Learn how to use two-character adverbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo), 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo。 |
| David: And we have a lower beginner lesson, season 1, Lesson 12 today. |
| Echo: Are the Stars Aligning in China? |
| David: Right. The last lesson was about the Chinese zodiac. This one is about the western zodiac. |
| Echo: 对, 这一次我们要说星座。(Duì, zhè yīcì wǒmen yào shuō xīngzuò.) |
| David: Yes and we are going to learn what is the best zodiac sign, Scorpio. |
| Echo: 好像这不是我们的内容吧!(Hǎoxiàng zhè bùshì wǒmen de nèiróng ba!) |
| David: Okay. Anyway, let’s get to the dialogue, casual Mandarin as always. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:我认识了一个不错的男人。(Wǒ rènshi le yí gè búcuò de nánrén.) |
| B:什么星座的？(Shénme xīngzuò de ?) |
| A:星座？不知道。干嘛？(Xīngzuò ? Bù zhīdào. Gànmá ?) |
| B:这个最重要了！看你们合不合适呀。(Zhègè zuì zhòngyào le! Kàn nǐmen hé bù héshì ya.) |
| A:你太迷信了。(Nǐ tài míxìn le .) |
| B:千万别找天蝎座的啊，你们不合适！(Qiānwàn bié zhǎo tiānxiēzuò de a, nǐmen bù héshì!) |
| David: Once more, a bit slower. |
| A:我认识了一个不错的男人。(Wǒ rènshi le yí gè búcuò de nánrén.) |
| B:什么星座的？(Shénme xīngzuò de ?) |
| A:星座？不知道。干嘛？(Xīngzuò ? Bù zhīdào. Gànmá ?) |
| B:这个最重要了！看你们合不合适呀。(Zhègè zuì zhòngyào le! Kàn nǐmen hé bù héshì ya.) |
| A:你太迷信了。(Nǐ tài míxìn le .) |
| B:千万别找天蝎座的啊，你们不合适！(Qiānwàn bié zhǎo tiānxiēzuò de a, nǐmen bù héshì!) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo: 我认识了一个不错的男人。(Wǒ rènshi le yí gè búcuò de nánrén.) |
| David: I met a pretty good guy. |
| Echo: 什么星座的？(Shénme xīngzuò de ?) |
| David: What sign is he? |
| Echo: 星座？不知道。干嘛？(Xīngzuò ? Bù zhīdào. Gànmá ?) |
| David: Zodiac sign, I don’t know, why? |
| Echo: 这个最重要了！看你们合不合适呀。(Zhègè zuì zhòngyào le! Kàn nǐmen hé bù héshì ya.) |
| David: This is the most important to see if you two get along. |
| Echo: 你太迷信了。(Nǐ tài míxìn le .) |
| David: You are too superstitious. |
| Echo: 千万别找天蝎座的啊，你们不合适！(Qiānwàn bié zhǎo tiānxiēzuò de a, nǐmen bù héshì!) |
| David: Whatever you do, don’t go out with the Scorpio. You won’t go along. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: That’s a lie. Scorpio is the best zodiac sign and Echo, what sign are you? |
| Echo: 我是白羊座的(Wǒ shì báiyángzuò de), 四月份。(Sì yuèfèn.) |
| David: Hmm do you know what sign I am? |
| Echo: 你是天蝎座的。(Nǐ shì tiānxiēzuò de.) |
| David: Yes I am the best Scorpio. Anyway.. |
| Echo: 你最好的(Nǐ zuì hǎo de), 天蝎座是吗?(Tiānxiēzuò shì ma?) |
| David: Yes anyway, let’s get to the vocab section. |
| Echo: Okay. 认识。(rènshi.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: To meet. |
| Echo: 认识, 认识, 不错。(rènshi, rènshi, búcuò.) |
| David: Not bad. |
| Echo: 不错, 不错, 星座。(búcuò, búcuò, xīngzuò.) |
| David: Zodiac sign. |
| Echo: 星座, 星座, 干嘛?(xīngzuò, xīngzuò, gànmá?) |
| David: Why |
| Echo: 干嘛, 干嘛, 重要。(gànmá, gànmá, zhòngyào.) |
| David: Important. |
| Echo: 重要, 重要, 迷信。(zhòngyào, zhòngyào, míxìn.) |
| David: Superstitious. |
| Echo: 迷信, 迷信, 千万。(míxìn, míxìn, qiānwàn.) |
| David: Whatever you do. |
| Echo: 千万, 千万, 天蝎座。(qiānwàn, qiānwàn, tiānxiēzuò.) |
| David: Scorpio. |
| Echo: 天蝎座, 天蝎座, 合适。(tiānxiēzuò, tiānxiēzuò, héshì.) |
| David: Suitable. |
| Echo: 合适, 合适。(héshì, héshì.) |
| David: Okay. Time for a closer look at some of these words. Echo, what do you want to talk about first? |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 第一个, 认识。(Dì yī gè, Rènshì.) |
| David: To meet. |
