Learn how to use Chinese conjunctions
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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 8 - A convoluted Chinese check-in process. |
| Amber: 在中国的酒店登记。(Zài zhōngguó de jiǔdiàn dēngjì.) |
| DAVID: Right. 登记 (Dēngjì) means “to register”. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Right, it’s residence registration, which is what our dialogue today is about. It takes place in a hotel ……. |
| Amber: 在酒店, 对。(Zài jiǔdiàn, duì.) |
| DAVID: Yes, in a hotel between a guest and the person who’s at the front desk. So we’re going to hear how the registration process works, in casual Chinese, as always. |
| Amber: 没错, 来听对话吧！(Méi cuò, lái tīng duìhuà ba!) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 登记要有身份证。(Dēngjì yàoyǒu shēnfènzhèng.) |
| B: 护照可以吗？(Hùzhào kěyǐ ma?) |
| A: 哦，您是外国人。(O, nín shì wàiguórén.) |
| B: 对，是。(Duì, shì.) |
| A: 那需要填这张表。(Nà xūyào tián zhè zhāng biǎo.) |
| B: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| A: 也需要填这张表。(Yě xūyào tián zhè zhāng biǎo.) |
| B: 啊，这么多。(A, zhème duō.) |
| A: 还有这些。(Hái yǒu zhèxiē.) |
| B: 我没带笔。(Wǒ méi dài bǐ.) |
| A: 没关系，我们有。(Méiguānxì, wǒmen yǒu.) |
| A: You need an ID card to register. |
| B: Will a passport do? |
| A: Oh, you are a foreigner. |
| B: Yes. |
| A: Then you need to fill in this form. |
| B: Alright. |
| A: And you need to fill in this form too. |
| B: Ah? So many? |
| A: And also these. |
| B: I didn't bring a pen. |
| A: It doesn't matter, we have one. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| DAVID: So first they think he’s a Chinese citizen because they ask him for his… |
| Amber: 身份证，我们以前学过。(Shēnfèn zhèng, wǒmen yǐqián xuéguò.) |
| DAVID: Right, so it’s the Chinese ID card and he says, “No, I'm a foreigner.” And they’ve got a ton of forms. |
| Amber: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Yeah. Normally, actually, there’s only one. But you can run into situations with some Chinese hotels, in some cities, where they won't let you register as a foreigner. |
| Amber: Ah, 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Yeah. So good luck. They try to push people towards the more expensive hotels. |
| Amber: 没错(Méi cuò), ah, 一晚上几百美金的那一种。(Yī wǎnshàng jǐ bǎi měijīn dì nà yī zhǒng.) |
| DAVID: Yeah. Not much you can do about that. Anyway, our vocab today is all about the registration process, so a ton of vocab for registering. |
| Amber: 登记。(Dēngjì.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| DAVID: To register. |
| Amber: 登 记, 登记, 证件。(Dēngjì, Dēngjì, zhèngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: Proof of identity. |
| Amber: 证 件, 证件, 身份证。(zhèngjiàn, zhèngjiàn, shēnfènzhèng.) |
| DAVID: ID card. |
| Amber: 身 份 证, 身份证, 护照。(shēnfènzhèng, shēnfènzhèng, hùzhào.) |
| DAVID: Passport. |
| Amber: 护 照, 护照, 外国人。(hùzhào, hùzhào, wàiguórén.) |
| DAVID: Foreigner. |
| Amber: 外 国 人, 外国人, 填表。(wàiguórén, wàiguórén, tiánbiǎo.) |
| DAVID: To fill in forms. |
| Amber: 填 表, 填表, 需要。(tiánbiǎo, tiánbiǎo, xūyào.) |
| DAVID: To need. |
| Amber: 需 要, 需要, 入住。(xūyào, xūyào, rùzhù.) |
| DAVID: To check in. |
| Amber: 入 住, 入住, 笔。(rùzhù, rùzhù, bǐ.) |
| DAVID: Pen. |
| Amber: 笔, 笔。(bǐ, bǐ.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words. Our first word is… |
| Amber: 登记。(dēngjì.) |
| DAVID: To register. |
| Amber: 登记。(dēngjì) |
| DAVID: First tone, fourth tone. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: Register. |
| Amber: 登记。(Dēngjì.) |
| DAVID: Right. It’s a verb. Now, we had another word here which we translated as “to check in”. |
| Amber: 入住。(Rùzhù.) |
| DAVID: Right, so there’s a difference here. The first, “registration”. |
| Amber: 登记。(Dēngjì.) |
| DAVID: It’s official. It’s for the government, it’s telling them where you live, your passport number, whereas the second… |
| Amber: 入住。(Rùzhù.) |
| DAVID: Is just a check-in to a hotel. |
| Amber: 对，没错。(Duì, méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Right, to move into some place. Okay? Now, when you check in, you’re going to be asked for a proof of identity. |
| Amber: 证件。(Zhèngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: Documentation. |
| Amber: 证件, 我们经常听到 在这登记，请出示证件。(Zhèngjiàn, wǒmen jīngcháng tīng dào zài zhè dēngjì, qǐng chūshì zhèngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: Right. That’s the sentence you’re going to hear. Amber, can you give it to us again? |
| Amber: 在这登记，请出示证件。(Zài zhè dēngjì, qǐng chūshì zhèngjiàn.) |
| DAVID: “Register here and please show your documents.” Now, as in our dialogue, there are two important documents. If you’re Chinese, you’re going to be asked for your ID card. |
| Amber: 身份证。(Shēnfèn zhèng.) |
| DAVID: ID card. |
| Amber: 身份证。(Shēnfèn zhèng.) |
| DAVID: Right. Everyone’s got one, everyone’s got a unique number. And it’s really painful when people lose it. |
| Amber: 没错, 要需要很长时间 才能再有一个。(Méi cuò, yào xūyào hěn cháng shíjiān cáinéng zài yǒu yīgè.) |
| DAVID: Yeah, and if you’re out of your hometown when you lose it, it’s even worse. |
| Amber: 唔, 对。(Wú, duì.) |
| DAVID: But, as a foreigner, the big one is obviously the passport. |
| Amber: 护照。(Hùzhào.) |
| DAVID: Passport. |
| Amber: 护照。(Hùzhào.) |
| DAVID: So, when you’re registering, you’re going to show your ID and you’re going to be given forms to fill out. |
| Amber: 填表。(Tián biǎo.) |
| DAVID: To fill in a form. |
| Amber: 填表。(Tián biǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right. So someone will ask you, “Please, fill in the form.” |
| Amber: 请填表。(Qǐng tián biǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right, now 填 (Tián) here means “to fill in”. |
| Amber: 对。(Duì.) |
| DAVID: And 表 (Biǎo) is any kind of form. |
| Amber: 所有的 (Suǒyǒu de) form 都是 表, 对。(Dōu shì biǎo, duì.) |
| DAVID: Right, the ones with the boxes and writing your names and your address, and they’re all 表.(Biǎo.) |
| In the dialogue, there is a special measure word for this. |
| Amber: 张。(Zhāng.) |
| DAVID: One form. |
| Amber: 一张表。(Yī zhāng biǎo.) |
| DAVID: Two forms. |
| Amber: 两张表。(Liǎng zhāng biǎo.) |
| DAVID: Please fill in these three forms. |
| Amber: 请填这三张表。(Qǐng tián zhè sān zhāng biǎo.) |
| DAVID: Right. And it’s 张(Zhāng), of course, because it’s flat and it’s big. |
| Amber: 纸 也可以用张。(Zhǐ yě kěyǐ yòng zhāng.) |
| DAVID: Right, a piece of paper. |
| Amber: 对, 一张纸。(Duì, yī zhāng zhǐ.) |
| DAVID: Right. So, to review, when you get to a Chinese hotel, you’re going to be asked to register. |
| Amber: 登记。(Dēngjì.) |
| DAVID: They’re going to ask you for either your ID card. |
| Amber: 身份证。(Shēnfèn zhèng.) |
| DAVID: Or your passport. |
| Amber: 护照。(Hùzhào.) |
| DAVID: And then you are going to need to fill out forms. |
| Amber: 填表。(Tián biǎo.) |
| DAVID: And with that, let’s get on to our grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| M2: It’s grammar time! |
| DAVID: Our grammar point today is all about conjunctions. Now, we’ve run into conjunctions in English, everyone knows what they are. They’re words like “and” or “but”, it’s stringing together short sentences into longer ones. And we get the same things in Chinese. |
| Amber: 没错, 中文也有。(Méi cuò, zhōngwén yěyǒu.) |
| DAVID: Right. And one of the most common ones is, of course, the word for “also”. |
| Amber: 也。(Yě.) |
| DAVID: Also. |
| Amber: 也。(Yě.) |
| DAVID: And we can see this in sentence like, “He’s going. I'm also going.” |
| Amber: 他去，我也去。(Tā qù, wǒ yě qù.) |
| DAVID: He’s going. I'm also going. |
| Amber: 他去，我也去。(Tā qù, wǒ yě qù.) |
| DAVID: Or you could say, “He doesn’t have a passport or an ID card.” |
| Amber: 他没有护照，也没有身份证。(Tā méiyǒu hùzhào, yě méiyǒu shēnfèn zhèng.) |
| DAVID: Right. He doesn’t have a passport or an ID card. |
| Amber: 他没有护照，也没有身份证。(Tā méiyǒu hùzhào, yě méiyǒu shēnfèn zhèng.) |
| DAVID: What’s interesting about this dialogue is we see two conjunctions used like this, only slightly differently. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Let’s take a look at these lines in our dialogue. |
| Amber: 也需要填这张表。(Yě xūyào tián zhè zhāng biǎo.) |
| DAVID: You also need to fill in this form. |
| Amber: 还有这些。(Hái yǒu zhèxiē.) |
| DAVID: And also these. Let’s hear those again. |
| Amber: 也需要填这张表, 还有这些。(Yě xūyào tián zhè zhāng biǎo, hái yǒu zhèxiē.) |
| DAVID: “You need to fill in this form, and also these.” The reason we highlight these is simply because we’ve got the conjunctions at the start of the sentence. |
| Amber: 也, 还有。(Yě, hái yǒu.) |
| DAVID: Right. There’s no subject in those sentences. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: But in Chinese you can do this because it’s implied what the subject is. Right? In this case, the subject is you. |
| Amber: 你，你也需要填这张表。(Nǐ, nǐ yě xūyào tián zhè zhāng biǎo.) |
| DAVID: You also need to fill in this form. |
| Amber: 还有这些。(Hái yǒu zhèxiē.) |
| DAVID: And also these. |
| Amber: Right. |
| DAVID: So the interesting thing is that we’re putting the conjunctions at the start of the sentence because it’s assumed what the subject is. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Chinese is somewhat special this way. And actually it’s a carry-over from more classical Chinese, where it’s not always clear what the subject is when you’re writing things down. As long as you know, you don’t need to write it down. So be aware of this when you’re listening to people speak Mandarin. They’re not always going to specify the subject, and they’re not always going to use conjunctions in the middle of sentences. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Sometimes you’re going to see them thrown at the front because it’s the continuation of a general idea. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| DAVID: Okay? So just a quick word of warning about that. Mostly though our lesson today is about… |
| Amber: 登记 还有 入住。(Dēngjì hái yǒu rùzhù.) |
| DAVID: Right. And the vocab will be useful the next time you’re checking into a hotel. |
| Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
Outro |
| DAVID: For now though, that’s all the time we have. 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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