Learn how to ask people how much money something costs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| Echo: 大家好， 我是Echo。 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: And I am Anthony and today, we have our 11th lesson in our second season of our beginner series called Paying the Bill. So Echo, what is today’s lesson all about? |
| Echo: It’s about money, 钱. (Qián.) |
| Anthony: That’s right money. That’s what makes the world go around. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: And we are also going to be talking about asking how much. |
| Echo: Right, 多少. (Duōshǎo.) |
| Anthony: So today’s lesson takes place in a restaurant. |
| Echo: Between a waiter and a customer. |
| Anthony: And the customer is ready to pay the bill. |
| Echo: And of course, they are speaking casually. |
| Anthony: That’s right but before we go to our dialogue, if you haven’t yet, come to chineseclass101.com, spend $4, become a basic subscriber. With this, you are going to be able to download our lesson notes and PDFs. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: And you are also going to get access to all of our audio files for every lesson that we’ve ever done. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s a great deal. |
| Anthony: It is a great deal. Now let’s go to our dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duō shǎo qián ?) |
| 50块。 (Wǔshí kuài.) |
| 给你50。 (Gěi nǐ wǔshí.) |
| 整好。 (Zhěng hǎo.) |
| Anthony: One more time a little slower. |
| 服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duō shǎo qián ?) |
| 50块。 (Wǔshí kuài.) |
| 给你50。 (Gěi nǐ wǔshí.) |
| 整好。 (Zhěng hǎo.) |
| Anthony: One more time with English. |
| Echo: 服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duō shǎo qián ?) |
| Anthony: Waiter, how much money? |
| Echo: 五十块。 (Wǔshí kuài.) |
| Anthony: 50 quays. |
| Echo: 给你五十。 (Gěi nǐ wǔshí.) |
| Anthony: Here is 50. |
| Echo: 整好。 (Zhěng hǎo.) |
| Anthony: Perfect. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anthony: Hey Echo, do you know the secret to getting good service in Chinese restaurants? |
| Echo: To yell out. |
| Anthony: That’s right but not only do you have to yell out but you have to use perfect pronunciation. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Anthony: So if you are not using perfect pronunciation, you are going to get horrible service. |
| Echo: Or they just can’t hear you. |
| Anthony: That’s right because Chinese restaurants are pretty loud places. So the way to get proper pronunciation. |
| Echo: And good service. |
| Anthony: And good service is by listening to our vocabulary section. |
| Echo: Right. Okay now, on to the vocab section. |
| Anthony: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anthony: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 服务员 (fúwùyuán) |
| Anthony: Waiter. |
| Echo: 服务员, 服务员. 多少 (fúwùyuán, fúwùyuán. duōshǎo) |
| Anthony: How much. |
| Echo: 多少, 多少. 钱 (duōshǎo, duōshǎo. qián) |
| Anthony: Money. |
| Echo: 钱, 钱. 整好 (qián, qián. zhěnghǎo) |
| Anthony: Perfect. |
| Echo: 整好, 整好. 给 (zhěnghǎo, zhěnghǎo. gěi) |
| Anthony: To give. |
| Echo: 给, 给. 块 (gěi, gěi. kuài) |
| Anthony: Measure word for money. |
| Echo: 块, 块. 毛 (kuài, kuài. máo) |
| Anthony: One tenth of a Quay. |
| Echo: 毛, 毛. (máo, máo.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Anthony: So Echo, the first word in our vocabulary section is |
| Echo: 服务员 (fúwùyuán) |
| Anthony: Waiter. |
| Echo: Or you can also say 服务员. (fúwùyuán.) |
| Anthony: Yes and this is the standard way to say it. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: But in Chinese, there is no distinction between male and female waiter. There is no waitress and no waiter. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: It’s just one. |
| Echo: Just 服务员. (fúwùyuán.) |
| Anthony: Makes things easy. Okay so Echo, let’s hear that in a sample sentence. |
| Echo: Okay 服务员，买单。 (fúwùyuán, Mǎidān) |
| Anthony: Yes waiter, I am ready to pay the bill. |
| Echo: 服务员，买单。多少？ (Fúwùyuán, mǎidān. Duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: This is how many or how much. |
| Echo: 多少？ (Duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: Yeah and the two characters here are |
| Echo: 多 (Duō) |
| Anthony: Which is “many” |
