Learn about a Chinese adverb that can make other words negative
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi everyone. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi! 大家好，我是(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: And welcome to chineseclass101.com. Today we’ve got absolute beginner season 2, lesson 9. The unhelpful Chinese operator. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Right. This is a lesson for anyone who is in China and no one is calling you and you can’t call anyone if you don’t know how to talk on the phone. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Right. So we’ve got a dialogue. We are going to take you there in a sec. Before we do Echo, there is something you wanted to say. |
| Echo: Just don’t forget to make comments. |
| David: Right. If you have any questions, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment for us on chineseclass101.com. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: We would love to hear from you. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 你好，是小王吗？(Nǐhǎo, shì Xiǎo Wáng ma?) |
| B: 不是。(Bú shì.) |
| A: 请问，小王在吗？(Qǐngwèn, Xiǎo Wáng zài ma?) |
| B: 不在。(Bú zài.) |
| A: 他去哪儿了？(Tā qù nǎr le?) |
| B: 不知道。(Bù zhīdào.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 你好，是小王吗？(Nǐhǎo, shì Xiǎo Wáng ma?) |
| B: 不是。(Bú shì.) |
| A: 请问，小王在吗？(Qǐngwèn, Xiǎo Wáng zài ma?) |
| B: 不在。(Bú zài.) |
| A: 他去哪儿了？(Tā qù nǎr le?) |
| B: 不知道。(Bù zhīdào.) |
| David: And now with the English. |
| A: 你好，是小王吗？(Nǐhǎo, shì Xiǎo Wáng ma?) |
| A: Hi, is this Xiao Wang? |
| B: 不是。(Bú shì.) |
| B: No. |
| A: 请问，小王在吗？(Qǐngwèn, Xiǎo Wáng zài ma?) |
| A: Excuse me, is Xiao Wang there? |
| B: 不在。(Bú zài.) |
| B: No. |
| A: 他去哪儿了？(Tā qù nǎr le?) |
| A: Where is he? |
| B: 不知道。(Bù zhīdào.) |
| B: I don't know. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So this is pretty typical for China. You get through to someone and they are totally unhelpful. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| David: Is this? No it’s not, Where, I don’t know. No just call back later. |
| Echo: Yeah it’s very much like customer service like people in China. They are all like that. |
| David: Yeah this is… |
| Echo: All like no, no, I don’t know. |
| David: Yeah so get used to hearing the negatives here. Anyway, we have got a lot of vocab in this lesson which is about the phone and talking on the phone. |
| Echo: Right. They are very, very helpful. |
| David: Oh yeah, this is really useful stuff. So let’s get to it right away. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: And now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) [natural native speed] |
| David: hello |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 请问(qǐngwèn) [natural native speed] |
| David: excuse me |
| Echo: 请问(qǐngwèn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 请问(qǐngwèn) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 在(zài) [natural native speed] |
| David: to be at |
| Echo: 在(zài) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 在(zài) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 留言(liúyán) [natural native speed] |
| David: to leave a message |
| Echo: 留言(liúyán) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 留言(liúyán) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 转(zhuǎn) [natural native speed] |
| David: to transfer |
| Echo: 转(zhuǎn) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 转(zhuǎn) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 电话(diànhuà) [natural native speed] |
| David: telephone |
| Echo: 电话(diànhuà) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 电话(diànhuà) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 打(dǎ) [natural native speed] |
| David: to dial |
| Echo: 打(dǎ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 打(dǎ) [natural native speed] |
| Echo: 号码(hàomǎ) [natural native speed] |
| David: number |
| Echo: 号码(hàomǎ) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Echo: 号码(hàomǎ) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay so our vocab today revolves around the telephone and the first word we have is what you are going to say when you pick up the telephone. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| David: Hello. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| David: So this is second tone. Some textbooks are going to tell you it’s fourth tone. |
| Echo: Yeah some older people will say that in fourth tone. |
| David: 喂(wéi) Hello who is this? |
| Echo: It’s like 喂(wéi) but it’s not wrong. It’s just the habit. |
| David: Yeah it sounds more impatient though. So second tone is more... |
| Echo: More common. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| David: Before we tell you this way of saying hello. |
| Echo: 你好(Nǐ hǎo) |
| David: Right. You can tack that on as well. |
| Echo: Yeah 喂，你好(Wèi, nǐ hǎo) |
| David: Hello, hello. |
| Echo: 喂，你好(Wèi, nǐ hǎo) |
| David: But really the short form is fun. |
| Echo: 喂(Wèi) |
| David: In our dialog, the first new call then asked |
| Echo: 请问(Qǐngwèn) |
| David: Excuse me. |
| Echo: 请问(Qǐngwèn) |
| David: Excuse me. |
