Learn about a special exception when talking about possession using the character 的
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chris: Hello everyone. Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I am Chris. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好, 我是Echo。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Chris: And today, we have a lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 2. |
| Echo: Please pass on my Chinese regards. |
| Chris: Yeah. So the dialogue we are going to hear is between two co-workers, right Echo? |
| Echo: And one’s husband just got promoted. |
| Chris: The husband? |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Chris: Oh, okay, so this is going to be casual Mandarin. |
| Echo: As usual. |
| Chris: Yeah. |
| Echo: Okay, time for the dialogue now. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你家小张好吗？(Nǐjiā XiǎoZhāng hǎo ma?) |
| B: 老样子，还是很忙。(Lǎoyàngzi, háishì hěn máng.) |
| A: 听说他升经理了。(Tīngshuō tā shēng jīnglǐle.) |
| B: 哈哈，是。(Haha, shì.) |
| A: 祝贺他。(Zhùhè tā.) |
| B: 谢谢。(Xièxie.) |
| A: 帮我给他带好儿。(Bāng wǒ gěi tā dàihǎor.) |
| Chris: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 你家小张好吗？(Nǐjiā XiǎoZhāng hǎo ma?) |
| B: 老样子，还是很忙。(Lǎoyàngzi, háishì hěn máng.) |
| A: 听说他升经理了。(Tīngshuō tā shēng jīnglǐle.) |
| B: 哈哈, 是。(Haha, shì.) |
| A: 祝贺他。(Zhùhè tā.) |
| B: 谢谢。(Xièxie.) |
| A: 帮我给他带好儿。(Bāng wǒ gěi tā dàihǎor.) |
| Chris: Now with the English translation. |
| Echo: 你家小张好吗？(Nǐjiā XiǎoZhāng hǎo ma?) |
| Chris: How is Zhang? |
| Echo: 老样子，还是很忙。(Lǎoyàngzi, háishì hěn máng.) |
| Chris: Same old, still very busy. |
| Echo: 听说他升经理了。(Tīngshuō tā shēng jīnglǐle.) |
| Chris: I heard he got promoted to manager? |
| Echo: 哈哈，是。(Haha, shì.) |
| Chris: Haha yes he was. |
| Echo: 祝贺他。(Zhùhè tā.) |
| Chris: Congratulations to him. |
| Echo: 谢谢。(Xièxie.) |
| Chris: Thank you. |
| Echo: 帮我给他带好儿。(Bāng wǒ gěi tā dàihǎor.) |
| Chris: Please give him my best regards. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chris: So, Echo, I don’t think he is very happy about this. |
| Echo: Maybe not you know, if they are colleagues, yeah. He may just be jealous. |
| Chris: It is not like he is gritting his teeth while he is congratulating this guy. |
| Echo: Yeah it could be. Anyway, let’s take a look at our vocab today. |
| Chris: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 你 家。(Nǐ jiā.) |
| Chris: Your home. |
| Echo: 你 家, 你家, 我家。(Nǐ jiā, nǐ jiā, wǒjiā.) |
| Chris: My home. |
| Echo: 我 家, 我家, 小张。(Wǒ jiā, wǒjiā, xiǎo zhāng.) |
| Chris: Little Zhang. |
| Echo: 小 张, 小张, 老张。(Xiǎo zhāng, xiǎo zhāng, lǎo zhāng.) |
| Chris: Old Zhang. |
| Echo: 老 张, 老张, 忙。(Lǎo zhāng, lǎo zhāng, máng.) |
| Chris: Busy. |
| Echo: 忙, 忙, 听说。(Máng, máng, tīng shuō.) |
| Chris: To hear of. |
| Echo: 听 说, 听说, 升。(Tīng shuō, tīng shuō, shēng.) |
| Chris: To get promoted. |
| Echo: 升, 升, 经理。(Shēng, shēng, jīnglǐ.) |
| Chris: Manager. |
| Echo: 经 理, 经理, 祝贺。(Jīng lǐ, jīnglǐ, zhùhè.) |
| Chris: To congratulate. |
| Echo: 祝 贺, 祝贺, 带好儿 。(Zhù hè, zhùhè, dàihǎo er.) |
| Chris: To give someone’s regards to someone else. |
| Echo: 带 好 儿, 带好儿。(Dài hǎo er, dàihǎo er.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chris: Okay Echo, let’s have a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this lesson. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Chris: The first one is... |
| Echo: 小张。(XiǎoZhāng.) |
| Chris: Which is little Zhang right? |
| Echo: Mm-hmm, 小张 (XiǎoZhāng). |
| Chris: Little Zhang. So we use this when we are talking about |
| Echo: Someone younger than you. |
| Chris: Oh okay. |
| Echo: Yes. Chinese people really like to use this kind of stuff, you know, to show that you are close to someone like your friend, you say 小张 (XiǎoZhāng) or 小黄 (XiǎoHuáng) just 小 (Xiǎo) plus the family name. |
| Chris: It’s one of the things you will hear all the time in Beijing when people are talking about the friends’ right? |
| Echo: Yeah. Just be careful when you say 小 (Xiǎo) family name, you are talking about someone who is younger than you. |
| Chris: Right, So what about someone who is older than me? |
| Echo: Then we say 老张。(Lǎo zhāng.) |
| Chris: Old Zhang. Okay. |
| Echo: Yeah, so it’s 老 (Lǎo) instead of 小 (Xiǎo). And just remember, when you use 小张 (Xiǎo zhāng) or 老张 (Lǎo zhāng) , you don’t really want to address your boss 老张 (Lǎo zhāng) or 小张 (Xiǎo zhāng), yeah. It’s kind of 不客气(Bù kèqì), it’s kind of impolite. But if you are talking to your boss, you may want to use this word instead 经理 (Jīnglǐ) |
| Chris: Manager. |
| Echo: 经理。(Jīnglǐ.) |
| Chris: Manager. |
| Echo: Yeah so if your 经理 (Jīnglǐ) family name is 张 (Zhāng), you can just call him 张经理 (Zhāng jīnglǐ) |
| Chris: Manager Zhang. |
| Echo: Right. It’s very common in Chinese to you know, address someone with their titles. For example, like Chris, I know you are a teacher right? |
| Chris: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah. So I will call you Chris 老师(Lǎoshī). |
| Chris: Ah, teacher Chris right? |
| Echo: Right, Chris 老师。(Lǎoshī.) |
| Chris: Teacher Chris. I hear this all the time from my students, actually. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Chris: Yeah. |
| Echo: And our next word is 听说 (Tīng shuō). |
| Chris: To hear of. |
| Echo: 听说 (Tīng shuō). |
| Chris: To hear of. So this is the same as in English. |
| Echo: Right. Basically, you just say 听说 (Tīng shuō) plus the news, right? For example, 听说小张很忙。(Tīng shuō xiǎo zhāng hěn máng.) |
| Chris: I heard that little Zhang is busy. |
| Echo: 听说小张很忙。(Tīng shuō xiǎo zhāng hěn máng.) |
| Chris: I heard that little Zhang is busy. Okay, so the last two words we’ve got are pretty important. It’s all about congratulating someone, right? |
| Echo: Yeah like the first one 祝贺。(Zhùhè.) |
| Chris: Congratulations. |
| Echo: 祝贺 (Zhùhè) It’s one of the most common ways to congratulate someone. For example, I can say,祝贺你。(Zhùhè nǐ.) |
| Chris: Chris, congratulations to you. |
| Echo: Right, or 祝贺他。(Zhùhè tā.) |
| Chris: Congratulations to him. |
| Echo: Very simple. |
| Chris: Umm, straightforward but I’ve heard another one. |
| Echo: You must be talking about 恭喜。(Gōngxǐ.) |
| Chris: Congratulations again. |
| Echo: Right 恭喜。(Gōngxǐ.) |
| Chris: So Echo, how are these two different? |
| Echo: Okay, 恭喜 (Gōngxǐ) is a little bit old-fashioned and usually you will hear that in the south part of China. |
| Chris: Oh, really! |
| Echo: Yeah, people will say 恭喜你or 恭喜發財 (Gōngxǐ nǐ or gōngxǐ fācái). We hear that a lot and also when you say 恭喜 (Gōngxǐ) it is pretty much usually just about you know someone just has new baby or someone just got married. |
| Chris: Okay, okay. |
| Echo: Yeah so 恭喜。(Gōngxǐ.) |
| Chris: Congratulations okay good. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Chris: So it’s just for the big events in someone’s life. |
| Echo: Yeah and usually you just use 祝贺 (Zhùhè) is more common. Yeah and our last word is 带好 (Dàihǎo) |
| Chris: And this is to send. To send someone’s regards to someone else. |
| Echo: That’s right 带好。(Dàihǎo) |
| Chris: To send someone’s regards to someone else. |
| Echo: Right. For example, 帮我给你妈妈带好。(Bāng wǒ gěi nǐ māmā dàihǎo.) |
| Chris: Please give your mother my regards. |
| Echo: 帮我给你妈妈带好。(Bāng wǒ gěi nǐ māmā dàihǎo.) |
| Chris: Please give your mother my regards. |
| Echo: Yeah, this is super useful if you have a Chinese girlfriend. |
| Chris: Yeah, I use it all the time actually. I get my girlfriend’s mother to cook for me and… |
| Echo: Yeah, you get all the benefit. |
| Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah…It’s just… |
| Echo: Yeah just remember this line. 帮我给你妈妈带好。(Bāng wǒ gěi nǐ māmā dàihǎo.) |
| Chris: Please give your mother my regards. |
| Echo: Okay, super useful vocab today. |
| Chris: Excellent. She is absolutely right. |
| Echo: Let’s move on to our grammar section now. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chris: So Echo, in previous lessons, we’ve learned how to make possessive statements using |
| Echo: 的。(De.) |
| Chris: So we can say things like mine. |
| Echo: 我的。(Wǒ de.) |
| Chris: His. |
| Echo: 他的。(Tā de.) |
| Chris: Ours |
| Echo: 我们的。(Wǒmen de.) |
| Chris: But in this dialogue, in fact it’s the first line all right? He is not using 的。(De.) |
| Echo: Right, We see something different. 你家小张好吗？(Nǐ jiā xiǎo zhāng hǎo ma?) |
| Chris: So look at the way that we are using your home here. |
| Echo: 你家。(Nǐ jiā.) |
| Chris: Your home. |
| Echo: So there is no 的 (De) there. |
| Chris: Okay so Echo, whenever you are talking about home, you don’t need to use 的。(De.) |
| Echo: That’s right. For example, 你家。(Nǐ jiā.) |
| Chris: Your home. |
| Echo: 我家。(Wagaya.) |
| Chris: My home. |
| Echo: 她家。(Tā jiā.) |
| Chris: Her home. |
| Echo: Or in other cases like your family members. For example, if you are talking about your parents, you don’t need to use 的 (De) either like 我妈。(Wǒ mā.) |
| Chris: My mother. |
| Echo: Yeah or 他爸。(Tā bà.) |
| Chris: His father. |
| Echo: Or 我妹妹。(Wǒ mèimei.) |
| Chris: My younger sister. |
| Echo: Yeah or 你姐姐。(Nǐ jiějiě.) |
| Chris: Your older sister. |
| Echo: That’s right. Let’s have some examples. 我家很远。(wǒjiā Hěn yuǎn.) |
| Chris: My home is very far. |
| Echo: 我家很远。(wǒjiā Hěn yuǎn.) |
| Chris: My home is very far. |
| Echo: 你家在那儿? (Nǐ jiā zài nà'er?) |
| Chris: Where is your home? |
| Echo: 你家在那儿? (Nǐ jiā zài nà'er?) |
| Chris: Where is your home? |
| Echo: 今天 我妈很忙。(Jīntiān wǒ mā hěn máng.) |
| Chris: Today my mother is very busy. |
| Echo: 今天 我妈很忙。(Jīntiān wǒ mā hěn máng.) |
| Chris: Today my mother is very busy. |
| Echo: 听说你妹妹不在。(Tīng shuō nǐ mèimei bùzài.) |
| Chris: I heard your younger sister isn’t here. |
| Echo: 听说你妹妹不在。(Tīng shuō nǐ mèimei bùzài.) |
| Chris: I heard your younger sister isn’t here. |
| Echo: And not just with 家 (Jiā) or your family members, also with like company or school, we drop the 的 (De) too. |
| Chris: All right. So this will be useful for me if I work in a university. |
| Echo: Yeah. So you can say 我学校。(Wǒ xuéxiào.) |
| Chris: Which is my university, my school. |
| Echo: Right 我学校。(Wǒ xuéxiào.) |
| Chris: My school. |
| Echo: So Chris, 听说你学校很好。(Tīng shuō nǐ xuéxiào hěn hǎo.) |
| Chris: You’ve heard my school is very good. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| Chris: Really? |
| Echo: Is it true? |
| Chris: Well I work there, so it must be. |
| Echo: Yeah anyway 我听说你学校很好。(Wǒ tīng shuō nǐ xuéxiào hěn hǎo.) |
| Chris: I’ve heard your school is very good. |
| Echo: Yeah or in my case, I talk about my company 我公司。(Wǒ gōngsī.) |
| Chris: My Company. |
| Echo: 我公司。(Wǒ gōngsī.) |
| Chris: My Company. |
| Echo: 我公司有十个人。(Wǒ gōngsī yǒu shí gèrén.) |
| Chris: My Company has 10 people. |
| Echo: 我公司有十个人。(Wǒ gōngsī yǒu shí gèrén.) |
| Chris: My Company has 10 people. Okay great so just need to remember that it’s another way of showing possession. |
| Echo: Without using 的 (De) Yeah when it’s really colloquial right when you talk about your home, like homes 家 (Jiā) or family members. |
| Chris: Right, your company, your school. |
| Echo: Yeah you can just drop the 的。(De.) |
Outro |
| Chris: Exactly. Right, okay so that’s about it for today. And Echo, |
| Echo: Yeah before we go, there is something we like to remind you. |
| Chris: So if in today’s lesson, we went a little bit too fast for you, you can go to the website and check out the PDFs. |
| Echo: Yeah and they are in the premium learning center. |
| Chris: Right, great, so you can see things written down, get all the vocab, get the dialogue. You can read along as you listen, right? |
| Echo: Yeah, okay ,so that’s all for today. From Beijing, 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Chris: And I am Chris. |
| Echo: Thanks for listening. |
| Chris: Bye-bye. |
| Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
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