Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David.
Echo:大家好,我是Echo.(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
David: And Echo, we are here with elementary lesson #39 in our first series.
Echo: 没错,第三十九课。(Méi cuò, dì sānshíjiǔ kè.)
David: Yeah. And Halloween is approaching and we’ve got a dialogue that’s all about What Happens When Ghosts Get Out?
Echo: Yeah 全都是为了 (Quándōu shì wèile)Halloween.
David: It’s between two friends and they are speaking casual Mandarin as always.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Okay. We are going to take you to the dialogue in a moment. Before we do, we want to mention, our dialogues are getting longer and they are getting more difficult.
Echo: 对。(Duì.)
David: So if you haven’t grabbed our premium PDF yet, come to the site, subscribe and you are going to get access to everything you need.
Echo: 没错,他可以帮助你更好地看我们的 (Méi cuò, tā kěyǐ bāngzhù nǐ gèng hǎo de kàn wǒmen de)Text.
David: Right. Now though, we are going to take you through the dialogue one time fast, one time slow and then we are going to translate it line by line.
DIALOGUE
A:昨天我看见鬼了。(Zuótiān wǒ kànjiàn guǐ le.)
B:鬼?(Guǐ?)
A:对,就在你的卧室里。(Duì, jiù zài nǐ de wòshì lǐ.)
B:不可能。你怎么相信有鬼?(Bù kěnéng. Nǐ zěnme xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ?)
A:她穿着白衣服,还一直呜呜地叫呢!(Tā chuān zhe bái yīfu, hái yīzhí wūwū de jiào ne!)
B:哦,是我奶奶。她就这样。(O, shì wǒ nǎinai. Tā jiù zhèyàng.)
One more time, a bit slower.
A:昨天我看见鬼了。(Zuótiān wǒ kànjiàn guǐ le.)
B:鬼?(Guǐ?)
A:对,就在你的卧室里。(Duì, jiù zài nǐ de wòshì lǐ.)
B:不可能。你怎么相信有鬼?(Bù kěnéng. Nǐ zěnme xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ?)
A:她穿着白衣服,还一直呜呜地叫呢!(Tā chuān zhe bái yīfu, hái yīzhí wūwū de jiào ne!)
B:哦,是我奶奶。她就这样。(O, shì wǒ nǎinai. Tā jiù zhèyàng.)
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Echo: 昨天我看见鬼了。(Zuótiān wǒ kànjiàn guǐ le.)
David: Yesterday I saw a ghost.
Echo: 鬼?(Guǐ?)
David: A ghost!
Echo: 对,就在你的卧室里。(Duì, jiù zài nǐ de wòshì lǐ.)
David: Yeah it was in your bedroom.
Echo: 不可能。你怎么相信有鬼?(Bù kěnéng. Nǐ zěnme xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ?)
David: That’s not possible. How can you believe in ghosts?
Echo: 她穿着白衣服,还一直呜呜地叫呢!(Tā chuān zhe bái yīfu, hái yīzhí wūwū de jiào ne!)
David: She was wearing white clothes and continuously made this woo wooing… sound.
Echo: 哦,是我奶奶。她就这样。(O, shì wǒ nǎinai. Tā jiù zhèyàng.)
David: It’s my grandmother. She is just that way.
Echo: She is just like that.
David: She is just like that yeah, yeah! So maybe it was a ghost, maybe not.
Echo: 好恐怖呀。(Hǎo kǒngbù ya.)
David: You have any relatives like this Echo?
Echo: 没有,我很幸运。(Méiyǒu, wǒ hěn xìngyùn.)
David: Okay. Halloween is approaching and our vocab is all about scary stuff. So let’s get right to that and now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 鬼 (guǐ)
David: Ghost.
Echo: 噩梦 (èmèng)
David: Nightmare.
Echo: 害怕 (hàipà)
David: To be afraid.
Echo: 恐怖 (kǒngbù)
David: Terrifying.
Echo: 万圣节 (Wànshèng jié)
David: Halloween.
Echo: 卧室 (wòshì)
David: Bedroom.
Echo: 相信 (xiāngxìn)
David: To believe.
Echo: 穿着 (chuān zhe)
David: To be wearing.
Echo: 一直 (yìzhí)
David: Continuously.
Echo: 一直 (yìzhí)
David: So a lot of scary vocab or vocab useful for describing scary things.
Echo: 你可以在万圣节的时候用。 (Nǐ kěyǐ zài wànshèngjié de shíhòu yòng.)
David: Yes or any other time when you have a nightmare.
Echo: 噩梦。(Èmèng.)
David: What’s the opposite of a nightmare in Chinese?
Echo: 好梦。 (Hǎo mèng.)
David: And there is also
Echo: 美梦。噩梦,好梦,美梦。(Měimèng. Èmèng, hǎo mèng, měimèng.)
David: So you could say, yesterday I had a nightmare.
Echo: 昨天我做了一个噩梦。(Zuótiān wǒ zuòle yīgè èmèng.)
David: I had a great dream yesterday.
Echo: 昨天我做了一个美梦。记住这个(Zuótiān wǒ zuòle yīgè měimèng. Jì zhù zhège) verb应该是“做”。(yīnggāi shì “zuò”.)
David: To have a dream.
Echo: 做梦。(Zuòmèng.)
David: To have a nightmare.
Echo: 做恶梦。(Zuò è mèng.)
David: Of the rest of the words we’ve got, two which are kind of close. There is to be scared.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Echo: 害怕。(hàipà.)
David: I am scared.
Echo: 我很害怕。(Wǒ hěn hàipà.)
David: And our second word.
Echo: 恐怖。(Kǒngbù.)
David: Is more of an adjective. So you could say that something is terrifying. Yesterday I had a terrifying dream.
Echo: 昨天我做了一个恐怖的噩梦。(Zuótiān wǒ zuòle yīgè kǒngbù de èmèng.)
David: And we see this in the news a lot these days too.
Echo: 恐怖分子。(Kǒngbù fèn zi.)
David: Which would be terror elements or terrorists.
Echo: Yeah. Or 恐怖主义。(Kǒngbù zhǔyì.)
David: Terrorism. Another word that’s interesting here is the word for believe.
Echo: 相信。(Xiāngxìn.)
David: I believe in ghosts.
Echo: 我相信有鬼。(Wǒ xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ.)
David: What would it mean if it was 我相信鬼。(Wǒ xiāngxìn guǐ.)
Echo: It means you trust them.
David: You trust or you believe the ghost.
Echo: 对,比如说“我相信上帝”。(Duì, bǐrú shuō “wǒ xiāngxìn shàngdì”.)
David: Any other words you think are interesting here?
Echo: 一直。(Yīzhí.)
David: Continuously.
Echo: 一直。(Yīzhí.)
David: In the dialogue, we had the line, she was continuously making a wooing sound.
Echo: 她一直呜呜的叫。(Tā yīzhí wū wū de jiào.)
David: That’s our vocab section for today. Remember, our key words are nightmare.
Echo: 噩梦。(Èmèng.)
David: Beautiful dream.
Echo: 美梦。(Měimèng.)
David: The difference between
Echo: 害怕。(Hàipà.)
David: And
Echo: 恐怖。(Kǒngbù.)
David: And finally we talked a bit about belief.
Echo: 相信。(Xiāngxìn.)
David: Right. Let’s head to the grammar section. It’s grammar time. Our grammar lesson for you today is all about the present continuous.

