Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: Today we’re going to start with a dialogue that continues where our dialogue from last time left off. So we’ll begin by listening to the old dialogue and continue on with today’s situation. We’ll listen to this dialogue twice – first at normal speed.

Yann: 你是哪里人?
Cindy: 我是日本人.
Yann: 你在这里多久了?
Cindy: 我在这里两个星期了.
Yann: 你的工作是什么?
Cindy: 我是老师. 那你呢?
Yann: 我是学生.

Adam: Ok, so let’s listen to it one more time. This time try and repeat each line after Kirin.

Kirin: 你是哪里人?
我是日本人.
你在这里多久了?
我在这里两个星期了.
你的工作是什么?
我是老师. 那你呢?
我是学生.

Adam: Alright, so let’s break down this dialogue line by line. The first few lines we should remember from our last lesson.

Kirin: 你是哪里人?

Adam: What’s your nationality?

Kirin: 我是日本人.

Adam: I am Japanese.

Kirin: 你在这里多久了?

Adam: How long have you been here?

Kirin: 我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: I have been here two weeks.

Kirin: 你的工作是什么?

Adam: So here’s the first new line of today’s lesson. We know that 你的 means “your.” That’s followed by 工作. That’s a first tone and a fourth tone. And together that means “job.” The literal translation is 工 – meaning work and 作 which is the verb “to do.” So the “work you do” translates to “job” in Chinese. The last two characters we should know. What does “什么?” mean? It means “what?” so we know this is a question asking “What’s your job?”

Kirin: 你的工作是什么?

Adam: So literally that’s “Your job is what.” The person then replies:

Kirin: 我是老师.

Adam: So that gives us “I am” followed by 老师. That’s a third tone 老 and a first tone 师. We’ve seen 老 before in 老板. Do you remember what “老板” is? It means… “boss.” 老 literally means “old.” Now in English, calling someone “old” might be considered rude, but in Chinese it’s actually a sign of respect. As they have a lot of respect for the elderly in Chinese culture. 师 means “master” so, together, a teacher is an “old master” – 老师.

Kirin: 我是老师.

Adam: “I am a teacher.” She then adds a:

Kirin: 那你呢?

Adam: We’ve seen “你呢?” before. What does that mean? It means – “and you?” The 那 here is the same 那 from 那个 and 那里 meaning “that one” or “there” respectively. So here it is added to give flow to the conversation. Just saying 你呢 “and you” might seem a little abrupt – but if we say “那你呢?” that’s more polite, kind of like “And how about you?”

Kirin: 那你呢?

Adam: The person then responds.

Kirin: 我是学生.

Adam: I am a 学生. 学 is a second tone and means “study” while 生 you may remember from 生日. What does “生日” mean? It means “birthday” so 生 means “born.” So what do you a call a person who is “born to study”? It’s, of course, a “student.”

Kirin: 我是学生.

Adam: “I am a student.”

Adam: So now you know the names of some positions – boss, teacher, student. In the premium notes for lesson 21, we’ve done something a little bit different. Instead of review questions this time, we’ve included the literal definitions of some other jobs to see if you can guess what they are. Some are easier to figure out than others – so premium subscriber can try that out on our website. Let’s listen to this entire dialogue again a couple of times. First, repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 你是哪里人?
我是日本人.
你在这里多久了?
我在这里两个星期了.
你的工作是什么?
我是老师. 那你呢?
我是学生.

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你是哪里人?
Cindy: 我是日本人.
Yann: 你在这里多久了?
Cindy: 我在这里两个星期了.
Yann: 你的工作是什么?
Cindy: 我是老师. 那你呢?
Yann: 我是学生.

Adam: Great – we’re now going to take the next few minutes to do a quick review of some of the expressions we have taught you over the last little while. Let’s see how many of them you can remember.

How do you say: Excuse me?

Kirin: 对不起.

Adam: “You’re welcome” – or “There’s no need to be polite.”

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: Can I ask a question…

Kirin: 请问.

Adam: How much is this?

Kirin: 这个多少钱?

Adam: “May I” or “Can I?”

Kirin: 可以吗?

Adam: Alright, so hopefully you were able to get those. Let’s now try listening to some in Chinese and you tell me what it means in English.

Kirin: 好不好?

Adam: Is that ok?

Kirin: 很高兴认识你.

Adam: Nice to meet you.

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: Long time no see.

Kirin: 明天见.

Adam: See you tomorrow.

Kirin: 不好意思.

Adam: Sorry to trouble you, or this is embarrassing.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, I’m one of your hosts, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 欢迎来到第三十九课.

Raphael: 今天的题目是…

Kirin: 没办法.

Adam: “There’s nothing we can do.” We’re going to shortly review a dialogue that we looked at in our last lesson and then build upon it by adding a few more lines making up today’s lesson. All the Chinese we use outside of the dialogue has been taught in previous lessons especially from Lesson 30 on, so we encourage you to review any of our older lessons from our website.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
Cindy: 我现在只剩下十块钱.
Yann: 我也没有带很多钱. 怎么办?
Cindy: 没办法. 那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.
Yann: 真糟糕.

Kirin: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
我现在只剩下十块钱.
我也没有带很多钱.
怎么办?
没办法.
那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.
真糟糕.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s begin by reviewing the first few lines of the dialogue from our last lesson.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?

Adam: Can you lend me some money?

Kirin: 我现在只剩下十块钱.

Adam: I only have ten dollars left over at the moment.

Kirin: 我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: I didn’t bring much money either.

Kirin: 怎么办?

Adam: So here’s the first line of today’s lesson. 怎么办?

Raphael: “怎么” 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s a question word meaning “how.” Here the 办 means “to manage” or “to handle.” So “怎么办?” How do we manage or handle this situation?

Kirin: 怎么办?

Adam: This is a very popular expression, which in this case could mean “What can we do?”

Kirin: 怎么办?

Adam: The woman then replies:

Kirin: 没办法.

Adam: So here we have a second tone 没, which we’ve seen before.

Raphael: “没” 是什么意思?

Adam: It’s a negation word, similar to 不. So “No 办法”. That’s a fourth tone 办 that we just saw, followed by a third-tone 法 and together means “method of doing something” or, in this context, “solution.”

Kirin: 没办法.

Adam: In other words, “There’s nothing we can do. There’s no solution.”

Kirin: 没办法.

Adam: This is another very popular expression and you’ll often see it as the answer to 怎么办? So “What can we do? There’s nothing we can do.” The woman then says:

Kirin: 那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.

Adam: There’s only one new word there, so this is a good review. “In that case, we today” 不能. There’s a new verb 能 which is a second tone and means “to be capable of doing something.” Now because we have the 不 in front, she’s saying we’re not capable. There’s a subtle difference between 不可以 and 不能. The former means something is not permissible, whereas the latter here is more due to circumstance. Over time seeing these used in different contexts will give you a better grasp of these subtle differences.

Kirin: 那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.

Adam: The next word there is the verb 买.

Raphael: “买” 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to buy.” So “today, we can’t buy 很多东西.” These are all words we’ve seen recently.

Raphael: “很多” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “many” 的意思.

Raphael: “东西” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “things or items” 的意思.

Adam: So putting these all together gives us “In that case, we today can’t buy many things.”

Kirin: 那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.

Adam: In other words, “In that case, we can’t buy much today.”

Kirin: 那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.

Adam: And the last line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 真糟糕.

Adam: We know 真 from 真的.

Raphael: “真” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “real” 的意思.

Adam: That’s followed by 糟糕 which is two first tones. The literal translation here is “spoiled” or “rotten cakes,” but this is commonly used to express “That’s too bad,” or “That’s terrible!”

Kirin: 真糟糕.

Adam: Or in this case, “That’s really too bad!”

Kirin: 真糟糕.

Adam: So lots of very popular phrases and expressions in today’s dialogue, that will hopefully come in handy for you.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
我现在只剩下十块钱.
我也没有带很多钱.
怎么办?
没办法.
那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.
真糟糕.

Adam: Great, and let’s listen to this dialogue again then by our native speakers.

Yann: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
Cindy: 我现在只剩下十块钱.
Yann: 我也没有带很多钱. 怎么办?
Cindy: 没办法. 那么，我们今天不能买很多东西.
Yann: 真糟糕.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from a mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 20. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: We will begin today’s lesson by listening to a first half of the conversation that makes use of the vocabulary we’ve learned up till now while adding a few new words and expressions along the way. We’ll first listen to the dialogue twice – first at normal speed, and then at a slow-down speed to allow you to repeat along. So the first time you listen to it, try and pick out what words you do know and see if you can figure out the meaning from that.

Yann: 你是哪里人?
Cindy: 我是日本人.
Yann: 你在这里多久了?
Cindy: 我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: Ok, so let’s listen to it one more time – this time try and repeat each line after Kirin.

Kirin: 你是哪里人?
我是日本人.
你在这里多久了?
我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: Let’s now break down this dialogue for you starting with the first line.

Kirin: 你是哪里人?

Adam: We’ve seen all these words before. What does “哪里” mean? It means… “where.” So we know that this is a question. What does 人 mean? It means… “person.” So putting that together gives us “you are where person.” So can you guess what “You are where person” is asking? It’s the same as asking “What’s your nationality?” or “Where do you come from?”

Kirin: 你是哪里人?

Adam: The lady then replies:

Kirin: 我是日本人.

Adam: So here we have a new country added to the mix. 日本 is a fourth tone and a third tone. Do you remember what “日” means? It has two meanings – it can mean “day” or “sun.” 本 in this context can mean “the source” or the “origin.” So we have “the origin of the sun” or how about… “the land of the second sun” – what country is that? It’s of course Japan. 人 of course means “person” so 日本人 is a “Japanese person.” So…

Kirin: 我是日本人.

Adam: …means “I am Japanese.” The man then asks.

Kirin: 你在这里多久了?

Adam: So, some new characters here. 你在这里. We know 你 is you. What does “这里” mean? It means… “here.” 在 is a fourth tone and means “to be located.” So putting that together “你在这里” gives “you are located here.” The next two characters “多久” we’ve actually seen before in different contexts. There’s 多 from “多少钱?” What does “多少钱?” mean? It’s asking “how much money?” So the “多” here translates to “how much?” We then have 久 from 好久不见. Do you remember what “好久不见” means? It means… “long time no see.” 久 there refers to… “time” – 好久 – “long time.” So what do you think the question:

Kirin: 你在这里多久了?

Adam: …means? It is asking “How long have you been here?” Now we know this question is talking about the past, because of the 了 particle at the end, which you may remember indicates a change in situation. So up to this point, how long have you been here? From hereon, that answer may change because you may choose to stay longer.

Kirin: 你在这里多久了?

Adam: The lady then replies:

Kirin: 我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: So let’s look at this: 我在这里. “I am here.” 两个 – what does “两个” mean? It means… “two of something.” So what is the “something” – there’s a new word 星期 which is two first tones and is the word for “week.” So 两个星期 is “two weeks.” Again, notice the 了 at the end of the sentence, which indicates up to now, “I have been here two weeks.”

Kirin: 我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: So let’s listen to the dialogue again – a couple of times. During the first time, please repeat each line after Kirin.

Kirin: 你是哪里人?
我是日本人.
你在这里多久了?
我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你是哪里人?
Cindy: 我是日本人.
Yann: 你在这里多久了?
Cindy: 我在这里两个星期了.

Adam: Ok, we’re going to take some time to look at some related vocabulary here. We taught the word for “week” which is:

Kirin: 星期.

Adam: The days of the week, Monday to Sunday actually use that same word in them. The Chinese week starts with Monday which is:

Kirin: 星期一.

Adam: So the literal translation “week 1” becomes Monday.

Kirin: 星期一.

Adam: Let’s look at the rest of the days of the week. Tuesday is:

Kirin: 星期二.

Adam: Wednesday:

Kirin: 星期三.

Adam: Thursday:

Kirin: 星期四.

Adam: Friday:

Kirin: 星期五.

Adam: Saturday:

Kirin: 星期六.

Adam: Now Sunday is slightly different. It is:

Kirin: 星期日.

Adam: Or:

Kirin: 星期天.

Adam: You may remember from Lesson 6 that 天 and 日 are sometimes used interchangeably to mean “day.” Now since 日 also means “sun” it’s interesting to see it also associated with Sunday here, isn’t that interesting? Well…I thought so anyway.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: Today we’re going to listen to a conversation that involves time and teaches us how to say the different times of the day. Please follow along with the included summary on your MP3 player screen, or through one the transcripts on our website.

Yann: 现在几点?
Cindy: 现在六点半.
Yann: 我们明天几点要出去?
Cindy: 明天下午两点可以吗?
Yann: 好，没问题.

Adam: Ok, let’s listen to the dialogue one more time. This time, repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 现在几点?
现在六点半.
我们明天几点要出去?
明天下午两点可以吗?
好，没问题.

Adam: Ok, let’s now go through this dialogue line by line, starting off with the first line.

Kirin: 现在几点?

Adam: We’ve actually seen all these characters before. What does “现在” mean? It means “right now.” How about “几”? What does that mean? That means “how many?” The last character 点 we’ve seen before in 一点. What does “一点” mean? It means “a little.” The literal translation of 点 is “a dot” or “a point.” So by saying “a dot” or “a point” we are actually saying “a little” in Chinese. So getting back to our example here we literally have “Right now how many dots?” Do you have any idea what that means? That’s actually asking “What time is it right now?” The “dots or points” refers to the points or dots on a clock. So you’re actually asking “right now – how many points (are on the clock)?” – or “What time is it?”

Kirin: 现在几点?

Adam: The woman then replies:

Kirin: 现在六点半.

Adam: Ok, so you may figure out the first part. “Right now it’s six points” or “six o’clock.” However we also have a 半 character at the end. The 半 is a fourth tone and literally means “half.” So “six point half” translates to “half past six” or “six thirty.”

Kirin: 现在六点半.

Adam: For other times we use the character 分 which is a first tone meaning “minute.” So for example to say “six fifteen” you would say:

Kirin: 六点十五分

Adam: …which literally means “six points fifteen minutes.”

Kirin: 六点十五分.

Adam: Alright so let’s continue on with the next line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 我们明天几点要出去?

Adam: So you may be able to figure out most of this. What does “我们” mean? It means… “we.” What does “明天” mean? That means… “tomorrow.” We then have 几点 or “what time” followed by the verb 要. Do you remember what “要” means? That’s the verb “to want.” The last character of the sentence is another verb 去. What does “去” mean? That’s the verb “to go.” Now there’s another character sandwiched in between. It’s a first tone 出 and in this context means “out.” So the literal translation of the sentence is “We tomorrow what time want out go?” So you may be able to figure that out to mean… “What time do we want to go out tomorrow?” This could also mean “What time are we going out tomorrow?”

Kirin: 我们明天几点要出去?

Adam: You’ll often see 出去 used together to mean “go out,” so remember that one. The next line was…

Kirin: 明天下午两点可以吗?

Adam: There’s a new word there 下午 which is important – that’s a fourth tone 下 and a third tone 午. And together means “afternoon.” Now 下 is another one of those characters with many meanings depending on context. We’ve seen it before with 一下. Do you remember what 一下 means? It means “a moment.” Here, it means “after.” And the 午 loosely translates to “noon,” so “after noon” – 下午. Take a look at the vocabulary and notes link for this lesson on our website to learn more about 下 in where it’s used. You can hopefully figure out the rest of the sentence.

What does “两” mean? It means “two of something” – in this case it’s “two points on the clock” so she’s saying “tomorrow afternoon two o’clock 可以吗?” What does “可以吗?” mean? It’s asking if this is permissible.

Kirin: 明天下午两点可以吗?

Adam: “Is tomorrow at 2 pm OK?” The last line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 好，没问题.

Adam: So we know 好 means “ok.” That’s followed by 没问题. We’ve seen 没 before in 没有. What does that mean? That means “don’t have” so the 没 is a negation character similar to 不. We then have 问题. We’ve seen 问 before in “请问?”. What does “请问?” mean? That means “Please can I ask” or literally “Please ask” so 问 on its own means “ask.” The 题 at the end is a second tone and together with the 问 means “question.” So 没问题 literally means “no question.” Now in Chinese, “question” is a synonym for the word “problem” so this is a very common expression meaning “no problem.”

Kirin: 没问题.

Adam: Now we talked about 下午 which means “afternoon.” Let’s look at some other times of day.

Kirin: 上午.

Adam: That’s a fourth tone 上 followed by 午. 上 is the opposite of 下 so if 下午 means “afternoon,” 上午 means “before noon” or in other words “morning.”

Kirin: 上午.

Adam: You may also hear the word:

Kirin: 早上.

Adam: 早 is a third tone and means “early.” So…

Kirin: 早上.

Adam: … means “early before” which translates to “morning” in Chinese. So 早上 and 上午 both mean “morning.”

Another time of the day is:

Kirin: 中午.

Adam: That’s a first tone 中 followed by 午. Now we’ve seen 中 before in 中国. Do you remember what the “中” there means? It means “middle.” So if 上午 means “morning” and 下午 means “afternoon,” what’s in the middle? That’ll be “noon.”

Kirin: 中午.

Now “noon” in Chinese is a little different from the “noon” in English – it actually refers to the time between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. So it’s a couple of hours long in Chinese. Lastly we’ll introduce:

Kirin: 晚上.

Adam: …which is a third tone 晚 followed by 上. 晚 is the opposite of 早. So while 早 means “early,” 晚 means “late.” So “before late” here ends up translating to “night time.”

Kirin: 晚上.

Adam: When telling times in Chinese they use the times of day to specify “a.m.” or “p.m.” So Kirin, why don’t you give us some times and we’ll try and figure out what time of day it is.

Kirin: 下午三点四十五分.

Adam: So that’s “afternoon 3:45” or “3:45 p.m.”

Kirin: 下午三点四十五分.

Adam: Let’s try another one.

Kirin: 早上七点半.

Adam: So that’s “morning 7:30” or “7:30 a.m.”

Kirin: 早上七点半.

Adam: Now 半 of course means “half.” This is equivalent to saying “half past 7” rather than “7:30.” If you wanted to, though, you could say:

Kirin: 早上七点半.

Adam: …meaning “7:30.” Let’s do one more.

Kirin: 晚上九点五分.

Adam: So that is “evening 9:05” or “9:05 p.m.”

Kirin: 晚上九点五分.

Adam: So hopefully you see how this works. You can find more examples and lesson summaries in the vocabulary and notes section of this lesson on our website. For now, though, let’s listen to the dialogue line by line. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 现在几点?
现在六点半.
我们明天几点要出去?
明天下午两点可以吗?
好，没问题.

Adam: And let’s now hear the dialogue again at regular speed.

Yann: 现在几点?
Cindy: 现在六点半.
Yann: 我们明天几点要出去?
Cindy: 明天下午两点可以吗?
Yann: 好，没问题.

Adam: Great; so I hope you all learned something there. Please take a look at all the notes and review activities on our website to make sure you’re keeping up, then join us again next time for Lesson 20.

Kirin: 再见.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, everyone. My name is Adam.

Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: Today, we will finish off a dialogue that we started in our last lesson. So we’ll first listen to the entire dialogue from start to finish and then break it down for you line by line. Please follow along with the dialogue transcript, if you have that available. So let’s get started here.

Cindy: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
Yann: 对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?
Cindy: “结婚” 是 “married” 的意思.
Yann: 啊，我懂了. 我结婚了.
Cindy: 你有小孩吗?
Yann: 有，一个儿子还有两个女儿.

Adam: So there you go. Let’s listen to it again at slow down speed. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?
“结婚” 是 “married” 的意思.
啊，我懂了. 我结婚了.
你有小孩吗?
有，一个儿子还有两个女儿.

Adam: Ok, so let’s recap the first part of the dialogue that we did in our last lesson. Try and recall the meaning of each line before we give it to you.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下.

Adam: Please take a moment to introduce yourself.

Kirin: 你结婚了吗?

Adam: Are you married?

Kirin: 对不起. 我听不懂.

Adam: I’m sorry. I don’t understand.

Kirin: “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: What does “结婚” mean?

So that was last time’s lesson. Let’s continue with the next line from today’s lesson.

Kirin: “结婚” 是 “married” 的意思.

Adam: So hopefully you can figure that out. Literally it’s “结婚 is married’s meaning.” You’ll recall that 的 is the possessive particle so it’s like saying in reverse “Married’s meaning is “结婚.” You can also say the above as “结婚” 的意思是 “married”.

Adam: The man then replies:

Kirin: 啊，我懂了.

Adam: So that’s saying “Ah, I understand.” Do you remember what 了 means? In our last lesson we told you that it indicates a change in situation. So here, adding the 了 to 我懂 means that the situation has changed and now the speaker understands.

Kirin: 我懂了.

Adam: You may recall in a previous lesson we talked about the phrase “太贵了!” What does that mean? It means “too expensive!” The 了 there acts in a similar form – the speaker there just realized that the item is too expensive which is why we have the 了 there. You can learn these subtle differences by studying more examples. And that’s exactly what we give you in vocabulary page of this lesson, which you can find on our website. By studying more examples you should be able to get a better grasp of the meaning and usage of such characters. The next line was:

Kirin: 我结婚了.

Adam: So we know what this means “I am married.” Again, the 了 particle indicates that at some point he wasn’t married, but now he is.

Kirin: 我结婚了.

Adam: The next line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 你有小孩吗?

Adam: So we have a new word 小孩. That’s a third tone and a second tone. Do you remember what “小” means? It means “little.” 孩 refers to “children” so that gives us “little children.” Many times in Chinese you’ll see an extra character added to clarify meaning. Why? Because many characters in Chinese share the same sound but have different meanings. Previously we taught the character 还 from 还好 meaning “ok.” Here we have a different 孩 meaning “children.” Now if you’re following the Chinese character versions of our transcripts, then you won’t have a problem since the two characters are written differently, however in speech, many words are made up of two or more characters, just to clarify the meaning, so here adding the 小 in front. It further clarifies that we’re referring to children. So “Do you have any children?”

Kirin: 你有小孩吗?

Adam: Now, Northern Chinese accents tend to add an extra 儿 sound to the end of that giving us:

Kirin: 小孩儿.

Adam: So keep an eye out for that depending on who you’re talking to. The next line was.

Kirin: 有，一个儿子.

Adam: So “Yes, I have one 儿子.” 儿子 is a second tone and a neutral tone. 子 is a character that is added to the end of many nouns. So 儿子 means “son.” “I have one son.”

Kirin: 有，一个儿子.

Adam: Note, how the I, is omitted, since that’s derived from context. The last line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 还有两个女儿.

Adam: We’ve seen the first character 还 before. In fact, we just talked about it in 我还好. That means “I’m ok.” The literal translation is “I’m still good.” So here we have 还有. 有 of course is the verb “to have,” so 还有 means “still have” or in this case “additionally have.” If you hear someone ask “还有吗?” that was asking “Is there anymore?” So

Kirin: 还有两个女儿.

Adam: …means “As well I have two 女儿.” That’s a third tone 女 and a second tone 儿 meaning “daughter.” 女 refers to “female,” while the second tone 男 refers to “male.” In Northern China you may hear daughter referred to as 女儿 and the son referred to as 男孩儿.

Again, take a look at the vocabulary page on our website for a summary of these relationships and more examples of the structures we are teaching here.

Now let’s have Kirin read each line of the dialogue one more time to wrap up today’s lesson. Please repeat after her.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?
“结婚” 是 “married” 的意思.
啊，我懂了. 我结婚了.
你有小孩吗?
有，一个儿子还有两个女儿.

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
Yann: 对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?
Cindy: “结婚” 是 “married” 的意思.
Yann: 啊，我懂了. 我结婚了.
Cindy: 你有小孩吗?
Yann: 有，一个儿子还有两个女儿.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (our touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello and welcome. My name is Adam.

Kirin: 你们好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: Now if you’re a sharp listener, you may have noticed that Kirin just used a new character in her introduction. We all know what 你好 means. The literal translation is – “You good.” Here she said 你们好. The 们 is a neutral tone character that is added after 你 to make it plural. So it’s the difference between “you” singular and “you” plural.

Similarly we could say 我们 to mean “we,” rather than 我 meaning “I.” We could also say 他们 to mean “they” rather than 他 meaning “he” or “she.” So when saying “hello,” you can say 你好 using a singular 你 or you could also say 你们好 to address a group. And of course we also have 大家好 to mean “Hello everyone.” So thank you, Kirin.

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: Alright, so we’ll begin today’s lesson with a short conversation. We’ll then break it down for you line by line. Like we did recently, this one is also a two part dialogue. We’ll listen to the first part today and then finish off in our next lesson.  As well, if you can, try and repeat the lines and characters as you hear them. So let’s get started here.

Cindy: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
Yann: 对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: So pretty simple there, let’s listen to it again. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: So lots of new vocabulary there. We’ll now break it down for you starting with the first line.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下.

Adam: So we’ve seen the first two characters before 请你. What does “请” mean? It means… “please.” So that gives us “please you.” Now something to note here, they are both third tones. However, when we have two third tones together, the first one frequently changes to a second tone since that makes it simpler to pronounce. So for example 你好 is two third tones, but that slows us down to say the full third tones so usually you’ll hear 你好. So the 你 here becomes 你 – a second tone. So getting back to our example here, we have 请你, so the 请 becomes a second tone 请.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下.

Adam: 请你自我. The character 自 is a fourth tone and when combined with the 我 means “self.” So 你自我 means “you yourself.” We then have a new word – 介绍. That’s two fourth tones and together that means “introduce.” The last two characters are 一下. 一 we should know means “one” or “a,” while 下 is a fourth tone and in this context combines with the 一 to mean “a moment” or “a short time.”

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下.

Adam: So the literal translation of the whole sentence is “Please you self introduce a moment” or “Please give us a quick introduction.”

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下.

Adam: She then asks:

Kirin: 你结婚了吗?

Adam: So we have a new word here 结婚. That’s a second tone 结 and a first tone 婚. 结婚. And that means “to be married.” The neutral particle 了 indicates a change in situation. If you were married, your situation would already have changed from being single to being married. As you may have noticed, the Chinese language doesn’t use tenses as we do in English so to indicate past tense they make use of particles such as 了. So that gives us “Are you married?”

Kirin: 你结婚了吗?

Adam: By adding the 了, we know she is asking “Are you already married?” as opposed to “Are you getting married?” or “Are you going to get married?” , in which case your situation wouldn’t have changed and so you wouldn’t need to use the 了 particle.

Kirin: 你结婚了吗?

Adam: To which the man replies:

Kirin: 对不起. 我听不懂.

Adam: Ah yes, my favorite expression when I was learning Chinese. We know…

Kirin: 对不起.

Adam: …means “I’m sorry” or “excuse me.” We then have:

Kirin: 我听不懂.

Adam: We have a couple of new characters there. 听 is a first tone and is the verb “to listen.” That’s followed by 不懂. We know 不 is a negation character and 懂 is a third tone meaning “to understand.” So…

Kirin: 我听不懂.

Adam: …means “I don’t understand what I’m hearing.” It’s a common phrase that’s used when someone says something to you that you don’t understand. So…

Kirin: 对不起. 我听不懂.

Adam: …means “I’m sorry I don’t understand.” Quite a useful phrase to know when learning Chinese.

Kirin: 对不起. 我听不懂.

Adam: The last line of the dialogue was…

Kirin: “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: So we’ve actually seen all these words before. We know 结婚 means “married.” Although in this line the speaker actually doesn’t know that as you’ll soon see. What does “什么” mean? It’s a question word meaning… “what.” We saw the last word we saw in our last lesson. Do you remember what “意思” means? It means “meaning.” So putting that all together gives us “结婚 is what meaning?” The speaker doesn’t understand what 结婚 means so he is asking “What does 结婚 mean?”

Kirin: “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: This is a very useful expression to know. You may also often hear “什么意思?” meaning “What does that mean?”

We will continue this dialogue in our next lesson. For now let’s listen to the first part one more time before we wrap up. First, repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: And let’s hear the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 请你自我介绍一下. 你结婚了吗?
Yann: 对不起. 我听不懂. “结婚” 是什么意思?

Adam: Ok, so thank you all for listening us today. We try to keep these lessons moving along and don’t dwell too long on some of the points. That’s where our Premium notes come in to play – they pick up where our podcasts leave off – giving you more examples and more explanations of items that we don’t spend enough time on in the actual lesson. So please take a look at them to get the full experience of this course and try out some of the exercises and review activities we created for you. And then join us next time for lesson 18, where we’ll finish off this dialogue. So see you then!

Kirin: 再见.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from a mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang

Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 16. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: We’ll start off this lesson with a dialogue that we’ll listen to in its entirety. The dialogue will make use of vocabulary that we’ve taught in previous lessons while adding a few new words and phrases along the way.

Now there are two things we recommend you do while listening to our podcasts to get the maximum value for them. The first is to have a transcript in front of you to follow along.

The second thing we ask you to do is to repeat the sentences and words in Chinese as you hear them. We leave pauses on purpose just for you to do that.

SO with that in mind, we’re ready to get started so let’s listen to our dialogue. Miss Lin opens the door and sees Mr. Wang outside so here’s their conversation. You should already know many of the words in this dialogue, so see if you can figure out what’s happening before we break it down for you.

Cindy: 王先生你好. 请进.
Yann: 谢谢你.
Cindy: 请坐.
Yann: 好.
Cindy: 你要喝咖啡吗?
Yann: 不好意思. 我不喝咖啡.
Cindy: 那么, 中国茶怎么样?
Yann: 好，我喜欢中国茶.

Adam: So, did you understand that? Let’s listen to it again. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 王先生你好. 请进.
谢谢你.
请坐.
好.
你要喝咖啡吗?
不好意思. 我不喝咖啡.
那么, 中国茶怎么样?
好，我喜欢中国茶.

Adam: Ok, so time to break down this dialogue line by line, starting with the first line.

Kirin: 王先生你好.

Adam: Pretty easy I think. “Hello Mr. Wang.”

Kirin: 请进.

Adam: Alright, so let’s look at this. We’ve seen 请 before. It’s the 请 from 请问. Do you remember what that means? It means… “please.” This is followed by 进. That’s a fourth tone. 进 means “to enter” or “come in.” So together that gives us “please come in.”

Kirin: 请进.

Adam: We then have

Kirin: 谢谢你.

Adam: Easy enough – “thank you.” That’s followed by:

Kirin: 请坐.

Adam: So there’s another 请 meaning “please” followed by a 坐 which is a fourth tone and means “to sit,” so “please sit.”

Kirin: 请坐.

Adam: The man then replies:

Kirin: 好.

Adam: So hopefully you know what that is by now. “Ok”. The lady then asks him:

Kirin: 你要喝咖啡吗?

Adam: Ok, so this starts with 你要. Since we know this is a question by the 吗 at the end that becomes “Do you want to 喝咖啡?” 喝 is a first tone and is the verb “to drink.” So “Do you want to drink 咖啡?” Can you guess what “咖啡” is? That’s two first tones and is the transliteration of the word for… “coffee” so that should be easy to remember. So “Do you want to drink coffee?”

Kirin: 你要喝咖啡吗?

Adam: The man then replies:

Kirin: 不好意思. 我不喝咖啡.

Adam: The first phrase is a very common expression. 不好意思. What does “不好” mean? Hopefully you know that it means “not good.” That’s followed by 意思 which is a fourth and a neutral tone meaning “meaning.” Notice the difference between this 意 which is a fourth tone versus 一 which is a first tone meaning “one.” So here we have “not good meaning” which may sound strange but it’s actually a very popular expression along the lines of “I don’t feel good” or “I’m embarrassed to trouble you in this way.”

Kirin: 不好意思.

Adam: He then follows this with:

Kirin: 我不喝咖啡.

Adam: So hopefully you can figure this out since we should know all these words now. “I don’t drink coffee.”

Kirin: 我不喝咖啡.

Adam: She then says:

Kirin: 那么, 中国茶怎么样?

Adam: Ok, so some new words here. The first one is 那么. That’s a fourth tone and a neutral tone 那么 meaning “in that case.” You’ll hear it used often in conversations. 那么，中国茶. Do you remember what “中国” is? That’s the word for… “China.” We then have a character 茶 which is a second tone and is the opposite of coffee. It’s… “tea.” So 中国茶 is “Chinese tea.” The last part 怎么样 is also a popular expression. We learned 怎么 before. What does “怎么” mean? It’s the question word for… “how.” 样 is a fourth tone. And together, “怎么样?” means “how about?” So 中国茶怎么样? – means “How about Chinese tea?”

Kirin: 那么，中国茶怎么样?

Adam: “怎么样?” as I said is a very useful construct. You can use it to ask how anything is. 你怎么样? – “How are things with you?” 你的书怎么样? – “How’s your book?” And so on. The Premium notes for this lesson found on our website, will review other examples using the same construct.

The next line of the dialogue was…

Kirin: 好，我喜欢中国茶.

Adam: Do you remember what the verb “喜欢” means? It’s the verb “to like.” So that gives us “I like Chinese tea.”

Kirin: 好，我喜欢中国茶.

Adam: Ok, so let’s listen to Kirin read each line of the dialogue one more time again before wrapping up. Please repeat after her.

Kirin: 王先生你好. 请进.
谢谢你.
请坐.
好.
你要喝咖啡吗?
不好意思. 我不喝咖啡.
那么, 中国茶怎么样?
好，我喜欢中国茶.

Adam: And let’s listen to this dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 王先生你好. 请进.
Yann: 谢谢你.
Cindy: 请坐.
Yann: 好.
Cindy: 你要喝咖啡吗?
Yann: 不好意思. 我不喝咖啡.
Cindy: 那么, 中国茶怎么样?
Yann: 好，我喜欢中国茶.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, using your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello and welcome to Lesson 15. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: In today’s lesson, we are going to complete the dialogue that we started in our last lesson. We’ll listen to the first part again, then continue on with the rest of the dialogue representing today’s lesson.

Cindy: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
Yann: 我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?
Cindy: 可以. 你要跟我一起去吗?
Yann: 可以. 明天打电话给我.
Cindy: 好. 明天见.

Adam: Alright, let’s listen to it again. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?
可以. 你要跟我一起去吗?
可以. 明天打电话给我.
好. 明天见.

Adam: Ok, let’s now go through all the lines, starting with the lines from last time.

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: Long time no see.

Kirin: 你今天有空吗?

Adam: Do you have any free time today?

Kirin: 我要去吃饭.

Adam: I want to go out and eat.

Kirin: 我现在很忙.

Adam: I’m very busy right now.

Kirin: 明天可以吗?

Adam: Would tomorrow be ok?

So that was our dialogue from our last lesson. Let’s continue on with the rest of the dialogue. Now if someone asks you:

Kirin: 明天可以吗?

Adam: There are two possible answers. Yes or no. In this dialogue she replies:

Kirin: 可以.

Adam: Meaning, yes that’s possible. Remember you ask “可以吗?” to find out if something is possible. If you wanted to reply “It’s not ok,” you would say… 不可以.

Let’s now look at the next line.

Kirin: 你要跟我一起去吗?

Adam: So let’s analyze this. The first two characters are 你要 meaning “you want.” We know it’s a question though by the 吗 at the end of the sentence so that makes it “Do you want?” That’s followed by 跟我一起. So first we have the character 跟 which is a first tone meaning “with.” We then have 我 meaning “I” followed by 一起. That’s a first tone and a third tone. 一起 means… “together.” So putting it all together gives us 跟我一起 or “with me together.” The next character is the verb 去. Do you remember what “去” means? It’s the verb “to go.” So putting that together gives us “You want with me together go?” or “Do you want to go together with me?”

Kirin: 你要跟我一起去吗?

Adam: Now in English, we wouldn’t often say “Do you want to go together with me?” But in Chinese it’s much more common to have the 一起 together in there as well.

Kirin: 你要跟我一起去吗?

Adam: Let’s listen to the next line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 可以. 明天打电话给我.

Adam: So let’s look at what we know from this sentence. What does “明天” mean? We saw that earlier in this conversation meaning… “tomorrow.” What does the verb 给 mean? It’s the verb… “to give.” So knowing what we know so far and looking at that sentence gives us “Ok, tomorrow something something give me.” Let’s look at that “something something” part which is 打电话. The 打 is a third tone. Don’t confuse that with 大 which is a fourth tone meaning “big.” 打 means “to hit.” Now what are we trying to hit in this conversation? Well let’s look at the next word 电话 which is two fourth tones. 电 means “electric” or “to do with electricity” while 话 we’ve seen before in 普通话. The character there you may remember means “speech” so the two characters here 电话 gives us “electric speech.” Can you guess what “electric speech” is referring to? It’s actually the word in Chinese for… “telephone.” Now in English we “dial a telephone.” In Chinese you “hit a telephone.” And why not? So they use the verb “hit” to indicate dialing. So let’s listen to the sentence again.

Kirin: 可以. 明天打电话给我.

Adam: “It’s possible. Tomorrow dial telephone give me”…or “Give me a call tomorrow.”

Kirin: 明天打电话给我.

Adam: We purposely give you these literal translations and try to break down sentences into as much detail as we can since it helps you remember all this new vocabulary. In the Premium notes for this lesson you will see examples of other vocabulary that utilizes the same 电 construction that we see here. It will also give you a better feel for the language if you learn the roots of where these words and expressions come from. It’s easier to remember smaller components that can be reconstructed into something bigger than to just try and remember the end phrase without really knowing how it came about.

Now the last sentence of the dialogue was

Kirin: 好. 明天见.

Adam: So we should be able to figure that one out. We know 明天 is “tomorrow” and we know that 见 means “to meet.” So “tomorrow meet” is the same as…“See you tomorrow.”

Kirin: 明天见.

Adam: Great so let’s listen to each line of the dialogue one more time. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 好久不见.
你今天有空吗?
我要去吃饭.
我现在很忙.
明天可以吗?
可以.
你要跟我一起去吗?
可以. 明天打电话给我.
好. 明天见.

Adam: And let’s now listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
Yann: 我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?
Cindy: 可以. 你要跟我一起去吗?
Yann: 可以. 明天打电话给我.
Cindy: 好. 明天见.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello and welcome to lesson 14. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: This is an interactive course that takes you through all the basics of learning Chinese one lesson at a time. You can maximize your learning experience by going through all the review tools on our website.

We will begin today’s lesson by listening to a conversation. There are actually two parts to it, so we’ll listen to the first part today and then finish off in our next lesson. The dialogue uses vocabulary that has previously been taught in earlier lessons while introducing some new characters along the way. So let’s listen in, shall we?

Cindy: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
Yann: 我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?

Adam: Let’s now listen to the dialogue at slow down speed. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?

Adam: Ok, so let’s break this down and analyze it starting with the first sentence.

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: Now the first character 好 is very versatile indeed. We’ve already seen it used in the context of “good” and “ok.” Here it’s being used in the context of “so” or “very.”

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: 久 is a third tone and means “a long time.” It is usually preceded with a 很 or 好 meaning “very” so that gives us “very long time.” We then have 不见. We actually know both these characters. 不 means “not” and 见 is the same 见 from the 再见 which we tell you at the end of every show. Do you remember what “见” literally means? It means “to see someone” or “meet someone.” So 再见 means “see you again.” So what do you think “好久不见” means? This one is easy because the literal translation is the same as the proper translation – “Long time no see.”

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: From what I hear, the English phrase “Long time no see” may have been imported directly from Chinese – so there you go. It’s as popular a phrase in Chinese as it is in English, so you’ll hear that often when you haven’t seen someone for a while.

Kirin: 好久不见.

Adam: Let’s look at the next line that was said.

Kirin: 你今天有空吗?

Adam: Now we’ve seen most of these characters before, so this is good review. We have 你, which means “you” followed by 今天. Do you remember what “今天” means? It means… “today.” We then have the verb 有. What does the verb 有 mean? It’s the verb… “to have.” We then have a new character 空. 空 is a fourth tone and means “free time.” The last character is 吗 we know means that this is a question. So putting those characters together gives us “you today have free time?” In other words, “Do you have any free time today?”

Kirin: 你今天有空吗?

Adam: Note the word order there. It’s very important in Chinese. The time goes after the subject. You will see more examples of this in the notes page of this lesson on our website. So take a look at that. Let’s now look at the next line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 我要去吃饭.

Adam: Alright, let’s study this one. 我要 – we have seen the verb 要 before. Do you remember what it means? It’s the verb “to want.” So that gives us “I want.” We then have a new verb 去. That’s a fourth tone and is the verb “to go.” So that gives us “I want to go 吃饭.” That’s a first tone 吃 and a fourth tone 饭. 吃饭. 吃 is the verb “to eat.” Now many verbs in Chinese don’t make any sense unless they have an object in front of them. 吃 is one of these verbs. In English we can say “I want to go eat.” In Chinese you have to specify what it is you’re going to eat – even if you don’t know, so the common word that goes with 吃 is 饭. 饭 literally means “rice” but when put together with 吃, 吃饭 just means “to eat a “meal,” not necessarily “rice.” Although, usually that is the case.

Kirin: 我要去吃饭.

Adam: “I want to go out and eat.” Now let’s look at the reply.

Kirin: 我现在很忙.

Adam: Ok, so there’s a couple of new words there to look at. We first have 我 which of course means “I.” That’s followed by 现在. That’s two fourth tones and means “right now.” That’s followed by 很忙. We know that 很 means “very.” 忙 is a second tone and means “busy.” So that gives us “I now very busy” or “I am very busy right now.”

Kirin: 我现在很忙.

Adam: Notice that the time word follows the subject again. So we say “I now”, rather than “now I”. It’s very important to follow this order in Chinese. The next line of the dialogue is:

Kirin: 明天可以吗?

Adam: So hopefully you can figure this out. We’ve learned all these words before. We earlier saw 今天 which means “today.” What does “明天” mean? That means… “tomorrow.” That’s followed by 可以吗? That’s a question asking for permission. So in other words “Is tomorrow ok for you?”

Kirin: 明天可以吗?

Adam: And… that’s the end of the dialogue, well for this lesson anyway. So yes, we’ve left you with a cliffhanger. I’m sure you will all be on the edge of your seats waiting for our next lesson to find out if she accepts this invitation or not. For now though, I’ll get Kirin to read each line of the dialogue again. Please repeat the lines after her.

Kirin: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?

Adam: And let’s listen to the dialogue again at normal speed.

Cindy: 好久不见. 你今天有空吗? 我要去吃饭.
Yann: 我现在很忙. 明天可以吗?

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin. 让我们一起来学习第三十八课.

Raphael: 今天的题目是什么?

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?

Adam: Ah, “Can you lend me some money?”

Alright. Now all the Chinese we use outside of the lesson is vocabulary that we have taught before in previous lessons or are going to teach you today. For a list of these lessons and what was taught in each one, visit the course outline on our website.

Let’s begin today’s lesson with a dialogue using our speakers.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
Cindy: 我现在只剩下十块钱.
Yann: 我也没有带很多钱.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
我现在只剩下十块钱.
我也没有带很多钱.

Raphael: 让我们来翻译今天的对话.

Adam: Let’s start with the first line of today’s dialogue.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?

Adam: Now we’ve seen 你可以 before several times in the context of “Can you?” We then have a new verb here, which is a fourth tone 借. That can actually mean “to lend” or “to borrow.” Now that may seem strange that the same word can mean two opposites, but as I’ve said several times before, Chinese is a very efficient language. So whether you are borrowing something from someone, or someone is lending something to you, it’s the same thing so why have two different words, right?

Kirin: 你可以借给我?

Adam: You may notice the character 给 added after the 借. Do you remember what 给 means? It’s the verb “to give.” By combining it with the 借 we get “lend give” which specifies the direction of the borrowing. So we have “Can you lend me?” Now what is it that he wants to borrow?

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?

Adam: So we have 一些钱. We know 一 means “a.” That’s followed by 些 which is a first tone. Together, 一些 means “a few” or “some.” “Some what?” you ask? Some 钱.

Raphael: “钱” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “money” 的意思.

Adam: So the man wants to borrow some money.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?

Adam: “Can you lend me some money?” The woman then replies:

Kirin: 我现在只剩下十块钱.

Adam: So that gives us “I right now only.” We then have the next part which is two fourth tones 剩下. Together, this means “to be left over.” 剩下. The last part is 十块钱.

Raphael: 那是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “ten dollars” 的意思.

Adam: So “I right now only have left over ten dollars.”

Kirin: 我现在只剩下十块钱.

Adam: In other words, “I only have ten dollars left at the moment.” The man then replies:

Kirin: 我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: So here we have 我也没有. “I also don’t have.” In other words “I don’t have either.”

Kirin: 我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: There’s a new verb there 带 which is a fourth tone and in this context means “to bring.” That gives us “I also didn’t bring 很多钱.” Now we saw 很多 recently.

Raphael: “很多” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “a lot” or “many” 的意思.

Adam: So that gives us “I also don’t have bring a lot of money.”

Kirin: 我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: In other words, “I didn’t bring much money either.”

Kirin: 我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: Great, now this is part one of a two-part dialogue that we’ll finish up in our next lesson.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
我现在只剩下十块钱.
我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: Alright, and let’s listen to this dialogue again at normal speed.

Yann: 你可以借给我一些钱吗?
Cindy: 我现在只剩下十块钱.
Yann: 我也没有带很多钱.

Adam: Great. Now before we leave you today let’s quickly review the new vocabulary learned in this lesson.

Raphael: “Borrow” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 借.

Raphael: “Some” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 一些.

Raphael: “Only” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 只.

Raphael: “To have left over” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 剩下.

Raphael: “To bring” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 带.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang

Adam: Hello, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: In today’s lesson we’ll discuss more about introductions. When you’re out meeting Chinese people, they might ask if you can speak Chinese, or you might want to ask if they can speak English, or they just might want to know where you’re from. So we’ll go over all of this in today’s lesson. Let’s begin with the word for the Chinese language. We learned the word 中文 before, which is a generic word used for the language. In Mainland China, however, they use a different word.

Kirin: 普通话.

Adam: Now there are three characters there with three different tones. Do you know what they are?

Kirin: 普通话.

Adam: The first was a third tone 普. The second is a first tone 通 and the last is a fourth tone 话. 普通话 now this refers to the official language of mainland China – Mandarin Chinese. The literal translation is “common speech.” 普通 means “common or ordinary” while 话 refers to “speech.” So when you travel to Mainland China you may hear references to that.

If someone asks you…

Kirin: “你会说普通话吗?”

Adam: Would you know what that means? Hopefully you do, since we’ve taught it before – “Can you speak Chinese?” Now what if you want to ask someone if they can speak English, how would you do that?

Kirin: 你会说英文吗?

Adam: Great. And how would you reply: “I can speak a little.”

Kirin: 我会说一点.

Adam: Great! Next we’ll learn the question “Where are you from?”

Kirin: 你从哪里来?

Adam: Ok, so you should know the first character for “you” followed by a few new characters after that. Let’s look at them separately.

Kirin: 你从哪里来?

Adam: The second character there is a second tone 从. 从 means “from.” So that gives us “you from.” The next word is made up for two characters 哪里, which are two third tones. 哪里. We’ve actually seen both of these before. Do you remember what “哪” means? Kirin, where did we see that before?

Kirin: 是哪五个人?

Adam: Ah yes, so what did 哪 mean there? It meant “which” – as in “which 5 people are in your family?” We then have 里, which we’ve also seen in 那里 and 这里 meaning “there” and “here.” So 里 on its own means “inside.” So what do you think “which inside” means? It actually means “where.” You have to keep a very open mind when we give you these literal definitions since the characters in Chinese have very broad meanings and thus are very context sensitive. So as you can see we have learned another question word here. We earlier learned 什么 which means “what.” Then we learned 几? which means “how many.” We then learned 哪, meaning “which” and now we are learning 哪里 which means “where.” So getting back to our original question:

Kirin: 你从哪里来?

Adam: We so far have “you from where.” Which leads us to our last character, a second tone 来 which is the verb “to come.” So that gives us “you from where come?” I think that’s easy to figure out as “Where do you come from?”

Kirin: 你从哪里来?

Adam: We can now make use of the countries we learned in lesson three to answer that question.

Kirin: 我从美国来.

Adam: I come from America.

Kirin: 我从澳洲来.

Adam: I come from Australia. And so on.

Now every lesson we’re teaching a few new characters, but I want to make sure that you don’t forget what you’ve learned so far. So there are review questions in the Premium notes link for this lesson on our website, that should hopefully help you out well with this. These are important because in these podcast lessons we’re teaching everything to you through audio of course, which works well for some people. But other people like to see things visually – so visit the website and associated pages with for each lesson and see the character representations of everything we’re talking about here.

Now let’s take this time to review some of the material from previous lessons. Try to answer these questions yourself before listening to Kirin’s answer. We’ll start with meeting people. How do we ask someone what their last name or what their family name is?

Kirin: 您贵姓?

Adam: Ok, and how do you ask someone what their first name or their given name is?

Kirin: 你叫什么名字?

Adam: How about “How old are you?”

Kirin: 你几岁?

Adam: Hm, let’s try. I like America very much.

Kirin: 我很喜欢美国.

Adam: How about “I can speak a little Chinese?”

Kirin: 我会说一点中文.

Adam: Alright. Next one is “My Chinese isn’t very good.”

Kirin: 我的中文说得不好.

Adam: Ok. And how about “Nice to meet you”?

Kirin: 很高兴认识你.

Adam: Great. So hope you’re doing well there. Now let’s now listen to a short conversation between two Chinese speakers.

Yann: 你好.
Cindy: 你好.
Yann: 你好吗?
Cindy: 我很好. 你呢?
Yann: 我也很好.

Adam: You’ll notice in the end that he used the character 也 which we learned recently. What does “也” mean? It means “also.” So he just told her that “He is also good.” Useful to know.

Let’s switch to some other review questions. How do you ask: “How much is this?”

Kirin: 这个多少钱?

Adam: Alright, and how about “I am 39 years old”?

Kirin: 我三十九岁.

Adam: Ok, hope you’re keeping up. We’ll be building upon this in future lessons, so make sure you’re using all the review tools on our website, then join us again for lesson 14.

Kirin: 再见.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 你好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: We will start today’s lesson with a dialogue. Each dialogue reviews and builds upon vocabulary learned from previous lessons. Today’s dialogue is about introductions again. So please listen and try and follow along.

Cindy: 王先生你好.
Yann: 陈太太你好.
Cindy: 这是我的朋友. 她的名字叫 Tina 杨.
Yann: 杨小姐你好.
Tina: 很高兴认识你.
Yann: 你怎么认识陈太太?
Cindy: 她是我的老板.

Adam: Alright, let’s listen to it one more time at slower speed.

Kirin: 王先生你好.
Raphael: 陈太太你好.
Kirin: 这是我的朋友. 她的名字叫 Tina 杨.
Raphael: 杨小姐你好.
Tina: 很高兴认识你.
Raphael: 你怎么认识陈太太?
Kirin: 她是我的老板.

Adam: Alright, so let’s get right into it. The first few lines contain vocabulary we’ve seen before in similar forms. The first line was:

Kirin: 王先生你好.

Adam: Hopefully you understood that – “Hello Mr. Wang.” In Chinese, the titles of people come after their surname. So “Mr. Wang” becomes “Wang Mr.” or 王先生.

Kirin: 王先生你好.

Adam: And the next line was:

Kirin: 陈太太你好.

Adam: So similar format to what we just saw except we’re dealing with a woman here and the words were a little bit rearranged. So it becomes “Mrs. Chen Hello.”

Kirin: 陈太太你好.

Adam: Notice that we can say “Hello Mrs. Chen” or “Mrs. Chen hello.”

Kirin: 你好陈太太.

Adam: Great, we then had:

Kirin: 这是我的朋友.

Adam: Ok, so some new words there. 这 we should remember from 这个 and 这里. Those meant “this one” and “here” respectively. 这是 means “this is.” We then have 我的 meaning “my” followed by 朋友. That’s a new word – a second tone 朋 and a third tone 友 meaning “friend.”

Kirin: 这是我的朋友.

Adam: “This is my friend.” We then had:

Kirin: 她的名字叫 Tina 杨.

Adam: So hopefully you remember this from before – literally “Her name called Tina Yang” or… “Her name is Tina Yang.”

Kirin: 她的名字叫 Tina 杨.

Adam: Notice in this portion we are using the western method of first name – last name here rather than the Chinese version of last name – first name because she is using her western name of “Tina.”

Kirin: 她的名字叫 Tina 杨.

Adam: We then had:

Kirin: 杨小姐你好.

Adam: Do you remember what “小姐” means? It means “Miss.” So this becomes “Hello Miss Yang.”

Kirin: 杨小姐你好.

Adam: The next line then was:

Kirin: 很高兴认识你.

Adam: Great, so some new words here too. First we have 很 which we know means “very.” Then we have 高兴 – that’s a first tone 高 and a fourth tone 兴 which together means “happy.” 高 on its own interestingly enough means “high” or “tall” so 高兴 together means a “high state of being” or “happy.” We then have 认识 – which is two fourth tones. The literal meaning is “to recognize” or or in this case ” to know” or “meet.” The last word is 你 which of course means “you.” Putting these together gives us “very happy know you.” In other words, “Nice to meet you.”

Kirin: 很高兴认识你.

Adam: That’s a phrase worth knowing as you’ll hear it often when you meet new people in Chinese.

Kirin: 很高兴认识你.

Adam: The next line of the dialogue was…

Kirin: 你怎么认识陈太太?

Adam: So let’s look at this one closely. 你 – that’s “you” followed by 怎么. That’s a third tone and a neutral tone. It’s another question word and means “how.” We know that 认识 after that means “to know someone” and then we have 陈太太 or “Mrs. Chen.” So together, that gives us “you how know Mrs. Chen?” or… “How do you know Mrs. Chen?”

Kirin: 你怎么认识陈太太?

Adam: And the last line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 她是我的老板.

Adam: 她是我的 – I hope you understood that. It means – “she is my.” Now we know that 她 means “she” here and not “he” because of context. 老板 – that’s two third tones meaning… “boss.” So together that gives us “She is my boss.”

Kirin: 她是我的老板.

Adam: So I hope that all made sense to you. Let’s listen again to this dialogue at a normal speed. Please repeat along the lines after you hear them.

Cindy: 王先生你好.
Yann: 陈太太你好.
Cindy: 这是我的朋友. 她的名字叫 Tina 杨.
Yann: 杨小姐你好.
Tina: 很高兴认识你.
Yann: 你怎么认识陈太太?
Cindy: 她是我的老板.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch on mobile devices) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: You can find all our previous lessons starting from lesson One on our website. As well, you can take a look at the many notes and resources for each lesson that we have made available to premium subscribers to look at on your review day. As you listen to this lesson, try and repeat along with the lines as you hear them. We leave a pause after each line of the dialogue just for this purpose, which should help in your pronunciation.

Today we’re going to talk about family. We’ll first present a dialogue in its entirety to start the lesson. So listen along. We’ll then break down the meaning for you line by line. It’s a pretty short dialogue today but it does include lots of new words that we’ll analyze and discuss in a moment. So let’s get started.

Cindy: 你家里有几个人?
Yann: 我家里有五个人.
Cindy: 是哪五个人?
Yann: 我家里有我爸爸，妈妈，哥哥，妹妹，和我.

Adam: And that’s it! I told you it was short. Let’s listen to it again.

Kirin: 你家里有几个人?
Raphael: 我家里有五个人.
Kirin: 是哪五个人?
Raphael: 我家里有我爸爸，妈妈，哥哥，妹妹，和我.

Adam: Ok, so let’s break this down for you line by line. Starting with the first line:

Kirin: 你家里有几个人?

Adam: Now, we’ve actually seen all these words before so let’s see if we can figure out the meaning. We’ve got 你 which means “you,” then we have 家. Now Kirin says that at the top of every lesson when she says 大家好. Now we know that means “Hello everyone” but do you remember the literal translation of 大家? It means “big house” or “big family” so 家 is “house” or in this case “family.” That’s followed by 里, which we saw in our last lesson in 那里 and 这里. The literal translation of 里 is “inside.” So 那里 actually means “that inside” or “there” while 这里 means “this inside” or “here.” So 你家里 means “inside your house.” We then have 有 which we learned in our last lesson. What does 有 mean? It means “to have.” We then have 几个. We’ve seen “几?” before from “你几岁?”. That meant “How old are you?” so “几?” means “How many?” The 个 is a measure word that we also learned in our last lesson so together with the 几? means “How many of something?” The last word is 人. Do you remember what “人” means? It means “person” or “people.” So putting all of this together gives us “You house has how many people?” or “How many people are in your home or family?”

Kirin: 你家里有几个人?

Adam: So let’s look at how he answers that question.

Kirin: 我家里有五个人.

Adam: So hopefully you understand this. “My house has five people.”

Kirin: 我家里有五个人.

Adam: Let’s continue with the next line.

Kirin: 是哪五个人?

Adam: So the first word there is 是. What does “是” mean? It’s the verb “to be.” That’s followed by a new character – 哪 which is a third tone. 哪 is a new question word meaning “which.” Don’t confuse that with 那, which is a fourth tone meaning “that.” So you can see why the tones are so important, as you can have words that sound similar but have very different meanings. We then have 五个人. What does “五个人” mean? It means… “5 people.” So putting that all together gives us “Is which five people” or “Which five people are they?”

Kirin: 是哪五个人?

Adam: Alright, and the last line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 我家里有我爸爸，妈妈，哥哥，妹妹，和我.

Adam: Alright, so some new words here. You’ll notice that in many instances we’re able to get away with saying 我 rather than 我的 – again obvious from context that we mean “my” and not “I.” So the first new word there is – 爸爸. Can you guess what that means? It means “father.” It uses a fourth tone and neutral tone. Now many times in Chinese when we have two words repeating like we do here, the second word ends up adopting a neutral tone. This can vary from region to region – we saw that before with 谢谢. Now you’ll see that again with our next few words. So again father – 爸爸. We then have 妈妈. That uses a first tone and neutral tone and means… “mother.” 妈妈. The next word is 哥哥. 哥哥, that’s a first tone and neutral tone and means “older brother.” So here’s where it gets tricky. In Chinese you have two different words for “sister” and two different words for “brother” depending on whether they are older or younger than you. So here 哥哥 refers to your “older brother.” That’s followed by 妹妹, which is a fourth tone and means “younger sister.” 妹妹. The last two words are 和我. 和 is a second tone and means “and.” In this context it is used just like you would in English when you rattle off a long list and use an “and” before the last word. Now of course the last word 我 means I. So putting these all together gives us “In my house, there are my father, mother, older brother, younger sister and I.”

Kirin: 我家里有我爸爸，妈妈，哥哥，妹妹，和我.

Adam: Now let’s take this time to look at two other relationships in the immediate family. We’ll start with 弟弟. That uses a fourth tone and refers to your younger brother. 弟弟. We also have 姐姐 which is a third tone meaning “older sister.” We saw 姐 before in 小姐. Do you remember what “小姐” means? It means “Miss” and we told you at the time that the literal translation is “small sister.” So here you can see where that comes from. 姐姐.

In the Premium lesson notes found on our website, we give you a bit of a background on Chinese family and why they have these special names to identify relationships. Let’s listen to these family members again one more time.

Kirin: 爸爸.

Adam: Father.

Kirin: 妈妈.

Adam: Mother.

Kirin: 哥哥.

Adam: Older brother.

Kirin: 弟弟.

Adam: Younger brother.

Kirin: 姐姐.

Adam: Older sister.

Kirin: 妹妹.

Adam: Younger sister.

Great, so why don’t we read the lines of the dialogue again. Please try and repeat along with the speaker.

Cindy: 你家里有几个人?
Yann: 我家里有五个人.
Cindy:是哪五个人?
Yann: 我家里有我爸爸，妈妈，哥哥，妹妹，和我.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello I’m Adam, and you’re listening to Lesson 37 titled “I like this color very much!”

Kirin: 欢迎大家来学习第三十七课. 今天的题目是 “我很喜欢这个颜色”.

Adam: With me today is…

Kirin: 大家好，我是 Kirin.

Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .

Adam: This is a progressive course teaching Mandarin Chinese. Each lesson builds upon the previous ones. For a list of our lessons and what was taught in each one, please visit the course outline pages on our website.

Today’s dialogue continues where our last one left off. So we’ll begin by listening to the first part of the dialogue from our last lesson, followed by the rest of it representing today’s lesson.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
Cindy: 对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.
Yann: 我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.
Cindy: 我也很喜欢. 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.
我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.
我也很喜欢. 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: If you’re having trouble with the extra Chinese we’re using in this lesson, please take a look at the complete word for word transcripts available to premium subscribers. That translate everything for you there. As well, most of it was introduced in lesson 30 and beyond, so you’re welcome to listen to those lessons again for a quick review.

Now let’s listen to each line of the dialogue starting with the first line:

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?

Adam: Are the clothes you are wearing today new?

Kirin: 对啊.

Adam: That’s right.

Kirin: 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: My jacket is new, but my pants are old.

Kirin: 我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.

Adam: So here’s the first new line of the dialogue today. It starts with 我很喜欢.

Raphael: “喜欢” 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to like.” So 我很喜欢 literally translates to “I very like” which of course means “I like very much.” So what is it that he likes?

Kirin: 这个新外套的颜色.

Raphael: “这个” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “this one” 的意思.

Adam: Now you may remember that most nouns in Chinese require a measure word when identifying them. 个 is the most common measure word. In this case the noun being identified is 新外套的颜色. Let’s break that down for you. We saw the character 新 earlier in this dialogue meaning “new.” We then have 外套 again meaning “coat.” So together that gives us “this new coat.” We then have a new word 颜色. That’s a second tone and a fourth tone and together is the word for “color”. 颜色.

Kirin: 我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.

Adam: “I really like the color of this new coat.”

Kirin: 我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.

Adam: To which the woman replies:

Kirin: 我也很喜欢.

Raphael: “也” 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “also.”

Kirin: 我也很喜欢.

Adam: So, “I also like.” Notice that since the context is understood we don’t have to specify “this color” again.

Kirin: 我也很喜欢.

Adam: The woman then adds:

Kirin: 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: So lots of new words here. The first one is the verb 觉得. That’s a second tone and a neutral tone and is the verb “to think.” 觉得. Now hold it, I know what you’re thinking. We already taught the word “to think” back in Lesson 22? Now what was the verb “to think” that we taught you back then? It was the verb 想. 想 is more along the lines of “to think or to believe” whereas 觉得 is “to think or to feel.”

Kirin: 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: Let’s look at the next few words to see what the sentence means: 蓝色. Now earlier, we saw 颜色 which means color. Colors are easy to identify as they end with the character 色 which means “look” or “appearance.”

Kirin: 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: The first color here is a second tone and a fourth tone 蓝色which happens to be the color “blue.” 蓝色跟白色. So “blue with another color” 白色 which is also a second tone and a fourth tone and is the color “white.” 白色. The last few words make up an important phrase: 很好看. We know that 很好 means “very good.”

Raphael: “看” 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to look.” So 很好看 means “very good look” or “looks good.”

Kirin: 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: I think blue and white looks very good.

Kirin: 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.
我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.
我也很喜欢. 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: And let’s listen one more time to our native speakers at normal speed.

Yann: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
Cindy: 对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.
Yann: 我很喜欢这个新外套的颜色.
Cindy: 我也很喜欢. 我觉得蓝色跟白色很好看.

Adam: Great, now before we leave you today, let’s look at a few other colors.

Kirin: 绿色.

Adam: That’s two fourth tones and means “green.”

Kirin: 绿色.

Adam: Let’s try another one.

Kirin: 黑色.

Adam: That’s a first tone and a fourth tone and means “black.”

Kirin: 黑色.

Adam: Ok, let’s do a couple more.

Kirin: 红色.

Adam: That’s a second tone then a fourth tone means “red.”

Kirin: 红色.

Adam: And one last one.

Kirin: 黄色.

Adam: That’s a second and a fourth tone meaning “yellow.”

Kirin: 黄色.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello I’m Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎大家来学习第三十六课.

Adam: With me today are our co-hosts…

Kirin: 大家好，我是 Kirin.

Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .

Adam: Alright. Now everything we’ve said so far has all been vocabulary we’ve taught since Lesson 1. You can find plenty of resources of our site including word for word transcripts with the translation of all our lessons. Plus you can also check our course outline pages that show you exactly what words we were teaching in each lesson.

If there’s a word you don’t understand, then I recommend you use the review tools available to premium subscribers. So make sure you are keeping up, as this is a Progressive course, meaning material is constantly being reused in later lessons to make sure you understand and remember it.

Now, today’s lesson is called “Are you wearing new clothes today?” So I’ll get Kirin to help me here. How would you say that entire line in Chinese?

Kirin: 今天的题目是… “你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?”

Adam: Let’s look at the word she used there. 题目. That’s a second tone and a fourth tone. We’ve seen 题 before from 问题.

Raphael: “问题” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “problem” or “question” 的意思.

Adam: 题目 here means “topic” or “title.” So again, the title is “Are you wearing new clothes today?”

Kirin: 题目是… “你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?”

Adam: Alright. Now we’re going to listen to a short conversation today that will use vocabulary we’ve taught before while teaching some new words.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
Cindy: 对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Raphael: 现在我们开始翻译今天的对话.

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?

Adam: So we should know the first few words there, you today 穿. That’s a new verb which is a first tone and is the verb “to wear.”

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?

Adam: We then have the word 衣服 which is a first tone and second tone and together means “clothes.” We then have 新的. 新 is a first tone and means “new.” The 的 particle is commonly used for adjectives like this. 新的.

So by saying…

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?

Adam: He’s saying “The clothes you are wearing today are new.” However, there’s a 吗 at the end meaning this is a question.

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?

Adam: So that makes it “Are you wearing new clothes today?”

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?

Adam: The lady then replies:

Kirin: 对啊.

Adam: Now we’ve seen the first character before: 对.

Raphael: “对” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “correct” 的意思.

Adam: The 啊 at the end is an exclamation particle. So it’s the difference between saying “right” and “That’s right!”

Kirin: 对啊.

Adam: The woman then says:

Kirin: 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: So you may be able to figure out the construction of that sentence there. The first part is: 我的外套. My 外套. Now, we’ve seen 外 before from 外国人 and 老外.

Raphael: “外” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “outside” 的意思.

Adam: 外套. The 套 refers to an item that wraps or covers something else. So can you guess what item of clothing you wear outside that wraps or covers you, is? It’s, of course, “a coat.”

Kirin: 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: We saw the word 可是 in our last lesson. That has a same meaning is 但是 meaning “but” or “however.”

Kirin: 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: The next part of the sentence introduces another item of clothing. 裤子 which refers to “trousers” or “pants.” The 子 you may remember is a common ending in nouns. 裤子. So 我的裤子是旧的. My pants are 旧的. That’s a fourth tone and is the opposite of 新的. So it means “old.” So that gives us “My coat is new, but my pants are old.”

Kirin: 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: So that’s it for today’s dialogue. It is part 1 of 2 though, so you’ll hear the conclusion in our next lesson. For now though:

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to our native speakers again one more time before we wrap up:

Yann: 你今天穿的衣服是新的吗?
Cindy: 对啊. 我的外套是新的，可是我的裤子是旧的.

Adam: Alright, now before we finish let’s recap the new vocabulary from today’s lesson. See if you remember them.

What is the verb “to wear”? 穿.

How do you say “clothes”? 衣服.

How do you say “coat”? 外套.

How do you say “pants”? 裤子.

What is the adjective “new”? 新的.

And what is the adjective “old”? 旧的.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: I’m your host Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: We will begin today’s lesson by listening to a dialogue that reviews vocabulary that we’ve learned up till now. There will be some new words there too that we’ll break down and explain to you in a moment. If you need to, you can follow along with the entire transcript available to premium subscribers on our website. Let’s begin by listening to today’s dialogue.

Cindy: 你要买什么?
Yann: 你有没有英文书?
Cindy: 有. 那里有. 这里也有.
Yann: 这个多少钱?
Cindy: 这个五百五十九元.
Yann: 太贵了! 可以便宜一点吗?
Cindy: 五百元好不好?
Yann: 好. 我要买两个.
给你一千块.
Cindy: 好，谢谢你. 再见.

Adam: Great. Lets now go through each statement and break it down for you starting with the first one. Try to repeat the lines as you hear them to practice your pronunciation.

Kirin: 你要买什么?

Adam: So let’s see if you can figure out what that means. There’s one new word in there – 买 to which is a third tone. And that’s the verb “to buy” something. So what do you think…

Kirin: 你要买什么?

Adam: …means? Do you remember what “要” means? We saw that in our last lesson. It’s the verb… “to want.” What does “什么?” mean? That’s a question word and means – “what.” So putting them together gives us “you want buy what,” or “What do you want to buy?”

Kirin: 你要买什么?

Adam: So let’s listen to the next line of the dialogue.

Kirin: 你有没有英文书?

Adam: So this sentence needs to be broken down. First, there is a new verb here that needs to be introduced. 有 is a third tone and is the verb “to have” and is of course used quite often. Now here we have 有没有. 没 is a second tone and is the same usage as 不 meaning the negation of what follows. Some verbs like 有 require 没 rather than 不. So by asking 有没有 you are literally asking “have not have.”

Kirin: 你有没有?

Adam: We’ve seen before that one way to ask a question is to add a 吗 at the end of the statement to turn it into a question. Another way, as seen here is by giving two alternatives – one of which needs to be chosen by the listener. So here the person is asking “have” or “not have?” This is a quite common way of asking questions and you’ll see more examples of this later as well as in the Premium notes for this lesson. It is also equivalent to asking “有吗?” or “Do you have?”

Kirin: 你有没有英文书?

Adam: So This is followed by 英文书. Now hopefully we remember what 英文 means. It means…. “English.” The last word is a first tone 书 meaning “book.” One nice thing you’ll notice is that you don’t have to specifically distinguish between singular and plural in Chinese as you do in English – it’s all derived by context. So by asking “You have not have English book,” you are asking “Do you have any English books?”

Kirin: 你有没有英文书?

Adam: Now let’s see if you remember how questions of this form are answered. The person is being given two choices 有 and 没有 – as in she either has some or doesn’t have any. So if she had some she’d say:

Kirin: 有.

Adam: And if she didn’t have any, she’d say:

Kirin: 没有.

Adam: So let’s look at her answer in this dialogue.

Kirin: 有. 那里有. 这里也有.

Adam: So we know the answer is “yes”, she does have some English books. She then says:

Kirin: 那里有.

Adam: We’ve seen the 那 before with 那个 meaning “that one.” The second part 里 is a third tone. Together, 那里 means “there.” That’s followed by 有 which means “has.” So she is saying “there has” meaning “There are some over there.”

Kirin: 那里有.

Adam: When you translate many sentences and phrases literally from Chinese they end up with very simple meanings in English but overtime you’ll find that Chinese is a very efficient language with many words omitted if they are obvious in context. So the result is many sentences are much shorter in Chinese than their English counterparts. She then says 这里 which is the opposite of 那里. It means “here.” Now in some parts of China, especially in northern parts like Beijing you may hear them say 那儿 and 这儿 instead of 那里 and 这里. They mean the same thing and are just differences in dialect. So in Beijing you may hear them say:

Kirin: 那儿有. 这儿也有.

Adam: Now you’ll notice that in 这里也有, there’s an extra character in there 也 which is a third tone. 也 means “also.” So that gives us “There are also some over here.”

Kirin: 这里也有.

Adam: The next line of the dialogue is.

Kirin: 这个多少钱?

Adam: So hopefully you understand that. “How much is this one?”

Kirin: 这个多少钱?

Adam: We then have:

Kirin: 这个五百五十九元.

Adam: “This one is 559 dollars.”

Kirin: 这个五百五十九元.

Adam: Notice here that she is using 元 rather than 块. You will find that these two words are used interchangeably.

Kirin: 这个五百五十九元.

Adam: The next line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 太贵了! 可以便宜一点吗?

Adam: That’s too expensive. Can you make it a little cheaper?

Kirin: 太贵了! 可以便宜一点吗?

Adam: Hopefully you recognize all that from our last lesson. We then have:

Kirin: 五百元好不好?

Adam: So here we have vocabulary that we’ve seen before, but here it’s being used in our new question format.

Kirin: 五百元好不好?

Adam: 500 dollars then 好不好 which literally translates to “ok not ok” or “Is that ok?” So in other words “Is 500 dollars ok for you?”

Kirin: 五百元好不好?

Adam: Alright. And then the next line of the dialogue was:

Kirin: 好. 我要买两个.

Adam: So there’s our new verb in there 买, meaning “to buy.” So this means “Ok, I want to buy two of them.”

Kirin: 好. 我要买两个.

Adam: We then have:

Kirin: 给你一千块.

Adam: I hope you remember this from our last lesson. It means “I’m giving you 1000 dollars.” We can also say:

Kirin: 给你一千元.

Adam: Alright so let’s listen to the dialogue one more time before we wrap up. Please try and repeat along.

Cindy: 你要买什么?
Yann: 你有没有英文书?
Cindy: 有. 那里有. 这里也有.
Yann: 这个多少钱?
Cindy: 这个五百五十九元.
Yann: 太贵了! 可以便宜一点吗?
Cindy: 五百元好不好?
Yann: 好. 我要买两个.
给你一千块.
Cindy: 好，谢谢你. 再见.

Adam: Great, so that brings us to the end of lesson 10. Again, take a look at the extra notes available to premium subscribers on our website which will break down all the dialogue in this lesson into meaningful bits. As well you can take a look at the Chinese characters there that make up this lesson.

In these past ten lessons we’ve taught you a lot of things. We’ve taught you how to identify the different tones in Chinese, how to introduce yourself and to greet someone. You’ve also learned how to count up to ten thousand. You should also know the months of the year and how to read dates and announce birthdays. And after today’s lesson, you now have the tools to walk into a store and do some shopping and maybe even get a discount along the way. So good luck with that! We’ll continue on with our program in our next lesson so please join us for that.

Kirin: 再见.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: I’m Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: Today we’re looking at money. It’s always nice when you get to speak some Chinese when shopping, especially if you want to be able to bargain with someone. This could be used when traveling in China itself or hey even in your local Chinatown.

We’ll begin today’s lesson with asking how much something is. Now normally if you’re out shopping and looking at something you have to first point out what it is you’re interested in, so let’s first learn how to say “this one.” How do we say that, Kirin?

Kirin: 这个.

Adam: So that’s a fourth tone and a neutral tone.

Kirin: 这个.

Adam: So that means “this one.” Now what if we wanted to say “that one”?

Kirin: 那个.

Adam: So again a fourth tone and a neutral tone.

Kirin: 那个.

Adam: So before you ask how much something is you first identify it using 这个 or 那个. How do you then ask “How much is it?”

Kirin: 多少钱?

Adam: So that’s a first tone 多, a third tone 少 and a second tone 钱.

Kirin: 多少钱?

Adam: Great, so let’s break down the meanings there. 多 means “many” while 少 means “a few.” In Chinese you’ll see many times that when two opposites are put together, it forms a question. We’ll explore this more later. The last character 钱 means “money.” So by asking “many few money,” you are basically asking “how much money” or “how much” something is.

Kirin: 多少钱?

Adam: So if I ask how much something is and it’s fifty dollars, how would they say that?

Kirin: 这个五十块钱.

Adam: So that’s saying “This one is fifty dollars money.”

Kirin: 这个五十块钱.

Adam: The only new word there is 块 which is a fourth tone and is a generic unit of currency. That’s followed by 钱 which is just specifying that it’s money we are talking about. Since that may be obvious you may just hear:

Kirin: 这个五十块.

Adam: Now in some places instead of 块 you may hear another word.

Kirin: 元.

Adam: That’s a second tone and specifically refers to dollars.

Kirin: 元.

Adam: Now you may recall a couple of lessons ago we introduced a question word – 几?. Do you remember what “几?” means? It means… “how many?” So sometimes, usually for smaller amounts, instead of saying…

Kirin: 多少钱?

Adam: …we can say:

Kirin: 几块钱?

Adam: So literally that’s “How many dollars of money?”

Kirin: 几块钱?

Adam: Now this seems to be a good time to introduce another concept in Chinese – and that’s measure words. Now there are actually two of them in this sentence:

Kirin: 这个几块钱?

Adam: Now, 钱 is money and it is measured in 块 – which just means “a unit of money” – doesn’t matter what currency. Different objects use different measure words.

So in this case, money is measured in 块. Generic objects are measured in 个. So when we say 这个, we haven’t specified what it is we’re talking about so we just use 这个, or “this object.” Over time, as we introduce new vocabulary you’ll start to see new measure words being introduced as well. Now since we’re talking about money, let’s introduce the some different forms of currency. We’ll start with US dollars – which is…

Kirin: 美金.

Adam: So that’s the 美 from 美国 or America followed by a first tone 金 which refers to the money they use in America.

Kirin: 美金.

Adam: Another currency that may be worth noticing is the type used in China which is…

Kirin: 人民币.

Adam: Now 人 we’ve seen before – that’s a second tone and means… “person or people.” 民 is also a second tone and in this context with the 人 means “citizen.” The last word is a fourth tone 币 that refers to money. So putting them together we get “the people’s money” or the money used in the People’s Republic of China.

Kirin: 人民币.

Adam: 币 is commonly used when referring to the currencies of many countries. On our website, in the premium section of this lesson, you will see a list of currencies from some other countries too.

So let’s have a test for our listeners now. Imagine you’re out shopping for souvenirs and you ask the clerk what the price is. So first, how do you ask “How much is this one?”

Kirin: 这个多少钱?

Adam: Alright, so here are some prices. Let’s see if you can figure out how much they are.

Kirin: 两百五十块.

Adam: So that is…250 dollars. Let’s try another one.

Kirin: 七千三百二十块.

Adam: 7320 dollars. Here’s one more…

Kirin: 九十一块.

Adam: So that’s…91 dollars. Great, so continuing with this scenario, the clerk has just told you the price and you think it’s too expensive. How would you let them know that?

Kirin: 太贵了!

Adam: So there are three characters there – the first two are fourth tones and the last word is a neutral tone.

Kirin: 太贵了!

Adam: We’ve actually seen all three words before. We saw 太 in 太太. Do you remember what “太” means? It means… “too much of something.” We also saw 贵 in “您贵姓?” 贵 means “honorable” or in this case “expensive.” The last character 了 is just a particle used in expressions of this nature. We will study it in more detail in future lessons. So again – “Too expensive!”

Kirin: 太贵了!

Adam: You can see more examples using the same construct in the premium section of this lesson found on our website. Now how about if you wanted a cheaper price, how would you ask for that?

Kirin: 可以便宜一点吗?

Adam: Wow, so a few new words in there. Let’s break it down for you. We know it’s a question because of the 吗 at the end. The first part is 可以 which is two third tones and that means “to be allowed to do something.” Since this is a question you are asking if something is permissible. This is followed by 便宜 which is two second tones and that means “cheap.” We then have 一点 which we’ve seen before. Do you remember what “一点” means? It means… “a little.” So putting that all together gives us “Can cheaper a little?” or “Can you make this a little cheaper?”

Kirin: 可以便宜一点吗?

Adam: Let’s continue this dialogue. You’ve found what you want, you like the price so you want to let the clerk know that you want to purchase it. For this, we need to know the verb “want” which is…

Kirin: 要.

Adam: That’s a fourth tone.

Kirin: 要.

Adam: So knowing that, we have all the vocabulary necessary to say “I want this one.” Can you figure out how to say that?

Kirin: 我要这个.

Adam: I hope you got that right.

Kirin: 我要这个.

Adam: Now what if you wanted to say “I want two of them.” How would you say that?

Kirin: 我要两个.

Adam: So we use 两 meaning “two” followed by 个 which is the generic measure word so 两个 means “two of something.” Similarly how would you say “five of something?”

Kirin: 五个.

Adam: And so on. You are now ready to pay for your purchase. For that, you’ll need to give the cashier some money, so first let’s look at the verb “to give.”

Kirin: 给.

Adam: That’s a third tone.

Kirin: 给.

Adam: So if the item is a hundred dollars, you need to say “Give you 100 dollars.”

Kirin: 给你一百块.

Adam: Note that in many cases you can leave out pronouns when they are obvious, so in this case you wouldn’t need to say “I’ am giving you money” since the “ I ” is implied.

Kirin: 给你一百块.

Adam: I hope you got all that. That brings us to the end of lesson 9. We’ll continue Lesson 10 where we left off today so be sure to join us then.

Kirin: 再见.

.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam:  I’m your host Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: This is Lesson Eight of our podcast series teaching Mandarin Chinese. As always we continue on where we left off from previous lessons so you’re welcome to find the older lessons if you need to catch up from our website.

Now we learned how to count to ninety-nine in Lesson six. Today, we are now going to count a little faster – up to ten thousand. So for that, there are a few new words you need to learn first. Let’s start with the word for one hundred.

Kirin: 一百.

Adam: So that’s a first tone 一 which means “one” and a third tone 百 which means “hundred.” So that gives us “one hundred.”

Kirin: 一百.

Adam: Now for “one hundred and one” up to “one hundred and nine,” we literally say “one hundred zero one” up to “one hundred zero nine.” So let’s try a few of the numbers in there. How would you say “one hundred and one”?

Kirin: 一百〇一.

Adam: One hundred and five.

Kirin: 一百〇五.

Adam: One hundred and nine.

Kirin: 一百〇九.

Adam: Now for one hundred and ten, we say “one hundred one ten.”

Kirin: 一百一十.

Adam: Similarly for one hundred and twenty, we say one hundred two ten.

Kirin: 一百二十.

Adam: Let’s try one hundred and seventy.

Kirin: 一百七十.

Adam: And so on. For the numbers in between we just say 一百 followed by the number in between so let’s try… “one hundred and thirty six.”

Kirin: 一百三十六.

Adam: Let’s try a few more numbers to practice. One hundred and seventy nine.

Kirin: 一百七十九.

Adam: One hundred and fifty four.

Kirin: 一百五十四.

Adam: One hundred and seventy seven.

Kirin: 一百七十七.

Adam: Great, I hope you’re getting the hang of this. We’re now up to two hundred, which is a little different than you might expect. The number two in Chinese has two forms. There’s 二 which we’re familiar with so far and there’s also another form which we need to use now.

Kirin: 两.

Adam: So that’s a third tone.

Kirin: 两.

Adam: 两 is usually used when you need to say “two of something.” It’s the only number that has this alternate form and sometimes you just need to see it used in different situations several times to get the hang of it. Hopefully we can help you with that in our future lessons. So the first occurrence of it when counting upwards is for two hundred. It also gets used for two thousand, twenty thousand and two million. So while you still may hear 二百 in some parts, we’re going to use 两百. So let’s try a few more examples to practice what we’ve just learned. How do you say “two hundred and twenty five?”

Kirin: 两百二十五.

Adam: Two hundred and eighty two.

Kirin: 两百八十二.

Adam: Let’s continue with examples of the rest of the numbers up to a thousand since they all share the same form. Three hundred and forty seven.

Kirin: 三百四十七.

Adam: Six hundred and seventy eight.

Kirin: 六百七十八.

Adam: Eight hundred and fifteen.

Kirin: 八百一十五.

Adam: Great, that now brings us to one thousand which is…

Kirin: 一千.

Adam: So that’s 一 meaning one followed by a first tone 千.

Kirin: 一千.

Adam: The numbers from “one thousand” up to “ten thousand” use a similar format to what we’ve seen so far. To say “one thousand and one,” we’d literally say “one thousand zero one” which is:

Kirin: 一千〇一.

Adam: Let’s practice a few more. One thousand two hundred and fifty three.

Kirin: 一千两百五十三.

Adam: Seven thousand nine hundred and sixteen.

Kirin: 七千九百一十六.

Adam: Nine thousand and twelve.

Kirin: 九千〇一十二.

Adam: Try practicing on your own with different numbers so that you can get quicker with the translation process. Then join us again next time for lesson nine.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam. This is lesson 35 titled “Thank you for your help.”

Kirin: 欢迎来到第三十五课: “谢谢你的帮忙.”

Adam: With me today are my co-hosts:

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Raphael: 你们好. 我是 Raphael .

Adam: This is a structured course teaching Mandarin Chinese. Today’s lesson continues where our previous one left off. We will first review the dialogue that we started last time and then continue on with the second half today.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
Cindy: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
Yann: 没关系. 我可以帮你点餐. 你要哪一种?
Cindy: 可以帮我点汉堡跟薯条吗?
谢谢你的帮忙.
Yann: 不客气.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 一起说.

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
没关系. 我可以帮你点餐. 你要哪一种?
可以帮我点汉堡跟薯条吗?
谢谢你的帮忙.
不客气.

Raphael: 让我们开始翻译今天的对话.

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.

Adam: This restaurant has a lot of food that we can eat.

Kirin: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.

Adam: But I can’t read their menu.

Kirin: 没关系.

Adam: That’s okay.

Kirin: 我可以帮你点餐.

Adam: I can help you order.

Kirin: 你要哪一种?

Adam: So here’s the first new line from today’s dialogue. 你要. “You want.” 哪一 We’ve seen 哪 before from 哪里.

Raphael: “哪” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “which” 的意思.

Adam: That’s followed by 一种. We know that 一 means “one” or “a.” 种 is a third tone and means “kind” or “type.” So “You want which kind?”

Kirin: 你要哪一种?

Adam: Or “What kind would you like?”

Kirin: 你要哪一种?

Adam: The lady then replies:

Kirin: 可以帮我点汉堡跟薯条吗?

Adam: So we should be able to figure out the first part. 可以帮我点? – Can you help me order. So what is that that she wants to order?

Kirin: 汉堡跟薯条吗?

Adam: There are two items here. The first one is 汉堡. That’s a fourth tone and a third tone. 汉堡, it’s actually the transliteration of a city in Germany: Hamburg 汉堡. And it’s, of course, also a popular fast food – the hamburger. 汉堡. She then uses the word 跟.

Raphael: “跟” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “with” 的意思.

Adam: So she wants a hamburger with 薯条. That’s a third tone and a second tone and together means “French fries.” 薯条. The 薯 refers to potatoes and the 条 is a measure word for long thin things like French fries. 薯条.

Kirin: 可以帮我点汉堡跟薯条吗?

Adam: “Can you help me order a hamburger and French fries?” She then adds a:

Kirin: 谢谢你的帮忙.

Adam: We should be able to figure this out. “Thanks your help” followed by the last word 忙. We saw 忙 way back in Lesson 14.

Raphael: “忙” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “busy” 的意思.

Adam: So “help busy” 帮忙 is a common way to say “to give a hand.”

Kirin: 谢谢你的帮忙.

Adam: Thank you for giving me a hand.

Kirin: 谢谢你的帮忙.

Adam: To which the man replies:

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: So hopefully, you remember that. “No need to be polite.”

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: Or “You’re welcome.”

Kirin: 不客气.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
没关系. 我可以帮你点餐. 你要哪一种?
可以帮我点汉堡跟薯条吗?
谢谢你的帮忙.
不客气.

Adam: Alright, and let’s listen to the conversation again at normal speed with our native speakers.

Yann: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
Cindy: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
Yann: 没关系. 我可以帮你点餐. 你要哪一种?
Cindy: 可以帮我点汉堡跟薯条吗?
谢谢你的帮忙.
Yann: 不客气.

.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: This is Lesson 7 of our podcast series teaching Mandarin Chinese. Today, we are going to continue with introductions and try to use some of the numbers we learned on our last lesson. We will start today with the phrase…

Kirin: 请问

Adam: There are two characters there. The first one is

Kirin: 请.

Adam: …which has a third tone and means “please.” The second character is

Kirin: 问

Adam: …which has a fourth tone and means “to ask.” So together that gives us

Kirin: 请问.

Adam: “Please ask” – which is actually a polite request you make before you ask a question. It is used in situations where you want to excuse yourself for asking the question. It is rhetorical, so you include it as a part of your question. So for example, if we wanted to ask someone what their name was we could ask…

Kirin: 请问，你叫什么名字?

请问，你叫什么名字?

Adam: So we have some new characters there to look at. We know the first few words “Can I please ask you a question?” That is followed by 你叫. 叫 is a fourth tone and means “to call” or “to be called.” This is followed by 什么. That’s a second tone and a neutral tone. It’s a question word meaning “what.” The last word is 名字. That’s a second tone and a neutral tone, which means “name.” So putting all these together gives us “You called what name?”

Kirin: 请问, 你叫什么名字?

Adam: Or… “What’s your name?”

Kirin: 你叫什么名字?

Adam: Another way to ask this question would be to ask:

Kirin: 请问，你的名字是…

Adam: “Excuse me, can I ask, your name is…?”

Kirin: 请问，你的名字是…

Adam: Great, and how do we answer that?

Kirin: 我叫 Kirin.

Adam: Alright, easy enough. “I called Kirin.” Or in my case

Kirin: 我叫 Adam.

Adam: Another way to say this which we have seen before would be:

Kirin: 我是 Kirin.

Adam: “I am Kirin.” For me of course I would say…

Kirin: 我是 Adam.

Adam: Now that’s used for the first name. In Chinese your last name is very important so they have a different way of asking you for that.

Kirin: 您贵姓?

Adam: Now sometimes you’ll hear 您 rather than 你. 您 is a second tone and is a much more polite form that you may use when you want to show respect towards someone. 贵姓 is two fourth tones. The first character means “expensive” or in this case “honorable” and the second character means your “surname” or your “last name.” So together that becomes “What is your surname?”

Kirin: 您贵姓?

Adam: If you want to give out your full name, how would you do that, Kirin?

Kirin: 我姓杨, 叫 Kirin.

Adam: So she first gave us her last name “Yang” followed by her first name “Kirin.”

Kirin: 我姓杨, 叫 Kirin.

Adam: “I last name Yang, called Kirin” would be the literal translation.

To address someone you can use a title such as Mister, Mrs. or Ms. For “Mister” we would say…

Kirin: 先生.

Adam: Separately, these two characters are both first tones, but together you often hear it as a first tone and a neutral tone. 先 actually means “first,” while 生 means “born.” You may remember it from 生日 which means… “birthday.”

Kirin: 先生.

Adam: For a young woman you can address her as…

Kirin: 小姐.

Adam: That’s two third tones.

Kirin: 小姐.

Adam: This is equivalent to “Miss” in English although it’s in a much more broader sense. It literally means “little sister.” 小 means “little.” And do you remember the word for “big”? We taught it a few lessons ago. It’s 大. So now you know 大 and 小. “Big” and “small.” So getting back to our example here, if you aren’t sure if a woman is married or not, it is much safer to use:

Kirin: 小姐.

Adam: For a married woman we can refer to her as:

Kirin: 太太.

Adam: This is two fourth tones. But again, sometimes the second character becomes a neutral tone.

Kirin: 太太.

Adam: Now 太 on its own means “too much of something.” So I’ll leave it to you to figure out why 太太 refers to a married woman. If you don’t know someone’s name, it is perfectly acceptable to address them as 先生 for men and 小姐 or 太太 for women.

If you do know their last name you can attach it to the front. So Kirin here would be 杨小姐.

Alright, so the next question we may ask someone is “how old they are.” How do we ask this?

Kirin: 你几岁?

Adam: So we have “you,” followed by a third tone 几 and a fourth tone 岁.

Kirin: 你几岁?

Adam: 几 means “how many” and 岁 means “years of age.” So literally that becomes “You how many years of age,” or as in English “How old are you?”

Kirin: 你几岁?

Adam: Like in English, this question is mainly used to ask younger people their age. Now how would we answer that?

Kirin: 我二十五岁.

Adam: So hopefully you can figure that out as “I twenty five years of age,” or “I am twenty five.”

Kirin: 我二十五岁.

Adam: So practice this with your own age.

We can use some of this vocabulary to come up with another question.

Kirin: 今天是几号?

Adam: Now we know what these words mean. Let’s see if we can piece together the meaning of this question. “Today is how many number?”

Kirin: 今天是几号?

Adam: This is the form we use to ask “What is today’s date?” So again?

Kirin: 今天是几号?

Adam: Great, now how would we answer that? Let’s say we wanted to say “Today is August 11.” How would we say that?

Kirin: 今天是八月十一号.

Adam: Here’s another question we could also ask using some of the vocabulary we have learned:

Kirin: 你的生日是几号?

Adam: So hopefully you could figure out that as “When is your birthday?”

Kirin: 你的生日是几号?

Adam: So let’s give an answer to that.

Kirin: 我的生日是五月二号.

Adam: Ah. So everyone don’t forget. Kirin’s birthday is on May 2nd.

Kirin: 我的生日是五月二号.

Adam: Let’s take a break to review some of this vocabulary by looking at a dialogue between two people introducing themselves. There will be a quiz afterwards to test your understanding so pay close attention

Kirin: 请问，你贵姓?

Raphael: 我姓赖，叫 Raphael.

Kirin: 赖先生，你好.

Raphael: 你好.

Kirin: 请问，你几岁?

Raphael: 我二十五岁.

Kirin: 你的生日是几号?

Raphael: 我的生日是七月十八号.

Adam: Ok, now let’s listen to each sentence of the dialogue again, a little slower. Repeat it if you have to and check your understanding.

Kirin: 请问，你贵姓?

Raphael: 我姓赖，叫 Raphael.

Kirin: 赖先生，你好.

Raphael: 你好.

Kirin: 请问，你几岁?

Raphael: 我二十五岁.

Kirin: 你的生日是几号?

Raphael: 我的生日是七月十八号.

Adam: Alright, quiz time. Here’s a few questions to test your understanding. Try to come up with the answer first before listening to the answer.

What’s the man’s first name?

Raphael: 我姓赖，叫 Raphael.

Adam: So hopefully you understand that his first name was Raphael.

What was his last name? The answer was… Lai.

How old is he?

Raphael: 我二十五岁.

Adam: The answer is… 25.

And when is his birthday?

Raphael: 我的生日是七月十八号.

Adam: The answer is… July 18.

So look at that, seven lessons in, and you can already understand a conversation like this. Give yourselves a pat on the back!

.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: This is lesson 6 of our podcast series teaching Mandarin Chinese. And today’s lesson is all about numbers. If you know your numbers, then lots of other vocabulary becomes quite easy as you’ll soon see.

Now we’ll start with the numbers zero through ten. This is also a good way to practice your tones. Listen and try to figure out what tone it is and then try and repeat out loud or in your head. So let’s start with zero.

Kirin: 零.

Adam: That’s a second tone.

Kirin: 零.

Adam: One.

Kirin: 一.

Adam: That’s a first tone.

Kirin: 一.

Adam: Two.

Kirin: 二.

Adam: That’s a fourth tone.

Kirin: 二.

Adam: Three.

Kirin: 三.

Adam: That’s a first tone.

Kirin: 三.

Adam: Four.

Kirin: 四.

Adam: That’s a fourth tone.

Kirin: 四.

Adam: Five.

Kirin: 五.

Adam: That’s a third tone.

Kirin: 五.

Adam: Six.

Kirin: 六.

Adam: That’s a fourth tone.

Kirin: 六.

Adam: Seven.

Kirin: 七.

Adam: That’s a first tone.

Kirin: 七.

Adam: Eight.

Kirin: 八.

Adam: That’s also a first tone.

Kirin: 八.

Adam: Nine.

Kirin: 九.

Adam: That’s a third tone.

Kirin: 九.

Adam: Ten.

Kirin: 十.

Adam: That’s a second tone.

Kirin: 十.

Adam: In the Premium section of our website, you’ll see the numbers in Chinese and in English so you can get some idea of what the characters look like for these numbers. So Kirin why don’t you repeat the numbers again from zero to ten.

Kirin: 零, 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十.

Adam: Now once you know the numbers from zero to ten, that gives you easy access to the rest of the numbers all the way up to ninety-nine.

Eleven is just “ten – one” or…

Kirin: 十一.

Adam: Twelve becomes “ten – two.”

Kirin: 十二.

Adam: And so on up to twenty which is “two – ten” or…

Kirin: 二十.

Adam: Twenty one would then be “two – ten – one” and so on. Thirty would be “three – ten” all the way to ninety nine which would be “nine – ten – nine.” So with that in mind, let’s see how good you are with numbers. Kirin, why don’t you give us some numbers in Chinese, and we’ll try to figure out what they are in English.

Kirin: 好. 三十二.

Adam: Did you figure that out? It was… thirty two.

Kirin: 七十六.

Adam: Seventy six.

Kirin: 十三.

Adam: Thirteen.

Kirin: 五十.

Adam: Fifty.

Kirin: 四十四.

Adam: Forty four.

Alright, I think we get the hang of that. Now as I said before, practicing numbers is a good way to practice tones, especially with the last example. It is very easy to confuse four (四) with ten (十) so practicing numbers should help you distinguish between the different tones.

We’ll now use our knowledge of numbers to tell the different months of the year, starting with January…

Kirin: 一月.

Adam: January in Chinese is the number “one” followed by the character for month 月 which is a fourth tone.

Kirin: 一月.

Adam: Similarly, February is…

Kirin: 二月.

Adam: Or “two – month.” Try to figure out the rest of the months in the same way.

March.

Kirin: 三月.

Adam: April.

Kirin: 四月.

Adam: May.

Kirin: 五月.

Adam: June.

Kirin: 六月.

Adam: July.

Kirin: 七月.

Adam: August.

Kirin: 八月.

Adam: September.

Kirin: 九月.

Adam: October.

Kirin: 十月.

Adam: November.

Kirin: 十一月.

Adam: December.

Kirin: 十二月.

Adam: Easy, wasn’t that? Let’s now learn how to say dates. How would you say August 10th?

Kirin: 八月十号.

Adam: So the literal translation for that is “eight month ten number.” The word for number is 号 which uses a fourth tone. Don’t confuse that with 好 which is a third tone. Sometimes, instead of 号, you can also use 日 meaning “day.” So Kirin maybe you can give us both versions. Let’s try another date: March 16.

Kirin: 三月十六号. 三月十六日.

Adam: December 2nd.

Kirin: 十二月二号. 十二月二日.

Adam: July 30th.

Kirin: 七月三十号. 七月三十日.

Adam: September 14th.

Kirin: 九月十四号. 九月十四日.

Adam: Ok, so hopefully you’ll see how it works.

Let’s now do years. Years are quite simple in that you just sound out each digit of the year separately. So for example, that’s do the year 2006 which is:

Kirin: 二〇〇六年.

Adam: The last character 年 is a second tone and means year. So basically we’re saying “two zero zero six year.”

Kirin: 二〇〇六年.

Adam: The word for “today” is 今天 which has two first tones. 今 refers to the “current” while 天 means “day.”

Kirin: 今天.

Adam: We can also say…

Kirin: 今年

Adam: …which would mean “this year.”

“Tomorrow” is …

Kirin: 明天

Adam: which is a second tone 明 followed again by 天. Interestingly, 明 means “bright” so the literal translation for “tomorrow” is “bright day.” Very optimistic indeed. Similarly, “next year” would be…

Kirin: 明年.

Adam: “Yesterday” and “last year” are however different. We say…

Kirin: 昨天.

Adam: For yesterday. A second tone 昨 followed by 天. For “last year” though we say…

Kirin: 去年.

Adam: A fourth tone followed by 年. Let’s look at those words again. Today.

Kirin: 今天.

Adam: This year.

Kirin: 今年.

Adam: Tomorrow.

Kirin: 明天.

Adam: Next year.

Kirin: 明年.

Adam: Yesterday.

Kirin: 昨天.

Adam: Last year.

Kirin: 去年.

Adam: So how would you say “Today is August 10, 2006”?

Kirin: 今天是二〇〇六年八月十号.

Adam: Notice that in Chinese you start with the year first and work your way down. In Chinese, dates always go from largest to smallest.

Kirin: 今天是二〇〇六年八月十号.

Adam: This gives us a nice tie in to birthdays. Let’s look at the word for birthday.

Kirin: 生日.

Adam: So that’s a first tone and a fourth tone. 生 literally means “born” while 日 has a meaning of “sun” or “day” as we saw before. So in this case we get the meaning “born day” or “birthday!” So knowing that, how would you say: “My birthday is on February 15, 1980?”

Kirin: 我的生日是一九八〇年二月十五号.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Kirin: 欢迎大家和我们一起学习第三十四课.

Adam: Hello, I’m you host, Adam. Welcome to lesson 34. With me today is:

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Raphael: 大家好. 我是 Raphael.

Adam: This is a progressive course teaching Mandarin spoken Chinese. Each lesson builds upon previous ones. For a list of all our lessons and what was taught in each one, please visit the course outline pages on our website. As well, you can find plenty of review material for each lesson there.

We will start today’s lesson with a dialogue that introduces some new vocabulary while reviewing some previously taught words and phrases.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
Cindy: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
Yann: 没关系. 我可以帮你点餐.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
没关系. 我可以帮你点餐.

Adam: Alright, now this is part one of a two-part dialogue, that we will finish in our next lesson. Let’s now break it down for you line by line, starting with the first one…

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.

Adam: Ok, so lots of new words there for you. 这个餐厅. 餐厅 is two first tones and together means “dining hall” but is a commonly used word to mean “restaurant.” 餐厅. So this restaurant has 很多. We know 很 means “very” and 多 we’ve seen before from “多少钱?” On its own, 多 means “many” so together 很多 means “very many” or “a lot.”

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.

Adam: The next word we hear is 东西. That’s a first tone and a neutral tone. 东 on its own means “East” while 西 represents West. 东西. However, when you put these two together you get 东西 which means a “thing” or an “item.”

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.

Adam: The last two words we should know.

Raphael: “可以吃” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “can eat” 的意思.

Adam: So putting it all together gives us “This restaurant has a lot of things can eat.”

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.

Adam: In other words: “There are a lot of things to eat at this restaurant.”

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.

Adam: She then says:

Kirin: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.

Adam: So lots of new words there as well. The first one is 可是. The 可 is from 可以 meaning “can” while 是 is the verb “to be.” Put them together and you get 可是 which is another word meaning “but” or “however.” Do you remember what the other word we taught you way back when was that also means “but”?

Kirin: 但是.

Adam: The next part of the sentence was 我看不懂. We’ve seen all these words before.

Raphael: “看” 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to look.” We then have 不懂.

Raphael: “不懂” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “don’t understand” 的意思.

Adam: So putting those together gives us “I don’t understand what I’m seeing.”

Kirin: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.

Adam: Now 看 as a verb can mean “to look” or “to read.” So in this context she is saying “I don’t understand” whatever it is that she is trying to read. So what is it that she can’t read? 他们的菜单.

Raphael: “他们的” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “their” 的意思.

Adam: We then have 菜单.

菜 is a fourth tone and refers to “vegetables” or a “dish” you may eat for a meal. The 单 here is a first tone and refers to “a list.” So “a list of dishes” is what they term a menu. 菜单. So, “I can’t understand their menu.”

Kirin: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.

Adam: The man then replies:

Kirin: 没关系. 我可以帮你点餐.

Adam: We saw the first expression recently. 没关系.

Raphael: “没关系” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “That’s okay” 的意思.

Adam: We then have 我可以帮你. There’s a new verb in there. 帮 is a first tone and is the verb “to help.” So “I can help you to 点餐.” Now we’ve seen 点 several times before in 一点 and also in telling time. Now there it meant “a dot.” Here, however, it functions as the verb “to order.” So it’s the same character just a different meaning. Now what is she going to order? Well the last word we saw earlier 餐 meaning “dish.” So “I can help you order a dish.”

Kirin: 我可以帮你点餐.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
没关系. 我可以帮你点餐.

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to the dialogue one more time.

Yann: 这个餐厅有很多东西可以吃.
Cindy: 可是我看不懂他们的菜单.
Yann: 没关系. 我可以帮你点餐.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎大家和我们一起学习第三十三课.

Adam: Welcome to lesson 33. With me today is:

Kirin: 你们好, 我是 Kirin.

Raphael: 大家好. 我是 Raphael.

Adam: Please visit our website for a list of our previous lessons. We’ve come a long way since lesson 001 so we encourage you to take advantage of all the review material available there for your learning pleasure. We have a new dialogue we’re going to listen to today with the help of our speakers. Most of it should be a review, although there are few new words in there.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 我明天要坐飞机.
Cindy: 你要去哪里?
Yann: 我要去泰国.
Cindy: 你为什么要去泰国?
Yann: 因为我要去度假.
Cindy: 哦，你真幸运!

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 我明天要坐飞机.
你要去哪里?
我要去泰国.
你为什么要去泰国?
因为我要去度假.
哦，你真幸运!

Raphael: 好，让我们开始翻译今天的对话.

Kirin: 我明天要坐飞机.

Adam: So that gives us “I tomorrow want to” 坐飞机. Now we’ve seen 坐 two different times before. The first time was in Lesson 16 – with 请进, 请坐. What did that mean? That meant “Please come in” and “Please sit” respectively, so there, 坐 means “to sit.” We later saw a different 做 in Lesson 24 with “你在这里喜欢做什么?”

Raphael: 那个 做 是什么意思?

Adam: There, it’s the verb “to do.” So these two types of 坐 share the same pronunciation, but are two different characters altogether.

In our example here, it’s the former 坐 “to sit.” However, it’s being used in a different context 坐飞机. 飞机 is two first tones. The first character 飞 means “to fly” while 机 means “machine.” So what do you think a “flying machine” refers to? It’s of course an airplane. To 坐飞机 means “to take an airplane.”

Kirin: 我明天要坐飞机.

Adam: If I wanted to say, “I am going to take a train”…

Raphael: 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 我要坐火车.

Adam: The lady then says:

Kirin: 你要去哪里?

Adam: Hopefully, you remember what this means. “Where are you going?”

Kirin: 你要去哪里?

Adam: The man then replies:

Kirin: 我要去泰国.

Adam: I am going to 泰国.

Raphael: 国 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “country” 的意思.

Adam: So can you guess what country 泰国 is? It’s actually “Thailand.”

Kirin: 我要去泰国.

Adam: The woman then asks:

Kirin: 你为什么要去泰国?

Adam: Do you remember what “为什么” means? It’s a question asking “why?” So, “why are you going to Thailand?”

Kirin: 你为什么要去泰国?

Adam: To which he replies:

Kirin: 因为我要去度假.

Adam: So when someone asks 为什么, you reply with 因为.

Raphael: “因为” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “because” 的意思.

Kirin: 因为我要去度假.

Adam: So that’s “Because I am going to 度假.” Those are both fourth tones. 度 here refers to “spending time” while 假 refers to a “vacation” so 度假 means “to go on vacation.”

Kirin: 因为我要去度假.

Adam: The woman then replies:

Kirin: 哦，你真幸运!

Adam: We’ve seen 真 before from 真的.

Raphael: “真” 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “real” 的意思.

Adam: So that gives us “you real 幸运.” Those are two fourth tones and together that means “to be lucky.”

Kirin: 哦，你真幸运!

Adam: Oh, you’re really lucky!

So hopefully you picked up something new there, while getting a review of some older vocabulary.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 我明天要坐飞机.
你要去哪里?
我要去泰国.
你为什么要去泰国?
因为我要去度假.
哦，你真幸运!

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to it one more time at regular speed.

Yann: 我明天要坐飞机.
Cindy: 你要去哪里?
Yann: 我要去泰国.
Cindy: 你为什么要去泰国?
Yann: 因为我要去度假.
Cindy: 哦，你真幸运!

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over, or touch from your mobile device any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello, I’m Adam.

Raphael: 欢迎大家来和我们一起学习第三十二课.

Adam: Yes, welcome to lesson 32. With me today is:

Kirin: 你们好. 我是Kirin.

Raphael: 大家好. 我是 Raphael.

Adam: Today, we’re going to finish a dialogue that we started in our last lesson. We’ll first listen to it in its entirety and then break it down for you line by line.

Raphael: 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你怎么去上班?
Cindy: 对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
Yann: 你怎么去上班?
Cindy: 啊，我开车去上班.
Yann: 开车? 这个方法怎么样?
Cindy: 很麻烦. 一直有塞车.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Adam: Now before we continue, I noticed that Raphael just used a new word. She said: 并跟 Kirin 说. 并 is a fourth tone and is a conjunction word meaning “furthermore.” So let’s hear it again.

Raphael: 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?
对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
你怎么去上班?
啊，我开车去上班.
开车? 这个方法怎么样?
很麻烦. 一直有塞车.

Adam: OK. By the way, a lot of this extra Chinese that is being used within the lesson was explained in lesson 30, so for a refresher course, feel free to review that lesson again.

Now we did the first few lines of the dialogue in our last lesson. Let’s review them again and their meanings.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: How do you go to work?

Kirin: 对不起，我听不太懂.

Adam: I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you’re saying.

Kirin: 请你再说一次.

Adam: Please say it again.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: “How do you go to work?” He’s saying it more clearly this time so she can understand.

Kirin: 啊，我开车去上班.

Adam: So here’s the first new line of today’s dialogue. 我开车. Now we saw 开 before in 开始.

Raphael: 开始 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “start” or “begin” 的意思.

Adam: Here however it has a different meaning as it’s being used with a new word 车. That’s a first tone and means “vehicle.” By itself though it means “car.” So 开车 means “to operate a vehicle” or, in this case, “drive a car.”

Kirin: 我开车去上班.

Adam: So, “I drive a car to work.”

Kirin: 我开车去上班.

Adam: He then asks:

Kirin: 开车? 这个方法怎么样?

Adam: There’s only one new word for us in this sentence. 方法. That’s a first tone 方 and a third tone 法 and that means “method” or “way of doing something.”

Kirin: 开车? 这个方法怎么样?

Raphael: 怎么样 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “how about” or “what is it like?” So he’s asking “What do you think of this method of traveling – as in driving a car?”

Kirin: 开车? 这个方法怎么样?

Adam: To which the woman replies:

Kirin: 很麻烦. 一直有塞车.

Adam: So we know this means “very something.” The something is 麻烦 – that’s two second tones. Together that means “troublesome” or “bothersome,” so “it’s a big bother.”

Kirin: 很麻烦.

Adam: So she doesn’t seem to like traveling by car.

Raphael: 为什么?

Kirin: 一直有塞车.

Adam: So some new words here. 一直. The 一 means “one” but together with the second tone 直 it means “continuously.” So 一直有 – always have 塞车. Now we know 车 means vehicle – 塞 is a first tone and refers to “stopping up” or “squeezing.” So, 塞车 is a common word used to refer to “traffic” in Taiwan.

Kirin: 一直有塞车.

Adam: Now in China, they have a different term for traffic.

Kirin: 堵车.

Adam: 堵 is a third tone and on its own refers to “stopping” or “blocking” something, so 堵车 refers to “traffic.” So in China, they may say…

Kirin: 一直有堵车.

Raphael: 让我们再听一次今天的对话. 并跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?
对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
你怎么去上班?
啊，我开车去上班.
开车? 这个方法怎么样?
很麻烦. 一直有塞车.

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to it one more time at regular speed.

Yann: 你怎么去上班?
Cindy: 对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
Yann: 你怎么去上班?
Cindy: 啊，我开车去上班.
Yann: 开车? 这个方法怎么样?
Cindy: 很麻烦. 一直有塞车.

Adam: Now before we leave you today, let’s take a quick look at some other forms of 车 or “vehicles” in Chinese. See if you can guess the meaning from the literal translation.

Kirin: 公共汽车.

Adam: That’s a first tone, two fourth tones and a first tone.

Kirin: 公共汽车.

Adam: The literal translation is “a public steam vehicle that everyone can use.” And that refers to a “bus.”

Kirin: 公共汽车.

Adam: Now that’s a long name, so sometimes you may hear it reduced to:

Kirin: 公车.

Adam: Here’s another one:

Kirin: 出租车.

Adam: That’s three first tones and literally means: rent car.

Kirin: 出租车.

Adam: However, it’s not a rental car. It’s actually a taxi.

Kirin: 出租车.

Adam: Now this is a term that is used in China. In Taiwan, they use a different term.

Kirin: 计程车.

Adam: Which is a fourth, second and a first tone.

Kirin: 计程车.

Adam: The literal translation there is “plan a journey vehicle.”

Kirin: 计程车.

Adam: Ng, let’s do one more:

Kirin: 火车.

Adam: That’s a third tone and a first tone.

Kirin: 火车.

Adam: That literally means “fire vehicle.” Any guesses as to what it could be? It’s not a “fire truck” if that’s what you guessed. It’s actually the word for “train.”

Kirin: 火车.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone and welcome to our progressive series teaching Mandarin Chinese. I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 欢迎大家来学习我们的第三十一课. 我是 Kirin.

Raphael: 大家好. 我是 Raphael.

Adam: Now there was a bit of Chinese in that intro – which is our goal now – to use more of what we have taught you so far. Those were all words we taught you in our last lesson, so please review that lesson if it doesn’t make sense, or follow the transcript of this lesson available to premium subscribers on our website.

Raphael: 今天我们要听一个对话. 让我们先听一次今天的对话.

Yann: 你怎么去上班?
Cindy: 对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
Yann: 你怎么去上班?

Raphael: 好，请你们再听一次. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?
对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
你怎么去上班?

Adam: Alright, I hope you’re able to keep up with all the Chinese. Before we continue, I’d like to teach two new words. The first one is 开始. That’s a first tone 开 and a third tone 始. 开始. 开 on its own has a few meanings including “to open,” or “to start.” The 始 means “to begin” so together, 开始 means “to start.” The second word I want to teach is 翻译. That’s a first tone and a fourth tone. That means “to translate.” I’m telling you this, so I can use the following line:

Raphael: 我们可以开始翻译今天的对话.

Adam: We can now begin to translate today’s dialogue.

The first line was:

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Raphael: 怎么 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “how.”

Raphael: 去 是什么意思?

Adam: That’s the verb “to go.” We then have a few new sets of words 上班.

We’ve seen 上 before in 上午 and 早上.

Raphael: 上 是什么意思?

Adam: Now in the context of morning it means “before.” However, here it has a different meaning of “start.” The next word 班 is a first tone and here means “work.”

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: So putting it altogether gives us “You how go start work.” Now, 上班 can be a time or an event – so she’s being asked “How do you go to the start of your job?”

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: Or, “How do you get to work?”

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: She then replies:

Kirin: 对不起，我听不太懂.

Adam: So we’ve heard all this before. “I’m sorry I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Kirin: 对不起，我听不太懂.

Raphael: 太 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “too”, as in “t-o-o”. So she’s saying “I don’t understand too well what you’re saying.”

Kirin: 对不起，我听不太懂.

Adam: She then says:

Kirin: 请你再说一次.

Adam: So we’ve heard all these words before.

Raphael: 再 是什么意思?

Adam: That means “again”. So here’s she saying “Please say it again, one more time.”

Kirin: 请你再说一次.

Adam: The man then repeats:

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: “How do you get to work?” So he’s saying it again so that the woman will understand.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: As you may guess, this is part one of a two part dialogue. We’ll finish the second part in our next lesson. In the meantime though:

Raphael: 我们可以再听一次. 请跟 Kirin 说.

Kirin: 你怎么去上班?
对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
你怎么去上班?

Adam: Ok, and let’s listen to it one more time at regular speed:

Yann: 你怎么去上班?
Cindy: 对不起，我听不太懂. 请你再说一次.
Yann: 你怎么去上班?

Adam: Great, let’s do a quick review of some of the new words we’ve learned today:

Raphael: “Start work” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 上班.

Adam: Now as we said before 上 here means “start.” Do you remember the opposite of 上? It’s 下. So…

Raphael: 下班 是什么意思?

Kirin: 是 “finish work” 的意思.

Adam: In this lesson’s Premium notes you’ll see more examples of how we can use this construct.

Raphael: “Start” 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 开始.

Adam: And the last one is “translate”…

Raphael: 中文怎么说?

Kirin: 翻译.

.

Complete transcript for ChineseLearnOnline Lesson 005

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, I’m your host, Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam: Today we’re going to listen to a dialogue that uses some of the vocabulary we have learned up till now while adding some useful new words along the way. If there are parts you don’t understand, we recommend listening to lessons one to four again or reviewing the transcripts of previous lessons found on our website. So listen along and try and repeat the lines as you hear them.

Kirin: 你好.

Raphael: 你好.

Kirin: 你好吗?

Raphael: 我很好. 你呢?

Adam: So here’s something new. The woman asked the man how he was and he responded with “very good.” He then asked her a question – “你呢?” That last word is a neutral tone or the fifth tone and is used in a “what about?” context in reference to what was previously talked about. So here it means “What about you?”

Raphael: 你呢?

Kirin: 我还好.

Adam: So here again is something new. We’ve seen 我很好 which means “I’m very good.” This is a different answer – a second tone 还 followed by 好 and means more like “I’m just ok” – not too good not too bad, kind of like “so-so.” Again?

Kirin: 我还好.

Adam: Great, let’s continue.

Kirin: 你是美国人吗?

Raphael: 不是, 我是加拿大人.

Kirin: 真的吗?

Adam: So here’s another new word for us – 真 – which is a first tone followed by two characters we’ve seen before 的 and 吗. Those are both neutral or fifth tones. Now we know that 吗 means that this is a question. 的 is a common word used in many capacities. Previously we saw it as a possessive quality with 我的 and 你的 meaning “mine” and “yours” respectively. Here it is attached to 真, which means “real” giving us “of real quality.” So the question…

Kirin: 真的吗?

Adam: …is basically asking “really?” To which the man reply…

Raphael: 真的!

Kirin: 你会说中文吗?

Raphael: 我会说一点.

Kirin: 你中文说得很好.

Raphael: 谢谢你.

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: So here are some words for us. When someone says “thank you,” this is a standard response.

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: We’ve got 不 which we’ve seen before. 不 is the negation of what follows which in this case is 客气. That’s two fourth tones. 客气 means “to be polite.” So 不客气 basically means “Don’t be polite” or in this context “There’s no need to be polite.”

Now to confuse you further. The character 不 changes to a second tone when it proceeds a fourth tone character. So listen again…

Raphael: 谢谢你.

Kirin. 不客气.

Adam. Great let’s continue.

Kirin: 你喜欢中国吗?

Adam: Ah, so some more new words for us. Here’s a new verb: 喜欢 – that’s a third tone 喜 followed by a first tone 欢. 喜欢 means “to like something.” So what do you think…

Kirin: 你喜欢中国吗?

Adam: …means? Well it’s a question asking “Do you like China?”

Kirin: 你喜欢中国吗?

Adam: So based on what we know about answering questions, how would you answer that question in the affirmative?

Kirin: 喜欢, 我喜欢中国.

Adam. Great. And how would you answer in the negative?

Kirin: 不喜欢, 我不喜欢中国.

Adam: Ok, now let’s add something to that last statement.

Kirin: 但是我喜欢说中文.

Adam: So there’s another new word there 但是. That’s two fourth tones. That means “but.” So what does this mean?

Kirin: 我不喜欢中国. 但是我喜欢说中文.

Adam: “I don’t like China. But I like to speak Chinese.”

Kirin: 我不喜欢中国. 但是我喜欢说中文.

Adam: Now that we know how to use “but,” we can connect a lot of the sentences we’ve learned so far. Speaking of which, I’d like to do a quick review of the new vocabulary we’ve learned today and recently just to make sure we’re all up to date. Try to answer these questions before Kirin gives us the answer. How do you ask: “What about you?”

Kirin: 你呢?

Adam: How do you say: “I’m ok”?

Kirin: 我还好.

Adam: How do you ask: “Really?”

Kirin: 真的吗?

Adam: How do you say “I can speak a little”?

Kirin: 我会说一点.

Adam: How do you say “You’re welcome”?

Kirin: 不客气.

Adam: Alright. So hopefully those were easy. Now here’s a tougher one. Try to introduce yourself. Start with “My name is Cindy” or simply “I am Cindy.”

Kirin: 我是 Cindy.

Adam: “I am American.”

Kirin: 我是美国人.

Adam: “But I can speak a little Chinese.”

Kirin: 但是我会说一点中文.

Adam: “I like China very much.”

Kirin: 我很喜欢中国.

Adam: So hopefully you were able to get that. Let’s hear it again. Please repeat after Kirin.

Kirin: 我是 Cindy.

我是美国人.

但是我会说一点中文.

我很喜欢中国.

Adam: Great, now let’s try another one. See if you can come up with it first. “I’m sorry, my Chinese isn’t very good.”

Kirin: 对不起. 我中文说得不好.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam.

Kirin: 大家好. 我是 Kirin.

Adam:  Today we’re going to continue where we left off in lesson three talking about countries, nationalities and their languages. We’re now going to try and put together what we know so far. We know how to say “I am” and we know how to say the names of a few countries. So with that in mind, how would you say “I am American”?

Kirin: 我是美国人.

Adam: Good, I hope you got that right. Let’s try another one. How would you say “Are you Chinese?”

Kirin: 你是中国人吗?

Adam: As you can see, adding the 吗 at the end turns a statement into a question. Today, we’re going to try and answer some yes or no questions. Now one big difference in Chinese is that there is no definitive word for “yes” or “no,” so you have to follow a particular syntax when answering such questions. Now if you wanted to answer in the affirmative as in “Yes, I am Chinese,” you would reply with:

Kirin: 是，我是中国人.

Adam: Now, there are no new words there as you can see. We reply in affirmative by restating the verb in question – in this case it’s the verb “to be” or 是. So the reply here means “Yes, I am Chinese.” Let’s try another one. Ask if I am Canadian.

Kirin: 你是加拿大人吗?

Adam: So if you wanted to reply “yes, I’m Canadian” you would say:

Kirin: 是，我是加拿大人.

Adam: Now, we’ll learn the word used for the negative, which is quite simply

Kirin: 不

Adam: which is a fourth tone.

Kirin: 不

Adam: by adding 不 in front of a verb, you negate it. So let’s ask the question “Are you British?”

Kirin: 你是英国人吗?

Adam: To reply in the negative we’d say:

Kirin: 不是. 我不是英国人.

Adam: On our website, in the notes link for lesson 4 you’ll find several more examples using this structure (and an explanation of why the tone changes in 不). Let’s now learn a couple of new verbs. The first one is…

Kirin: 会.

Adam: This is a fourth tone.

Kirin: 会.

Adam: Now the verb 会 means “to be able to do something.” We’ll use it in a moment. The other verb I want to introduce is:

Kirin: 说.

Adam: This is a first tone.

Kirin: 说.

Adam: The verb 说 means “to speak.” So putting these two verbs together, we get:

Kirin: 会说

Adam: …which means “to be able to speak.” So with that in mind, can you guess what this next question means?

Kirin: 你会说中文吗?

Adam: Again?

Kirin: 你会说中文吗?

Adam: So by the 吗 at the end, we know that it’s a question. Now the literal meaning is “You can speak Chinese?” or simply “Can you speak Chinese?” Now knowing what we know about how we answer such questions how would you answer that question in the affirmative?

Kirin: 会. 我会说中文.

Adam: And how would you reply “No, I can’t speak Chinese”?

Kirin: 不会. 我不会说中文.

Adam: Now perhaps as beginners, your current answer to the question of “Can you speak Chinese?” may be “no,” but we hope to change that over time. So to build up your confidence, perhaps you would like to answer with “I can speak a little.” So how do we say “a little”?

Kirin: 一点.

Adam: That’s a first tone followed by a third tone.

Kirin: 一点.

Adam: So how would you say “I can speak a little”?

Kirin: 我会说一点.

Adam: Great, so let’s do some practice with the vocabulary we have learned so far. First, I’ll ask you to translate the following from English to Chinese. Try this yourself before listening to the answer.

Are you Australian?

Kirin: 你是澳洲人吗?

Adam: No, I am American.

Kirin: 不是, 我是美国人.

Adam: Can you speak French?

Kirin: 你会说法文吗?

Adam: No I can’t. I can speak English.

Kirin: 不会. 我会说英文.

Adam: Great, so hopefully you got all that. We’ll now teach the possessive particle. We know how to say “ I ”:

Kirin: 我.

Adam: How do we say “my”?

Kirin: 我的.

Adam: So you can see how easy that is. Just add the neutral tone 的 and you get the possessive. Similarly, to say “your” we can say:

Kirin: 你的.

Adam: Good, I think you can see how easy that is and how it extends to other pronouns. A more detailed list can be found in the notes link for Lesson 4 on our website. Now based on what you’ve learned, what do you think the following statement means?

Kirin: 你的中文说得很好.

Adam: This one may be a little tricky but if you look at the literal translation you should able to figure it out. “Your Chinese speak’s very good.” Basically, that means “Your Chinese is very good.” You could use that same construction to tell someone their English is very good too.

Now you may notice that the grammar of this sentence is different from English. Many times in Chinese, the subject is presented first, followed by what’s special about it. So in English we might say “It’s raining heavily today.” In Chinese that would become “Today, rain falls heavily” or something like that. Don’t worry too much about that at this point. Our goal is to give you more examples to get a better feel for the language rather than studying boring grammar rules that you’re not likely to remember. As the course advances, the notes section of each lesson will summarize the highlights and grammar patterns of each lesson. So don’t fright.

Now let’s look at if you just wanted to tell someone “I’m sorry, my Chinese isn’t very good.” First, we need the word for “I’m sorry.” It’s actually the same word they use for “excuse me.” And how do we say that, Kirin?

Kirin: 对不起.

Adam: So it’s actually three characters. The first two are fourth tones and the last character is a third tone. However since this word is said a lot, and usually quite quickly, the central character actually adopts a neutral tone, making it fourth, neutral and third tones.

Kirin: 对不起.

Adam: So that means “I’m sorry” or “excuse me.”

Now to say “My Chinese isn’t very good,” you actually have all the vocabulary necessary to say that. Let’s see if we can put it together.

Kirin: 我的中文说得不好.

Adam: Again.

Kirin: 我的中文说得不好.

Adam: So again, same structure as before – my Chinese, speak’s not good.

Listen to lesson:

Move your mouse pointer over (or touch, from your mobile device) any Chinese words or phrases to get a translation.

Adam: Hello everyone, my name is Adam and welcome to lesson 3.

Kirin: 你好. My name is Kirin.

Adam: For lesson transcripts and other tools to help you learn Chinese, please visit our website. Now let’s start with a review by listening to a very simple conversation using some of the vocabulary taught in Lesson Two.

Kirin: 你好.
Raphael: 你好.
Kirin: 你好吗?
Raphael: 我很好. 谢谢.
Kirin: 再见.
Raphael: 再见.

Adam: Hopefully you were able to follow along. Now that we know how to say “hello,” what if I wanted to say “Hello everybody” or “Hello everyone”? How would I say that?

Kirin: 大家好.

Adam: Again.

Kirin: 大家好.

Adam: 好, so let’s break that down. This is an interesting one. There are three characters here, two of which are new. I highly recommend you take a look at the vocabulary link for this lesson which shows you what these Chinese characters look like, since it will give you extra insight into the language – which will be very valuable, especially later on.

The first character is 大 which is a fourth tone. 大 means “big.” If you look at what this character looks like on our site, it looks like a man stretching his hands out to show that something is big. Tell me that doesn’t fascinate you! The second character was 家 which is a first tone. 家 means “house” or “family,” and the last character we should all know by now 好 which means “good.”

So putting those three together we get “big family good.” So in this context “big family” or “my very extended family” means… “everyone!” So by saying “everyone good” you are actually saying “Hello everyone!”

Kirin: 大家好.

Adam: As we said in our last lesson, where possible we try and break down the meanings of words into their literal definitions to help you figure out how these words and phrases are constructed and to help you piece things together on your own. I find that it also helps in memory to translate these words into something tangible to help you remember them.

So we’ll continue on with a very simple introduction – “I am Adam.” How would I say that, Kirin?

Kirin: 我是 Adam.

Adam: Alright, so let’s analyze that. We have 我, which means “I.” Then we have a new character 是. That’s a fourth tone and is the verb “to be” followed by “Adam,” which is of course my English name.

Kirin: 我是 Adam.

Adam: Now one nice thing about Chinese is that you don’t have to worry about conjugations of verbs. So in English you’d have “I am,” “you are,” “he or she is”. In Chinese you just use the verb 是. Now we already know the words for I, you and he or she, so let’s try this. We have… “I am.”

Kirin: 我是.

Adam: “You are.”

Kirin: 你是.

Adam: “He or she is.”

Kirin: 他 / 她是.

Adam: Great. See how easy that was. Now moving along, usually during introductions people want to know where you’re from, so let’s look at some of the main countries around the world. Let’s start with America:

Kirin: 美国.

Adam: So that’s a third tone followed by a second tone. Again please?

Kirin: 美国.

Adam: Now 美 means “beautiful” and 国 means “country” so the literal translation for “America” in Chinese is actually “beautiful country.”

Kirin: 美国.

Adam: Isn’t that interesting? Let’s do another one: China

Kirin: 中国.

Adam: So that’s a first tone followed by a second tone.

Kirin: 中国.

Adam: Now this actually ends up meaning “middle country” which makes sense since that’s where the Chinese language originates.

Kirin: 中国.

Adam: Now the names of many countries in Chinese end in 国 meaning “country.” In some cases there is a literal meaning as in the case of China or America. In other cases though, the Chinese version is just a transliteration of the English name into Chinese characters. For example, how would you say Canada?

Kirin: 加拿大.

Adam: So that’s a first, second and a fourth tone for the three characters there.

Kirin: 加拿大.

Adam: In this case there is no sense in forming a literal meaning since there isn’t one – it’s just meant to sound like the English name “Canada.”

Kirin: 加拿大.

Adam: Let’s do another one – England.

Kirin: 英国.

Adam: So that’s a first tone 英 followed by 国 which kind of sounds like England. Let’s do another one, France.

Kirin: 法国.

Adam: So that’s a third tone followed by the second for 国. Let’s try Australia.

Kirin: 澳洲.

Adam: So that’s a fourth tone and a first tone.

Kirin: 澳洲.

Adam: Now in the case of Australia they don’t use 国 for “country,” they use 洲 which actually means “continent,” so it has its own special name! Now of course we recognize that there are a lot of countries out there and we do have listeners from different parts of the world, so on our website, in our “Lesson three ” vocabulary link, we do have a listing of other popular countries and their Chinese equivalents. If there is one that you’d like to know that isn’t on the list, send me a comment and we’ll gladly add it.

Now knowing the word in Chinese for a country allows you easy access to some other useful vocabulary. How would you say “American”?

Kirin: 美国人.

Adam: As you can see, this is the name of the country with a second tone 人 added to the end of it.

Kirin: 美国人.

Adam: 人 means “person”. So if you look at the vocabulary link for this lesson on our website, the character looks like a headless person. So by saying 美国人 you are literally saying “America person” or “American.”

Kirin: 美国人.

Adam: Similarly, to say a “Chinese person” you would say:

Kirin: 中国人.

Adam: How about Canadian?

Kirin: 加拿大人.

Adam: Someone from England.

Kirin: 英国人.

Adam: And so on. Now by knowing the country, you can also come up with the names of some languages. How do you say the “Chinese language”?

Kirin: 中文.

Adam: So here you have 中 from 中国 with a second tone 文 added after it.

Kirin: 中文.

Adam: So that gives us the language spoken in 中国 – which, of course, is Chinese. Similarly, for “English” we could say:

Kirin: 英文.

Adam: …which is the language from 英国. Again take a look at the vocabulary link for lesson three on our website to see various countries, their people and their languages.

Listen to lesson:

Adam: Hello, my name is Adam.

Kirin: And I’m Kirin.

Adam: In our lesson last time we introduced the four tones to you in Chinese. If you are not familiar with them, we encourage you to listen to lesson one again to get a handle on them. Now just as a review though Kirin, why don’t you give them to us again, using a different example. Now there were four tones. The first tone was a high tone…

Kirin: 搭, 搭.

Adam: The second tone was the rising tone.

Kirin: 答, 答.

Adam: The third tone was the falling rising tone.

Kirin: 打, 打.

Adam: And lastly we had the fourth tone which was a falling tone.

Kirin: 大, 大.

Adam: Now this is the last time that I’ll refer to the tones as high, rising, falling and rising, and falling. From here on I’ll refer to the tones as tone 1, 2, 3 and 4. So you’ll have to remember which is which. There are only four tones, so hopefully I am not asking too much of you here. Now that we’ve mastered these tones, let’s move on to some useful vocabulary.

Now I’m sure the first thing that anybody wants to know when learning a new language is how to say “hello.” So how do you say “hello” in Chinese, Kirin?

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: Great, now just a note on how we do things around here. You’ll notice a lot of pauses during my conversation with Kirin – especially after she pronounces new words or when I ask her questions. This is done on purpose to get you, our listener, involved. So I highly encourage you to try and pick out the tones she is using and try to repeat them after her. As well, when I ask Kirin a question there will usually be a pause in there so you the listener can try and come up with the answer first before she does. As we said in our previous lesson, if you can sound out the words out aloud, please do so and if not, then please try and do so in your head. Now another point to note is while in English words are made up of letters, in Chinese we deal with characters. A character is essentially a syllable which has its own tone. A word can be made up of one or more characters. So again to say “hello” in Chinese, there are two characters here each of which has its own tone. So listen and try to distinguish what tones they are. So again, Kirin – “hello.”

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: Alright, so the first character was a third tone and the second character was also a third tone.

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: Now let’s look at the literal meaning. The 你 means “you.” And the 好 means “good.” So when you say 你好 in Chinese, you’re actually wishing someone “you good.” Isn’t that interesting? So there are two important characters we’ve learned today – the character for “you” – 你 and the character for “good” 好 and if you put them together you get 你好 which means “Hello!”

You’ll find that a lot in Chinese. When common characters are put together they can represent very different meanings and that’s what we hope to teach you during our podcast lessons. As well, we find that breaking down the meanings of individual words helps in learning so you understand how phrases are constructed in Chinese. Now since we plan to be quite thorough in our teaching, you can check on our website since it actually shows you how the characters we teach you here are written in Chinese. We even show you how to write them on paper. If you were to learn what each character looks like in Chinese before moving on, by the time we get to more advanced lessons, you’ll be able to read entire transcripts in Chinese. That is highly recommended if you are planning to develop fluency!

Now let’s get back to the characters we just saw here. 好 is a very useful character in Chinese because it is also used in the context of “ok.” So many times in conversation you’ll hear people reply with 好 meaning “ok.”
Shall we continue, Kirin?

Kirin: 好.

Adam: Great. As we teach new vocabulary, we’ll try and use them in context to get you in the habit of learning its usage. In future lessons, if you hear us use a word you’re not familiar with, you can check on our website in the Course outline section, where you can hunt down the word in the current lesson and find out which lesson it was first introduced in. So our goal here is to make sure that every Chinese word we use here is taught and understood, so this way you won’t be left behind. Ok?

Kirin: 好.

Adam: Now when someone says 你好 to you, what is the standard response?

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: So basically you just repeat it back to them as you would if they were saying “hello”. So let’s try that.

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: 你好. Just like that – excellent. Let’s move on to “How are you?” Now how would you ask that?

Kirin: 你好吗?

Adam: Now you’ll notice that that’s quite similar to saying “hello” except we’ve added the 吗 character at the end.

Kirin: 你好吗?

Adam: Now 吗 actually doesn’t have a tone – it’s what we call a neutral tone. It’s what we use to turn a statement into a question. So if the literal translation of 你好 means “you good,” “你好吗?” is a question so it’s asking “Are you good?” And that’s what is used to ask “How are you?”.

Kirin: 你好吗?

Adam: Now a culture note here – whereas in English we often ask someone “How are you?” or “How are you doing?” quite casually, in Chinese “你好吗?” is only used when you really want to know how someone is doing. Usually it’s when you meet someone you haven’t seen in a long time. Now getting back to my usage of 好 to mean “ok,” I could also use 好吗? to mean “ok?” as in asking for your approval or agreement. So Kirin if I ask you “好吗?” what would you say?

Kirin: 好.

Adam: Good, she agrees. Now let’s continue. What is the standard response to 你好吗?

Kirin: 我很好.

Adam: 好, so we have a couple of new words here that we can look at. The first one is 我. That’s also a third tone. 我 means “ I ” or “me.”

The next one is 很 which is also a third tone. 很 means “very”
although it has a less intense meaning than the “very” in English so you tend to use it a lot more often in Chinese than you would use “very” in English. The last character which we’ve seen before is 好 which means “good.”

So putting those three words together 我很好, we get… “I’m very good.”

Kirin: 我很好.

Adam: So actually if you can get past the difference in tones between Chinese and English, the actual syntax and grammar is a lot simpler in Chinese than it is in English. Once you figure out this basic syntax, it’s a lot easier to translate phrases to other contexts. For example we now know the word for “you” which is…

Kirin: 你.

Adam: We also know “ I ”:

Kirin: 我.

Adam: So how about the word for “he” or “she”?

Kirin: 他.

Adam: Again…

Kirin: 他.

Adam: Now our listeners should recognize that as a first tone. The word for “he” and “she” is the same in Chinese so you have to distinguish between male and female from the context. If I was pointing at a man when I said 他, you’d know I mean “he” while if I was pointing at a woman you’d know that I meant “she.”

Now getting back to characters, there are actually two different characters for he and she – a male and female equivalent – so in written form you would know the difference whereas in spoken form, you would have to derive it from context. Again, take a look at the premium vocabulary link for this page on our website to see what these characters look like. So knowing what we’ve learned so far, I’ll ask our listeners to play along. How would you ask “How is she?”

Kirin: 她好吗?

Adam: Great, and how would you say “She is great” or “She is very good”?

Kirin: 她很好.

Adam: 好. Now let’s move along to the word for “thanks.” How do you say “thanks”?

Kirin: 谢谢.

Adam: So this word is made up of two characters, and it’s actually the same character said twice, both fourth tones meaning “thanks.”

Kirin: 谢谢.

Adam: Now depending on where you are, you may hear the second word pronounced with a neutral tone giving us 谢谢, rather than 谢谢. Additionally, you can also say a more polite 谢谢你 to mean “thank you” rather than just 谢谢 meaning “thanks”. Hope you got all that!

Let’s end our lesson today by teaching how to say “goodbye.” How do you say “goodbye?”

Kirin: 再见.

Adam: Again?

Kirin: 再见.

Adam: Alright so I’ll ask our listeners if they can figure out the tones on those two characters. They are both…fourth tones. The literal meaning for the two words is 再 meaning “again” and 见 meaning “meet,” so “again meet,” kind of like “See you again.”

Kirin: 再见.

Adam: Let’s wrap up with a review of all the vocabulary we’ve learned today. So we’ll start with “hello.”

Kirin: 你好.

Adam: How are you?

Kirin: 你好吗?

Adam: I’m great.

Kirin: 我很好.

Adam: Thanks.

Kirin: 谢谢.

Adam: Goodbye.

Kirin: 再见.

Listen to lesson:

Hosts: Adam Menon / Kirin Yang

Adam: Hello everyone. And welcome to the first lesson teaching Mandarin Chinese. My name is Adam. I will be your host for much of the series. Now our course is a little bit different from other courses in that it is progressive. What that means is that each lesson continues where the previous left off. So as we tech you new words we are going to use them in later lessons. This also means that in later lessons the amount of English being spoken will be reduced while the amount of Chinese spoken increases. So for example now I am the one introducing the lesson but in the future it will be our Chinese speakers doing the introduction. Don’t worry, however, since there are a couple of rules that we follow. Apart from the new words taught in each lesson we are only allowed to use Chinese taught in earlier lessons within the lesson. This way you will be force to review what was taught earlier. That is also why I am the only speaker in English now because we haven’t taught you any Chinese yet. So there are no Chinese words available for me to use.

Now, when we refer to the Chinese language on this podcast and on our website, we are indeed referring to the Mandarin version of Chinese which is the most common version of the language. With more than eight hundred million speakers around the world it is by far the most spoken language out there so we hope that by listening regularly to our podcasts you will be able to converse with other Mandarin Chinese speakers wherever you are. Now with me today is a special guest who will be with us throughout the course.

Kirin: Hello everyone. My name is Kirin from Taiwan. Thank you for listening.

Adam: Ok, thank you Kirin. I think we’re ready to get started here. We’ll begin with some basics about the Chinese language. The biggest difference between Chinese and English is that Chinese is a tonal language – there are four tones that are used to distinguish words from each other. Really, that’s the key to learning the language for if you can master those four tones – you’ve mastered the hardest part of learning Chinese. In English even if you change tones, the general meaning of a word is still the same. For example with the word “pig” – you could say “pīg, píg, pǐg and pìg” and they’d all be referring to the same thing. In Chinese though if you were to use the word for pig and used those same four different tones you’d actually be saying four completely different words with completely unrelated meanings as you’ll hear in a moment. Now because it’s so important to get these tones right I highly encourage our listeners to try and repeat the Chinese words as you hear them – we leave a pause for you to do just that. If it’s not possible for you to repeat the words out aloud try to do so in your mind. It will make a big difference in the long run.

I’ll now proceed to describe the four tones with Kirin helping me sound them out. Now, how do you say “pig” in Chinese, Kirin?

Kirin: 猪.

Adam: Now that’s the first tone, which is a high tone. Please repeat that for us again, Kirin.

Kirin: 猪.

Adam: Alright. Now that just happens to be the word for “pig” in Chinese. The second tone is a rising tone. Kirin will now demonstrate the second tone with our example.

Kirin: 竹.

Adam: Ok, one more time…

Kirin: 竹.

Adam: Now that means “bamboo.” So you can see the difference between 猪 and 竹. Imagine if you were in a restaurant and were trying to order meat from a pig but you instead asked for meat from a bamboo – that might be a little embarrassing, wouldn’t it? Now, the third tone is what we call a falling rising tone. How does that sound, Kirin?

Kirin: 煮.

Adam: Alright, again?

Kirin: 煮.

Adam: Ok, and that means “to cook.” So wow, completely different meaning again. Now, it’s sometimes hard to differentiate between the second tone and the third tone. Now the difference is that third tone usually lasts a bit longer. So listen to the two tones again and see if you can hear the difference. So first you have the second tone…

Kirin: 竹

Adam: …and the third tone…

Kirin: 煮.

Adam: So I hope you can hear the difference there. The latter is definitely just a little bit longer. Now the last tone is what we call a falling tone. How does that go, Kirin?

Kirin: 住.

Adam: Alright. Can we hear it again?

Kirin: 住.

Adam: Great, and that is the verb “to live.” Isn’t that interesting? So let’s repeat the four tones again, a couple of times each so we can distinguish between them. Again, please try and say these words out aloud or in your head just so you can get the feel for the different tones. So the first tone was a high tone.

Kirin: 猪, 猪.

Adam: The second one was the rising tone.

Kirin: 竹, 竹.

Adam: The third one was the falling, rising tone.

Kirin: 煮, 煮.

Adam: And the last one was the falling tone…

Kirin: 住, 住.

Adam: Excellent! So as you can see from the great difference in meaning between those how important it is to master those tones. Don’t worry though, we’ll let you know which tones we are using for all new vocabulary introduced until you get to the level where you are comfortable enough to determine for yourself. So as long as you try to repeat the words exactly as you hear them, it shouldn’t cause too much trouble in the long term.

Now before we go Kirin, why don’t you pick a few Chinese words and pronounce them for us. We will then try and identify which tone one to four they are.

Kirin: Ok… 起, 起.

Adam: Ok, so do you know what tone that was? That was the third tone, falling rising. Let’s try another one.

Kirin: 听, 听.

Adam: So what tone does that sound like? It was…the high tone. Let’s try another one.

Kirin: 看, 看.

Adam: So that was…the fourth tone, falling. And let’s do one more.

Kirin: 来, 来.

Adam: And that was the second tone – rising.