| Echo: 请问(Qǐngwèn) |
| David: Right. This literally means please ask |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: As in please can I ask this? |
| Echo: 请问(Qǐngwèn) |
| David: So really you can stick this in front of any question. In the dialog, we heard... |
| Echo: 请问，小王在吗？(Qǐngwèn, xiǎo wáng zài ma?) |
| David: Excuse me is Xiao Wang there? |
| Echo: 请问，小王在吗？(Qǐngwèn, xiǎo wáng zài ma?) |
| David: You might also ask, excuse me, are you busy? |
| Echo: 请问，你忙吗？(Qǐngwèn, nǐ máng ma?) |
| David: Or excuse me, what’s your number? |
| Echo: 请问，你的号码是多少？(Qǐngwèn, nǐ de hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| David: Right. Okay, our next couple of words are pretty basic. First, we have the verb you used to ask if someone is there. |
| Echo: 在(Zài) |
| David: To be at. |
| Echo: 在(Zài) |
| David: We also have the words telephone. |
| Echo: 电话(Diànhuà) |
| David: Telephone. |
| Echo: 电话(Diànhuà) |
| David: To dial. |
| Echo: 打(Dǎ) |
| David: To dial. |
| Echo: 打(Dǎ) |
| David: And the word for number. |
| Echo: 号码(Hàomǎ) |
| David: Number. |
| Echo: 号码(Hàomǎ) |
| David: So combining these, we can now say, to dial the telephone. |
| Echo: 打电话(Dǎ diànhuà) |
| David: To dial the telephone. |
| Echo: 打电话(Dǎ diànhuà) |
| David: And telephone number. |
| Echo: 电话号码(Diànhuà hàomǎ) |
| David: Telephone number. |
| Echo: 电话号码(Diànhuà hàomǎ) |
| David: Can you say to dial a telephone number? |
| Echo: No. |
| David: No. |
| Echo: You can only dial the telephone. |
| David: The telephone okay. Tricky. With that though, let’s go on to the grammar section. We’ve got a couple of things we want to talk about. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Okay we’ve got a grammar section here which is mostly review. We are going to talk about negating things. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Because we heard a lot of negatives on that phone call but before we get there, Echo I have got some questions. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: Now when he made that telephone call, he asked for a 小王 (Xiao Wang) |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: What’s this 小 (Xiao) doing here? |
| Echo: 小(Xiǎo) means you are calling someone who is younger than you. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Or who actually have the lower position. |
| David: Right so we are not actually looking for midget and 小(Xiǎo) is not actually in their name. It’s kind of the nick name you would attach to the front of someone’s last name. |
| Echo: That’s right. |
| David: Right so 王(Wáng) here is the last name and we are looking for little 王.(Wáng.) |
| Echo: Correct 小王(Xiǎo wáng) |
| David: Right. If someone was called 张(Zhāng), you’d call them... |
| Echo: 小张(Xiǎo zhāng) |
| David: Right. What if they are older than you? |
| Echo: If you are really familiar with someone, then you can call them 老(Lǎo) something like 老王(Lǎo wáng) |
| David: Old Wang. |
| Echo: Yeah or 老李(Lǎo lǐ) |
| David: Yeah I am looking for 老李(Lǎo lǐ). What if you want to be a bit politer? |
| Echo: You can call them 先生(Xiānshēng) |
| David: Okay. So for |
| Echo: 小(Xiǎo) |
| David: The opposite is not 大(Dà) |
| Echo: No. |
| David: It’s |
| Echo: 老(Lǎo) |
| David: Right. Little 王(Wáng) |
| Echo: 小王(Xiǎo wáng) |
| David: And old王(Wáng) |
| Echo: 老王(Lǎo wáng) |
| David: Right. That brings us to our grammar point. This is going to be mostly review for you guys. In our dialogue, we ran into a lot of negatives. |
| Echo: Like 不是(Bùshì) |
| David: Not to be. |
| Echo: 不在(Bùzài) |
| David: Not to be present. |
| Echo: 不知道(Bù zhīdào) |
| David: Not to know. So this is the adverb we have meaning no. |
| Echo: 不(Bù) |
| David: You will notice this is fourth tone. |
| Echo: 不(Bù) |
| David: And in most situations, that’s what you are going to hear. |
| Echo: 不(Bù) |
| David: However when this character comes before another fourth tone word, a word like |
| Echo: 是(Shì) |
| David: Or |
| Echo: 在(Zài) |
| David: Then we change it into second tone. |
| Echo: Or say 不是(Bùshì) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: 不在(Bùzài) |
| David: Right. Let’s listen to the difference between this character in the second tone and the fourth tone one more time. |
| Echo: 不，不(Bù, bù) |
| David: Right. So you have not to be. |
| Echo: 不是(Bùshì) |
| David: And you have not to know. |
| Echo: 不知道(Bù zhīdào) |
| David: Right. This can be confusing for a lot of people. This can be confusing for a lot of people but don’t worry about it. It’s really just a way of making language easier to speak. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Because your voice needs to rise up before you can go into that fourth tone. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Okay. So that’s what’s going on. Now in terms of negating things, we use this character. |
| Echo: 不(Bù) |
| David: And we just want to remind you, we can use this to modify a verb, a verb phrase... |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Or an adjective. Okay so for verb, for instance, we can say I don’t know. |
| Echo: 我不知道(Wǒ bù zhīdào) |
| David: For verb phrase, you are going to have verbs in objects combined. Like to go to the movies. |
| Echo: 去看电影(Qù kàn diànyǐng) |
| David: Or to dial a telephone |
| Echo: 打电话(Dǎ diànhuà) |
| David: So you could say not to dial a telephone. |
| Echo: 不打电话(Bù dǎ diànhuà) |
| David: Right. I am not going to call him. And we can also use this to modify adjectives directly. For instance... |
| Echo: 我不高兴(Wǒ bù gāoxìng) |
| David: I am not happy or |
| Echo: 我不忙(Wǒ bù máng) |
| David: I am not busy. |
Outro |
| David: And that’s our lesson for today. Before we leave you, we want to remind you. If you’ve got an MP3 player, make sure you set up our premium lesson feed. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: You can set this up in iTunes and it’s going to get all of these mp3s and all of these transcripts automatically downloaded to your computer. |
| Echo: Yeah everything. |
| David: Yeah this is the fastest way to get started and it means that everything is there right in your mp3 player. |
| Echo: 没错(Méi cuò) |
| David: Whenever you need it. Okay. So that’s our lesson for today. 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: 网上见，拜拜.(Wǎngshàng jiàn, bàibài.) |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
HideOn land lines in China, caller ID doesn't exist as it does in the West. Only the phone number will appear, with no name or business affiliation.
Hello Henry,
Thank you for your comment. You can say 我马上下去 (Wǒ mǎshàng xiàqù) or 我现在就下去 (Wǒ xiànzài jiù xiàqù).
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi
How do you say.' I will come down right away' to the delivery driver who calls up with the food on Metian app?
Hello Deniz,
Thank you for your comment. Sometimes vocabs that are related to the topic are also included in the vocab section. But I do understand the confusion, I'll forward this to the team.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Thanks for the lesson! I'm a bit confused since the vocab does not appear in the dialouge.
Is that the way it's supposed to be?
Thanks in advance for your response!
Best, Deniz
Hello 美華,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes you can also ask 请问你的号码是什么？
For dial, we say 打, "dial this number" is 打这个号码.
To address a female, you can say 小姐.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
"Excuse me, what's your number?" Translation in this lessons was 请问你的号码是多少？But can you also say 请问你的号码是什么？
Since you can't say "dial a telephone number" in Chinese how would you communicate "dial this number?"
Also, we use 先生 to be polite for a man, but what if we're asking for a female? What do we use?
谢谢
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 不打电话
robert
Hello kays02,
Thank you for your comment. The chuo radical should look like this: ⻌ (simplified version, with one dot, in total three strokes). Depending on the fonts used on the computers, the radical appears in different forms.
In case the radical above isn't shown properly, please check out this page about radicals: https://www.chineseclass101.com/chinese-radicals/
Hope it helps, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
I've seen dao being written as 道 as well as with just one tiny stroke above the chuo radical, I was wondering if there's a difference between the two or are both acceptable ways to write it?
Hello Daniel,
Thank you for your comment.
打 (dǎ) has several meanings/usages, 'to flag down' is one of them, e.g. 打车, to take a taxi. And yes 撥打 or simply 打 means to dial a phone number.
Hope this helps, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
This word comes up in the vocabulary list:
打dǎ to flag down
It is totally unrelated to the lesson, and no useful example is given.
On the other hand, I found this word 撥打, which means to dial a phone number.
Could you please clear this up?
Hi, Orlando,
Thank you for asking the difference between 不 and 没.
Literally, 不 means "not, will not（now or future tense）", while 没 means "did not, have not ... yet(past or perfect tense)".
For instance,
我不去。Wǒ bú qù, I won't go.
我没去。Wǒ méi qù，I didn't go.
我不走。Wǒ bù zǒu ，I won't leave.
我没走。Wǒ méi zǒu ，I haven't left.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Can anyone tell me which lesson # breaks out the difference and when to use ”bù" and when to use "méi" ?
Hi, Patricia,
In our lessons, we usually use common names in the dialogue.
For example, 王 张 李 赵 (wáng zhāng lǐ zhāo ).
And informally, we add 小(xiǎo) before surname (to who is younger than you) or 老(lǎo)(to the man who is elder than you).
So, you will hear as a name like 小王, 老李...
If you have any question, please let us know.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
In the dialogue, there is a name "小王“ in the sentence "你好，是小王吗？”
Is there a way to know when reading Chinese that characters are referring to a name, or is it all contextual?
谢谢！
Hi rolphe,
Some people use 电话号码 and some use 号码, so both are fine. But if you don't want to cause any confusion, just say 电话号码.
Chloe
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi, I just have a question, I came through as well 电话号码 , which one is more common 电话号码 or 号码.
Thanks for your help