Learn how to use the subordinating particle 的
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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 13 - How much are you willing to pay for an iPhone in China? |
| Amber: 对，在中国有很多人用 (Duì, zài zhōngguó yǒu hěnduō rén yòng) iphone. |
| DAVID: Right, and they’re expensive. And, Amber, you’re thinking about getting one. |
| Amber: 我想但是太贵。(Wǒ xiǎng dànshì tài guì.) |
| DAVID: But they are, they are a lot more expensive [unintelligible 00:00:33] import tax. So we’ve got a dialogue that talks about this. It’s between two friends. |
| Amber: 对，在苹果商店。(Duì, zài píngguǒ shāngdiàn.) |
| DAVID: Right. It’s two friends in the Apple store. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: And they’re thinking, “Should I? Shouldn’t I?” And because it’s friends, they are talking in casual Mandarin, as always. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Let’s listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 我想买苹果手机。(Wǒ xiǎng mǎi Píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| B: 要什么颜色的？(Yào shénme yánsè de? ) |
| A: 白色，多少钱？(Báisè, duō shǎo qián?) |
| B: 6500块。(Liùqiān wǔbǎi kuài. ) |
| A: 怎么还这么贵？(Zěnme hái zhème guì? ) |
| B: 过几天可能打折。(Guò jǐ tiān kěnéng dǎzhé. ) |
| A: I want to buy an iPhone. |
| B: What color do you want? |
| A: White, how much does it cost? |
| B: 6500 RMB. |
| A: How can it still be this expensive? |
| B: After a couple of days, there might be a discount. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| DAVID: It’s a lie. There is never a discount after a couple of days. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Right. |
| Amber: 我觉得特别奇怪。(Wǒ juédé tèbié qíguài.) |
| DAVID: Yeah. And they’re more expensive if you’re in China than abroad. So if you want to buy that kind of stuff, buy it in the States and bring it into China. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: You are going to save a couple of hundred bucks maybe. |
| Amber: 唔，对。(Wú, duì.) |
| DAVID: Yeah. Anyway, our vocab here is for buying phones, specifying colors, useful stuff. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Amber: 买。(mǎi) |
| DAVID: To buy. |
| Amber: 买, 买, 颜色。(mǎi, mǎi,yánsè . ) |
| DAVID: Color. |
| Amber: 颜 色, 颜色, 白色。(yánsè , yánsè , báisè) |
| DAVID: White. |
| Amber: 白 色, 白色, 黑色。(báisè, báisè, báisè ) |
| DAVID: Black. |
| Amber: 黑 色, 黑色, 这么 。 (hēisè , hēisè ,hēisè , zhème) |
| DAVID: This much. |
| Amber: 这 么, 这么, 贵。(zhème, zhème, guì) |
| DAVID: Expensive. |
| Amber: 贵, 贵, 过几天。(guì, guì, guò jǐ tiān) |
| DAVID: After a couple of days. |
| Amber: 过 几 天, 过几天, 打折。(guò jǐ tiān, guò jǐ tiān, dǎzhé ) |
| DAVID: To have a discount. |
| Amber: 打 折, 打折。(dǎzhé, dǎzhé) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: Okay, so the vocab is not that difficult. And if you are buying an iPhone, you’re going to be using this. Let’s take a look at some of these words in detail. First, Amber, how did we say “iPhone” in the dialogue? |
| Amber: 苹果手机。(Píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: iPhone. |
| Amber: 苹果手机。(Píngguǒ shǒujī) |
| DAVID: Now, actually Chinese people will also just say “iPhone”, yes. |
| Amber: iphone. 对! (Duì!) |
| DAVID: Some of them will say [*] as well. |
| Amber: [*] |
| DAVID: Right, but for most people you can also say “Apple cellphone”. |
| Amber: 对，苹果手机。(Duì, píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Apple cellphone. |
| Amber: 苹果手机。 (Píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Right. And a “Macbook computer” is a… |
| Amber: 苹果电脑。(Píngguǒ diànnǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right, or… |
| Amber: 苹果笔记本。(Píngguǒ bǐjìběn.) |
| DAVID: Right. So just put “Apple” in front of anything and people are going to know what you’re talking about. Our vocab list also had the word “color”. |
| Amber: 颜色。(Yánsè.) |
| DAVID: Color. |
| Amber: 颜色。(Yánsè.) |
| DAVID: And, in the Apple store, there are two kinds of iPhones right now. |
| Amber: 对，没错, 有白色的，还有黑色的。 |
| (Duì, méi cuò, yǒu báisè de, hái yǒu hēisè de.) |
| DAVID: Right. So there are the white ones and the black ones. |
| Amber: 对, 你可以说，我要白色的。(Duì, nǐ kěyǐ shuō, wǒ yào báisè de.) |
| DAVID: I want the white one. |
| Amber: 或者我要哪个黑色的。(Huòzhě wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de.) |
| DAVID: I want that black one. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Let’s hear those sentences again. “I want the white one.” |
| Amber: 我要白色的。(Wǒ yào báisè de.) |
| DAVID: I want that black one. |
| Amber: 我要哪个黑色的。(Wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de.) |
| DAVID: And don’t forget that 的 at the end. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: We’re going to get to this in a bit. Right, so if you’re shopping, you can also say, “The price is a little bit high. Is there a discount?” |
| Amber: 价格有点贵，有打折吗？(Jiàgé yǒudiǎn guì, yǒu dǎzhé ma?) |
| DAVID: The price is a little bit high. Is there a discount? |
| Amber: 价格有点贵，有打折吗？(Jiàgé yǒudiǎn guì, yǒu dǎzhé ma?) |
| DAVID: Right. |
| Amber: 你经常需要问这个问题。(Nǐ jīngcháng xūyào wèn zhège wèntí.) |
| DAVID: Yes. It works most places, except for the Apple store. |
| Amber: 没错, 他们从来不打折。(Méi cuò, tāmen cónglái bu dǎzhé.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, because it’s a status thing in China, I think, much more than the States. |
| Amber: 好吧！(Hǎo ba!) |
| DAVID: So they’re forcing people to pay more. |
| Amber: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Anyway, that’s our vocab section for today. Let’s get on to this tricky little grammar point we’ve got. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| C: It’s grammar time! |
| DAVID: Our grammar section today is about this tricky little thing we can do in Chinese. We hear it in this line in the dialogue… |
| Amber: 要什么颜色的？(Yào shénme yánsè de?) |
| DAVID: It’s a question - "What color do you want?” |
| Amber: 要什么颜色的？(要什么颜色的？) (Yào shénme yánsè de?(Yào shénme yánsè de?)) |
| DAVID: Only it’s not really “What color do you want?” it’s “What color one may you want?” We’ve got this 的 at the end of the sentence, and that’s what we want to talk about. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: If you remember back to our vocab section, we taught you two sentences. |
| Amber: 我要白色的。(Wǒ yào báisè de.) |
| DAVID: I want the white one. |
| Amber: 还有我要哪个黑色的。(Hái yǒu wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de.) |
| DAVID: “I want that black one.” Let’s hear those two one more time. |
| Amber: 我要白色的, 我要哪个黑色的。(Wǒ yào báisè de, wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de..) |
| DAVID: Right. There’s a word missing from the end of those sentences. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: And, Amber, what is that word? |
| Amber: 苹果手机。(Píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Right. Let’s hear those again with that missing word added. |
| Amber: 我要白色的苹果手机。(Wǒ yào báisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: I want the white iPhone. |
| Amber: 我要哪个黑色的苹果手机。(Wǒ yào nǎge hēisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: I want that black iPhone. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Right? So what’s happening here boils down to the character 的 (De) which is coming between an object and a word that describes it. |
| Amber: 白色的苹果手机。(Báisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: The white iPhone. |
| Amber: 黑色的苹果手机。(Hēisè de píngguǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Right. And what happens is that when we know what object we’re talking about, we can drop the subject as long as we keep that 的 (De) in there. |
| Amber: 没错, 因为前面已经知道是说果手机。(Méi cuò, yīnwèi qiánmiàn yǐjīng zhīdào shì shuō guǒ shǒujī.) |
| DAVID: Right. We know what the object is, but we still have to include that 的 that’s referring to the object. Let’s have a couple more examples to make this clear. |
| Amber: 比如说 我不要买便宜的, 我要买贵的。(Bǐrú shuō wǒ bù yāomǎi piányí de, wǒ yāo mǎi guì de.) |
| DAVID: I don’t want to buy a cheap one, I want to buy an expensive one. |
| Amber: 对，我不要买便宜的, 我要买贵的。(Duì, wǒ bù yāomǎi piányí de, wǒ yāo mǎi guì de..) |
| DAVID: Or, for another example… |
| Amber: 你要什么颜色的？(Nǐ yào shénme yánsè de?) |
| DAVID: That might be something the sales person asks you. |
| Amber: 对, 没错, 你要什么颜色的？(Duì, méi cuò, nǐ yào shénme yánsè de?) |
| DAVID: What color do you want? |
| Amber: 唔，对，可以是手机，笔记本都可以。(Wú, duì, kěyǐ shì shǒujī, bǐjìběn dōu kěyǐ.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, it could be a phone, it could be a laptop. You have to know. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: And the 的 is saying you know this. |
| Amber: 对, 所以我就不说了。(Duì, suǒyǐ wǒ jiù bù shuōle.) |
| DAVID: It’s the same way we say “this one” or “that one” in English. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: We assume that the other person knows what we’re talking about. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Let’s have one more example. |
| Amber: 给我哪个打折的。(Gěi wǒ nǎge dǎzhé de.) |
| DAVID: Give me that. |
| Amber: 打折的。(Dǎzhé de.) |
| DAVID: The discounted one. |
| Amber: 唔。(Wú.) |
| DAVID: So we can put an adjective in front of this or a verb, and we’re saying, “It’s the one that is adjective” or “the one that is verb”. |
| Amber: 没错。 |
Outro |
| DAVID: Okay, and that’s our lesson for today. |
| Amber: 对，今天没有时间了。(Duì, jīntiān méiyǒu shíjiānle.) |
| DAVID: Right. We hope that this stuff comes in useful if you end up buying an iPhone in China. Remember, you’re more likely to get a discount outside the official stores. |
| Amber: 没错, 要打折的。(Duì, jīntiān méiyǒu shíjiānle.) |
| DAVID: Yes. If you ask, they will give it to you. And, as always, we should remind you that we’ve got all of these tips in our premium transcripts… |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Which are available on ChineseClass101.com. If you’re looking for a way to save money or understand more of what’s happening in China, be sure to check those out. |
| Amber: 而且很有用。(Érqiě hěn yǒuyòng.) |
| DAVID: For now though, it’s all the time we have. Thank you for listening. From Beijing, I'm David. |
| Amber: 我是安伯。(Wǒ shì ān bó.) |
| DAVID: And we’ll see you on the site. |
| Amber: 下次見。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
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