| Echo: 认识。(Rènshì.) |
| David: Or to recognize. |
| Echo: 对, 比如说 我认识他。(Duì, bǐrú shuō wǒ rènshì tā.) |
| David: Yeah. That could be, I already know him. Yeah. |
| Echo: 比如说 你的朋友说那个男人不错, 你可以说, 啊! 我认识他。(Bǐrú shuō nǐ de péngyǒu shuō nàgè nánrén bùcuò, nǐ kěyǐ shuō, a! Wǒ rènshì tā.) |
| David: Yeah. I know him. He is not right for you. |
| Echo: 因为他是天蝎座的。(Yīnwèi tā shì tiānxiēzuò de.) |
| David: No because he is not a Scorpio. Moving on apparently, there is an adjective phrase that is used to describe Scorpios. That’s 不错(Bùcuò) Echo. |
| Echo: 哈哈,我还在想是什么!(Hāhā, wǒ hái zài xiǎng shì shénme!) |
| David: Right. What is it again? |
| Echo: 不错。(Bùcuò.) |
| David: That’s right, not bad. |
| Echo: 唔,很多东西都可以说不错, 这个东西不错。(Wú, hěnduō dōngxī dū kěyǐ shuō bu cuò, zhège dōngxī bùcuò.) |
| David: Yeah. And it’s not just not bad, it’s pretty good. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. So it’s not a negative word when you hear people use it. |
| Echo: 对, 所以如果有人说你的中文不错, 他们不是说你的中文很一般, 他们是说 挺好的。(Duì, suǒyǐ rúguǒ yǒurén shuō nǐ de zhōngwén bùcuò, tāmen bùshì shuō nǐ de zhōngwén hěn yībān, tāmen shì shuō tǐng hǎo de.) |
| David: Yeah it’s a compliment yeah. Moving on last lesson, you used this word casually. It’s the word for superstitious. |
| Echo: 迷信。(Míxìn.) |
| David: Superstitious. |
| Echo: 迷信。(Míxìn.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 唔, 这个字挺有意思的, 因为我们都知道相信。(Wú, zhège zì tǐng yǒuyìsi de, yīnwèi wǒmen dōu zhīdào xiāngxìn.) |
| David: Yes and you may know, to get lost. |
| Echo: 迷路。(Mílù.) |
| David: Right. So a superstition in Chinese is a misleading belief. |
| Echo: 唔, 比如就是你太相信什么东西了。(Wú, bǐrú jiùshì nǐ tài xiāngxìn shénme dōngxīle.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 好像迷路了一样。(Hǎoxiàng mílùle yīyàng.) |
| David: Yeah you believe in it so much that you are lost in the fog. |
| Echo: 迷信。(Míxìn.) |
| David: Yeah. How about hearing that in the sentence? |
| Echo: 很多年青人 迷信星座。(Hěnduō niánqīng rén míxìn xīngzuò.) |
| David: Right. So it takes an object, the thing you believe in comes after it. |
| Echo: 对, 很多年青人 迷信星座。(Duì, hěnduō niánqīng rén míxìn xīngzuò.) |
| David: A lot of young people believe in the western zodiac, right and that last word there. |
| Echo: 星座。(Xīngzuò.) |
| David: That’s the western zodiac right. For the Chinese zodiac, you can’t say this. You have to say what year were you born in. |
| Echo: No, 你属什么?(Nǐ shǔ shénme?) |
| David: And that’s only for the western zodiac. For the Chinese zodiac, you have to use the verb we mentioned in the last lesson. |
| Echo: 属。(Shǔ.) |
| David: As in |
| Echo: 你属什么?(Nǐ shǔ shénme?) |
| David: Right. So when you meet someone, you can ask them what their western zodiac is. |
| Echo: 唔, 你是什么星座的?(Wú, nǐ shì shénme xīngzuò de?) |
| David: And you can ask them what year they were born in. |
| Echo: 你属什么?(Nǐ shǔ shénme?) |
| David: And that will tell you what month and what year they were born in. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So that will get you everything you need. |
| Echo: 哈哈, 你好聪明呀!(Hāhā, nǐ hǎo cōngmíng ya!) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: And with that, let’s get to the grammar section. It’s grammar time. Okay, our grammar section today is kind of interesting because we are going to blow up this grammatical idea that we’ve used to teach you to date. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: It’s kind of a lie. It’s the difference between adjectives and verbs because in Chinese, in classical Chinese, there wasn’t really much of a difference. So today, we have words as our adjectives and we have words as our verbs but in a lot of cases, they want to behave the same way. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And we see that in the kind of question that we get asked today. |
| Echo: 看你们合不合适呀!(Kàn nǐmen hé bu héshì ya!) |
| David: I want to see if you guys are suitable or not. |
| Echo: 看你们合不合适呀!(Kàn nǐmen hé bu héshì ya!) |
| David: Now we’ve already talked about verb replication. In this case though, it’s happening with an adjective. |
| Echo: 合适。(Héshì.) |
| David: Which we introduced in last lesson meaning to be suitable, something suitable. |
| Echo: Right. 合不合适。(Hé bu héshì.) |
| David: Because this is a two-character adjective, we only use the first character at the beginning of the negating pattern. |
| Echo: 没错, 合不合适(Méi cuò, hé bu héshì) We don’t say 合适不合适, 这个太多了。(Héshì bù héshì, zhège tài duōle.) |
| David: Yeah and this is a general pattern to use with most two-character adjectives. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: For instance |
| Echo: 重要。(Zhòngyào.) |
| David: Becomes |
| Echo: 重不重要? 漂亮。(Zhòng bù chóng yào? Piàoliang.) |
| David: Becomes |
| Echo: 漂不漂亮?(Piào bù piàoliang?) |
| David: Right. Let’s hear these in some sentences. |
| Echo: 在这开会 合不合适?(Zài zhè kāi huìhé bu héshì?) |
| David: Is this a suitable place to have a meeting. |
| Echo: 在这开会 合不合适?(Zài zhè kāi huìhé bu héshì?) |
| David: Is this a suitable place to have a meeting. |
| Echo: 这个文件 重不重要?(Zhège wénjiàn zhòng bù chóng yào?) |
| David: Is this document important? |
| Echo: 这个文件 重不重要?(Zhège wénjiàn zhòng bù chóng yào?) |
| David: Is this document important? |
| Echo: 他女朋友 漂不漂亮?(Tā nǚ péngyǒu piào bù piàoliang?) |
| David: Is this girlfriend pretty? |
| Echo: 他女朋友 漂不漂亮?(Tā nǚ péngyǒu piào bù piàoliang?) |
| David: So remember, we’ve already done this kind of – this question, is it or isn’t it with verbs. The thing to note in this case is we are doing it with adjectives too. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And the secret reason for this is, it’s dating back to classical Chinese and it’s that adjectives in Chinese, they really want to be verbs. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì) |
| David: Right. So don’t get confused if you see adjectives used in these structures that make you think, is it an adjective, is it a verb. |
| Echo: 对, 别担心这个。(Duì, bié dānxīn zhège.) |
| David: Yes the answer is it’s kind of both and it’s complex. For now though, that is all the time we have. |
Outro |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And before we let you go Echo, there is something you wanted to say. |
| Echo: 对, 请给我们留言吧!(Duì, qǐng gěi wǒmen liúyán ba!) |
| David: Yes if you have comments, if you have questions. |
| Echo: 对, 在我们的网上留言(Duì, zài wǒmen de wǎngshàng liúyán) chineseclass101.com |
| David: Or send us an email to contact us at chineseclass101.com and we’d love to hear from you. |
| Echo: 对, 我们都很喜欢回答大家的问题。(Duì, wǒmen dōu hěn xǐhuān huídá dàjiā de wèntí.) |
| David: Okay and with that, that’s our show. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 我们在网上见吧!(Wǒmen zài wǎngshàng jiàn ba!) |
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