Learn how to use the character 可 to add emotional emphasis
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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 21. |
| Echo: An Unseasonably Hot Day in China. |
| David: Right. So we’ve got a dialogue that takes place in the autumn but it feels like summer. |
| Echo: But still pretty hot. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So we are going to get to that. Today we’ve also got a grammar point for you which is, it’s incredible. This is almost never mentioned in textbooks. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: It’s so useful. So lots of good stuff. We are going to start though as always with our dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 今天可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| B: 是啊，凉快了两天，又热了。(Shì a, liángkuài le liǎng tiān, yòu rè le.) |
| A: 这都秋天了。(Zhè dōu qiūtiān le.) |
| B: 听说明天有雨。(Tīngshuō míngtiān yǒu yǔ.) |
| A: 希望能凉快点儿。(Xīwàng néng liángkuài diǎnr.) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Once more, a bit slower. |
| A: 今天可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| B: 是啊，凉快了两天，又热了。(Shì a, liángkuài le liǎng tiān, yòu rè le.) |
| A: 这都秋天了。(Zhè dōu qiūtiān le.) |
| B: 听说明天有雨。(Tīngshuō míngtiān yǒu yǔ.) |
| A: 希望能凉快点儿。(Xīwàng néng liángkuài diǎnr.) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo: 今天可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| David: It’s so hot today. |
| Echo: 是啊，凉快了两天，又热了。(Shì a, liángkuài le liǎng tiān, yòu rè le.) |
| David: Yes it got cool for two days and then hot again. |
| Echo: 这都秋天了。(Zhè dōu qiūtiān le.) |
| David: It should be autumn already. |
| Echo:听说明天有雨。(Tīngshuō míngtiān yǒu yǔ.) |
| David: I’ve heard it will rain tomorrow. |
| Echo: 希望能凉快点儿。(Xīwàng néng liángkuài diǎnr.) |
| David: I hope it will be a bit cooler. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Okay so the vocab is partially review because we’ve got weather terminology in here. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Let’s just get through that to get to this great grammar point. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 好!今天。(Hǎo! Jīntiān.) |
| David: Today. |
| Echo: 今天,今天,可。(Jīntiān, jīntiān, kě.) |
| David: Adds emphasis. |
| Echo: 可,可, 热。(Kě, kě, rè.) |
| David: Hot. |
| Echo:热,热,凉快。(Rè, rè, liángkuai.) |
| David: Cool. |
| Echo: 凉快,凉快,秋天。(Liángkuai, liángkuai, qiūtiān) |
| David: Autumn. |
| Echo: 秋天,秋天,听说。(Qiūtiān, qiūtiān, tīng shuō.) |
| David: To hear said. |
| Echo:听说,听说,雨。(Tīng shuō, tīng shuō, yǔ.) |
| David: Rain. |
| Echo: 雨,雨,希望。(Yǔ, yǔ, xīwàng.) |
| David: To hope, to wish. |
| Echo: 希望,希望。(Xīwàng, xīwàng.) |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases starting with our seasons. In the dialogue, we heard autumn. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 秋天。(Qiūtiān.) |
| David: Autumn. |
| Echo: 秋天。(Qiūtiān.) |
| David: Which is the best season in Beijing. |
| Echo: That’s true. |
| David: Next up I think is spring. |
| Echo: 春天。(Chūntiān.) |
| David: Spring. |
| Echo: 春天。(Chūntiān.) |
| David: Right and all of you history buffs, now there is a period of Chinese history that’s related. |
| Echo: 春秋时期。(Chūnqiū shíqí.) |
| David: Right and that’s when the Romance of the Three Kingdoms happens. Next up we have summer. |
| Echo: 夏天。(Xiàtiān.) |
| David: Summer. |
| Echo: 夏天。(Xiàtiān.) |
| David: Let’s hear those three again. |
| Echo: 秋天,春天, 夏天。(Qiūtiān, chūntiān, xiàtiān.) |
| David: And last but not least, winter. |
| Echo: 冬天。(Dōngtiān.) |
| David: Winter. |
| Echo: 冬天。(Dōngtiān.) |
| David: So Echo, what is your favorite season? |
| Echo: 在北京 我最喜欢秋天。(Zài běijīng wǒ zuì xǐhuān qiūtiān.) |
| David: So you like autumn best? |
| Echo: 对, 在北京。(Duì, zài běijīng.) |
| David: In Beijing. |
| Echo: 在圣地牙哥, 我喜欢所有的。(Zài shèngdì yá gē, wǒ xǐhuān suǒyǒu de.) |
| David: But down south winter is summer and summer is winter. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Anyway those are the four seasons. |
| Echo: 秋天,春天,夏天,冬天。(Qiūtiān, chūntiān, xiàtiān, dōngtiān.) |
| David: Right. We also have terms here for describing the weather, describing how – how hot it is. |
| Echo: 对, 比如说热。(Duì, bǐrú shuō rè.) |
| David: Hot. |
| Echo: 热。(Rè.) |
| David: Hot. Now when we say cool here, |
| Echo: 凉快。(Liángkuai.) |
| David: It’s a comfortable cool. |
| Echo: 对, 凉快, 这是很舒服的。(Duì, liángkuai, zhè shì hěn shūfú de.) |
| David: Right. It’s a comfortable kind of relaxing cool. It’s not cold. |
