Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101.com, 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 this is our 18th lesson in our second season of our beginner series.
Echo: Yes the title of this lesson is The Cutest Chinese Kitten.
Anthony: The cutest. Now from my experience, I found that many Chinese people love to have pets.
Echo: Yeah all kinds of pets, not just cats and dogs.
Anthony: Right. So in today’s lesson, we are going to go over some different types of pets.
Echo: And also teach you to ask the name of others pets.
Anthony: That’s right. Now before we go to our dialogue, if you are listening to this podcast on iTunes and you haven’t signed up for a chineseclass101.com, come to chineseclass101.com, enter in your email address and you are going to have access to a bunch of great lessons. Okay so now, on to our dialogue.
DIALOGUE
你的猫真可爱,她叫什么?(Nǐ de māo zhēn kěài, tā jiào shénme?)
她叫咪咪。(Tā jiào Mīmi.)
咪咪,过来。(Mīmi, guòlái.)
Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower.
你的猫真可爱,她叫什么?(Nǐ de māo zhēn kěài, tā jiào shénme?)
她叫咪咪。(Tā jiào Mīmi.)
咪咪,过来。(Mīmi, guòlái.)
Anthony: One more time with English.
Echo: 你的猫真可爱 (Nǐ de māo zhēn kěài)
Anthony: Your cat is really cute.
Echo: 她叫什么?(tā jiào shénme?)
Anthony: What’s her name?
Echo: 她叫咪咪。(Tā jiào Mīmi.)
Anthony: Her name is meme.
Echo: 咪咪,过来。(Mīmi, guòlái.)
Anthony: Meme, come here.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anthony: So Echo, I have a couple of friends who have cats and dogs as pets.
Echo: Yeah me too.
Anthony: But one thing I noticed about pet names here in China are, there are very simple syllables repeated.
Echo: Yeah like 胖胖 (Pàng pàng) or 多多 (Duōduō) or in the dialogue 咪咪.(Mī mī.)
Anthony: Yes and my question is, is there a reason for that?
Echo: Yes because the name is very cute sounding and it’s easier to say when you duplicate the sound.
Anthony: Okay so in our vocab section, we have a bunch of pets to go over.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Some you may already know but a few others that you may not know.
Echo: That’s right. So let’s go to the vocab section now.
VOCAB LIST
Anthony: And now the vocab section.
Echo: 猫 (Māo)
Anthony: Cat.
Echo: 猫, 猫. 狗 (Māo, māo. Gǒu)
Anthony: Dog.
Echo: 狗, 狗. 金鱼 (Gǒu, gǒu. Jīnyú)
Anthony: Koi fish.
Echo: 金鱼, 金鱼. 小猫 (Jīnyú, jīnyú. Xiǎo māo)
Anthony: Kitten.
Echo: 小猫, 小猫. 小狗 (Xiǎo māo, xiǎo māo. Xiǎo gǒu)
Anthony: Puppy.
Echo: 小狗, 小狗. 可爱 (Xiǎo gǒu, xiǎo gǒu. Kě'ài)
Anthony: Cute.
Echo: 可爱, 可爱. 淘气 (Kě'ài, kě'ài. Táoqì)
Anthony: Naughty.
Echo: 淘气, 淘气. 乖 (Táoqì, táoqì. Guāi)
Anthony: To be well behaved.
Echo: 乖, 乖 (Guāi, guāi)
Anthony: Okay so like we mentioned earlier, today’s lesson focuses around pets.
Echo: Yes.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Anthony: And pet names. Okay so Echo, what is our first pet?
Echo: 猫 (Māo)
Anthony: Cat.
Echo: 猫 (Māo)
Anthony: And our sample sentence
Echo: 我有一只猫 (Wǒ yǒuyī zhǐ māo)
Anthony: I have one cat.
Echo: 我有一只猫 (Wǒ yǒuyī zhǐ māo)
Anthony: And it’s important to note the measure word here for cats.
Echo: 只 (Zhǐ)
Anthony: You can use this for dogs too. So our next vocab word.
Echo: 狗 (Gǒu)
Anthony: Dog.
Echo: 狗 (Gǒu)
Anthony: That’s third tone.
Echo: 我养狗。(Wǒ yǎng gǒu.)
Anthony: I raise dogs.
Echo: 你养狗吗 (Nǐ yǎng gǒu ma) Anthony?
Anthony: I’ve raised a few in my day. Turned out pretty well.
Echo: 金鱼 (Jīnyú)
Anthony: Koi fish.
Echo: 他有四条金鱼。(Tā yǒu sìtiáo jīnyú.)
Anthony: He has four Koi fish.
Echo: 他有四条金鱼。(Tā yǒu sìtiáo jīnyú.)
Anthony: So Echo, what’s the measure word used for fish here?
Echo: 条 (Tiáo)
Anthony: Second tone.
Echo: Yes 条 (Tiáo)
Anthony: And we want to use this measure word for all types of fish.
Echo: Right no matter how big it is or how small it is.
Anthony: Okay our next two vocab words are cute.
Echo: 小猫 (Xiǎo māo)
Anthony: Kitten.
Echo: 小猫。你的小猫多大?(Xiǎo māo. Nǐ de xiǎo māo duōdà?)
Anthony: How old is your kitten?
Echo: 你的小猫多大?(Nǐ de xiǎo māo duōdà?)
Anthony: Echo, what do you think the age is where a kitten turns into a cat?
Echo: I think after one.
Anthony: After one year?
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: So one year is the cutoff point. Okay our next one, puppy.
Echo: 小狗 (Xiǎo gǒu)
Anthony: It’s a little dog.
Echo: Yeah 小狗 (Xiǎo gǒu)
Anthony: My puppy is one year old.
Echo: 我的小狗一岁。(Wǒ de xiǎo gǒu yī suì.)
Anthony: But when it hits two, it’s going to turn into a dog. Okay so we have a few words coming up that you can use to describe your pets.
Echo: Right. First one is 可爱 (Kě'ài)
Anthony: Cute.
Echo: 可爱。牠真可爱。(Kě'ài. Tā zhēn kě'ài.)
Anthony: It’s really cute.
Echo: 牠真可爱。(Tā zhēn kě'ài.)
Anthony: Okay. If it’s not being cute, it’s been
Echo: 淘气 (Táoqì)
Anthony: Naughty.
Echo: 淘气。他有点淘气。(Táoqì. Tā yǒudiǎn táoqì.)
Anthony: It’s a little naughty.
Echo: 他有点淘气。(Tā yǒudiǎn táoqì.)
Anthony: And instead of having a cute dog, I rather have this kind of dog.
Echo: 乖 (Guāi)
Anthony: Well behaved dog.
Echo: 乖。我的小猫很乖。(Guāi. Wǒ de xiǎo māo hěn guāi.)
Anthony: Yeah my kitten is very well behaved.
Echo: Or 我的小狗很乖。(Wǒ de xiǎo gǒu hěn guāi.)
Anthony: My puppy is very well behaved. Okay so to review, we’ve gone over a few pets. For example
Echo: 猫 (Māo)
Anthony: Cat.
Echo: 狗 (Gǒu)
Anthony: Dog.
Echo: 小猫 (Xiǎo māo)
Anthony: Kitty.
Echo: 小狗 (Xiǎo gǒu)
Anthony: Puppy.
Echo: And 金鱼 (Jīnyú)
Anthony: Koi fish or goldfish.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Also we’ve gone over couple of adjectives that you can use to describe your pets.
Echo: 可爱 (Kě'ài)
Anthony: Cute.
Echo: 淘气 (Táoqì)
Anthony: Naughty.
Echo: Or your favorite 乖。(Guāi.)
Anthony: Well behaved. So that does it for our vocab section, Let’s go into the grammar point.
Echo: Okay.

Lesson focus

Anthony: In today’s grammar focus, we are going to be reviewing the verb
Echo: 叫 (Jiào)
Anthony: And this is to be called. We saw it used in this sentence in our dialogue.
Echo: 她叫什么?(Tā jiào shénme?)
Anthony: What is her name?
Echo: 她叫什么?(Tā jiào shénme?)
Anthony: And the literal translation is her to be called what.
Echo: Right and the answer was 她叫咪咪。(Tā jiào mī mī.)
Anthony: Her name is meme.
Echo: 她叫咪咪。(Tā jiào mī mī.)
Anthony: She to be called meme.
Echo: Right. The verb 叫 (Jiào) connects our pronoun 她 (Tā) with our name meme.
Anthony: Yeah and this is the most useful way to introduce either yourself or a pet in Chinese.
Echo: Right. This structure can be used in both casual and formal situations.
Anthony: Now we are going to go over some common sample sentences that you can use when asking about pet names.
Echo: 你们的小狗叫什么?(Nǐmen de xiǎo gǒu jiào shénme?)
Anthony: What’s your puppy’s name?
Echo: 你们的小狗叫什么?(Nǐmen de xiǎo gǒu jiào shénme?)
Anthony: Or literally your puppy to be called what.
Echo: Yes.
Anthony: Now the response to this question can be
Echo: 我们的小狗叫旺旺。(Wǒmen de xiǎo gǒu jiào wàngwàng.)
Anthony: Our puppy’s name is Wang Wang.
Echo: 我们的小狗叫旺旺。(Wǒmen de xiǎo gǒu jiào wàngwàng.)
Anthony: Literally it’s our puppy to be called Wang Wang.
Echo: Yeah Wang Wang is the way Chinese dogs bark.
Anthony: Yeah instead of Roof Roof it’s Wang Wang.
Echo: Yes Wang Wang It’s cute. 他们的小猫叫什么?(Tāmen de xiǎo māo jiào shénme?)
Anthony: What’s their kitty’s name?
Echo: 他们的小猫叫什么?(Tāmen de xiǎo māo jiào shénme?)
Anthony: Yes their kitten to be called what?
Echo: 他们的小猫叫嘻嘻。(Tāmen de xiǎo māo jiào xī xī.)
Anthony: Their cat’s name is Xixi.
Echo: 他们的小猫叫嘻嘻。(Tāmen de xiǎo māo jiào xī xī.)
Anthony: Their kitten to be called Xixi.
Echo: Also you can put 名字 (Míngzì)“name” in the sentence. 她叫什么名字?(Tā jiào shénme míngzì?)
Anthony: Her to be called what name?
Echo: 她叫什么名字?(Tā jiào shénme míngzì?)
Anthony: Or what is her name.
Echo: To answer this, you can say 她的名字叫小淘气。(Tā de míngzì jiào xiǎo táoqì.)
Anthony: Her name is little rascal.
Echo: 她的名字叫小淘气。(Tā de míngzì jiào xiǎo táoqì.)
Anthony: Okay so we are going to give you two more sample sentences using the verb to be called.
Echo: 叫。你的鱼叫什么名字?(Jiào. Nǐ de yú jiào shénme míngzì?)
Anthony: What’s the name of your fish?
Echo: 你的鱼叫什么名字?(Nǐ de yú jiào shénme míngzì?)
Anthony: Or literally your fish to be called what name.
Echo: 我的鸟叫Polly。(Wǒ de niǎo jiào Polly.)
Anthony: My bird’s name is Polly.
Echo: 我的鸟叫Polly。(Wǒ de niǎo jiào Polly.)
Anthony: My bird to be called Polly.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: To review. When using the verb to be called, we want to follow this structure.
Echo: Subject plus 叫 (Jiào) plus the name.
Anthony: Now if you want to add the word name
Echo: 名字 (Míngzì)
Anthony: You just put it before to be called.
Echo: Right 她的名字叫咪咪。(Tā de míngzì jiào mī mī.)
Anthony: Yeah her name to be called is meme.
Echo: Right.

Outro

Anthony: Okay so that’s it and that’s the end of our podcast.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: If you haven’t yet signed up an account with chineseclass101.com, it couldn’t be easier. Echo, what do you have to do?
Echo: Just come to chineseclass101.com and enter your email address.
Anthony: That’s right. All you have to do, type in your email address and you are automatically going to get access to a bunch of lessons that’s going to get you learning Chinese faster, quicker and in the most fun way possible.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Okay so with that said, from Beijing, I am Anthony.
Echo: 我是 (Wǒ shì) Echo。
Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next time.
Echo: 下次见,(Xià cì jiàn,) Bye bye.
Anthony: Bye bye.

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