Learn how to use the adverb 根本 which means "fundamentally"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| DAVID: Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I'm David. |
| Amber: 大家好，我是安伯。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì ān bó.) |
| DAVID: And we’re here today with Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 10 - Getting nowhere fast in China. |
| Amber: 对，今天的课是和交通有关系。(Duì, jīntiān de kè shì hé jiāotōng yǒu guānxì.) |
| DAVID: Right. So that’s about transportation. So we’ve got cabs, and we’ve got busses and subways. Our lesson today, our dialogue, it takes place on the street. |
| Amber: 在路上，对。(Zài lùshàng, duì.) |
| DAVID: Yes, as two friends are going to a party. But they’re going to be late and you can guess why. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: So we’re going to go to the dialogue now. This is casual Chinese, as always. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 我告诉过你坐地铁。(Wǒ gàosù guò nǐ zuò dìtiě.) |
| B: 出租车应该快来了。(Chūzūchē yīnggāi kuài lái le.) |
| A: 已经半个小时了。(Yǐjīng bàn gè xiǎoshí le.) |
| B: 再等五分钟。(Zài děng wǔ fēnzhōng.) |
| A: 根本没车，我们坐巴士吧！(Gēnběn méi chē, wǒmen zuò bāshì ba!) |
| B: 哎，那儿有一个......别人打了。(Ai, nàr yǒu yí gè......biérén dǎle.) |
| A: I told you to take the subway. |
| B: There should be a cab soon. |
| A: It's already been half an hour. |
| B: Just wait another five minutes. |
| A: There are no cabs at all, let's take the bus! |
| B: Ah, there's one... someone else took it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| DAVID: It used to be that Shanghai was like this. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Now Beijing is like this as well. |
| Amber: 北京现在也是这样。(Běijīng xiànzài yěshì zhèyàng.) |
| DAVID: The worst is when you’re waiting for a cab and there’s someone who moves over ten feet beside you and waits. |
| Amber: 然后你再往前走十米。 (Ránhòu nǐ zài wǎng qián zǒu shí mǐ.) |
| DAVID: Well, I don’t. Anyway, our vocab today, it’s about cabs, it’s about subways. Let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Amber: 告诉。(gàosù.) |
| DAVID: To tell. |
| Amber: 告 诉, 告诉, 交通。(gàosù, gàosù, jiāotōng.) |
| DAVID: Transportation. |
| Amber: 交 通, 交通, 地铁。(jiāotōng, jiāotōng,dìtiě) |
| DAVID: Subway. |
| Amber: 地 铁, 地铁, 出租车。(Dìtiě, dìtiě, chūzū chē.) |
| DAVID: Cab. |
| Amber: 出 租 车, 出租车, 巴士。(Chūzū chē, chūzū chē, bāshì.) |
| DAVID: Bus. |
| Amber: 巴 士, 巴士, 打。(Bāshì, bāshì, dǎ.) |
| DAVID: To flag down. |
| Amber: 打, 打, 根本。(Dǎ, dǎ, gēnběn.) |
| DAVID: At all. |
| Amber: 根 本, 根本, 别人。(Gēnběn, gēnběn, biérén.) |
| DAVID: Somebody else. |
| Amber: 别 人, 别人。(Biérén, biérén.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: Let’s have a closer look at some of today’s words. Our first word is… |
| Amber: 交通。(Jiāotōng.) |
| DAVID: Transportation. |
| Amber: 交通。(Jiāotōng.) |
| DAVID: And this can also be traffic. Right? You can say that the traffic is congested. |
| Amber: 交通很堵。(Jiāotōng hěn dǔ.) |
| DAVID: Right. “The traffic is congested.” |
| Amber: 交通很堵。(Jiāotōng hěn dǔ.) |
| DAVID: In Beijing, in the Central Business District, the traffic is always crowded. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: The solution is to take the subway. |
| Amber: 地铁。(Dìtiě.) |
| DAVID: Subway. |
| Amber: 地铁。(Dìtiě.) |
| DAVID: And we ride the subway in English. In Chinese, we sit on it. |
| Amber: 坐地铁, 比如说 交通太堵了, 我们坐地铁吧！(Zuò dìtiě, bǐrú shuō jiāotōng tài dǔle, wǒmen zuò dìtiě ba!) |
| DAVID: Yeah, “The traffic is too crowded, let’s take the subway.” |
| Amber: 没错, 交通太堵了, 我们坐地铁吧！(Méi cuò, jiāotōng tài dǔle, wǒmen zuò dìtiě ba!) |
| DAVID: Which is a bit weird because 交通 (Jiāotōng) could also mean “the subway” in the other definition of all kinds of transportation. |
| Amber: Yeah, 对，但是一般情况下指在路上 ….很堵。(Duì, dànshì yībān qíngkuàng xià zhǐ zài lùshàng…. Hěn dǔ.) |
| DAVID: Right. If it means traffic, people are just talking about cars. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: If the traffic isn’t too heavy, another cheaper way to get around town is the bus. |
| Amber: 巴士。(Bāshì.) |
| DAVID: Bus. |
| Amber: 巴士。(Bāshì.) |
| DAVID: How much are the busses in Beijing these days? |
| Amber: 唔 …… 四毛钱。(Wú…… sì máo qián.) |
| DAVID: Right. So very, very cheap. The ones with air conditioning are a bit more expensive but… |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: If you’ve got money though, you’re not going to be taking the bus. You’re going to be taking… |
| Amber: 出租车。(Chūzū chē.) |
| DAVID: A taxi. |
| Amber: 出租车, 比如说已经很晚了，我们打出租车吧！(Chūzū chē, bǐrú shuō yǐjīng hěn wǎnle, wǒmen dǎ chūzū chē ba!) |
| DAVID: It’s already very late, let’s take a cab. |
| Amber: 已经很晚了，我们打出租车吧！(Yǐjīng hěn wǎnle, wǒmen dǎ chūzū chē ba!) |
| DAVID: Right. And that could mean two things. It could mean “It’s late in the evening” or it could mean “We don’t have time to take the subway”. |
| Amber: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Yeah. An interesting thing there too is that verb. |
| Amber: 打。(Dǎ.) |
| DAVID: It’s “to hit”. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: It’s too late, we have to go hit a cab. |
| Amber: 不是 ……. 不是打出租车，是叫一个出租车 (Bùshì……. Bùshì dǎ chūzū chē, shì jiào yīgè chūzū chē) |
| DAVID: Yeah, it’s to flag one down with your hand. |
| Amber: Yeah, 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: So it’s still the hitting motion in the air. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Right? So you “hit a cab”. |
| Amber: 打出租车。(Dǎ chūzū chē.) |
| DAVID: It’s already really late, let’s flag down a cab. |
| Amber: 已经很晚了，我们打出租车吧！(Yǐjīng hěn wǎnle, wǒmen dǎ chūzū chē ba!) |
| DAVID: Right. So, to review, when traffic is bad… |
| Amber: 交通很堵。(Jiāotōng hěn dǔ.) |
| DAVID: You can take the subway. |
| Amber: 坐地铁。(Zuò dìtiě.) |
| DAVID: Otherwise, you could take a bus. |
| Amber: 坐巴士。(Zuò bāshì.) |
| DAVID: Or flag down a cab. |
| Amber: 打出租车。(Dǎ chūzū chē.) |
| DAVID: And with that, let’s get to our grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| M2: It’s grammar time! |
| DAVID: In our grammar point today, we want to introduce this adverb. |
| Amber: 根本。(Gēnběn.) |
| DAVID: Let’s hear that slowed down. |
| Amber: 根本。(Gēnběn.) |
| DAVID: This means “fundamentally”. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Right? “At root, at heart”. In our dialogue, we translated it as “at all” in the following sentence. |
| Amber: 根本没车，我们坐巴士吧！(Gēnběn méi chē, wǒmen zuò bāshì ba!) |
| DAVID: Right. Look at that first bit. |
| Amber: 根本没车。(Gēnběn méi chē.) |
| DAVID: There are no cabs at all. |
| Amber: 根本没车。(Gēnběn méi chē.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, really it means something closer to “fundamentally”. |
| Amber: 对，因为 “根” 就是 root 的意思。(Duì, yīnwèi “gēn” jiùshì root de yìsi.) |
| DAVID: Yes. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: In essence, there are no cabs. Maybe there’s one, but we’re probably not going to get it because, really, there aren’t any out there. So, fundamentally, at the heart of it, we’re using this adverb. |
| Amber: 根本。(Gēnběn.) |
| DAVID: And we can put this in front of any verb that we want. For instance… |
| Amber: 这儿根本没有人。(Zhè'er gēnběn méiyǒu rén.) |
| DAVID: There’s no one around here. |
| Amber: 这儿根本没有人。(Zhè'er gēnběn méiyǒu rén.) |
| DAVID: “There’s no one around here at all.” Or, “Fundamentally, there’s no one here.” |
| Amber: 唔，没错。(Wú, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Let’s have another example. |
| Amber: 比如出租车根本不快。(Bǐrú chūzū chē gēnběn bùkuài.) |
| DAVID: Cabs aren’t really fast. |
| Amber: 出租车根本不快。(Chūzū chē gēnběn bùkuài.) |
| DAVID: Right, because transportation is very crowded. |
| Amber: 因为交通很堵。(Yīnwèi jiāotōng hěn dǔ.) |
| DAVID: Right, so the cabs are about as fast as the busses. You can also use this to say something like, “I really don’t understand what you’re saying.” |
| Amber: 我根本不懂你在说什么！(Wǒ gēnběn bù dǒng nǐ zài shuō shénme!) |
| DAVID: I really don’t know what you’re saying. |
| Amber: 我根本不懂你在说什么！(Wǒ gēnběn bù dǒng nǐ zài shuō shénme!) |
| DAVID: Or “I really didn’t hear.” |
| Amber: 我根本没听见。(Wǒ gēnběn méi tīngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: At root of it, “I didn’t hear,” |
| Amber: 我根本没听见。(Wǒ gēnběn méi tīngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: Now, the tone that this has in the sentence it’s maybe you’re complaining a little bit. |
| Amber: 没错, 不满意。(Méi cuò, bù mǎnyì.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, you’re a bit dissatisfied. So it’s not objective, you’re not saying, “Well, I didn’t hear what you said.” You’re saying, “I didn’t hear. It’s probably because it’s your fault.” |
| Amber: 没错, 是你的问题，所以我没听见。(Méi cuò, shì nǐ de wèntí, suǒyǐ wǒ méi tīngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, “You didn’t speak clearly so I fundamentally didn’t understand.” |
| Amber: 没错, 你没说清楚，我根本没听见。(Méi cuò, nǐ méi shuō qīngchǔ, wǒ gēnběn méi tīngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: So this is a really useful adverb to know. |
| Amber: 根本。(Gēnběn.) |
| DAVID: Stick it in front of verbs when you want to say “fundamentally”, “at heart”, or when you want to translate English sentences that say “at all”. |
| Amber: 没错, 根本, 根本没车。(Méi cuò, gēnběn, gēnběn méi chē.) |
Outro |
| DAVID: “There are no cars at all.” So that’s our lesson for today. From Beijing, I'm David. |
| Amber: 我是安伯。(Wǒ shì ān bó.) |
| DAVID: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the site. |
| Amber: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
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