Learn about a Chinese adjective that means "not good" or "not bad"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: And we are here with absolute beginner season 2. |
| Echo: Lesson 2. |
| David: Not too shabby. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And this lesson itself is not too shabby Echo. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| David: Right. It’s a lesson actually that’s all about saying hello. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Actually not hello so much just as you know greeting neighbors, chit chat when you pass them on the street. |
| Echo: Yeah just small talk. |
| David: So we’ve got a dialogue that’s casual mandarin as always between two neighbors who haven’t seen each other in a while. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And they pass each other in the park. So we are going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you, if you are learning mandarin, we’ve got this great Elite 1 on 1 training package. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Which is a tad over 80 bucks a month. It gets you 1 on 1 support from a real Chinese teacher here in Beijing. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s a great deal. |
| David: It’s a great deal and we have a free trial rehearse for anyone interested. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: So if you are looking for more support, send us an email at |
| Echo: Contact us at chineseclass101.com. |
| David: Right. For now though, let’s get on to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔbújiàn.) |
| B: 是啊，你好吗？(Shì a, nǐhǎo ma？) |
| A: 挺好的，你呢？(Tǐng hǎo de, nǐ ne?) |
| B: 还不错。(還不錯。)(Hái bùcuò.(Hái bùcuò.)) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔbújiàn.) |
| B: 是啊，你好吗？(Shì a, nǐhǎo ma？) |
| A: 挺好的，你呢？(Tǐng hǎo de, nǐ ne?) |
| B: 还不错。(Hái búcuò.) |
| David: And now with the English. |
| A: 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔbújiàn.) |
| A: Long time no see. |
| B: 是啊，你好吗？(Shì a, nǐhǎo ma？) |
| B: I know, how are you? |
| A: 挺好的，你呢？(Tǐng hǎo de, nǐ ne?) |
| A: Pretty good. And you? |
| B: 还不错。(Hái búcuò.) |
| B: Not bad. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So chitchat is really important in Chinese. People live really close together. |
| Echo: Yeah right. |
| David: Yeah especially in these compound apartment buildings. So you can just see your neighbors a lot. |
| Echo: Yeah so. |
| David: You can learn to say meaning listenings to them. |
| Echo: Yeah so if you don’t want to be like too embarrassed when you see each other and have nothing to say. |
| David: Yeah so this is what this lesson this. It’s things that don’t have much meaning but you could say it to make people feel good. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: And we’ve got all of these words and phrases for you. So let’s get to them now. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 我很好(wǒ hěn hǎo) [natural native speed] |
| David: I'm good |
| Echo: 我很好(wǒ hěn hǎo) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 我很好(wǒ hěn hǎo) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 还不错(hái búcuò) [natural native speed] |
| David: Not too bad |
| Echo: 还不错(hái búcuò) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 还不错(hái búcuò) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 挺好的(tǐng hǎo de) [natural native speed] |
| David: Pretty good |
| Echo: 挺好的(tǐng hǎo de) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 挺好的(tǐng hǎo de) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 还行(háixíng) [natural native speed] |
| David: okay |
| Echo: 还行(háixíng) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 还行(háixíng) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Echo: The first word is 我很好.(wǒ hěn hǎo.) |
| David: Okay. This is less a word than a phrase. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It means, I am very good. |
| Echo: 我很好(wǒ hěn hǎo) |
| David: So literally this is I |
| Echo: 我(Wǒ) |
| David: Very |
| Echo: 很(Hěn) |
| David: Good |
| Echo: 好(Hǎo) |
| David: As in I am very good, thank you. |
| Echo: 我很好，谢谢。(Wǒ hěn hǎo, xièxie.) |
| David: I am fine. Thanks. |
| Echo: 我很好，谢谢。(Wǒ hěn hǎo, xièxie.) |
| David: Another common way to answer the question, how are you doing is to say... |
| Echo: 还不错(hái búcuò) |
| David: Still not bad. |
| Echo: 还不错(Hái búcuò.) |
| David: Right. We are going to go into this in more detail in the grammar section. For now, just remember, this means not bad. |
| Echo: 还不错(Hái búcuò.) |
| David: Right. As in the phrase |
| Echo: 还不错，你呢？(Hái búcuò, nǐ ne?) |
| David: I am pretty good. How about you? |
| Echo: 还不错，你呢？(Hái bùcuò, nǐ ne?) |
| David: I am not too bad. How about you? Our next phrase is basically the same. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Right what’s that? |
| Echo: 挺好的(Tǐng hǎo de) |
| David: Right. This means pretty good as well. |
| Echo: 挺好的(Tǐng hǎo de) |
| David: With this, you have to remember to add that 的 at the end. |
| Echo: Yeah to make it natural. |
| David: Right.. |
| Echo: 挺好的(Tǐng hǎo de) |
| David: So another way of saying |
| Echo: 还不错，你呢？(Hái bùcuò, nǐ ne?) |
| David: Is to say |
| Echo: 挺好的，你怎么样？(Tǐng hǎo de, nǐ zěnme yàng?) |
| David: Pretty good. How are you doing? |
| Echo: 挺好的，你怎么样？(Tǐng hǎo de, nǐ zěnme yàng?) |
| David: Right. Now we are going to go on to the grammar section a bit. Before we do, I want to actually talk to you about one of the lines in the dialogue. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And that’s the first line |
| Echo: 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔ bùjiàn.) |
| David: And in English, we know the phrase long time no see. |
| Echo: 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔ bùjiàn.) |
| David: This is where it comes from. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It’s actually a Chinese phrase. |
| Echo: Really. |
| David: It’s adapted by the English language yeah. |
| Echo: Oh I didn’t know that. |
| David: It came over in the late 19th century with railroad workers. They were building the Transamerican and the trans-canadian railroad. |
| Echo: That’s very cool. |
| David: Yeah. So this is where it comes from because it’s Chinglish because the grammar doesn’t make sense in English. |
| Echo: Yes exactly. |
| David: But here you can see it making sense in Chinese. |
| Echo: 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔ bùjiàn) |
| David: Which is very literally. |
| Echo: 好久(Hǎojiǔ) |
| David: A very long time. |
| Echo: 不见(Bùjiàn) |
| David: No see. |
| Echo: Okay 好久不见。(Hǎojiǔ bùjiàn.) |
| David: Right. There are many words in English that come from Chinese and this is one of the few. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So now that we’ve done these words and phrases, let’s go on to the grammar section where we are going to talk a bit more about this. |
| Echo: 不错(Bùcuò) |
| David: Right. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| It’s grammar time. Okay, in our grammar section for today, we want to talk about |
| Echo: 不错(Bùcuò) |
| David: Now literally we are sure you guys have broken it down. |
| Echo: 不(Bù) |
| David: Means no |
| Echo: 错(Cuò) |
| David: Means mistaken or wrong |
| Echo: Yeah wrong. |
| David: So literally this is not wrong. |
| Echo: 不错(Bùcuò) |
| David: Right. And in some situations, that’s exactly what it means like in the sentence |
| Echo: 他的话不错(Tā dehuà bùcuò) |
| David: What he said was not wrong. |
| Echo: Yeah 他的话不错(Tā dehuà bùcuò) |
| David: Right. However, we will often run into this being used alone. And in that case |
| Echo: 不错...(Bùcuò...) |
| David: It doesn’t really mean not bad. |
| Echo: Yeah it means good. |
| David: It means pretty good. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Yeah. So it is better than you are expecting if you are breaking it down character by character. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| David: Right. So we have a couple of examples for you here where not bad really means |
| Echo: 挺好的(Tǐng hǎo de) |
| David: Right. Now the first one is if someone asks after a friend, you can always say |
| Echo: 还不错(Hái bùcuò) |
| David: Still not bad. |
| Echo: 还不错(Hái bùcuò) |
| David: Right. As in the sentence |
| Echo: 她还不错(Tā hái bùcuò) |
| David: She is pretty good. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And the 还(Hái) means still. |
| Echo: Yeah, 她还不错(Tā hái bùcuò) |
| David: Right or how about if you are shopping and someone might say this one is pretty good. |
| Echo: 这个不错(Zhège bùcuò) |
| David: This is not bad. |
| Echo: 这个不错(Zhège bùcuò) |
| David: Right. This is actually really useful when haggling because you are saying you are good and you are saying you like it but the language you are choosing is kind of inviting them to give you a discount. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Yeah. A couple more examples. You could say the movie was pretty good. |
| Echo: 电影不错(Diànyǐng bùcuò) |
| David: Right. The movie was pretty good. |
| Echo: 电影不错(Diànyǐng bùcuò) |
Outro |
| David: In summary, today we learned a couple of ways of saying pretty good. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: We learned |
| Echo: 不错(Bùcuò) |
| David: And we learned other expressions like |
| Echo: 挺好的(Tǐng hǎo de) |
| David: Both of these mean basically the same thing. So you can switch them up. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And with that, that just a bit does it for us for today. Now before you go, we want to remind you, if you have any comments. |
| Echo: Yeah or if you have a question |
| David: Right. You can contactus@chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: Yeah or leave a comment on the site. |
| David: Right. We would love to hear from you. For now though from Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 下次见，拜拜。(Xià cì jiàn, bàibài.) |
Comments
Hide"Long Time No See" is a direct translation taken from Chinese, and has made it's way into the English lexicon over the years.
