Learn the Chinese verb "have to"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Welcome to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And today we’re coming at you with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 13 – “The road not taken”. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| Brendan: Now, besides being a Robert Frost lesson, today’s dialogue is actually taken from real life conversations that we have had. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Opportunities we have passed up, the times we have been perhaps a little less adventurous than we should’ve been. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: So, we’re going to get to the dialogue in a second, but before we do that, a reminder that if you really want to make sure that new vocabulary from these lessons sticks, one of the best ways to do it is to use our custom flashcards on the website. |
| Echo: That’s true. |
| Brendan: If you login in to Chineseclass101.com, you can click on new words to automatically add them to your flashcard list for later review. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:跟我一起去旅行吧。(Gēn wǒ yìqǐ qù lǚxíng ba.) |
| B:不行，我得工作。(Bù xíng, wǒ děi gōngzuò.) |
| A:但是以后就没机会了。(Dànshì yǐhòu jiù méi jīhuì le.) |
| B:我知道，但我要还房贷。(Wǒ zhīdào, dàn wǒ yào huán fángdài.) |
| A:把你的房子卖了。(Bǎ nǐ de fángzi màile.) |
| B:我还要还买车的钱。(Wǒ hái yào huán mǎichē de qián.) |
| A:把你的车卖了。(Bǎ nǐ de chē màile.) |
| B:我还要照顾两个孩子。(Wǒ hái yào zhàogu liǎng ge háizi.) |
| A:那就把孩子卖掉。(Nà jiù bǎ háizi màidiào.) |
| B:我老婆会不高兴的。(Wǒ lǎopo huì bù gāoxìng de.) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:跟我一起去旅行吧。(Gēn wǒ yìqǐ qù lǚxíng ba.) |
| B:不行，我得工作。(Bù xíng, wǒ děi gōngzuò.) |
| A:但是以后就没机会了。(Dànshì yǐhòu jiù méi jīhuì le.) |
| B:我知道，但我要还房贷。(Wǒ zhīdào, dàn wǒ yào huán fángdài.) |
| A:把你的房子卖了。(Bǎ nǐ de fángzi màile.) |
| B:我还要还买车的钱。(Wǒ hái yào huán mǎichē de qián.) |
| A:把你的车卖了。(Bǎ nǐ de chē màile.) |
| B:我还要照顾两个孩子。(Wǒ hái yào zhàogu liǎng ge háizi.) |
| A:那就把孩子卖掉。(Nà jiù bǎ háizi màidiào.) |
| B:我老婆会不高兴的。(Wǒ lǎopo huì bù gāoxìng de.) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:跟我一起去旅行吧。(Gēn wǒ yìqǐ qù lǚxíng ba.) |
| A: Come travel with me. |
| B:不行，我得工作。(Bù xíng, wǒ děi gōngzuò.) |
| B: I can't, I have to work. |
| A:但是以后就没机会了。(Dànshì yǐhòu jiù méi jīhuì le.) |
| A: But there won't be another chance. |
| B:我知道，但我要还房贷。(Wǒ zhīdào, dàn wǒ yào huán fángdài.) |
| B: I know, but I have a mortgage to pay. |
| A:把你的房子卖了。(Bǎ nǐ de fángzi màile.) |
| A: Sell your house. |
| B:我还要还买车的钱。(Wǒ hái yào huán mǎichē de qián.) |
| B: And I have car payments to make. |
| A:把你的车卖了。(Bǎ nǐ de chē màile.) |
| A: Sell your car. |
| B:我还要照顾两个孩子。(Wǒ hái yào zhàogu liǎng ge háizi.) |
| B: And I have two kids to take care of. |
| A:那就把孩子卖掉。(Nà jiù bǎ háizi màidiào.) |
| A: So sell your kids. |
| B:我老婆会不高兴的。(Wǒ lǎopo huì bù gāoxìng de.) |
| B: My wife wouldn't be happy about that. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 这什么朋友。(Zhè shénme péngyǒu.) |
| Brendan: Actually, there have been times when I was that friend. Not so much about travelling… |
| Echo: 建议别人把孩子卖掉。(Jiànyì biérén bǎ háizi mài diào.) |
| Brendan: Well, they didn’t want the kids, anyway. Kids are awful. |
| Echo: Then why they had the kid? |
| Brendan: I’m not even going to get into that. So, today’s dialogue, anyway, is about encouraging people to, well, to go travelling and maybe to make some questionable decisions. |
| Echo: 改变旧的生活。(Gǎibiàn jiù de shēnghuó.) |
