Learn about some crazy Chinese colors, and we'll show you how to express how crazy they are
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是Echo. (Hi! Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And here we are with absolute beginner season 2, lesson 22, Chinese colors. Echo is like it’s all about red, Chinese color. |
| ECHO: Very red. |
| David: Actually we are doing more than red though. We’ve got a lot of colors to teach you and we are going to get to that in a sec but first we’ve got a dialogue and Echo where does this dialogue take place? |
| ECHO: It takes place in a clothing store. |
| David: Right and it’s between two girls who are trying on dresses right and since they are friends, they are going to speak casual mandarin as always. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| David: Now we are going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you, we’ve got this great voice recording tool on chineseclass101.com. |
| ECHO: Right it’s very easy to use. |
| David: Yeah it lets you record your voice and play it back to compare it with native speakers. This is going to let you figure out when you are actually saying something wrong. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| David: So go try that out. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| M: 这件蓝色的怎么样？(Zhè jiàn lánsè de zěnmeyàng?) |
| F: 有点儿大。(Yǒu diǎnr dà.) |
| M: 那件绿色的呢？(Nà jiàn lǜsè de ne?) |
| F: 太难看了。(Tài nánkàn le.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| M: 这件蓝色的怎么样？(Zhè jiàn lánsè de zěnmeyàng?) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 有点儿大。(Yǒu diǎnr dà.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| M: 那件绿色的呢？(Nà jiàn lǜsè de ne?) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| F: 太难看了。(Tài nánkàn le.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| David: And now with the English. |
| ECHO: 这件蓝色的怎么样？(Zhè jiàn lánsè de zěnmeyàng?) |
| DAVID: What do you think about the blue one? |
| ECHO: 有点儿大。(Yǒu diǎnr dà.) |
| DAVID: It’s a little big. |
| ECHO: 那件绿色的呢？(Nà jiàn lǜsè de ne?) |
| DAVID: What about that green one? |
| ECHO: 太难看了。(Tài nánkàn le.) |
| DAVID: Too ugly. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: One of the interesting things about China is watching the fashion scene kind of take shape. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| David: It’s not as evolved as in Korea and Japan and people are pulling in these influences from all over including the sects in Europe and one of the most interesting things I think are the color preferences. You almost never see purple in the United States or Canada but it’s really, really popular here. |
| ECHO: Yeah it is. |
| DAVID: Any way, we’ve got a vocab section that is of course filled with colors. I am going to teach you how to say them and talk about them. |
| ECHO: Yeah it’s a colorful vocab section. |
| DAVID: It’s a colorful vocab section. So let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| ECHO: 颜色。(Yánsè.)[natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Color. |
| ECHO: 颜色。(Yánsè.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 颜色。(Yánsè.) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 蓝色。(lánsè) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Green. |
| ECHO: 蓝色。(lánsè) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 蓝色。(lánsè) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 绿色。(lǜsè) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Green. |
| ECHO: 绿色。(lǜsè) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 绿色。(lǜsè) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 红色。(hóngsè) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Red |
| ECHO: 红色。(hóngsè) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 红色。(hóngsè) [natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 白色。(Báisè.) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: White |
| ECHO: 白色。(Báisè.) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 白色。(Báisè.)[natural native speed] |
| ECHO: 黑色。(hēisè) [natural native speed] |
| DAVID: Black. |
| ECHO: 黑色。(hēisè) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ECHO: 黑色。(hēisè) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| DAVID: So there is lot of 色 (Iro) in today’s lesson which is one way of saying hue or tint or color. Our first word is actually the word for color. |
| ECHO: 颜色。(Yánsè.) |
| DAVID: Color. |
| ECHO: 颜色。(Yánsè.) |
| DAVID: Right. And all of the colors we are teaching today are variations of this where the last character is staying the same. |
| ECHO: 色。(Iro.) |
| DAVID: We are just putting the single character for the color in front of that. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: For instance, Blue |
| ECHO: 蓝色。(Lán sè.) |
| DAVID: Blue. |
| ECHO: 蓝色。(Lán sè.) |
| DAVID: I like the color blue. |
| ECHO: 我喜欢蓝色。(Wǒ xǐhuān lán sè.) |