| Echo: And 少 (Shǎo) |
| Anthony: Which is ”few“. |
| Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo) |
| Anthony: So we have many, few. |
| Echo: 一共多少钱？ (Yīgòng duōshǎo qián?) |
| Anthony: Altogether, how much money. |
| Echo: 一共多少钱？ (Yīgòng duōshǎo qián?) |
| Anthony: So you’ve asked the clerk how much. Now you want to give him this. |
| Echo: 钱 (Qián) |
| Anthony: Money. |
| Echo: 钱 (Qián) |
| Anthony: What you don’t want to say is |
| Echo: 我没钱了。 (Wǒ méi qiánle.) |
| Anthony: I don’t have any money. |
| Echo: 我没钱了。 (Wǒ méi qiánle.) |
| Anthony: This next word you actually want to have. |
| Echo: 零钱 (Língqián) |
| Anthony: And that’s change. |
| Echo: 零钱 (Língqián) |
| Anthony: These are both second tones. |
| Echo: 你有零钱吗？ (Nǐ yǒu língqián ma?) |
| Anthony: Do you have change? |
| Echo: 你有零钱吗？ (Nǐ yǒu língqián ma?) |
| Anthony: You know, when I get into a taxi, before I even tell the driver where I want to go, I ask him do you have a change? |
| Echo: Wow that’s weird Anthony. |
| Anthony: No it’s not weird because a lot of times, you will find yourself at the end of a taxi ride with only a 100 quay. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: And they want to have change and then it’s, what to do. |
| Echo: Then I will say, I will give you next time. |
| Anthony: Yeah. |
| Echo: And then just go. |
| Anthony: That’s right. |
| Echo: It’s not my responsibility to prepare 零钱 (Língqián) |
| Anthony: But one time, this guy, he inflated my bike tires and I didn’t have free 毛 (Máo) on me. |
| Echo: God! |
| Anthony: So I told him I would give him money next time. Actually no, he told me to give him money next time. |
| Echo: Oh! |
| Anthony: And about a week later, I got around to paying him, so…. |
| Echo: Oh really. |
| Anthony: Yeah, it worked out really well. |
| Echo: Hmm that’s good. |
| Anthony: Very trusting man. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: So on to our next word. |
| Echo: 整好 (Zhěng hǎo) |
| Anthony: And this is perfect as in perfect amount of change. |
| Echo: 整好 (Zhěng hǎo) |
| Anthony: Yeah and I like hearing this word as I said earlier. |
| Echo: 整好五十块钱。 (Zhěng hǎo wǔshí kuài qián.) |
| Anthony: 50 Renminbi is the perfect amount. |
| Echo: 整好五十块钱。 (Zhěng hǎo wǔshí kuài qián.) |
| Anthony: Right. So the next word Echo. |
| Echo: 给 (Gěi) |
| Anthony: And this is the verb to give. |
| Echo: 给 (Gěi) |
| Anthony: Third tone. |
| Echo: 给我一双筷子。 (Gěi wǒ yīshuāng kuàizi.) |
| Anthony: Give me a pair of chopsticks. |
| Echo: 给我一双筷子。 (Gěi wǒ yīshuāng kuàizi.) |
| Anthony: Yeah this is one of those very useful sentences in the restaurant especially if you happen to drop your chopsticks on the floor. |
| Echo: And something else like 餐巾纸，餐巾纸。 (Cānjīnzhǐ, cānjīnzhǐ.) |
| Anthony: Yes napkins. |
| Echo: 给我餐巾纸。 (Gěi wǒ cānjīnzhǐ.) |
| Anthony: Give me napkins. Great, so the last two words in our vocabulary section are measure words for money. |
| Echo: 没错, (Méi cuò,) first one is 块. (Kuài.) |
| Anthony: And this is just a standard measure word for money. |
| Echo: 块. (Kuài.) And we can say 三块钱，行不行？ (Sān kuài qián, xíng bùxíng?) |
| Anthony: Is 3 quay okay? And this comes in really handy when you are haggling for goods. |
| Echo: 三块钱，行不行？ (Sān kuài qián, xíng bùxíng?) |
| Anthony: Okay. Our next unit of currency. |
| Echo: 毛. (Máo.) |
| Anthony: And this is like the Chinese dime. It’s 1/10th of a 块. (Kuài.) |
| Echo: Right 毛. 你有五毛吗？ (Máo. Nǐ yǒu wǔmáo ma?) |
| Anthony: Do you have 5 mao? |
| Echo: 你有五毛吗？ (Nǐ yǒu wǔmáo ma?) |
| Anthony: Okay so we’ve covered a lot of words in our vocabulary section. Now it’s time to go to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Anthony: So the focus of this grammar section is asking how much. |
| Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo) |
| Anthony: In the dialogue, we heard this sentence. |
| Echo: 服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duōshǎo qián?) |
| Anthony: Waiter, how much money? |
| Echo: And the word 多少 (Duōshǎo) how many or how much is a compound of the words 多 (Duō) and 少. (Shǎo.) |
| Anthony: And this means many and few or much and little. Now this word can be used as a question on its own. |
| Echo: 多少？ (Duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: How much or as in our dialogue, |
