Learn about the usage of a key Chinese character, 没, and also how to ask for help
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是Echo。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And we are here today with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 17. |
| Echo: Asking for help in Chinese. |
| David: Right. So we have a dialogue that takes place in someone’s house. It’s them and a friend. They are asking the friend to give them a hand. |
| Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) And they are speaking casual Mandarin as always. |
| David: Right. Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:可以帮我个忙吗？(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?) |
| B: 没问题，做什么？ (Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?) |
| A: 帮我扶一下，我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.) |
| B: 这样行吗？(Zhèyàng xíng ma?) |
| A:就这样，谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.) |
| B: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: Once more a bit slower. |
| A:可以帮我个忙吗？(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?) |
| B: 没问题，做什么？ (Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?) |
| A: 帮我扶一下，我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.) |
| B: 这样行吗？(Zhèyàng xíng ma?) |
| A:就这样，谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.) |
| B: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo:可以帮我个忙吗？(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?) |
| David: Can you lend me a hand? |
| Echo: 没问题，做什么？(Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?) |
| David: No problem, what do you want me to do? |
| Echo: 帮我扶一下，我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.) |
| David: Hold this for me. I need to change the light bulb. |
| Echo: 这样行吗？(Zhèyàng xíng ma?) |
| David: Like this? |
| Echo: 就这样，谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.) |
| David: Yes thank you. |
| Echo:没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: You are welcome. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: So David, 你换过灯泡吗? (Nǐ huànguò dēngpào ma?) |
| David: I need to change the light bulb, are you kidding? Yes, yes why don’t we just move on right away and take a look at some of the words in this lesson. |
| Echo: Okay. 可以。(Kěyǐ.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Can. |
| Echo: 可以,可以,帮。(Kěyǐ, kěyǐ, bāng.) |
| David: To help. |
| Echo: 帮,帮,扶。(Bāng, bāng, fú.) |
| David: To hold. |
| Echo: 扶,扶,换。(Fú, fú, huàn.) |
| David: To change. |
| Echo:换,换,一下。(Huàn, huàn, yīxià.) |
| David: A bit. |
| Echo: 一下,一下,灯泡。(Yīxià, yīxià, dēngpào.) |
| David: Light bulb. |
| Echo: 灯泡,灯泡,这样。(Dēngpào, dēngpào, zhèyàng.) |
| David: This way. |
| Echo: 这样,这样,没事。(Zhèyàng, zhèyàng, méishì.) |
| David: You are welcome. |
| Echo: 没事,没事。(Méishì, méishì.) |
| David: There are a lot of more tricky words in this. So let’s move on to them right away. Echo, the first one I want to touch on is this verb to hold. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 扶。(Fú.) |
| David: To hold. |
| Echo: 扶。(Fú.) |
| David: Because it’s not exactly to hold. |
| Echo: 对, 这个更多的好像就是, 这不是把它全放在你的手里, 你就是帮忙。(Duì, zhège gèng duō de hǎoxiàng jiùshì, zhè bùshì bǎ tā quán fàng zài nǐ de shǒu lǐ, nǐ jiùshì bāngmáng.) |
| David: Yes it’s not holding your hand and grasping you, it’s more like supporting it. |
| Echo: 没错, 没错, 比如说你可以扶什么人, 或者是什么东西都可以。(Méi cuò, méi cuò, bǐrú shuō nǐ kěyǐ fú shénme rén, huòzhě shì shénme dōngxī dū kěyǐ.) |
| David: Right. So if someone is kind of leaning on you and you are kind of holding them up |
| Echo: 对, 你可以....(Duì, nǐ kěyǐ....) |
| David: By the arm, you should lift or 扶。(Fú.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right like you are lifting up their arm to help them. |
| Echo: 没错, 可以扶老人过马路。(Méi cuò, kěyǐ fú lǎorénguò mǎlù.) |
| David: Right. That’s to 扶 an old lady across the road. |
| Echo: 对, 你不是抱他们过马路。(Duì, nǐ bùshì bào tāmenguò mǎlù.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: You 扶他们过马路。(Fú tāmenguò mǎlù.) |
| David: Yes it’s impolite if you 抱 them. |
| Echo: No那很恐怖, 不然你可以帮别人扶椅子。(Nà hěn kǒngbù, bùrán nǐ kěyǐ bāng biérén fú yǐzi.) |
| David: Yes to kind of – that’s holding a chair for them. |
| Echo:对, 比如说 我去换灯泡, 你帮我扶一下椅子。(Duì, bǐrú shuō wǒ qù huàn dēngpào, nǐ bāng wǒ fú yīxià yǐzi.) |
| David: Yeah. Moving on, we have the verb |
| Echo: 换。(Huàn.) |
| David: Which we’ve run into before. There we were using it to change money. |
| Echo: 对, 换钱, 换美元。(Duì, huànqián, huàn měiyuán.) |
| David: Yes. So to change US dollars into Renminbi. |
| Echo: 唔, 把美元换成人民币。(Wú, bǎ měiyuán huàn chéng rénmínbì.) |
| David: Right. Here it just means to change, to change light bulbs. |
| Echo: 对, 换灯泡, 或者是换水龙头。(Duì, huàn dēngpào, huòzhě shì huàn shuǐlóngtóu.) |
| David: Right. Our next word has a secret sound tucked at the end. |
| Echo: 一下。(Yīxià.) |
| David: Can you hear it? |
| Echo: 一下。(Yīxià.) |
| David: Yeah it’s not 一下 it’s 一下。 |
| Echo: 对 With the R. |
| David: Yes it’s got these and that’s standard Mandarin, that’s not the Beijing accent although down it says, people will drop it off sometimes. How do we use this? |
| Echo: Well we use 一下 after verbs. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: To make it sound more polite. |
| David: Yeah to make it sound like it’s not a big deal. |
| Echo: 对, 比如说等一下。(Duì, bǐrú shuō děng yīxià.) |
| David: Wait a little bit. |
| Echo: 或者说扶一下。(Huòzhě shuō fú yīxià.) |
| David: Right. Just you know, hold it up for a little bit. It won’t take long. |
| Echo: 换一下。(Huàn yīxià.) |
| David: Yes. Last but not least, we have the word for light bulb. |
| Echo: 灯泡。(Dēngpào.) |
| David: Light bulb. |
| Echo: 灯泡。 |
| David: Which is, literally its lantern bubble? |
| Echo: 唔, 对, 灯泡, 挺好的我觉。(Wú, duì, dēngpào, tǐng hǎo de wǒ jué.) |
| David: Sometimes, you need to change the lantern bubble. |
| Echo: 换灯泡。(Huàn dēngpào.) |
| David: Right. Okay and with that, let’s get on to our grammar section. |
| Echo: 好! (Hǎo!) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. Okay, we are not going to go into grammar today so much as just reviewing some of these common words and phrases that start with a character |
| Echo: 没。(Méi.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we ran into two of these. |
| Echo: 唔, 第一个是 没问题。(Wú, dì yī gè shì méi wèntí.) |
| David: No problem. |
| Echo: 没问题。(Méi wèntí.) |
| David: No problem. |
| Echo: 第二个是 没事。(Dì èr gè shì méishì.) |
| David: Literally also no problem. Right? |
| Echo: But in the dialogue, it means you are welcome. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: It’s not a big deal. |
| Echo: Yeah 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: Yes there are a couple of other really common ones and we just wanted to review them. Echo? |
| Echo: 比如说 没关系, 我们的 old friend. (Bǐrú shuō méiguānxì, wǒmen de old friend.) |
| David: Yes which is literally you know, no connection, no relation. |
| Echo: 对不起, 没关系。(Duìbùqǐ, méiguānxì.) |
| David: Yeah it’s also kind of you are welcome or it’s not a big deal often. |
| Echo: 对, 其实这些词都可以通用 (Duì, qíshí zhèxiē cí dōu kěyǐ tōngyòng) They can use pretty much interchangeably and not in a lot of situations. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 比如说 谢谢,啊!没关系。(Bǐrú shuō xièxiè, a! Méiguānxì.) |
| David: Next we have |
| Echo: 没什么。(Méishénme.) |
| David: It’s nothing. |
| Echo: 没什么。(Méishénme.) |
| David: Right and that 什么 (Shénme) means anything. It’s not a question. |
| Echo: 对, 所以它也可以是 不客气的意思。(Duì, suǒyǐ tā yě kěyǐ shì bù kèqì de yìsi.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 谢谢, 啊! 没什么。(Xièxiè, a! Méishénme.) |
| David: Yeah. So all of these are really casual. |
| Echo: 唔, 对, 很口语的 (Wú, duì, hěn kǒuyǔ de) |
| David: Right. Echo, let’s hear them again. |
| Echo: 没问题, 没事, 没关系, 没什么。(Méi wèntí, méishì, méiguānxì, méishénme.) |
| David: And again notice the special R tucked on the end of that second one. |
| Echo: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: Right. You’ve got to have that 没事 (Méishì) |
| Echo: 对, 不能说没事, 太奇怪了。(Duì, bùnéng shuō méishì, tài qíguàile.) |
| David: Yeah it will make you sound a bit weird. So maybe we should change the title of this lesson and have it about hidden R right? |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Because if you leave them off in both cases |
| Echo: 唔, 就有事了。(Wú, jiù yǒushìle.) |
Outro |
| David: Yes you will have 事 (Shì) okay and with that, we are out of time for today. Before we let you go Echo, something that you wanted to mention. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Number five. Yes if you have questions or comments, feel free to leave a note on our site. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: We’d love to hear from you. For now though, that is all the time we have. From Beijing, |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And I am David. |
| Echo: 请大家给我们留言吧! 再见。(Qǐng dàjiā jǐ wǒmen liúyán ba! Zàijiàn.) |
| David: Bye bye. |
Comments
HideWhat kind of help do you need the most when you were in China?
Hello zasshu,
Thank you for your comment. It's OK if you don't understand everything Echo says in Chinese, she's using more and more Chinese so listeners can get used to it. You could read the lesson transcript while listening to the lesson and try to pick up new phrases.
Keep going! Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Last several lessons are really hard to follow by. I mean, explanations are great and everything, but when Echo starts giving examples in Chinese, long and fast, I don't understand any of it most of the time.
Is listener supposed to understand everything Echo says at this point?
Hello Ester,
Thank you for your comment. Yes 不客气 is one way to respond politely, you can also say 不用谢.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
If 没事儿, 没什么 etc. is all casual, what is a good thing to say in a shop if a customer says "谢谢" after you've helped them? 不客气? Is something else possible (and polite enough) too?
Hello robert groulx,
Thank you for your comment, we hope you enjoyed the lesson!
If you have any question, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
thnks for the lesson
my favorite words are 唔, 对, 灯泡, 挺好的我觉。
robert
你好 Reneshia！
不用谢。(Bú yòng xiè.) = No need for thanks. You're welcome. 😇
谢谢 (Xièxie) for studying with us, it's great to have you here!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
Thank you for this lesson! Whenever I go to China, I will need most help with directions! I'm terrible with them in English, haha!
Hi, Jonathan,
I can understand what you are confused by!
In Chinese, we usually say 这 as "zhèi", but not "zhè".
For example, 这样=zhèi yàng , 这个=zhèi ge .
For the second question, 做什么？
As SH and R are close in pronunciation, sometimes the listener would be confused that they sound as the same.
If you have any question, please let us know.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
What is the man saying on the second to last line? It doesn't sound like he is saying, "Jiù zhèyàng" as the lesson states.
Also,in the second line, it sounds like the man says, "zuò rénme?" instead of, "zuò shénme?" Do some accents pronounce "SH" like an "R"? :sunglasses:
Hi 卫力，
I'm sure you will get improved soon.
加油！（jiā yóu, which is often used to encourage people.)
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
我试试！我喜欢学中文和喜欢 Chineseclass101!
Hi 卫力,
You really study hard!
没事 is simplified Chinese, which is used in the mainland.
沒事 is traditional Chinese, which is used in Taiwan, Hongkong, Macao...
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好！
嘿， 有一个问。Is 没事 and 沒事 the same thing? I noticed the difference between the first two characters doing the quiz. Is one character more common?
你们真在帮我学中文。多谢！
(You are really helping me to learn Chinese. Many thanks!)
卫力
Hi 小莫，
一下 and 一会儿 are basically the same. Therefore 等一下=等一会= hang on a sec
They are both very colloquial and are interchangeable.
不客气:grin:
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
is 一下儿 the same as 一会儿？ is one more formal than the other or are they just interchangeable?
等等一下儿 = 等等一会儿， 对不对？
谢谢
小莫
Hi Endel,
You're welcome!
Chloe
Team ChineseClass101.com
Thanks Chloe ! It was most helpful. xièxiè !
Hi Endel,
个 here means 一个,one. In Chinese, we often put 个 into a verb, in most cases an intransitive verb, and this won't change what the verb means. For example,
洗澡=shower, 洗个澡=take a shower
散步=walk, 散个步=take a walk
Based on this rule, we can simply see that
帮忙=help, 帮个忙=lend a hand / do a favor
Besides, we don't say 可以帮忙我吗？as 帮忙 is intransitive. Instead, we say 可以帮我吗？
Chloe
Team ChineseClass101.cm
Could you please help me with the grammar of the second half of the first sentence.
The "gè" is somewhat unexpected, I would have expected Kěyǐ bāngmáng wǒ ma?
Can you explain the grammar of the sentence please ?