？ (Nǐ huì zuò fàn ma?) |
| Dave: Can you cook? |
| Echo: Next one is 律师。 (Lǜshī) |
| Dave: Lawyer. |
| Echo: 律师。 (Lǜshī) |
| Dave: Lawyer. |
| Echo: 我想当律师。 (Wǒ xiǎng dāng lǜshī.) |
| Dave: I want to be a lawyer. |
| Echo: 我想当律师。 (Wǒ xiǎng dāng lǜshī.) |
| Dave: I want to be a lawyer. |
| Echo: 遗产。 (Yíchǎn) |
| Dave: Legacy. |
| Echo: 遗产。 (Yíchǎn) |
| Dave: Legacy. |
| Echo: 这是我爷爷的遗产。 (Zhè shì wǒ yéyé de yíchǎn.) |
| Dave: This is my grandfather’s legacy. |
| Echo: 这是我爷爷的遗产。 (Zhè shì wǒ yéyé de yíchǎn.) |
| Dave: This is my grandfather’s legacy. |
| Echo: 遗嘱。 (Yízhǔ) |
| Dave: Will as in last will and testament. |
| Echo: 遗嘱。我没有钱，也没有写遗嘱。 (Yízhǔ. Wǒ méiyǒu qián, yě méiyǒu xiě yízhǔ.) |
| Dave: I have no money, I haven’t written a will. |
| Echo: 我没有钱，也没有写遗嘱。 (Wǒ méiyǒu qián, yě méiyǒu xiě yízhǔ.) |
| Dave: I have no money, I haven’t written a will. |
| Echo: 法律。 (Fǎlǜ) |
| Dave: Law. |
| Echo: 法律，我们都遵守法律。 (Fǎlǜ, wǒmen dōu zūnshǒu fǎlǜ.) |
| Dave: We all respect the law. |
| Echo: 我们都遵守法律。 (Wǒmen dōu zūnshǒu fǎlǜ.) |
| Dave: We all respect the law and coming up next, we should respect grammatical law. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Dave: And learn about that. |
| Echo: Cool. Let’s go to the grammar section then. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dave: Okay then. It’s grammar time. Okay today’s grammatical structure is used to compare two sentences. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: In which the outcome or the result is unsure. |
| Echo: Right and the translation is very straightforward actually. |
| Dave: That’s right. Let’s take a look at the example from our dialogue. |
| Echo: 肯定不是你，肯定是我。 (Kěndìng bùshì nǐ, kěndìng shì wǒ.) |
| Dave: It’s definitely not you, it’s definitely going to be me. The first thing we want to point out is the pattern. |
| Echo: 不是，是。 (Bùshì, shì.) |
| Dave: And this means is not followed by one object. And then is followed by another object. |
| Echo: Right. 不是你，是我。 (Bùshì nǐ, shì wǒ.) |
| Dave: It’s not you, it’s me. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: Let’s see another example. |
| Echo: 这不是你的错，是我的错。 (Zhè bùshì nǐ de cuò, shì wǒ de cuò.) |
| Dave: It’s not your fault, this is my fault. |
| Echo: 这不是你的错，是我的错。 (Zhè bùshì nǐ de cuò, shì wǒ de cuò.) |
| Dave: This isn’t your fault, it’s mine. This brings us to our next point. |
| Echo: Yep. |
| Dave: If you haven’t noticed, the subject |
| Echo: 这。 (Zhè) |
| Dave: The word this was omitted from the second half of the sentence. All we had was |
| Echo: 是我的错。 (Shì wǒ de cuò.) |
| Dave: Instead of |
| Echo: 这是我的错。 (Zhè shì wǒ de cuò.) |
| Dave: This structure basically squeezes two sentences together for convenience and clarity. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: Let’s take a look at a few more examples to see where this subject omission comes into play. |
| Echo: 那不是猫，是狗。 (Nà bùshì māo, shì gǒu.) |
| Dave: That’s not a cat, it’s a dog. |
| Echo: 那不是猫，是狗。 (Nà bùshì māo, shì gǒu.) |
| Dave: Right. |
| Echo: And the subject 那 (Nà) was omitted. |
| Dave: So even though, I translated the second part as that’s a dog. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Dave: You didn’t have to use the word that. |
| Echo: Yeah in Chinese. |
| Dave: That’s right, it’s implied. So if the subject remains in the previous sentence, then it would look like |
| Echo: 那不是猫，那是狗。 (Nà bùshì māo, nà shì gǒu.) |
| Dave: Literally that’s not a cat, that’s a dog. Okay and with that, it should be clear that you can simplify what you are trying to say by omitting the subject in the second half of the sentence. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Dave: And we will leave you with one more example. |
| Echo: 这不是结束，是开始。 (Zhè bùshì jiéshù, shì kāishǐ.) |
| Dave: This is not the end, this is the beginning. |
| Echo: Right. 这不是结束，是开始。 (Zhè bùshì jiéshù, shì kāishǐ.) |
| Dave: So hopefully that’s how you feel about studying Chinese. |
| Echo: Uho! |
Outro |
| Dave: Okay that just about does it for today. Some of our listeners already know about the most powerful tool on chineseclass101.com. Line by line audio. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Dave: The perfect tool for rapidly improving listening comprehension. By listening to lines of the conversation over and over again. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
| Dave: With this tool, you can listen until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically we break down the dialogue into comprehensible bite size pieces. You can try the line by line audio tool in the premium learning center at chineseclass101.com. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Dave: Okay from Beijing, I am Dave. |
| Echo: 我是Echo. (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Dave: And we will see you next week. |
| Echo: Thanks for listening 下周见。 (Xià zhōu jiàn.) |
| Dave: See you then. |
| Echo: Bye bye. |
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