| Echo: 多少钱？ (Duōshǎo qián?) |
| Anthony: How much money? Let’s take a look at a few examples on how we can use this word. Echo. |
| Echo: 她有多少衣服？ (Tā yǒu duōshǎo yīfú?) |
| Anthony: How many clothes does she have? |
| Echo: 她有多少衣服？ (Tā yǒu duōshǎo yīfú?) |
| Anthony: And usually it’s a lot, right? |
| Echo: Usually it’s like always one less. |
| Anthony: One less. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Anthony: I always need one more piece of clothing. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Anthony: Okay got it. Okay so our next example. |
| Echo: 你家有多少房间？ (Nǐ jiā yǒu duōshǎo fángjiān?) |
| Anthony: How many rooms does your house have? |
| Echo: 你家有多少房间？ (Nǐ jiā yǒu duōshǎo fángjiān?) And 多少 (Duōshǎo) combined with measure words like 个 (Gè) to form questions like 多少个人？ (Duōshǎo gèrén?) |
| Anthony: Yeah. How many people? |
| Echo: 多少个人？ (Duōshǎo gèrén?) |
| Anthony: Okay so there is a formula that we can use when using measure words and asking how much. Echo, what’s that formula? |
| Echo: It’s 多少 (Duōshǎo) plus the measure word and plus the object. |
| Anthony: Great. So let’s try out a few sample sentences using this formula. |
| Echo: 你们有多少个人？ (Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?) |
| Anthony: How many people are there? |
| Echo: Like if you walk into a Chinese restaurant, they may ask you this question. |
| Anthony: That’s right or when you are booking a hotel room. |
| Echo: 你们有多少个人？ 你们有多少个人？ (Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén? Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?) Notice that the measure word directly followed 多少。你们有多少个人？ (Duōshǎo. Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?) |
| Anthony: Okay so our next example. |
| Echo: 你看了多少本书？ (Nǐ kànle duōshǎo běn shū?) |
| Anthony: How many books have you read? |
| Echo: Here the measure word is 本 (Běn) and it is directly placed after 多少。你看了多少本书？ (Duōshǎo. Nǐ kànle duōshǎo běn shū?) |
| Anthony: So in the last few sample sentences, we’ve been placing how many before the object. The last point we are going to cover is a way to put how many after the subject. |
| Echo: Right like 价格多少？ (Jiàgé duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: How much is the price. |
| Echo: 价格多少？ (Jiàgé duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: Okay let’s see another example. |
| Echo: 号码多少？ (Hàomǎ duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: What’s the number? |
| Echo: 号码多少？ (Hàomǎ duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: So remember, how many can go after the subject. |
| Echo: And also like in our previous lesson, we’ve learned 密码多少？ (Mìmǎ duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: That’s right when we are asking for the wireless internet and the password. |
| Echo: 密码多少？ (Mìmǎ duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: So to review, we’ve learned that. |
| Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo) can be used to ask how few or how many, and we also learned that you can place a measure word directly after 多少 (Duōshǎo) as in the sentence 你们有多少个人？ (Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?) |
| Anthony: Right. How many people are there? And lastly, how many can be placed directly after the subject. |
| Echo: Right like 价格多少？ (Jiàgé duōshǎo?) |
| Anthony: Yeah. How much is the price. Okay so that’s the end of our grammar section and that brings us to the end of this lesson. |
| Echo: Right. |
Outro |
| Anthony: Before we go though, repetition is the best way to quickly improve your Chinese. That’s why our line by line audio tool is perfect for rapidly improving listening comprehension. |
| Echo: The line by line audio lets you listen to lines of the conversation again and again. |
| Anthony: Listening again and again until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically we break down the dialogue into comprehensible bite size sentences. |
| Echo: And you can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at chineseclass101.com |
| Anthony: That’s right. From Beijing, I am Anthony. |
| Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next time. |
| Echo: 下次见，拜拜。 (Xià cì jiàn, bàibài.) |
| Anthony: Bye bye. |
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