| Echo: 对, 你可以说 秋天很凉快, 但是冬天很冷。(Duì, nǐ kěyǐ shuō qiūtiān hěn liángkuai, dànshì dōngtiān hěn lěng.) |
| David: What about spring? Spring, people don’t say 凉快.(Liángkuai.) |
| Echo: 对, 春天我们说很暖和。(Duì, chūntiān wǒmen shuō hěn nuǎnhuo.) |
| David: Warm. |
| Echo:暖和。(Nuǎnhuo.) |
| David: Warm. Okay so four seasons and four words to describe them. |
| Echo: 唔, 对。(Wú, duì.) |
| David: With that, let’s get on to this grammar point. It’s grammar time. Okay this grammar point is fun because textbooks do not teach this. They never teach this and it’s so useful. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: 对, 是这个字可。(Duì, shì zhège zì kě.) |
| David: Right. Let’s listen to how it’s used in our dialogue. |
| Echo: 今天 可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| David: Wow it’s so hot today. |
| Echo: 今天 可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| David: What throws people is a lot of people when they are studying Chinese, they know that sometimes this character means but. |
| Echo: 对, 你想吃, 可我不想吃。(Duì, nǐ xiǎng chī, kě wǒ bùxiǎng chī.) |
| David: You want to go but I don’t want to go and that’s because it’s contracted form in that case of 可是.(Kěshì.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. In this situation, it’s not though. This is a really conversational way of speaking. It’s just adding emphasis. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Let’s listen to that sentence from the dialogue again. |
| Echo: 今天 可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| David: So we could remove that completely. |
| Echo: You can just say 今天 真热。(Jīntiān zhēn rè.) |
| David: And that’s perfectly fine. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: But by adding it. |
| Echo:今天 可真热。(Jīntiān kě zhēn rè.) |
| David: You are adding this emotional emphasis. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: It’s so hot today. I can’t believe how hot it is today. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Yeah. Let’s listen to a couple of other examples. |
| Echo: 好! 你的女朋友 可真漂亮。(Hǎo! Nǐ de nǚ péngyǒu kě zhēn piàoliang.) |
| David: And that’s kind of like wow! Your girlfriend is really pretty. |
| Echo:对! 你的女朋友 可真漂亮。(Hǎo! Nǐ de nǚ péngyǒu kě zhēn piàoliang.) |
| David: Right. If we take out the 可 its fine. |
| Echo: 你的女朋友真漂亮。(Nǐ de nǚ péngyǒu zhēn piàoliang.) |
| David: But that’s more of a statement. Here adding that 可 makes it more emphatic, wow I never expected your girlfriend would be this good looking. |
| Echo: 唔, 你的女朋友可真漂亮。(Wú, nǐ de nǚ péngyǒu kě zhēn piàoliang.) |
| David: Yeah let’s have another example. |
| Echo: 别问我, 我可不能说。(Bié wèn wǒ, wǒ kě bùnéng shuō.) |
| David: Don’t ask me. I really can’t tell you. |
| Echo: 别问我, 我可不能说。(Bié wèn wǒ, wǒ kě bùnéng shuō.) |
| David: Yeah. It’s not just I 不能说.(Bùnéng shuō). it’s I 可不能说.(Kě bùnéng shuō.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. I really can’t tell you. Last example |
| Echo: 他可不喜欢 麦当劳。(Tā kěbù xǐhuān màidāngláo.) |
| David: He doesn’t like McDonald’s. |
| Echo: 他可不喜欢 麦当劳。(Tā kěbù xǐhuān màidāngláo.) |
| David: Yeah and this is, I guess this is why it’s taught so rarely in textbooks because it doesn’t really translate into anything except its feeling. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right. He doesn’t like the McDonald’s without the 可(Kě). That’s fine. |
| Echo: Yeah that’s fine but you can never like express this kind of emotion. |
| David: Yeah. So when you are speaking with Chinese people, you are going to hear this a lot. Not so much written down because it’s kind of in this oral emphasis. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: But you are going to run into it all the time and if you start using it, your Chinese is going to sound more native too. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. So that is the grammar point. We love it. |
| Echo: 对, 我们可喜欢了!(Duì, wǒmen kě xǐhuānle!) |
Outro |
| David: We hope you like it too. If you have any questions about it, our email address is |
| Echo: Contactus@chineseclass101.com 你们可别忘了! (Nǐmen kě bié wàngle!) |
| David: And of course, we have the discussion section on the site too. Leave a comment and we will get back to you. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: For now though, from Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo:我们网上见吧(Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba)! Bye bye. |
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