Learn how to talk about directions
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| Hey guys, in a previous lesson, we went over how to ask where something is. That isn’t much good if you don’t understand the answer. Today, we are going to go over directions, turn left, turn right, go straight intersection, those kinds of things, simple things to tell you how to get around in neighborhood. These can be also very useful if you are in a taxi and you happen to know where you are going but the taxi driver doesn’t. This may not happen to you very often but often when you are inside of an area, an enclosed campus or something like that, you may know your way around the campus and the driver certainly does not. So let’s go ahead. We will start with go straight, 往前走(Wǎng qián zǒu.). The tones for this are, third tone, 往(wǎng), second tone 前(qián), then third tone again 走(zǒu), 往前走(Wǎng qián zǒu.). Literally 往(wǎng) indicates to as in to a direction. So to and then 前(qián) means front or forward. So to forward which is straight ahead, to forward and then 走(zǒu) means to go or to walk. So here it means to forward go, go straight ahead, 往前走(Wǎng qián zǒu.). The next one we are going to do is turn left, turn left resembles go straight in that it starts with 往(wǎng), to. So the way it goes is, 往左转(Wǎng zuó zhuǎn.), 往(wǎng) is again third tone, 左(zuó) is second tone, the rising tone and 转(zhuǎn) is third tone, 往左转(Wǎng zuó zhuǎn.). Literally this means to and then 左(zuǒ) means left and 转(zhuǎn) means turn. So to left turn, turn to the left or turn left, 往左转(Wǎng zuó zhuǎn.) . Let’s do right. With turning right, you only replace the direction. So it’s the same as turning left but you just replace left with right. It’s 往右转(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.). 右(yòu) means right where 左(zuǒ) meant left. So we just replace left with right, 右(yòu) right. The tones are, third tone 往(wǎng), fourth tone 右(yòu) and then third tone again 转(zhuǎn), 往右转(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.). Now let’s go over another useful phrase for directions, intersection. The way you say intersection in Chinese is 十字路口(shí zì lù kǒu). The tones for this are second tone 十(shí), fourth tone 字(zì), fourth tone again 路(lù) and then third tone 口(kǒu), 十字路口(shí zì lù kǒu). And literally in Chinese, this means intersection that looks like a character 10, 十字(shí zì) means the character 10, 十(shí) means 10 and 字(zì) means character. So 十字(shí zì) means the character 10 and then 路口(lù kǒu) means intersection or street opening. So this is only used for a four way intersection but generally people just say 十字路口(shí zì lù kǒu) to mean intersection. The character 10 looks like a cross and a four way intersection also looks like a cross. So they call it a street opening that looks like the character 10, 十字路口(shí zì lù kǒu). So let’s try turn right at the intersection. In Chinese, this would be 在十字路口往右转(Zài shí zì lù kǒu wǎng yòu zhuǎn.). Literally it means at 在(zài), 十字路口(zài shí zì lù kǒu), at the intersection, turn right 往右转(wǎng yòu zhuǎn), you just put them all together like you’d put them in English, 在十字路口往右转(Zài shí zì lù kǒu wǎng yòu zhuǎn.). Literally this is 在(zài) at, 在(zài) is fourth tone. We haven’t gone over this yet but everything else we’ve gone over, 十字路口(shí zì lù kǒu), the intersection, 往右转(wǎng yòu zhuǎn), turn right. Now let’s try to turn left, 在十字路口往左转(Zài shí zì lù kǒu wǎng zuǒ zhuǎn.). The only thing that changes here is the left and the right. Like we talked about before, we turn left or turn right. You put the sentence together the same way, you just change one of the words. We are running out of time today but one last thing. Today it’s been a really packed lesson, sorry guys. One last thing is, here is fine. You can use this in a taxi. If you can’t figure out how to do the directions, you can just get out and walk. You say here is fine, 这儿就行(Zhèr jiù xíng.) The tones are fourth tone 这儿(zhèr), it’s got an R at the end, pay attention, 这儿(zhèr), 就(jiù), fourth tone, 就(jiù), and 行(xíng), second tone, 行(xíng), 这儿就行(Zhèr jiù xíng.). Literally it means 这儿(zhèr) here, 就(jiù) is a particle that connects things that says exactly and 行(xíng) which means okay or fine, 这儿就行(Zhèr jiù xíng.), this is fine, here is fine. You can say this to the taxi driver and he will know to let you off right here. |
| All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu!) Straight ahead, 往前走(Wǎng qián zǒu.). Turn left, 往左转(Wǎng zuó zhuǎn.). Turn right, 往右转(Wǎng yòu zhuǎn.). Intersection, 十字路口(shí zì lù kǒu). Turn left at the intersection, 在十字路口往左转(Zài shí zì lù kǒu wǎng zuó zhuǎn.). At the intersection turn right, 在十字路口往右转(Zài shí zì lù kǒu wǎng yòu zhuǎn.). Here is fine, 这儿就行(Zhèr jiù xíng.). |
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