Lesson focus

Echo: With 这。(Zhè.)
David: Yeah. We are going to teach you actually two ways of saying that things are happening or are ongoing.
Echo: The first way is to use the particle 着。笑着。(Zhe. Xiàozhe.)
David: To be smiling.
Echo: 跑着。(Pǎozhe.)
David: To be running.
Echo: 叫着。(Jiàozhe.)
David: To be crying or making a noise.
Echo: 笑着,跑着,叫着(Xiàozhe, pǎozhe, jiàozhe.)。 Remember when you use 着 (Zhe), make sure you use it with a neuter tone.
David: Yeah fifth tone, neutral. In the dialogue, we heard this in the following sentence. 她穿着白衣服,还一直呜呜地叫呢! (Tā chuānzhe bái yīfú, hái yīzhí wū wū de jiào ne!)
Echo: 她穿着白衣服,还一直呜呜地叫呢!(Tā chuānzhe bái yīfú, hái yīzhí wū wū de jiào ne!)
David: She was wearing white clothing and continuously making this woo…woo sounds. It’s not good way to translate that into English. Woo…sound.
Echo: I know, I know you are making it cute instead of 恐怖。(Kǒngbù.)
David: Yeah. Anyway, let’s simplify that a bit. We’ve got two verbs there. The first is to be wearing.
Echo: 穿。(Chuān.)
David: And we put that into the continuous with
Echo: 穿着。(Chuānzhe.)
David: The second is to make a sound.
Echo: 叫。(Jiào.)
David: We could also put that in the continuous as well.
Echo: 她穿着白衣服还叫着。(Tā chuānzhe bái yīfú hái jiàozhe.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 现在有点恐怖。(Xiànzài yǒudiǎn kǒngbù.)
David: Yeah now it’s a bit less cartoony. So we’ve got two verbs there. The first is to be wearing.
Echo: 穿着。(Chuānzhe.)
David: And the second is to be crying.
Echo: 叫着。(Jiàozhe.)
David: Let’s have some more examples.
Echo: Right. 他总是笑着。(Tā zǒng shì xiàozhe.)
David: He is always smiling or laughing.
Echo: 没错。鬼在卧室里跑着。(Méi cuò. Guǐ zài wòshì lǐ pǎozhe.)
David: The ghost is running around the bedroom.
Echo: 好恐怖呀。(Hǎo kǒngbù ya.)
David: I guess so. One thing that’s useful to remember is that we are treating 着 (Zhe) just like 了(Le) and 过(Guò). If we have verbs that have objects, we have to break them apart and stick the 着 (Zhe) in the middle.
Echo: Exactly. Just like 这个人看着电视。(Zhège rén kànzhe diànshì.)
David: This person is watching television. It’s pretty easy this right?
Echo: Right.
David: If you already know how to use 了 (le) put things in the past tense. You know how to use this.
Echo: Right.
David: It’s so easy in fact. We are not done. We are going to teach people another way of…
Echo: 第二种。(Dì èr zhǒng.)
David: Yeah. This is another way of putting things into you kind of a continuous sense.
Echo: 差不多。(Chàbùduō.)
David: What is that?
Echo: We don’t want to use 着 (Zhe) try putting 在 (Zài) in front of the verb.
David: That’s short for 正在。(Zhèngzài.)
Echo: Right. 正在。他总是在笑。(Zhèngzài. Tā zǒng shì zài xiào.)
David: He is always smiling. How about they are eating food. We had that sentence too.
Echo: 他们吃着饭。(Tāmen chīzhe fàn.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: Now it can be 他们在吃饭。(Tāmen zài chīfàn.)
David: Grammatically there is a bit less emphasis on it being continuous but especially if you are talking about the present tense
Echo: Yeah it means something is going on.
David: Yeah.
Echo: Or was going on. It’s going to go.
David: Yeah and for extra emphasis, super bonus points. Stick this in the sentence two.
Echo: 一直。他一直在看电视。(Yīzhí. Tā yīzhí zài kàn diànshì.)

Outro

David: And that’s our lesson for today. Two grammar points relatively simple.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: How to express things in the continuous tense. Okay Echo, something you wanted to say.
Echo: 你知道我最喜欢什么吗?(Nǐ zhīdào wǒ zuì xǐhuān shénme ma?)
David: You love replying to comments.
Echo: Right and reading them too.
David: Yeah.
Echo: 对,给我们留言吧 (Duì, gěi wǒmen liúyán ba) No matter you have questions or suggestions or anything you want to share with us.
David: Yeah. Leave a note on the site or send us an email. We love to hear from you.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: And with that, we are done with our podcast for today.
Echo: From Beijing, 我是 (Wǒ shì)Echo.
David: I am David and we will see you next week.
Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.)
David: Bye.

Grammar

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