Learn about Chinese verb reduplication
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Hello. And 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: It’s a beautiful day outside, the sky is blue, the birds are singing in the trees, and we’re coming at you with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 4 – “How to spend a Sunday in China”. |
| Echo: 没错.(Méi cuò.) This conversation takes place in a Internet Café. |
| Brendan: They’re two friends talking to one another and so, as always, they’re speaking casual mandarin. We’ll take you to the dialogue in a moment. But first, a reminder, that if you’re looking for conversation of your own, we’ve got one on one tutors, with professional training and they will help you improve your mandarin with personalized lesson plans just for you. Now, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:别老在网吧里待着。 (Bié lǎo zài wǎngbālǐdāi zháo.) |
| B:没事做。(Méishì zuò.) |
| A:你可以出去走走啊。 (Nǐkěyǐchūqù zǒuzouā.) |
| B:出去走走是要花钱的。(Chūqù zǒuzou shì yào huāqián de.) |
| A:看看书也行。(Kànkan shūyěxíng.) |
| B:买书也要花钱。(Mǎishūyěyào huāqián.) |
| A:在网吧也要花钱！(Zài wǎngbāyěyào huāqián!) |
| B:但不在网吧我就不能上网了。(Dàn bù zài wǎngbāwǒjiù bù néng shàngwǎngle.) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:别老在网吧里待着。(Bié lǎo zài wǎngbālǐdāi zháo.) |
| B:没事做。(Méishì zuò.) |
| A:你可以出去走走啊。 (Nǐkěyǐchūqù zǒuzouā.) |
| B:出去走走是要花钱的。(Chūqù zǒuzou shì yào huāqián de.) |
| A:看看书也行。(Kànkan shūyěxíng.) |
| B:买书也要花钱。(Mǎishūyěyào huāqián.) |
| A:在网吧也要花钱！(Zài wǎngbāyěyào huāqián!) |
| B:但不在网吧我就不能上网了。(Dàn bù zài wǎngbāwǒjiù bù néng shàngwǎngle.) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:别老在网吧里待着。(Bié lǎo zài wǎngbālǐdāi zháo.) |
| A: Don’t spend all the time in an Internet cafe. |
| B:没事做。(Méishì zuò.) |
| B: There is nothing else to do. |
| A:你可以出去走走啊。 (Nǐkěyǐchūqù zǒuzouā.) |
| A: You can go out for a walk. |
| B:出去走走是要花钱的。(Chūqù zǒuzou shì yào huāqián de.) |
| B: Going out costs money. |
| A:看看书也行。(Kànkan shūyěxíng.) |
| A: You could read a book. |
| B:买书也要花钱。(Mǎishūyěyào huāqián.) |
| B: Buying books costs money too. |
| A:在网吧也要花钱！(Zài wǎngbāyěyào huāqián!) |
| A: Being in an Internet cafe costs money too! |
| B:但不在网吧我就不能上网了。(Dàn bù zài wǎngbāwǒjiù bù néng shàngwǎngle.) |
| B: But if I am not in an internet cafe, I can’t go online! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: I can’t imagine spending the weekend in Internet Café. |
| Brendan: Yes, they’re pretty horrible. I’d much rather just take my laptop to a Café. |
| Echo: 我的意思是说. (Wǒ de yìsi shì shuō.) I can’t imagine spending the whole weekend online. When I would get out? See the Great Wall, go to 后海, go to a park. |
| Brendan: Do they have e-mail at the Great Wall? Anyway, our vocabulary today is all about reasons not to see the Great Wall. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| C: And now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 坐坐 (Zuò zuò) |
| Brendan: “To sit for a while” |
| Echo: 走走 (Zǒu zǒu) |
| Brendan: “To go for a walk” |
| Echo: 看看 (Kàn kàn) |
| Brendan: “To take a look” |
| Echo: 浪费时间 (Làngfèi shíjiān) |
| Brendan: “To waste time” |
| Echo: 打发时间 (Dǎfā shíjiān) |
| Brendan: “To kill time” |
| Echo: 网瘾 (Wǎng yǐn) |
| Brendan: “Internet addiction” |
| Echo: 无聊 (Wúliáo) |
| Brendan: “Bored” |
| Echo: 电脑 (Diànnǎo) |
| Brendan: “Computer” |
| Echo: 电脑 (Diànnǎo) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: Now, let’s take a closer look at the way some of these words are used. |
| Echo: 第一个词:浪费时间。 (Dì yī gè cí: Làngfèi shíjiān.) |
| Brendan: “To waste time” |
| Echo: 浪费时间。 (Làngfèi shíjiān.) |
| Brendan: So, this is a verb phrase and it literally does mean “to waste time”. |
| Echo: 浪费时间.(Làngfèi shíjiān.) If you find someone wasting their time, you can tell them 别再浪费时间了。(Bié zài làngfèi shíjiānle.) |
| Brendan: “Don’t waste any more time.” |
| Echo: 别再浪费时间了。 (Bié zài làngfèi shíjiānle.) |
| Brendan: That is? |
| Echo: 别再 (Bié zài) |
| Brendan: “Don’t” again. |
| Echo: 浪费时间 (Làngfèi shíjiān) |
| Brendan: “Waste time” |
| Echo: 其实今天我们有好多跟“浪费时间”有关系的词。 (Qíshí jīntiān wǒmen yǒu hǎoduō gēn “làngfèi shíjiān” yǒu guānxì de cí.) |
| Brendan: Instead of saying: |
| Echo:浪费时间 (Làngfèi shíjiān) |
| Brendan: You can say: |
| Echo: 打发时间 (Dǎfā shíjiān) |
| Brendan: “To kill time” |
| Echo: 找点事情做来打发时间吧。 (Zhǎo diǎn shìqíng zuò lái dǎfā shíjiān ba.) |
| Brendan: “Go find something to do to kill the time.” |
| Echo: 找点事情做来打发时间吧。 (Zhǎo diǎn shìqíng zuò lái dǎfā shíjiān ba.) |
| Brendan: So, those are two ways of saying almost the same thing. |
| Echo: Yes. 浪费时间 (Làngfèi shíjiān) |
| Brendan: “To waste time” |
| Echo: 打发时间 (Dǎfā shíjiān) |
| Brendan: “To kill time” |
| Echo: Our next word is 无聊。 (Wúliáo.) |
| Brendan: “Bored” |
| Echo: 无聊 (Wúliáo) |
| Brendan: Now, the interesting thing about this word is that it means both “bored” as in “I feel bored.” |
| Echo: 我觉得很无聊。 (Wǒ juédé hěn wúliáo.) |
| Brendan: And “boring”. |
| Echo: 无聊 (Wúliáo) |
| Brendan: As in “This TV show is really boring.” |
| Echo: 这个电视剧好无聊啊。 (Zhège diànshìjù hǎo wúliáo a.) |
| Brendan: “This television series is really boring.” |
| Echo: 这个电视剧好无聊啊。 (Zhège diànshìjù hǎo wúliáo a.) |
| Brendan: So, it means both “bored” and “boring”, depending on the context. |
| Echo: Yes. 无聊 (Wúliáo) |
| Brendan: We’ve got one more word and that is: |
| Echo: 网瘾 (Wǎng yǐn) |
| Brendan: “Internet addiction” |
| Echo: 网瘾 (Wǎng yǐn) |
| Brendan: Now, this is really two different words put together. And the first is “Internet”. |
| Echo: 网络 (Wǎngluò) |
| Brendan: The second is “addiction”. |
| Echo: 上瘾 (Shàngyǐn) |
| Brendan: So, put them together and it’s “Internet addiction”. |
| Echo: 网络上瘾，网瘾，好多人都有网瘾离不开电脑。 (Wǎngluò shàngyǐn, wǎng yǐn, hǎoduō rén dōu yǒu wǎng yǐn lì bù kāi diànnǎo.) |
| Brendan: There are a lot of people who are addicted to the Internet and can’t bare to leave the computer. |
| Echo: 好多人都有网瘾离不开电脑。(Hǎoduō rén dōu yǒu wǎng yǐn lì bù kāi diànnǎo.) |
| Brendan: We don’t know anybody like that, of course. |
| Echo: 真的吗？ (Zhēn de ma?) |
| Brendan: Maybe. Maybe one, two. No names. So, that’s our vocab section. Now, stick with us as we head to our grammar section and talk about reduplicated verbs. |
| Echo: 嗯，没错。 (Ń, méi cuò.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| C: It’s grammar time. |
| Brendan: Our grammar focus this lesson is on reduplicated verbs. |
| Echo: Right. Like 走走 or 看看 or 瞧瞧。 (Zǒu zǒu or kàn kàn or qiáo qiáo.) |
| Brendan: In our dialogue, we see this in the sentence: |
| Echo: 你可以出去走走啊。 (Nǐ kěyǐ chūqù zǒu zǒu a.) |
| Brendan: “You can go out for a walk.” |
| Echo:你可以出去走走啊。 (Nǐ kěyǐ chūqù zǒu zǒu a.) |
| Brendan: “You can go for a walk.” So, what’s happening here? |
| Echo: When we repeat single character verbs, we mean it will only take a while. |
| Brendan: Right. |
| Echo: Yes, and it also it will soften the intonation. |
| Brendan: Right. It sounds like it’s only going to take a moment, only a little while. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: So, you see this in: |
| Echo: 走走 (Zǒu zǒu) |
| Brendan: “To go for a walk”, not a long walk, just for a little while. |
| Echo: 看看 (Kàn kàn) |
| Brendan: “To look” |
| Echo: 瞧瞧 (Qiáo qiáo) |
| Brendan: “To look something over” |
| Echo: 玩玩 (Wán wán) |
| Brendan: “To play for a bit” |
| Echo: Right. So, you might say 很多女孩有空就逛逛街。 (Hěnduō nǚhái yǒu kòng jiù guàng guàngjiē.) |
| Brendan: Yes. “Many girls, when they have spare time, like to go shopping.” |
| Echo: 很多女孩有空就逛逛街 or 你有空去遛遛狗吧。 (Hěnduō nǚhái yǒu kòng jiù guàng guàngjiē or nǐ yǒu kòng qù liú liú gǒu ba.) |
| Brendan: “If you have time, take the dog for a walk.” |
| Echo: 你有空去遛遛狗吧。 (Nǐ yǒu kòng qù liú liú gǒu ba.) |
| Brendan: Now, we’ve got a really long explanation of this in our premium PDF, so take a look at that. There are a couple of really important things to remember, though. The first is: |
| Echo: Not all verbs can be reduplicated. |
| Brendan: Right. Only verbs that express an action or a believe can be repeated this way. |
| Echo: Yes, so you can say 想，我想想。 (Xiǎng, wǒ xiǎng xiǎng.) |
| Brendan: “Yes, I’m thinking about it.” |
| Echo: 我想想。 (Wǒ xiǎng xiǎng.) |
| Brendan: Or |
| Echo: 考虑。 (Kǎolǜ.) |
| Brendan: “To consider” |
| Echo: 你让我考虑考虑。 (Nǐ ràng wǒ kǎolǜ kǎolǜ.) |
| Brendan: “Let me moll it over.” Now, that’s a nice example of a double verb being reduplicated. |
| Echo: Yes. 你让我考虑考虑。(Nǐ ràng wǒ kǎolǜ kǎolǜ.) |
| Brendan: “Let me moll it over for a while.” |
| Echo: Yes, and the second point we’re going to talk about today is Past Tense. |
| Brendan: Right. To put these verbs into the Past Tense, place 了 (Le) between the reduplicated verbs. |
| Echo: Yes, so 想想comes 想了想。 (Xiǎng xiǎng comes xiǎngle xiǎng.) |
| Brendan: “Thought for a while” |
| Echo: 看看 (Kàn kàn) becomes 看了看。(Kànle kàn.) |
| Brendan: “Had a look” |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Brendan: So, could you give us some examples of those? |
| Echo: Like 我想了想，还是觉得不对。(Wǒ xiǎngle xiǎng, háishì juédé bùduì.) |
| Brendan: “I thought it over, but I still don’t think it’s right.” |
| Echo: 我想了想，还是觉得不对 or 他早上过来坐了坐。 (Wǒ xiǎngle xiǎng, háishì juédé bùduì) or (tā zǎoshang guòlái zuòle zuò.) |
| Brendan: “He came over and sat for a while this morning.” |
| Echo: 他早上过来坐了坐。 (Tā zǎoshang guòlái zuòle zuò.) |
| Brendan: And of course, “sit there” also means something like “visited”. So, “He came over and visited for a while this morning.” So, to sum up. |
| Echo: Verb reduplication is a frightening verb. |
| Brendan: Yes, it sounds sort of like something that your dentist might talk about with you, it is not a pleasant term. But it’s pretty simple. |
| Echo: Yes, but you can only do it for verbs about action or thought. |
| Brendan: Right. And when you do it, you repeat a verb to soften its meaning and suggest that it will only take a little bit of time. When you stick them in the Past Tense, remember, 了 goes in the middle. |
| Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.) |
Outro |
| Brendan: That just about sums it up for today. But before we go, we want to tell you about a way to really dramatically improve your pronunciation. |
| Echo: Right. The voice recording tool. |
| Brendan: Yes, the voice recording tool. |
| Echo: Record your voice with a click of a button. |
| Brendan: And play it back just as easily. |
| Echo: Record and listen then. |
| Brendan: Compare to native speakers. |
| Echo: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Brendan: This is super painful. It is really, really painful, but it will help your pronunciation like nothing else. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: And if you have any questions or any comments about today’s lesson… |
| Echo: You can always leave a comment on the site or write to us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com. |
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