Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David.
Echo: Hi! 大家好,我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo.
David: With us, you will learn to speak Chinese with fun and effective lessons.
Echo: We will also provide you with cultural insights.
David: And tips that you won’t find in the textbook. Today we are happy to bring you absolute beginner season 2, lesson 16.
Echo: The stolen purse.
David: In this lesson, we are going to teach you how not to lose things in China.
Echo: Right and this conversation takes place over the phone.
David: Right and this is between two friends who are talking about a stolen purse of course.
Echo: Yes. And they are speaking casual mandarin.
David: As always. Now we are going to take you to the dialogue. Before we do, we want to remind you, we have got a great 1 on 1 tutoring service. If you are interested in practicing Chinese, we will even give you a free trial so you can see what it’s like to talk to one of our teachers on the phone.
Echo: Yeah.
David: If you are interested, send us an email at contactus@chineseclass101.com.
Echo: And we are looking forward to hearing from you.
David: Absolutely. Let’s get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A: 我的钱包丢了。(Wǒ de qiánbāo diū le. )
B: 怎么丢的?(Zěnme diū de? )
A: 被偷了。(Bèi tōu le. )
B: 你真倒霉。(Nǐ zhēn dǎoméi. )
David: One more time, a bit slower.
A: 我的钱包丢了。(Wǒ de qiánbāo diū le. )
B: 怎么丢的?(Zěnme diū de? )
A: 被偷了。(Bèi tōu le. )
B: 你真倒霉。(Nǐ zhēn dǎoméi. )
David: And now, with the English translation.
A: 我的钱包丢了。(Wǒ de qiánbāo diū le.)
A: I lost my purse.
B: 怎么丢的?(Zěnme diū de?)
B: How did you lose it?
A: 被偷了。(Bèi tōu le.)
A: It was stolen.
B: 你真倒霉。(Nǐ zhēn dǎoméi.)
B: You're really unfortunate.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: so a purse and wallet is actually the same thing.
Echo: Yes.
David: It’s just a money back.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Right. So if you are a man, if you are a woman, this is the word you need.
Echo: 钱包.(Qiánbāo.) How easy.
David: Yeah now I have actually been pretty lucky. I lose cell phones but I don’t lose anything else.
Echo: Yeah but because you don’t have 钱包.(Qiánbāo.)
David: That’s true.
Echo: Maybe you lose money but not 钱包.(Qiánbāo.)
David: Any way our vocab for today is all about stuff that is frequently lost.
Echo: Yes.
David: Okay. So let’s get right to that.
VOCAB LIST
David: And now the vocab section.
Echo: 钱包(Qiánbāo) [natural native speed]
David: Wallet.
Echo: 钱包(Qiánbāo) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Echo: 钱包(Qiánbāo) [natural native speed]
Echo: 手机(Shǒujī) [natural native speed]
David: Cell phone.
Echo: 手机(Shǒujī) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Echo: 手机(Shǒujī) [natural native speed]
Echo: 自行车(Zìxíngchē) [natural native speed]
David: Bicycle.
Echo: 自行车(Zìxíngchē) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Echo: 自行车(Zìxíngchē) [natural native speed]
Echo: 钥匙(Yàoshi) [natural native speed]
David: Keys.
Echo: 钥匙(Yàoshi) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Echo: 钥匙(Yàoshi) [natural native speed]
Echo: 丢(Diū) [natural native speed]
David: To lose.
丢(Diū) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
丢(Diū) [natural native speed]
Echo: 偷(Tōu) [natural native speed]
David: To steal.
Echo: 偷(Tōu) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Echo: 偷(Tōu) [natural native speed]
Echo: 倒霉(Dǎoméi) [natural native speed]
David: Unlucky.
Echo: 倒霉(Dǎoméi) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Echo: 倒霉(Dǎoméi) [natural native speed]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: The first thing we want to focus on in our vocab section is those two verbs.
Echo: 丢。(Diū.)
David: To lose
Echo: 丢。(Diū.)
David: It also means to get lost.
Echo: Right 丢。(Diū.)
David: So when we say my cell phone is lost.
Echo: 我的手机丢了。(Wǒ de shǒujī diūle.)
David: That means the same thing as I lost my cell phone.
Echo: Right 我的手机丢了。(Wǒ de shǒujī diūle.)
David: Right. 丢(Diū) is something that happens to things. So maybe to have disappeared.
Echo: Right.
David: The next verb.
Echo: 偷。(Tōu.)
David: Is more unlucky.
Echo: Yeah.
David: Yeah it means to steal.
Echo: 偷。(Tōu.)
David: The rest of our vocab section is really items that frequently disappear or get stolen. First we’ve got wallet.
Echo: 钱包。(Qiánbāo.)
David: Which is also purse.
Echo: 钱包。(Qiánbāo.)
David: And that’s literally a money.
Echo: 钱。(Qián.)
David: Bag.
Echo: 包。(Bāo.)
David: Money bag.
Echo: 钱包。(Qiánbāo.)
David: Purse or wallet.
Echo: Right. 我买了一个新钱包。(Wǒ mǎile yīgè xīn qiánbāo.)
David: I bought a new purse.
Echo: 我买了一个新钱包。(Wǒ mǎile yīgè xīn qiánbāo.)
David: Right. I bought a new money bag.
Echo: Yeah.
David: So as I have mentioned, I frequently lose this next item.
Echo: 手机。(Shǒujī.)
David: Cell phone.
Echo: 手机。(Shǒujī.)
David: Or mobile phone.
Echo: 手机。我的手机被偷了。(Shǒujī. Wǒ de shǒujī bèi tōule.)
David: My cell phone was stolen.
Echo: 我的手机被偷了。(Wǒ de shǒujī bèi tōule.)
David: My cell phone was stolen. Let’s change that sentence to say my cell phone went missing.
Echo: 我的手机丢了。(Wǒ de shǒujī diūle.)
David: My cell phone disappeared.
Echo: 我的手机丢了。(Wǒ de shǒujī diūle.)
David: So we can hear the difference between
Echo: 丢(Diū)
David: And
Echo: 偷。(Tōu.)
David: Right there. Next we have the word bicycle.
Echo: 自行车。(Zìxíngchē.)
David: He lost his bicycle.
Echo: 他的自行车丢了。(Tā de zìxíngchē diūle.)
David: He lost his bicycle.
Echo: 他的自行车丢了。(Tā de zìxíngchē diūle.)
David: And once I didn’t lose the bike, but I lost the keys to the lock.
Echo: Okay 钥匙。(Yàoshi.)
David: Keys.
Echo: 钥匙。(Yàoshi.)
David: Fortunately it was a very, very cheap bike.
Echo: Yeah but you can ask someone to open it for you?
David: 小偷。(Xiǎotōu.)
Echo: We will have like professional people to open the lock.
David: Yeah well it was a cheap bike. So I had to get someone to come by and open the lock. Anyway, that’s our vocab section for today. To review, we have wallet.
Echo: 钱包。(Qiánbāo.)
David: Cell phone.
Echo: 手机。(Shǒujī.)
David: Bicycle.
Echo: 自行车。(Zìxíngchē.)
David: Keys
Echo: 钥匙。(Yàoshi.)
David: And we also have the two verbs
Echo: 丢。(Diū.)
David: and
Echo: 偷。(Tōu.)

Lesson focus

David: Our grammar focus this lesson is on
Echo: 怎么。(Zěnme.)
David: This means how
Echo: 怎么。(Zěnme.)
David: We use this to ask how an action is done.
Echo: Like in dialogue, we see this sentence. 怎么丢的?(Zěnme diū de?)
David: How did you lose it?
Echo: 怎么丢的?(Zěnme diū de?)
David: Note that we put 怎么(Zěnme) right before a verb.
Echo: 丢。(Diū.)
David: And then we are following it with
Echo: 的。(De.)
David: As in how was it lost?
Echo: 怎么丢的?(Zěnme diū de?)
David: Or how do you use it?
Echo: 怎么用的?(Zěnme yòng de?)
David: We can also put our subject in front of 怎么。(Zěnme.)
Echo: 你怎么丢的?(Nǐ zěnme diū de?)
David: How did you lose it?
Echo: 你怎么丢的?(Nǐ zěnme diū de?)
David: How did you lose it or how do you use this?
Echo: 这个怎么用?(Zhège zěnme yòng?)
David: How do you use this?
Echo: 这个怎么用?(Zhège zěnme yòng?)
David: There are some verbs in Chinese that are associated with thinking or believing. A good example is the verb to wish.
Echo: 想。(Xiǎng.)
David: To wish.
Echo: 想。(Xiǎng.)
David: In previous lessons, we have taught you that these kind of verbs can go right in front of other verbs.
Echo: Right.
David: Like I wish to use.
Echo: 我想用。(Wǒ xiǎng yòng.)
David: I wish to do.
Echo: 我想做。(Wǒ xiǎng zuò.)
David: Here is a tip. When we want to use
Echo: 怎么。(Zěnme.)
David: We have to put it in between these two verbs.
Echo: Right.
David: As with the sentence
Echo: 你想怎么做?(Nǐ xiǎng zěnme zuò?)
David: How do you feel like doing this?
Echo: 你想怎么做?(Nǐ xiǎng zěnme zuò?)
David: Or literally you to feel how to do. One more example.
Echo: 我不知道怎么办。(Wǒ bù zhīdào zěnme bàn.)
David: I don’t know what to do.
Echo: 我不知道怎么办。(Wǒ bù zhīdào zěnme bàn.)
David: I don’t know what to do. So in review.
Echo: 怎么。(Zěnme.)
David: Is a very powerful word. Grammatically we are going to put it in front of verbs.
Echo: Right.
David: As in the sentence.
Echo: 这个怎么用?(Zhège zěnme yòng?)
David: How do you use this or in the past tense.
Echo: 你怎么丢的?(Nǐ zěnme diū de?)
David: How did you lose it? When you have chained verbs, you want to break those up and put them right in the middle.
Echo: Right like 你想怎么做?(Nǐ xiǎng zěnme zuò?)
David: Or
Echo: 我不知道怎么办。(Wǒ bù zhīdào zěnme bàn.)

Outro

David: If you are interested in more detail on how to use 怎么(Zěnme), you should check out our premium PDF for this lesson.
Echo: Yeah.
David: It has an extensive grammar note with sample sentences and it will help explain some things we haven’t had time to touch on in this podcast.
Echo: Right.
David: For now though, that’s our lesson for today. Thanks a lot for listening and if you have any questions Echo.
Echo: You can always leave the comment on the site or write to us at contactus@chineseclass101.com
David: Right and we are looking forward to hearing from you. Take care.
Echo: Bye, bye.

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