你好 美華，
Thank you for your comment. Did you mean this sentence: 挺好的，你怎么样？
You can also say 挺好的。你呢？They mean the same thing.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
can you say 挺好的。你呢？ or does it have to be followed up with 怎么样？
Hello Y.A.,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, "Shì a" literally means "yes", or "it is".
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello there.
Kindly tell me:
in this dialog there is a line saying "Shì a", which is translated "I know". Is this "Shì a" literally saying "It is."?!
Thank you in advance.
Hello Jason,
Thank you for your positive comment, we're glad to hear that you found it helpful!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
My father told me to use this website and it helped me
Hello robert groulx,
Thank you for your comment. We hope you enjoyed it!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello 秀静,
Thank you for your comment. Yes you can use 好久不见 in phone calls and written texts too. 😄
As always, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
(Bùjiàn),(Hǎojiǔ bùjiàn.)
robert
Can 好久不见 be used even in telephone or text conversations? Or is the usage limited strictly to "meeting"?
Thank you for the interesting lesson 😄👍
Hi Ian
I'm glad you like the words in this lesson.
I'd like to say that ‘好久不见’ is used quite often in Chinese. It can be used when people haven't met for only a few weeks or a few months.
Thanks for learning with us.
Amy
Team ChineseClass101.com
Very interesting piece of trivia regarding the English phrase "long time, no see" in this lesson. Thank you. 👍
赵俊杰，
For 挺好的，“的” is just a modal particle, so you can use it or remove it.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi chineseclass101,
Great lesson!
A question about 挺好的 ting hao de. In the lesson they said you have to use 的 together with 挺好 but they didn't explain why. Is the reason for 的 the same as the example when ordering tickest in season 1 lesson 25 where they say: 你要上午11点(的). In this case 票 piao should be at the end of the sentence but we already know we are talking about tickets and that's why we remove it.
But what are we talking about here. Is it 挺好的身体 ting hao de shenti or is it just a standard phrase that always has this specific pattern 挺好的.
Cheers :grin:
Hi Riley,
You're welcome. That's what we do:wink:
谢谢你喜欢我们的网站！ Thanks for liking our website！
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi Yinru,
Thank you for the clarification on this. I really enjoy the lessons. This is really a great site!
Riley
Hi Riley,
You're right that 你好吗 is not used so common in casual greetings. But when English-speaking people learn Chinese, they tend to translate "How are you?" from English and overuse it as a common greeting.
When 你好吗 is used by Chinese people, it's often used in certain situations, such as, when two friends who haven't seen each other for long time, meet again, they say that because they're concerned about each other.
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
I have heard that "ni hao ma," should not be used casually, but only between good friends. Is it OK to use in casual conversation? Thanks for the clarification!!
Hi 冉生浩,
Long time no see originates from this Chinese phrase:smile:
Chloe
Team ChineseClass101.com
好久不见。Hǎojiǔbújiàn. Long time no see. I have always liked that phrase and now I know how to say it in Chinese.:thumbsup::thumbsup: