Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David.
Echo: 嗨,大家好,我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
David: And we are here with a phenomenal elementary lesson which is lesson #33 in season 1.
Echo: In our elementary.
David: Yes in our elementary series and actually the grammar point is really exciting too. It’s something a lot of people don’t figure out until later when they are like wait a minute! Why wasn’t I taught this earlier? We are going to teach it to you now and we are going to teach it to you in a dialogue between a man and the woman.
Echo: And they are talking about washing clothes.
David: They are talking about housework at home, casual dialogue.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Now let’s get on to the dialogue.
Echo: David 等一下。(Děng yīxià.)
David: Right. Before we get on to the dialogue, we want to remind you. If you haven’t yet visited chineseclass101.com, get your free trial account and you are going to get access to all of these great premium features that we’ve got.
Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò)
David: They are going to help you learn faster but for now, the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A:宝贝儿,我今天洗衣服了。(Bǎobèir, wǒ jīntiān xǐ yīfu le.)
B:太好了,我明天要穿那件白衬衫。(Tàihǎole, wǒ míngtiān yào chuān nà jiàn bái chènshān.)
A:嗯,都晾在阳台上了,你去收吧。(Ng, dōu liàng zài yángtái shàng le, nǐ qù shōu ba.)
B:嗯?怎么变粉了?(Ng? Zěnme biàn fěn le?)
A:呃,可能有点儿染了。(E, kěnéng yǒu diǎnr rǎn le.)
B:这条短裙是谁的?(Zhè tiáo duǎnqún shì shéi de?)
A:那不是你的吗?嗯,可能有点儿缩水。(Nà bù shì nǐ de ma? Ng, kěnéng yǒu diǎnr suōshuǐ.)
Once more slowly.
A:宝贝儿,我今天洗衣服了。(Bǎobèir, wǒ jīntiān xǐ yīfu le.)
B:太好了,我明天要穿那件白衬衫。(Tàihǎole, wǒ míngtiān yào chuān nà jiàn bái chènshān.)
A:嗯,都晾在阳台上了,你去收吧。(Ng, dōu liàng zài yángtái shàng le, nǐ qù shōu ba.)
B:嗯?怎么变粉了?(Ng? Zěnme biàn fěn le?)
A:呃,可能有点儿染了。(E, kěnéng yǒu diǎnr rǎn le.)
B:这条短裙是谁的?(Zhè tiáo duǎnqún shì shéi de?)
A:那不是你的吗?嗯,可能有点儿缩水。(Nà bù shì nǐ de ma? Ng, kěnéng yǒu diǎnr suōshuǐ.)
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: Echo, does this ever happen to you?
Echo: Yes.
David: Callous boyfriend.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Dyed clothing, shrunken clothing.
Echo: 我记得有一次我有一条非常漂亮的白色的裙子,一个白的dress. (Wǒ jìdé yǒu yīcì wǒ yǒu yītiáo fēicháng piàoliang de báisè de qúnzi, yīgè bái de dress.)
David: Yeah.
Echo: 然后被某人在洗衣服的时候变成了红色。(Ránhòu bèi mǒu rén zài xǐ yīfú de shíhòu biàn chéngle hóngsè.)
David: Now when you say 某人 (Mǒu rén) and you mean your boyfriend?
Echo: Uhoo…Some certain special one.
David: Hah! Well no one is perfect. We are going to take you through this dialogue line by line now. So if you missed out on anything, we are going to bring you up to date. Echo, take us away.
Echo: 宝贝儿,我今天洗衣服了。(Bǎobèi er, wǒ jīntiān xǐ yīfúle.)
David: Baby, I washed the clothes today.
Echo: 太好了,我明天要穿那件白衬衫。(Tàihǎole, wǒ míngtiān yào chuān nà jiàn bái chènshān.)
David: Awesome! Tomorrow I am going to wear that white shirt.
Echo: 嗯,都晾在阳台上了,你去收吧。(Ng, dōu liàng zài yángtái shàng le, nǐ qù shōu ba.)
David: Hah! They are all drying on the sundeck, go and get it.
Echo: 嗯?怎么变粉了?(Ng? Zěnme biàn fěn le?)
David: Hah, how did it turn pink?
Echo: 呃,可能有点儿染了。(E, kěnéng yǒu diǎnr rǎn le.)
David: Ah maybe the colors ran a bit.
Echo: 这条短裙是谁的?(Zhè tiáo duǎnqún shì shéi de?)
David: Whose skirt is this?
Echo: 那不是你的吗?嗯,可能有点儿缩水。(Nà bù shì nǐ de ma? Ng, kěnéng yǒu diǎnr suōshuǐ.)
David: That’s not yours. Maybe it’s shrunk a bit. We’ve got some great vocab items for you today. Our vocab section is all about washing clothes.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: So it’s…
Echo: They are very useful.
David: Yes if you are going to complain about someone else washing your clothes, this is useful vocab. If you are going to get someone else to wash your clothes, this is useful vocab.
Echo: If you are going to wash your own clothes.
David: If you are going to wash your own clothes, it’s useful vocab too. And now the vocab section.
VOCAB LIST
Echo: 宝贝儿 (bǎobèir)
David: Baby.
Echo: 洗 (xǐ)
David: To wash.
Echo: 晾 (liàng)
David: To dry.
Echo: 阳台 (yángtái)
David: Sundeck.
Echo: 染 (rǎn)
David: To dye.
Echo: 缩水 (suōshuǐ)
David: To shrink.
Echo: 洗衣粉 (xǐyīfěn)
David: Laundry detergent.
Echo: 洗衣机 (xǐyījī)
David: Washing machine.
Echo: 衣服架 (yīfujià)
David: Clothes hanger.
Echo: 干洗店 (gānxǐdiàn)
David: Dry cleaning store.
Echo: 干洗店 (gānxǐdiàn)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: Okay. Our first word was the word for baby.
Echo: 宝贝儿。(bǎobèir)
David: And then the next two words we highlighted for you were to wash
Echo: 洗。(xǐ.)
David: And to dry
Echo: 晾。(liàng.)
David: And wash, you should already know because you are going to wash your face.
Echo: 洗脸。(Xǐliǎn.)
David: Or you can take a shower.
Echo: 洗澡。(Xǐzǎo.)
David: But dry here is not the same as the English word to dry. If you are going to dry your clothes, you are going to hang them up.
Echo: 晾。(liàng.)
David: And you are going to hang them up on the sundeck.
Echo: 晾在阳台上。(Liàng zài yángtái shàng)
David: Right. The next two words that we’ve got are crimes against clothing. They are to dye
Echo: 染。(Rǎn.)
David: And to shrink.
Echo: 缩水。(Suōshuǐ.)
David: We can use to dye in a lot of contexts. If you are dyeing your hair
Echo: 染头发。(Rǎn tóufǎ..)
David: Right. Echo, would you ever dye your hair?
Echo: Nope.
David: No?
Echo: Uhoo 我不喜欢,我喜欢黑色的。(Wǒ bù xǐhuān, wǒ xǐhuān hēisè de.)
David: What about shrinking?
Echo: 缩水 (Suōshuǐ) that’s very bad.
David: You say something like yeah, my shirt has shrunk.
Echo: 我的衬衫缩水了。(Wǒ de chènshān suōshuǐle.)
David: Or my pants have shrunk.
Echo: 我的裤子缩水了。(Wǒ de kùzi suōshuǐle.)
David: Moving on, we’ve got two words that are almost identical. There is washing powder.
Echo: 洗衣粉。(Xǐyī fěn.)
David: And there is the washing machine.
Echo: 洗衣机。(Xǐyījī.)
David: We’ve got a washing machine that sounds like an airplane. I don’t actually know how Chinese these are but Echo, how do we say my washing machine sounds like an airplane?
Echo: 我的洗衣机听起来像一架飞机。(Wǒ de xǐyījī tīng qǐlái xiàng yī jià fēijī.)
David: It really does.
Echo: Yeah.
David: The engine and that’s really powerful. And the next two words we’ve got are words you are going to use if you are washing your clothes. There is clothes hanger
Echo: 衣服架儿。(Yīfú jià er.)
David: Right.
Echo: Usually we will put the R sound after it.
David: Oh because it’s small. So how would you say give me a coat hanger?
Echo: 给我一个衣服架儿。(Gěi wǒ yīgè yīfú jià er.)
David: Where have all the coat hangers gone?
Echo: 衣服架儿去哪了?(Yīfú jià er qù nǎle?)
David: Our next word is very useful. You’ve been struggling with coat hangers.
Echo: 衣服架儿。(Yīfú jià er.)
David: You’ve been struggling to get some good laundry detergent.
Echo: 洗衣服。(Xǐ yīfú.)
David: You’ve been struggling having your clothes shrink.
Echo: 缩水。(Suōshuǐ.)
David: Or maybe they get dyed.
Echo: 染了。(Rǎnle.)
David: Finally, you are going to put your foot down and you are just going to take them to the drycleaner.
Echo: 干洗店。(Gānxǐ diàn.)
David: I need the drycleaner.
Echo: 我需要干洗店。(Wǒ xūyào gānxǐ diàn.)
David: We’ve got a really interesting grammar point. Echo, you’ve got a lot…
Echo: I can’t wait for that.
David: Echo thinks this is awesome and I think this is awesome. You are going to love it too. Let’s get on to it.
Echo: 好。(Hǎo.)

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time. Our grammar point today is about a special preposition.
Echo: 在。(Zài.)
David: Or co-verb yes. We’ve taught you before in the beginner series that we put our prepositions before the main verb.
Echo: Right.
David: Give us an example.
Echo: 我在北京工作。(Wǒ zài běijīng gōngzuò.)
David: So the main verb in that sentence is
Echo: 工作。(Gōngzuò.)
David: To work. We are literally saying, I at Beijing to work.
Echo: 我在北京工作。(Wǒ zài běijīng gōngzuò.)
David: In previous lessons, we’ve taught you, put your prepositions in front of the verb but there is something really kind of crazy about this lesson. Echo, what is it?
Echo: We have one sentence in the dialogue which is 都晾在阳台上了。(Dōu liàng zài yángtái shàngle.)
David: Crazy! Because the verb here is to dry or to hang out in cool.
Echo: 晾。(Liàng.)
David: And the preposition
Echo: 在。(Zài.)
David: Is following the verb. This is not supposed to happen. Echo, let’s hear that sentence again.
Echo: 都晾在阳台上了。(Dōu liàng zài yángtái shàngle.)
David: The clothes are hanging on the sundeck.
Echo: 衣服晾在阳台上了。(Yīfú liàng zài yángtái shàngle.)
David: What’s going on?
Echo: The verb 晾 (Liàng) is put before 在。(Zài.)
David: Yes. This goes against everything that we’ve learned. People are going to be saying chineseclass101, you hypocrites. You told us to put it before the verb.
Echo: Hold on a second!
David: You swore we’ll be speaking good Chinese with that…
Echo: There is another usage of 在。(Zài.)
David: Aha okay so we’ve got a special exception here.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: So what is this exception?
Echo: Because now we put 在 (Zài) after verb to indicate the result of the action.
David: Okay. What’s happening here is that 在 (Zài) it’s acting like a verb complement. There are only a limited number of verbs where we can do this and in all of these cases, the preposition
Echo: 在。(Zài.)
David: It’s completing the meaning of the verb.
Echo: Yeah it shows where something is put.
David: Yeah or where something is put or where something goes. Now we’ve got a couple of verbs we’re going to use to clear this up for you. The first one is in our dialogue.
Echo: 衣服晾在阳台上了。(Yīfú liàng zài yángtái shàngle.)
David: We’ve got three more verbs that are great examples. Echo, what are they?
Echo: First one 放。(Fàng.)
David: To place or to put.
Echo: 你的书放在桌子上了。(Nǐ de shū fàng zài zhuōzi shàngle.)
David: Your book has been placed on the table.
Echo: 走。(Zǒu.)
David: To go.
Echo: 他走在我们的后面。(Tā zǒu zài wǒmen de hòumiàn.)
David: It means he is walking and he is ending up behind us. The last example we’ve got is
Echo: 躺。(Tǎng.)
David: Which means to lie down or to recline.
Echo: 我躺在沙发上睡着了。(Wǒ tǎng zài shāfā shàng shuìzhele.)
David: I laid down on the sofa and fell asleep. So we’ve got two tips for you. The first tip is you almost always want to be putting prepositions in front of the verb. However the second tip is there is this case which is an exception and it confuses a lot of English speakers especially because it’s really much closer to the way English sounds.
Echo: Yeah.
David: You’ve got to remember though this is an exception. It’s not the rule.
Echo: 没错。
David: Okay so it’s got to make sense. You got to be going to a place or putting something down in a place.
Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: You couldn’t say like 我工作在北京 (Wǒ gōngzuò zài běijīng) that doesn’t make any sense. That’s bad Chinese. So don’t say that.
Echo: Yes.
David: Okay. That’s a great grammar point. I wish I had learned that a lot earlier. All of your other prepositional phrases we want to put them before the verb as in these sentences.
Echo: 他在中国工作。(Tā zài zhōngguó gōngzuò.)
David: He works in China.
Echo: 我们在Chineseclass101学中文。(Wǒmen zài Chineseclass101 xué zhōngwén.)

Outro

David: We study Chinese at chineseclass101.com and before we go, we want to remind you. If you haven’t been to the website, do leave a comment. From Beijing, I am David.
Echo: 我是Echo. (Wǒ shì Echo.)
David: Thanks for listening guys. We will see you next week.
Echo: 我们网上见吧。(Wǒmen wǎngshàng jiàn ba.)
David: Bye bye.

Grammar

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