| Brendan: Yes, exactly, to change their old lives. Now, we’ve got a lot of vocabulary here that’s about both travelling and reasons not to travel. Let’s go to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 旅行 (lǚxíng) |
| Brendan: “Travel” |
| Echo: 工作 (gōngzuò) |
| Brendan: “Work” |
| Echo: 房贷 (fángdài) |
| Brendan: “Mortgage” |
| Echo: 全职 (quánzhí) |
| Brendan: “Full-time job” |
| Echo: 兼职 (jiānzhí) |
| Brendan: “Part-time job” |
| Echo: 冒险 (màoxiǎn) |
| Brendan: “Adventure” |
| Echo: 卖掉 (màidiào) |
| Brendan: “To sell off” |
| Echo: 照顾 (zhàogu) |
| Brendan: “To take care of” |
| Echo: 机会 (jīhuì) |
| Brendan: “Opportunity” |
| Echo: 机会 (Jīhuì) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: All right. Now let’s take a slightly closer look at the way some of the words we just covered are used. |
| Echo: The first one is 旅行。(Lǚxíng.) |
| Brendan: Now, this can actually be both a noun and a verb. It can mean “a trip” or it can mean “to travel”. |
| Echo: Right. In the dialogue we used it as a verb. 跟我一起去旅行吧。(Gēn wǒ yīqǐ qù lǚxíng ba.) |
| Brendan: “Come travel with me.” |
| Echo: Or, we can also say 你怎么没和他去旅行啊？(Nǐ zěnme méihétā qù lǚxíng a?) |
| Brendan: “Why didn’t you go travelling with him?” |
| Echo: The next one is 房贷。(Fángdài.) |
| Brendan: Yes, this is one of the more realistic and possibly more depressing vocab words. |
| Echo: Yes, very depressing in China, especially. |
| Brendan: Yes, yes, no kidding? It means “mortgage”. |
| Echo: 我要还好多年的房贷。(Wǒ yào huán hǎoduō nián de fángdài.) |
| Brendan: Yes, and there we also the verb for “to repay” or “to return”. |
| Echo: 还。(Huán.) |
| Brendan: So, can we hear that sentence again? |
| Echo: 我要还好多年的房贷。(Wǒ yào huán hǎoduō nián de fángdài.) |
| Brendan: “I have many more years of mortgage to pay back.” |
| Echo: 这个“好多年”在中国一般是 (Zhège “hǎoduō nián” zài zhōngguó yībān shì) more than 30 years. |
| Brendan: Yes. Now, if you want to pay that mortgage back, you have to have some source of money. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Other than parents or a rich spouse. And the best way of getting that money is? |
| Echo: 有一个全职的工作。(Yǒu yīgè quánzhí de gōngzuò.) |
| Brendan: “A full-time job” |
| Echo: 我想有个全职的工作。(Wǒ xiǎng yǒu gè quánzhí de gōngzuò.) |
| Brendan: “I want to have a full-time job.” |
| Echo: “全职”的反义词一般可以说“兼职”。(“Quánzhí” de fǎnyìcí yībān kěyǐ shuō “jiānzhí”.) |
| Brendan: Right. It’s the opposite of 全职。(Quánzhí.) |
| Echo: 兼职 (Jiānzhí) |
| Brendan: And that means “a part-time job”. |
| Echo: 你想做兼职吗？(Nǐ xiǎng zuò jiānzhí ma?) |
| Brendan: “Do you want to do a part-time job?” And so, you get these pressures from, from earning money with your full-time job so you can pay off your mortgage, and sometimes you have to throw caution to the wins and go travelling. |
| Echo: Right. 去旅行。(Qù lǚxíng.) |
| Brendan: Yes. And, you know, sometimes you have a friend who gives you advice, like the friend in this dialogue. |
| Echo: 为了去旅游，他把房子卖掉了。(Wèile qù lǚyóu, tā bǎ fángzi mài diàole.) |
| Brendan: “He sold off his home so he could go travelling.” |
| Echo: That’s crazy. |
| Brendan: I don’t know. I’ve heard of people who’ve done that sort of thing. |
| Echo: Right. Then you must 喜欢冒险。(Xǐhuān màoxiǎn.) |
| Brendan: Yes, you gotta like adventure. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: And sometimes, you know, you have to change environments. You know, maybe, you’ve been somewhere where your parents have been taking care of you for years. |
| Echo: 父母照顾了我很多年了。(Fùmǔ zhàogùle wǒ hěnduō niánle.) |
| Brendan: “My parents have taken care of me for many years.” |
| Echo: 现在我要把房子卖掉去旅游。(Xiànzài wǒ yào bǎ fángzi mài diào qù lǚyóu.) |
| Brendan: Yes, and I’m going to sell off my house, well actually it would be their house, probably, and go travelling. |
| Echo: 天呐，然后你有一个朋友 (Tiān nà, ránhòu nǐ yǒu yīgè péngyǒu )like Brendan， 他就会说“哇，这可是个好机会。”(Tā jiù huì shuō “wa, zhè kěshì gè hǎo jīhuì.”) |
| Brendan: Yes, this is a great opportunity. So, that’s our vocab. It will, you know, use it only for good. Even though some of it is about irresponsibility. Now, baring all this in mind, we’re going to go to the grammar point for today. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| C: It’s grammar time. |
| Brendan: Now, the timid cowardly responsible person in this dialogue says “I can’t go travelling. I got to work.” And how does he say that? |
| Echo: He said 不行，我得工作。(Bùxíng, wǒ dé gōngzuò.) |
| Brendan: So, “No way. I got to work.” |
| Echo: 我得工作。(Wǒ de gōngzuò.) |
| Brendan: Yes, and what we’re focusing on today is, is that verb. “I got to work” |
| Echo: 得，我得工作。(Dé, wǒ dé gōngzuò.) |
| Brendan: Now, this is something that you hear a lot in spoken Chinese and you do see it on written Chinese, but it’s more of a spoken thing, really. |
| Echo: Right. Means 必须。(Bìxū.) |
| Brendan: And it means that “I ought to do something”, “I should do something”. |
| Echo: That’s right. Let’s first hear some sentences. 我得和他一起去旅行。(Wǒ dé hé tā yīqǐ qù lǚxíng.) |
| Brendan: “I’ve got to go travelling with him.” |
| Echo: 妈妈得去工作了。(Māmā dé qù gōngzuòle.) |
| Brendan: “Mum’s got to go to work.” |
| Echo: 我得照顾隔壁邻居家的小猫。(Wǒ dé zhàogù gébì línjū jiā de xiǎo māo.) |
| Brendan: “I’ve got to take care of the neighbor’s kitten.” So, in all these sentences it means “I’ve got to do something” or “I should do something”. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Somebody is obliged to do whatever verb is coming after 得.(Dé.) |
| Echo: Right. Just put 得 (Dé) before the main verb in the sentence. |
| Brendan: Yes. |
| Echo: And you’ll be fine. |
| Brendan: Yes. Now, this really means “should” or “ought to”. There’s another verb that’s, it’s similar in meaning, but it’s really stronger. |
| Echo: 必须 (Bìxū) |
| Brendan: Yes, and that really means “have to” or “must”. Now, if we look at those sentences again, we can put 必须 ((Bìxū)) in where 得 (Dé)was and get a slightly stronger meaning. |
| Echo: Like 我必须和他去旅行。(Wǒ bìxū hé tā qù lǚxíng.) |
| Brendan: “I must go travelling with him.” |
| Echo: 妈妈必须去工作了。(Māmā bìxū qù gōngzuòle.) |
| Brendan: “Mom has to go to work.” |
| Echo: 我必须照顾隔壁邻居家的小猫。(Wǒ bìxū zhàogù gébì línjū jiā de xiǎo māo.) |
| Brendan: “I must take care of the neighbor’s kitten.” |
| Echo: 这听起来更像一个命令，(Zhè tīng qǐlái gèng xiàng yīgè mìnglìng,)right? |
| Brendan: Yes, it’s, you don’t have any choice whereas with 得 it’s something that you should do. It’s kind of your responsibility to do it. But you have the option of not doing it. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: With 必须, (Bìxū,) you don’t have a choice. So, that’s it. It’s pretty simple. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: But, if you keep your ears open, you’re going to hear these two verbs all the time. |
| Echo: 得。(Dé.) |
| Brendan: “Should”, “got to”, “ought to” |
| Echo: Or 必须。(Bìxū.) |
Outro |
| Brendan: “Must”, “have to” And that about does it for today’s lesson. If you’ve got any questions, if you have any stories of irresponsible things you have done, especially in the name of adventure… |
| Echo: Yes, you can always write to us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com or leave a comment on the site. |
| Brendan: We look forward to hearing from you. |
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