| DAVID: I like the color blue. |
| ECHO: 我喜欢蓝色。(Wǒ xǐhuān lán sè.) |
| DAVID: Blue is of course the color of the sky because sky is blue. |
| ECHO: 天是蓝色的。(Tiān shì lán sè de.) |
| DAVID: Right. Our next color is green. |
| ECHO: 绿色。(Lǜsè.) |
| DAVID: Green. |
| ECHO: 绿色。(Lǜsè.) |
| DAVID: Green. |
| ECHO: 绿色。(Lǜsè.) |
| DAVID: Green is very pretty. |
| ECHO: 绿色很漂亮。(Lǜsè hěn piàoliang.) |
| DAVID: Green is very pretty. |
| ECHO: 绿色很漂亮。(Lǜsè hěn piàoliang.) |
| DAVID: Our next color is the most popular color in China. |
| ECHO: 红色。(Hóngsè.) |
| DAVID: Red. |
| ECHO: 红色。(Hóngsè.) |
| DAVID: It’s the color of the flag, it’s the color of all of these walls, traditional walls. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Right it’s a traditional color for China. |
| ECHO: Yes it is. |
| DAVID: So Chinese people like the color red. |
| ECHO: 中国人喜欢红色。(Zhōngguó rén xǐhuān hóngsè.) |
| DAVID: Chinese people like the color red. |
| ECHO: 中国人喜欢红色。(Zhōngguó rén xǐhuān hóngsè.) |
| DAVID: Our next color is really interesting. In the west, it’s a really good color but in China it’s bad. |
| ECHO: 白色。(Báisè.) |
| DAVID: White. |
| ECHO: 白色。 (Báisè.) |
| DAVID: It’s the color of mourning here. |
| ECHO: Yeah. |
| DAVID: Of death. And if you watch Beijing Opera, you will notice the bad guys are the ones in the white make up. |
| ECHO: Yeah 白色。(Báisè.) |
| DAVID: White is also a color that you are going to see at funerals in China. |
| ECHO: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| DAVID: So nobody likes white. |
| ECHO: 没有人喜欢白色。(Méiyǒu rén xǐhuān báisè.) |
| DAVID: Nobody likes the color white. |
| ECHO: 没有人喜欢白色。(Méiyǒu rén xǐhuān báisè.) |
| DAVID: And our last word is of course the opposite of white. |
| ECHO: 黑色。(Hēisè) |
| DAVID: Black. |
| ECHO: 黑色。(Hēisè) |
| DAVID: So let’s just do a quick review. We’ve got blue. |
| ECHO: 蓝色。(Lán sè.) |
| DAVID: Green. |
| ECHO: 绿色。(Lǜsè.) |
| DAVID: Red |
| ECHO: 红色。(Hóngsè.) |
| DAVID: White |
| ECHO: 白色。(Báisè.) |
| DAVID: And black |
| ECHO: 黑色。(Hēisè.) |
| DAVID: Perfect. Now that we’ve got our colors out of the way, let’s move on to our grammar point for this lesson. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: In our grammar point for today, we are going to go over two adverbs that have opposite meanings. The first is |
| ECHO: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| DAVID: Which means good or positive. |
| ECHO: 好。(Hǎo.) |
| DAVID: The second is |
| ECHO: 难。(Nán.) |
| DAVID: Which means bad or negative. |
| ECHO: 难。(Nán.) |
| DAVID: Both of these adverbs work in the same way. We typically put them in front of single character verbs. |
| ECHO: Yes for example, 好吃。(Hào chī.) |
| DAVID: Delicious or good to eat. |
| ECHO: 好吃。(Hào chī.) |
| DAVID: And the opposite of that is |
| ECHO: 难吃。(Nán chī.) |
| DAVID: Bad tasting or difficult to eat. |
| ECHO: 难吃。(Nán chī.) |
| DAVID: Another example would be good looking. |
| ECHO: 好看。(Hǎokàn.) |
| DAVID: Good looking. |
| ECHO: 好看。(Hǎokàn.) |
| DAVID: Or the opposite |
| ECHO: 难看。(Nánkàn.) |
| DAVID: Ugly |
| ECHO: 难看。(Nánkàn.) |
| DAVID: And what goes with site goes with hearing as well. If you are listening to music, you can say that it’s good to listen to |
| ECHO: 好听。(Hǎotīng.) |
| DAVID: Good to listen to. |
| ECHO: 好听。(Hǎotīng.) |
| DAVID: Or you can say it’s |
| ECHO: 难听。(Nántīng.) |
| DAVID: Bad to listen to |
| ECHO: 难听。(Nántīng.) |
| DAVID: Right. So you could say, this song sounds good. |
| ECHO: 这首歌很好听。(Zhè shǒu gē hěn hǎotīng.) |
| DAVID: Chinese food is really tasty. |
| ECHO: 中餐很好吃。(Zhōngcān hěn hào chī.) |
| DAVID: That cat is really ugly. |
| ECHO: 那只猫很难看。(Nà zhǐ māo hěn nánkàn.) |
| DAVID: That cat is really ugly. |
| ECHO: 那只猫很难看。(Nà zhǐ māo hěn nánkàn.) |
| DAVID: And as you may have picked up from these sentences, there is one more point we want to make. Even though 好 (Hǎo) is technically an adverb, when we put it together with these single character verbs, it’s like we are forming a new word. So we can put another adverb in front of it. |
| ECHO: Like. |
| DAVID: To act as the emphasis. |
| ECHO: Yeah like 很，非常，太...了。(Hěn, fēicháng, tài...Le.) |
| DAVID: Right. So you could say oh it’s too ugly. |
| ECHO: 太难看了。(Tài nánkànle.) |
| DAVID: Right or oh, it’s too tasty. |
| ECHO: 太好吃了。(Tài hào chīle.) |
Outro |
| David: As always, we’ve put a lot of examples in our premium PDF. So if you are studying with us, make sure to go to chineseclass101.com and download this off the site. |
| ECHO: Yes. |
| DAVID: For now though, we are done with our podcast. From Beijing, I am David. |
| ECHO: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| DAVID: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| ECHO: 网上见。 Bye bye.(Wǎngshàng jiàn. Bye bye.) |
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Comments
HideWhat do you think of the Chinese fashion sense?
Hello D.,
Thank you for your comment. Yes they do exist! 👍
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi! does 難喝 and 好喝 exist?
Thank you.
你好 robert groulx！
不用谢。(Bú yòng xiè.) = No need for thanks. You're welcome. 😇
谢谢 (Xièxie) for studying with us, it's great to have you here!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
favorite phrase is : 那只猫很难看
robert
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
Yay! Now you can type any Chinese words! :thumbsup:
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
谢谢 for adding some great combinations！
绿色！ Got it! That's what the v does！All ready to type in pinyin and distinguish between lu and lü!
Hi Alexis 亚历克西,
难看 and 难吃 have been added to the vocab list, please listen to the sample sentence for audio :wink:
For "lü", you can try "lv".
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
P.S., This is just a little question, but I have been trying to type lü se in Chinese, but, using a mac I can't see how to enter the u umlaut in order to find the character. How do you type an umlaut, or don't you have to?
Great lesson! To remember the grammar point and be able to use it, could you put 难看 or 难吃 or both with the audio in the vocabulary, so I could add it to my flash cards. 谢谢。
Hi Jarad,
In that conversation, “shenme shenme” means "something", referring to the adjectives one can put after hěn, fēicháng, and tài, in front of 了 (le). Which is why this sentence is followed by the example 太難看了 (tài nánkànle) "too ugly"
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi,
What does Echo mean around the 9:30 mark when she says "shenme shenme lu?" (or something close to that)
Is it something similar to hen, fei chang, and tai? Or is it just a colloquial thing she is saying?
Thanks!
Jarad
Hi Shari,
是 can be used before a noun, or an adjective.
For example, you can say: 我是学生. (I am a student.) In which case, 是 is used before a noun. Or you can say: 这个手机是坏的. (This cell phone is broken.) In this case, 是 is used before an adjective.
When you put 是 in front of an adjective or a noun, it is often used to describe a fact or a state. And for adjectives, many times they come in the pattern of 是 + adjective+ 的.
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
Firstly, thanks for this series, David and Echo are a great team! I love the repetition of the new words, and each lesson is a good balance between being informative and friendly.
I have a question about using 是, I thought that it wasn't used before adjectives but in the PDF you have the sentence 我的手机是黑色的. Can you explain in which situations 是 is/isn't used? Thank you!
Hi May,
When asking "how about ...?", you can use both ...怎样？or ...呢？ The only difference is, ...呢 is usually used when both of the speakers know what you're talking about. It is a short way of saying ...怎么样 and it's based on previous context.
To give compliments on someone being "pretty", we normally use 好看 on girls or children, not so much on men. But 好听 can be used on anything you think it's pleasant to listen to, with no limitation to gender.
So if you like a song sung by a guy, you could definitely say 好听. Just be mindful not to call the guy 好看:wink:
Yinru
Team ChineseClass101.com
... 怎么样？
...呢？
Is there a difference between these two?
And also you said 好看 is better to refer to girls. So does that mean if I like a song sung by a guy I wouldn't say 好听？
Hi Will,
Exactly like Olivia said. Just one more thing though, a bit careful when you use 好看 on men. Some men don't like to be called 好看, because they think that's too feminine. It's usually safer to call women and children 好看.
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi Will,
好看 can be used in reference to both men and women, as well as objects (such as painting, house, color, etc)
So feel free to use it on anything that you find beautiful! :grin:
Cheers,
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
Is 好看 used only in reference to men?
@马岸，
You're welcome.:smile:
--Amber
Thank you Amber
Very good explanation, I appreciated it..:smile: