Learn how to say "surprisingly" or "unexpectedly" using the character 才
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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 are here today with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 9. |
| Echo: How Much Do You Hate Bitter Chinese Coffee? |
| David: I hate it a lot Echo. |
| Echo: Why it’s Chinese coffee? |
| David: Actually you guys – no one grows coffee in China. |
| Echo: No. |
| David: So bitter imported coffee. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Okay. |
| Echo: Yeah bitter American coffee. |
| David: So we’ve got a dialogue here which is between two friends who are talking about how they like their coffee. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Right. Nobody likes bitter coffee and this is colloquial Mandarin as always. So let’s get to our dialogue. |
| Echo: 好的。(Hǎo de.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你怎么放那么多糖？(Nǐ zěnme fàng nàme duō táng ?) |
| B:太苦了。(Tài kǔ le.) |
| A: 黑咖啡才香呢。(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne.) |
| B:我实在受不了那个味道。(Wǒ shízài shòubùliǎo nà gè wèidào.) |
| A: 那下次点摩卡吧。(Nà xiàcì diǎn mókǎ ba.) |
| David: Once more, a bit slower. |
| A: 你怎么放那么多糖？(Nǐ zěnme fàng nàme duō táng ?) |
| B:太苦了。(Tài kǔ le.) |
| A: 黑咖啡才香呢。(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne.) |
| B:我实在受不了那个味道。(Wǒ shízài shòubùliǎo nà gè wèidào.) |
| A: 那下次点摩卡吧。(Nà xiàcì diǎn mókǎ ba.) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo: 你怎么放那么多糖？(Nǐ zěnme fàng nàme duō táng ?) |
| David: How come you put in so much sugar? |
| Echo: 太苦了。(Tài kǔ le.) |
| David: It’s too bitter. |
| Echo: 黑咖啡才香呢。(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne.) |
| David: Dark coffee is best. |
| Echo: 我实在受不了那个味道。(Wǒ shízài shòubùliǎo nà gè wèidào.) |
| David: I really can’t stand that taste. |
| Echo: 那下次点摩卡吧。(Nà xiàcì diǎn mókǎ ba.) |
| David: Then order a Mocha next time. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: I like coffee, lots of milk, lots of sugar. |
| Echo: 所以你也喜欢摩卡。(Suǒyǐ nǐ yě xǐhuān mókǎ.) |
| David: Too bitter. |
| Echo: Mocha is bitter! |
| David: I like the New Orleans ice coffee. Did you have those? |
| Echo: Yes of course. |
| David: That’s like 90% milk and sugar, 10% coffee but really good. |
| Echo: Yeah but lot of cafes they don’t have that coffee. |
| David: True. Anyway, our dialogue today is about coffee. So our vocab section is about coffee. If you are a coffee lover, this is for you. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 放。(fàng.) |
| David: To place |
| Echo: 放, 放, 糖。(fàng, fàng, táng.) |
| David: Sugar. |
| Echo: 糖, 糖, 苦。(táng, táng, kǔ.) |
| David: Bitter. |
| Echo: 苦, 苦, 黑咖啡。(kǔ, kǔ, hēi kāfēi.) |
| David: Black coffee. |
| Echo: 黑咖啡, 黑咖啡, 实在。(hēi kāfēi, hēi kāfēi, shízài.) |
| David: Actually |
| Echo: 实在, 实在, 受不了。(shízài, shízài, shòu bù liǎo.) |
| David: To be unable to bear. |
| Echo: 受不了, 受不了, 味道。(shòu bù liǎo, shòu bù liǎo, wèidào.) |
| David: Taste. |
| Echo: 味道, 味道, 下次。(wèidào, wèidào, xiàcì.) |
| David: Next time. |
| Echo: 下次, 下次, 点。(xiàcì, xiàcì, diǎn.) |
| David: To order. |
| Echo: 点, 点。(diǎn, diǎn.) |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. The first word we want to focus on is this word to place. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 放。(fàng.) |
| David: To place |
| Echo: 放。(fàng.) |
| David: Before we’ve run into it in a sense of literally putting something somewhere. |
| Echo: 唔, 譬如说 把它放在地上。(Wú, pìrú shuō bǎ tā fàng zài dìshàng.) |
| David: Put it on the ground or how about put it on the table. |
| Echo: 放在桌子上。(Fàng zài zhuōzi shàng.) |
| David: Right. In this case though, it’s not putting something on something, it’s putting something, it’s adding, it’s adding sugar. |
| Echo: That’s right 放糖。(Fàng táng.) |
| David: And we can use this with all kinds of foods. |
| Echo: 譬如说 多放点盐。(Pìrú shuō duō fàng diǎn yán.) |
| David: Put a bit more salt in. |
| Echo: 多放点盐。(Duō fàng diǎn yán.) |
| David: Add some more salt. |
| Echo: 少放点油。(Shǎo fàng diǎn yóu.) |
| David: That’s useful. |
| Echo: 少放点油。(Shǎo fàng diǎn yóu.) |
| David: Don’t put in as much oil. Right, so it’s not just putting something somewhere. In this case, it’s also adding things to…. |
| Echo: That’s right yeah. |
| David: Right and this is the same |
| Echo: 放。(Fàng.) |
| David: That we also hear with music. |
| Echo: 放音乐。(Fàng yīnyuè.) |
| David: To put on music. |
| Echo: 放音乐。(Fàng yīnyuè.) |
| David: Right. So we run into it everywhere. The next word I wanted to touch on is that word to be unable to bear. |
| Echo: 受不了(Shòu bùliǎo), That’s very, very useful. |
| David: Yes it’s – I can’t stand this. |
| Echo: 我受不了啦!(Wǒ shòu bùliǎo la!) |
| David: Yeah and don’t forget that 啦(La) if you are putting this in sentences. |
| Echo: Yeah and there is not anymore. |
| David: Yeah it’s you’ve hit your limit really. You’ve just hit it. |
| Echo: 我受不了啦!(Wǒ shòu bùliǎo la!) or you can complain about someone, you can say 我受不了您啦!(Wǒ shòu bùliǎo nín la!) |
| David: Yeah. I can’t stand you. |
| Echo: 我受不了您啦!(Wǒ shòu bùliǎo nín la!) |
| David: You are driving me up the wall. Right, we have a lot of words for coffee here as well. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Of course, there is coffee. |
| Echo: 咖啡。(Kāfēi.) |
| David: And in the dialogue, we heard how to say Mocha as well. |
| Echo: 摩卡(Mókǎ) So like you can tell if you can remember the word like café or mocha, you can just say mocha or coffee. People will understand you. |
| David: To get the loan words, lower beginner, these are pretty easy right. Are there any difficult coffee words where China has added its own… |
| Echo: 黑咖啡。(Hēi kāfēi.) |
| David: Black coffee. |
| Echo: 黑咖啡。(Hēi kāfēi.) |
| David: Right. However if you are like me… |
| Echo: Or me! |
| David: When someone gives you a black coffee… |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: You are going to say, add lots of milk, add lots of sugar. |
| Echo: 多放牛奶, 多放糖。(Duō fàng niúnǎi, duō fàng táng.) |
| David: And if they don’t add enough, you can say |
| Echo: 再多放点儿。(Zài duō fàng diǎn er.) |
| David: Right. Add a little bit more again. |
| Echo: 再多放点儿。(Zài duō fàng diǎn er.) |
| David: Yeah. That’s Echo getting sugar in her coffee. |
| Echo: Totally. |
| David: So yeah so that’s our vocab for today. The critical word here is |
| Echo: 放。(Fàng.) |
| David: Right. So versatile. You are even going to use it when you are ordering coffee. With that said though, let’s go to our grammar point which is really unexpected and surprising. |
| Echo: I like that. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. So I was surprised by our grammar point today. Echo, |
| Echo: Why? |
| David: What are we talking about? |
| Echo: We are talking about the word 才.(Cái.) |
| David: We’ve run into this before. Yeah in earlier lessons, we ran into it when we were talking about time. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: For instance, if someone was late, we might say, you’ve just arrived now. |
| Echo: 你现在才来!(Nǐ xiànzài cái lái!) |
| David: You came just now. |
| Echo: 你现在才来! 太晚了。(Nǐ xiànzài cái lái! Tài wǎnle.) |
| David: Right. The character to notice there is |
| Echo: 才。(Cái.) |
| David: Which is an adverb. We are putting it in front of verbs. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: And earlier and we taught you that what it does is, it makes it sound as if the verb is happening late or later than expected. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: For instance, |
| Echo: 他现在才来!(Tā xiànzài cái lái!) |
| David: He arrived just now. |
| Echo: 他现在才来! 你们现在才吃饭?(Tā xiànzài cái lái! Nǐmen xiànzài cái chīfàn?) |
| David: You are only eating now? |
| Echo: 你们现在才吃饭?(Nǐmen xiànzài cái chīfàn?) |
| David: Right. In this lesson, we want to talk about another tone that this word brings to a sentence because it’s not always about time. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: In this case, we are using it because something unexpected happens. Let’s look at the dialogue. |
| Echo: Yeah in the dialogue, the sentence is 黑咖啡才香呢。(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne.) |
| David: Dark coffee is best. |
| Echo: 黑咖啡才香呢。(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne.) |
| David: Literally it means dark coffee is 才(Cái) fragrant. |
| Echo: Right. It’s like unexpectedly or like it’s better than others. |
| David: Yeah you wouldn’t think so but this is the truth. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: That’s what it`s saying. |
| Echo: 黑咖啡才香呢。(Hēi kāfēi cái xiāng ne.) |
| David: Yeah. So when you are outside of China and you miss Chinese food, you can tell your friends, Chinese food really is – it’s good to eat. |
| Echo: 中国菜才好吃呢, 汉堡不算什么。(Zhōngguó cài cái hào chī ne, hànbǎo bù suàn shénme.) |
| David: And your friend might disagree and say, hamburgers are – hamburgers are delicious. |
| Echo: Right. 汉堡才好吃呢, 你真傻。(Hànbǎo cái hào chī ne, nǐ zhēn shǎ.) |
| David: Yeah and the key thing here is this 才(Cái) because what it’s telling us is, the other person wouldn’t necessarily think this but we are insisting on it. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: We’ve got a couple more examples for you. Echo |
| Echo: 我才不喜欢吃糖呢, 我最喜欢苦的东西。(Wǒ cái bù xǐhuān chī táng ne, wǒ zuì xǐhuān kǔ de dōngxī.) |
| David: I really don’t like eating sweet things, I like bitter things. |
| Echo: 我才不喜欢吃糖呢, 我最喜欢苦的东西。(Wǒ cái bù xǐhuān chī táng ne, wǒ zuì xǐhuān kǔ de dōngxī.) |
| David: Right and in that sentence, 才(Cái) it’s kind of the opposite of 最(Zuì) Right, how about another example? |
| Echo: 摩卡才好喝呢! 黑咖啡太苦了。(Mókǎ cái hǎo hē ne! Hēi kāfēi tài kǔle.) |
| David: It’s the mochas which taste good. Dark coffee is too bitter. |
| Echo: 摩卡才好喝呢! 黑咖啡太苦了。(Mókǎ cái hǎo hē ne! Hēi kāfēi tài kǔle.) |
| David: Right. So the point to take away from this is that |
| Echo: 才。(Cái.) |
| David: Is about a lot more than time. It’s also about tone and emotion. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Right. You are telling someone something and insisting on it even though you think it’s surprising to them. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Right or you are fighting with them. |
| Echo: Yeah. 你错了, 我才是对的。(Nǐ cuòle, wǒ cái shì duì de.) |
Outro |
| David: Yeah you are wrong, I am the one who is right. So with that, we are at the end of our lesson. Before we go, we want to remind you that we have transcripts for all of our lessons in the premium learning center. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) In our PDFs. |
| David: Yes. They’ve got the vocab and copies of the dialogue, everything. Go check them out. For now though we are done. |
| Echo: Yep. |
| David: From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo。 |
| David: Thanks for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 网上见吧!(Wǎngshàng jiàn ba!) Bye bye. |
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