Learn how to say hello on the telephone and ask to speak to someone
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 |
| Frank: Hey, everyone! |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 21. |
| Echo: 二十一课。(Èrshíyī kè.) |
| Frank: In our Beginner series. I’m your host, Frank Fradella, and I’m joined in the studio as always by my lovely co-host, Echo. |
| Echo: 大家好(Dàjiā hǎo)，我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. Today’s dialogue is between Zhang Fei and Li Fang, which is Ma Li’s friend. |
| Frank: They’re talking on the phone. Let’s get on to the dialogue. |
| Echo: But before we do… |
| Frank: But before we do, we want to remind you to head up to ChineseClass101.com and check out that voice recording tool. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Practice those tones. Get them right because honestly you can’t point at stuff when you’re on the phone. Let’s get on to the dialogue now. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 张飞:喂，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wéi, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:喂？ 听不见。喂？(LǏ FĀNG: Wéi? Tīngbújiàn. Wèi?) |
| 张飞:我说，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shuō, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:哦，她在，请稍等。(LǏ FĀNG: O, tā zài, qǐng shāoděng.) |
| Frank: One more time, just a bit slower. |
| 张飞:喂，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wéi, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:喂？ 听不见。喂？(LǏ FĀNG: Wéi? Tīngbújiàn. Wèi?) |
| 张飞:我说，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shuō, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| 李芳:哦，她在，请稍等。(LǏ FĀNG: O, tā zài, qǐng shāoděng.) |
| Frank: All right. Echo, I think Zhang Fei is really trying to patch things up here. |
| Echo: Maybe. |
| Frank: Do you think he’s being suitably apologetic after his behavior the other night or… |
| Echo: I don’t know. I still don’t like him. |
| Frank: I know. |
| Echo: As always. |
| Frank: Let’s do this line-by-line. |
| 张飞:喂，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wéi, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| Frank: Hello, is Ma Li there? |
| 李芳:喂？ 听不见。喂？(LǏ FĀNG: Wéi? Tīngbújiàn. Wèi?) |
| Frank: Hello? I can't hear you. Hello? |
| 张飞:我说，马丽在吗？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shuō, Mǎ Lì zài ma?) |
| Frank: I said, is Ma Li there? |
| 李芳:哦，她在，请稍等。(LǏ FĀNG: O, tā zài, qǐng shāoděng.) |
| Frank: Oh, she's here. Wait just a minute. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: Okay. Now this is our first lesson the phone so there’s a lot of great vocab you can use when you want to give someone a telephone call, or when someone wants to give you a telephone call. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: Let’s go ahead and go through the vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Male: Now the vocab section. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi)[natural native speed] |
| Frank: Hello. |
| Echo: 喂 (wéi) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 喂(wéi) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Didn’t hear. |
| Echo: 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 听不见(tīngbùjiàn) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 说(shuō) |
| Frank: To speak. |
| Echo: 说(shuō) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 说(shuō) [natural native speed].。 |
| Echo: 稍等(shāoděng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To wait a moment. |
| Echo: 稍等(shāoděng) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 稍等(shāoděng) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: Just a second ago on the vocab, we told you that the word for “hello” on the phone. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| Frank: If you’re listening very closely and you’re paying attention to tones, it sounds like second tone. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: However, if you check a dictionary… |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) |
| Frank: Fourth tone. |
| Echo: Some people would say 喂(wéi) fourth tone in China, but they are okay. |
| Frank: Oh. Good point. What’s something else you might answer the phone with? |
| Echo: 是谁(shì shéi) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: “Who is it?” So now you know how to say hello on the phone. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi)，是谁？(shì shéi?) |
| Frank: But there’s a lot of other phone-related vocabulary that you’re going to need, so let’s give it to you now. Let’s start with the word for “telephone”. |
| Echo: 電話(diànhuà) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: This specifically refers to a fixed line telephone. The mobile phone would be… |
| Echo: 手機(shǒujī) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Most mobile phones in China are re-chargeable. So you actually have to buy a card to recharge the minutes. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: What’s the name of that? |
| Echo: 充值卡(chōngzhíkǎ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: That’s the word you’d use for the re-chargeable card with the minutes on it. |
| Echo: Right, 充值卡(chōngzhíkǎ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: You can buy these rechargeable minute cards at any convenient store. They usually come in denominations of 50 or 100. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: What’s the word for phone number? |
| Echo: 电话号码(diànhuà hàomǎ) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: So if you meet a beautiful girl, you can say, “give me your phone number”. |
| Echo: 美女(Měinǚ)，给我你的电话吧。(Gěi wǒ nǐ de diànhuà ba.) |
| Frank: Now, in the States, it’d be a little rude to just say, “Give me your phone number”. But what makes this a little softer? |
| Echo: 吧(Ba)，美女(Měinǚ)，给我你的电话号码吧。(Gěi wǒ nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ ba.) |
| Frank: That particle at the end actually softens the phrase to make it less rude. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: What’s the word for text message or SMS message? |
| Echo: 短信(duǎnxìn) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Awesome. In today’s dialogue, we heard someone say they couldn’t hear. |
| Echo: 听不见。(Tīng bùjiàn.) |
| Frank: Now if they didn’t understand, it would sound like this: |
| Echo: 听不懂(tīngbùdǒng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: If the signal was just lousy and they couldn’t hear clearly, they would say… |
| Echo: 听不清楚(tīngbùqīngchu) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Last vocab word for the day was, “please wait a moment”. |
| Echo: 喂(wéi) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: That’s it. Now that we’re done with the vocab, we’re going to head on to the grammar section. |
| Echo: Yes, my favorite part. |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| Frank: Today is actually a review lesson for us. |
| Echo: Yeah. Right. |
| Frank: You guys are doing so great. We’re moving ahead really quickly on this stuff. So this podcast, we’re going to focus on reviewing some of the grammar we learned in previous lessons. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Frank: Our focus for this review is question words, “what?” |
| Echo: 什么(shénme) |
| Frank: Who? |
| Echo: 谁(shéi) |
| Frank: Why? |
| Echo: 为什么(wèishénme) |
| Frank: As in, “who is it?” |
| Echo: 是谁(shì shéi) |
| Frank: What did he say? |
| Echo: 他说什么？(Tā shuō shénme?) |
| Frank: Why is he calling me? |
| Echo: 他为什么给我打电话？(Tā wèishéme gěi wǒ dǎ diànhuà?) |
| Frank: Now remember, “why”… |
| Echo: 为什么(wèishénme) |
| Frank: …goes right after the subject, as in “why weren’t you there?” |
| Echo: 你为什么不在？(Nǐ wèishéme bùzài?) |
| Frank: The other question words, “what”… |
| Echo: 什么(Shénme) |
| Frank: …and “who”… |
| Echo: 谁(Shéi) |
| Frank: …follow the verb, as in “Who are you? You’re so handsome.” |
| Echo: 你是谁？你很帅。(Nǐ shì shéi? Nǐ hěn shuài.) |
| Frank: What is this? |
| Echo: 这是谁？(Zhè shì shéi?) |
| Frank: Okay. We’re going to play a little game with you right now. Game time. I’m going to say a sentence in English. I’m going to give you a second to see if you guys can get it on your own, and then Echo is going to come in with the translation. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: Let’s do this. “What is your phone number?” |
| Echo: 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: Oh, trick question. This is crazy but true. In Chinese, people actually say “how much is your phone number?” |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: They don’t want to buy it from you, they just want to be able to call you. |
| Echo: 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: That’s our fourth question word for review. |
| Echo: 多少？(Duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: Which means “how much” or “how many”. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| Frank: Let’s have two examples of this. “How much is this?” |
| Echo: 这个多少钱？(Zhège duōshǎo qián?) |
| Frank: What’s your phone number? |
| Echo: 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?) |
| Frank: Okay, this was a great review lesson. Listen, guys, we know we’re moving really fast. You’ve acquired a lot of new vocabulary over the last 21 lessons. There’s no better way to review that vocabulary than to become a premium subscriber up at ChineseClass101. All the tests and quizzes are there for you; the PDF transcripts, all bunch of great tools. The voice recording tool will be yours, too. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Frank: But for right now, we’ve got to get going. So from Beijing, I’m Frank Fradella… |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: …and we’ll see you next time. 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
| Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
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
HideHave any tips and tricks for handling the phone system in China? Know where to get cheap iPhones or high quality shanzhai knockoffs? Share them with us by leaving a comment below.
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 你的电话号码是多少？
robert
Hello Chris,
Thank you for posting.
Unfortunately at the moment we're not able to show the full date of the comments.
But we’ll consider your feedback for our future development.
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Lena
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi, Chris,
Here is the answer for your second question.
多少 can be used to ask for numbers, including phone numbers, passwords...
The meaning is "how many"/"what".
这里的无线上网的密码是多少？ = What is the password of the Wifi here?
For the first question, we'll back to you later.
Cho
team ChineseClass101.com
Hi,
I've recently signed up, having previously been a long term chinesepod subscriber, and am working through a few lessons to familiarise myself with the chineseclass101 site/app. One immediate comment - is it possible to include the dates on comments? At the moment I can say the day and time but not the actual date, meaning it's difficult to gauge how current/active a lesson's comments section is.
For this lesson specifically, I wanted to comment on the use of 多少 when asking for phone numbers. The other context where this is incredibly useful is when asking for wifi passwords at cafes/restaurants/etc, e.g. 这里的无线上网的密码是多少？ (zheli de wuxian shangwang de mima shi duo shao?).
thanks
Chris
卫力，
It's my pleasure.:smile:
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
好的！我明白了。 谢谢你！
卫力，
你为什么不在那儿？ 正确
因为她重点想问的是为什么不在，所以就把那儿省略了。
Because what she wanted to ask why you "were not", so she omitted the "there".
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好！
我喜欢二十一课，因为这个课又清楚又有趣。（Wǒ xǐhuān èrshíyī kè, yīnwèi zhège kè yòu qīngchǔ yòu yǒuqù.。
我有一个问题。To ask the question, Why weren’t you there? Echo said 你为什么不在？ would 你为什么不在那儿？ be wrong？
再见，
卫力
Hi Harmen,
Thank you very much for pointing out the issue for 喂, we've fixed it now. :sweat_smile:
Here in this lesson it means "Hello (phone conversation)", not "to feed", which is its other definition.
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
In the vocabulary list 喂 wei2/4 is listed with the meaning 'to feed' which is no doubt correct, but in the given context it is a bit ehrm...funny: "喂，馬麗在嗎？" - "Feed, is Mali there?". Or "喂, 喂!" - "Feed, feed!"
Meaning of Chinese words. It is all about context.
:grin:
Podboy - There's no additional fee for the iPhone in China. I just buy a pre-paid China Mobile card now and then and I'm good to rock and roll!
David - Me too , I just keep losing my phones.
Frank - $200 (1500RMB) a month is really expensive, how much does iPhone cost per month in China?
Podboy and Frank - I can't stop myself from losing phones. Now they're mass producing the older versions of the b&w Nokia handset and you can pick one up for 300 RMB. Add a cheap SIM card and a prepaid card and you're good to go with a new phone for about 500 RMB. I think my sister pays more than that a MONTH for a lengthy service contract that gives her the phone after a year or two.
I'll take China any day for mobile stuff.
Max - It's amazing how easily you adopt that phrase, too. I will say that text messaging in Chinese is MUCH easier with an iPhone. How did I ever live without mine?
Podboy - I LOVE the rates here in China! My iPhone service in the States cost me nearly $200 (1500RMB) a month. I lost some of my phone's functionality when I hit Beijing, but on the whole it was well worth it.
Do you guys feel that Chinese mobile phones are really expensive ? Both mobile itself and the service charge. You even have to pay for recieving calls .:evil:
Nice lesson! Really practical for people starting out with Chinese too.
You'll receive enough phone calls from Chinese people in China (and probably outside of China too) to be able to use 'wei?' a lot.