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| David: Welcome to ChineseClass101. I’m David. |
| Echo: Hi! Da jia hao! 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| David: Echo, we’re here with Beginner Lesson #47. |
| Echo: 第四十七课。(Dì sìshíqī kè.) |
| David: This is a lesson all about the awesome and unknowable future. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| David: Yeah. Where does this take place? This is… |
| Echo: In a cab. |
| David: This is in a cab. Oh, right. Okay. |
| Echo: Hello? |
| David: Okay, okay. It’s in a cab. We’re going to take you to the dialogue in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you guys, the future may be unknowable but the present is a lot easier to deal with if you’ve got our premium PDFs. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Get your hands on these transcripts. Print them out, and the day after you listen to this lesson, you’re going to review it and it all going to come flying back. |
| Echo: Yup. |
| David: Okay. With that, let’s do the dialogue. |
| 甲: 你知道后海在哪儿吗？(JIǍ: Nǐ zhīdào Hòuhǎi zài nǎr ma?) |
| 乙: 不太清楚。(YǏ: Bù tài qīngchǔ.) |
| 甲: 等会儿，我打个电话。(JIǍ: Děng huìr, wǒ dǎ ge diànhuà.) |
| 乙: 好的。(YǏ: Hǎo de.) |
| 甲: 给你，他会告诉你的。(JIǍ: Gěi nǐ, tā huì gàosù nǐ de.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 甲: 你知道后海在哪儿吗？(JIǍ: Nǐ zhīdào Hòuhǎi zài nǎr ma?) |
| 乙: 不太清楚。(YǏ: Bù tài qīngchǔ.) |
| 甲: 等会儿，我打个电话。(JIǍ: Děng huìr, wǒ dǎ ge diànhuà.) |
| 乙: 好的。(YǏ: Hǎo de.) |
| 甲: 给你，他会告诉你的。(JIǍ: Gěi nǐ, tā huì gàosù nǐ de.) |
| 甲: 你知道后海在哪儿吗？(JIǍ: Nǐ zhīdào Hòuhǎi zài nǎr ma?) |
| David: Do you know where Houhai is? |
| 乙: 不太清楚。(YǏ: Bù tài qīngchǔ.) |
| David: Not too clear. |
| 甲: 等会儿，我打个电话。(JIǍ: Děng huìr, wǒ dǎ ge diànhuà.) |
| David: Wait a sec. I'll dial the telephone. |
| 乙: 好的。(YǏ: Hǎo de.) |
| David: Okay. |
| 甲: 给你，他会告诉你的。(JIǍ: Gěi nǐ, tā huì gàosù nǐ de.) |
| David: I’m giving it to you. He'll tell you. |
| Echo: That’s a weird translation. |
| David: It’s Chinese. |
| Echo: So innocent. |
| David: There are a bunch of phrases that don’t translate really well like 我打个电话.(wǒ dǎ ge diànhuà.) |
| Echo: Make a phone call. |
| David: I’m going to beat up the telephone? I’m going to dial this telephone? And what’s this? This “I will tell you”? Oh, no it’s... |
| Echo: He will tell you. |
| David: It’s “give you”. He will tell you. |
| Echo: Yeah, here you are. |
| David: Here you are, he will tell you. Okay. So the translations were a bit awkward. You guys can blame me for that. But we do have a lot of good vocab in this lesson. So we’re going to take you to the vocab section right away. |
| Male: Now, the vocab section. |
| Echo: 知道(zhīdào) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To know. |
| Echo: 知道(zhīdào) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 知道(zhīdào) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 清楚(qīngchǔ) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Clear. |
| Echo: 清楚(qīngchǔ) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 清楚(qīngchǔ) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 等會兒(děng huǐr) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Wait a bit. |
| Echo: 等會兒(děng huǐr) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 等會兒(děng huǐr) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 打電話(dǎ diànhuà) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Dial the telephone. |
| Echo: 打電話(dǎ diànhuà) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 打電話(dǎ diànhuà) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 給(gěi) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To give. |
| Echo: 給(gěi) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 給(gěi) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 會……的(huì...de) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Will. |
| Echo: 會……的(huì...de) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 會……的(huì...de) [natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 告訴(gàosù) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To tell. |
| Echo: 告訴(gàosù) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 告訴(gàosù) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Some interesting words here. One of the things that leaps to mind is the difference between standard Mandarin that’s spoken on the mainland, and Mandarin that’s spoken in Taiwan. You got to remember, in standard mainland Mandarin, we’ve got the neutral tone. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And we see this on the end of a bunch of verbs, like the verb “to know.” |
| Echo: 知道.(zhīdào.) |
| David: The adjective “clear”. |
| Echo: 清楚(qīngchǔ) |
| David: As well as “to tell”. |
| Echo: 告诉(gàosù) |
| David: Right. So the second character in all of those words is neutral. It’s light and it’s unemphasized. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Okay. We’ve got an extension vocab section where we want to review all of these words for we’re talking about understanding or knowing… |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: …okay? You guys should know this. |
| Echo: Yeah. It’s a good chance for us to tell the difference between them. |
| David: Right, because they are different. Let’s start with the verb “to understand”. |
| Echo: 懂. 懂.(Dǒng. Dǒng.) |
| David: “I understand Chinese”. |
| Echo: 我懂中文。(Wǒ dǒng zhōngwén.) |
| David: Right. We’ve also got useful phrases. If someone is speaking to you, you can say “I hear you but I don’t understand what you’re saying”. |
| Echo: 我听不懂。(Wǒ tīng bù dǒng.) |
| David: Right. Or if someone thrust a page full of Chinese characters, you can put to it and say, “I can’t read this”. |
| Echo: 我看不懂。(Wǒ kàn bù dǒng.) |
| David: Next, we’ve got the verb “to understand; to get it”. |
| Echo: 明白。 |
| David: I understand what you mean. |
| Echo: 我明白你的意思。(Wǒ míngbái nǐ de yìsi) |
| David: I understand what you mean. |
| Echo: 我明白你的意思。(Wǒ míngbái nǐ de yìsi) |
| David: We also saw this in the dialogue, the adjective “clear”. |
| Echo: 清楚。(Qīngchǔ.) |
| David: That would be “I don’t really understand. I’m not clear”. |
| Echo: 不太清楚。(Bù tài qīngchǔ.) |
| David: Right. So maybe you do recognize Chinese characters but it’s kind of smudgy. So I can’t see it clearly. |
| Echo: Right, 我看不清楚.(Wǒ kàn bù qīngchǔ) |
| David: Our second last verb for you is when it translates into English as “to know”. |
| Echo: 认识。(Rènshì) |
| David: But it’s not “to know” in Chinese. |
| Echo: It’s tricky. |
| David: Yes, it’s “to recognize”. |
| Echo: Right, 认识. 你认识他吗？(Rènshì. Nǐ rènshì tā ma?) |
| David: “Do you recognize him?” We use this with people. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér) |
| David: So you could say, “I don’t recognize him”. |
| Echo: 我不认识他。(Wǒ bù rènshì tā) |
| David: I’m not clear. |
| Echo: 我不清楚。(Wǒ bù qīngchǔ.) |
| David: Yeah. Although we’d normally say like, “I’m not clear who he is”. |
| Echo: 我不清楚他是谁。(Wǒ bù qīngchǔ tā shì shéi.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: Yeah. Or 我不知道他是谁. (Wǒ bù zhīdào tā shì shéi.) |
| David: Which is our last word. It’s the one for to know. |
| Echo: Right. 我知道你是谁。(Wǒ zhīdào nǐ shì shéi.) |
| David: “I know who you are”, although the most useful sentence for language learners is “I don’t know”. |
| Echo: 我不知道。(Wǒ bù zhīdào.) |
| David: I don’t know. |
| Echo: 我不知道。(Wǒ bù zhīdào.) |
| David: I really don’t know. |
| Echo: 我真的不知道。(Wǒ zhēn de bù zhīdào.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 你告诉我吧。(Nǐ gàosù wǒ ba) |
| David: So that’s our vocab for today, a review. Remember these five core verbs: to understand… |
| Echo: 懂。(dǒng) |
| David: To get it. |
| Echo: 明白。(míngbai.) |
| David: Clear. |
| Echo: 清楚。(qīngchǔ.) |
| David: To recognize. |
| Echo: 认识。(rènshi.) |
| David: To know. |
| Echo: 知道。(zhīdào.) |
| David: With that, let’s hit the grammar section. |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| David: In this lesson, we’re going to teach you, guys, the secret of the future tense. |
| Echo: Exciting stuff. |
| David: Yes. This is exciting stuff and it’s stuff people who think they’re good at Chinese often get wrong. So if you get this right, people are going to think your Chinese is really pretty good. |
| Echo: 非常好。(Fēicháng hǎo.) |
| David: Yes. |
| Echo: 真 棒。(Zhēn bàng.) |
| David: So let’s get started. Now, as we’ve already told you in other lessons, in Chinese tense and aspect, it’s kind of fluid. You kind of have to infer it from the situation. |
| Echo: Right. Actually, we need to add some words. |
| David: Yeah. One of the easiest ones is the one we’ve already covered. |
| Echo: 要. (Yào.) |
| David: Then adding 了(Le) at the end of that sentence, usually kind of this hint that we’re dealing with the future. For instance, “It’s going to rain”. |
| Echo: 要下雨了。(Yào xià yǔle.) |
| David: He is going to be late. |
| Echo: 他要迟到了。(Tā yào chídàole.) |
| David: He is coming. |
| Echo: 他要来了。(Tā yào láile.) |
| David: If we don’t have that [*], it’s more like “I want” and the verb become “to want”. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: Now, in this lesson, we’re going to do a much more hard-core version of the future. This is one that more advanced students are going to get wrong all the time, because we don’t just use.. |
| Echo: 要(Yào)，了(Le) |
| David: We can also use… |
| Echo: 会(Huì)，的(De) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Remember, don’t forget that 的.(De.) |
| David: Yeah. What is the sentence in our dialogue that has this? |
| Echo: 他会告诉你的。(tā huì gàosù nǐ de.) |
| David: He will tell you. We’ve also… |
| Echo: 的。(de.) |
| David: Yeah, “he will tell you 的(de)”. We’ve seen 会 before as a verb which means “to be able to do something”. But if we pair it with 的(de)…. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: It becomes something that signals the future tense. A lot of people will leave off that 的and they’ll get it wrong. So we’re not going to make that mistake ever. To help you guys practice, we’ve got some sample sentences for you. |
| Echo: 我会去的。(Wǒ huì qù de.) |
| David: I will go. |
| Echo: 他会来的。(Tā huì lái de.) |
| David: He will come. |
| Echo: 我会打电话的。(Wǒ huì dǎ diànhuà de.) |
| David: “I will dial the telephone”. We’ve had that before, 打电话(Dǎ diànhuà) hit the phone. |
| Echo: Yeah, let’s repeat it. 我会打电话的。(Wǒ huì dǎ diànhuà de.) |
| David: The key thing, of course, is this 的(De) at the end of the sentence. Without it, it means “I can use a telephone”. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So we got to stick that 的(De). If you say that without the 的(De), you would be like, “What? I can use a telephone too!” |
| Echo: 我会打电话的。(Wǒ huì dǎ diànhuà de.) |
| David: Last but not least… |
| Echo: 我会告诉你们的。(Wǒ huì gàosù nǐmen de..) |
| David: One more time. |
| Echo: 我会告诉你们的。(Wǒ huì gàosù nǐmen de.) |
| David: I will tell you… |
| Echo: You guys. |
| David: “I will tell you guys”, right? How do we say the plural again? |
| Echo: 你们。(Nǐmen.)Neutral tone again. |
| David: There’s that neutral tone again. Yeah. |
| Echo: 我会告诉你们的。(Wǒ huì gàosù nǐmen de.) |
| David: Okay. That’s the end of our podcast. Really, really useful grammar point. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: A lot of people who are more advanced than you are not going to know this or they’re going drop off that 的. Don’t make that mistake. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: One of the easiest way is not to make that mistake is to get the PDFs, because we’ve got the grammar note in them, it has a write-up all about this stuff. The day after you listen to our lesson, just skimming the PDF is a really easy way to make it stick. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Print them out, stick them in the book and every now and then live through it. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: You will get the admiration of the Chinese people. Right, Echo? |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Okay. From Beijing, I’m David. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: If you have any questions, make sure you leave a comment on the site or send us an email. |
| Echo: 没错儿。(Méi cuò ér.) |
| David: We’d love to hear from you. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| David: Okay. Take care, guys. We’ll see you next week. |
| Echo: 下周见吧。(Xià zhōu jiàn ba.)Bye-bye. |
Comments
HideDon't expect your driver to know all the local shortcuts. So keep on your feet and don't be afraid to give them directions. This can shave a lot of time off your commute!
Hello robert,
Thank you for your comment. We hope you enjoyed it!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
thanks for the lesson
my favorite words are 要下雨了。
robert
Hello Celestial Topaz,
Thank you for your comment. 是...的 is often used to talk about past events, but it's not tied to past events. 的 cannot be used as a way of recognizing past events.
会 indicates that something is likely to happen in the future. 他会告诉你的 means "He will tell you". 的 at the end of a sentence is a modal particle, it is used to indicate the speaker's certainty.
Hope it helps, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi Guys!
Regarding the sentence: 他会告诉你的...
I was reading elsewhere that in sentences with the 是 + 的 construction (used primarily for circumstances occurring in the past) that the 是 can be omitted.
Eg : 我在食堂吃的反 rather than 我是在食堂吃的饭。It was claimed that 的 could therefore be used as a way of recognising past events. But here you've given an example of how it can also be used to indicate something will happen.
Does the hui indicate the future and zai give an indication of present or past? Please help! I'm so confused now!
Hello Pat,
Thank you for your positive comment! 😄
Keep going and let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
All right, now we're getting into the thick of it! :) I loved this grammar point, super useful--thanks!
Hello Gerald,
Thank you for your comment. 不客气！To say 'I don't know If I'm getting the lesson completely', you can say '我不知道我是否完全明白这课的内容'.
Keep it up and let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好！谢谢你的课！
这课很难！我不明白它 completely。但现在我知道我需要学习更多! 😞 今天晚上在家里我会学习中文的！
我做针灸所以你们帮助了我很多！
这是一个问题 :
1. how can i say ''I dónt know If I'm getting it completely (the lesson)''
T.I.A! :)
Hi Ivan
Thanks for learning with us.
Amy
Team ChineseClass101.com
😄
Hi, V,
You are welcome.:smile:
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Great! Thanks for the reply, Cho. All good. :)
Hi, V,
This is really an intersting question.
You can omit 個 in this phrase. They have the same meaning, but just have small difference in rythem.
Also 你媽媽 can be used in spoken Chinese.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
So is it OK to omit 個 when we say 打電話 or 打個電話?
I understand the use of measure word 個, but just asking because in lesson 20 call your mother, it said 給你的媽媽打電話吧。
And while we are talking about that sentence, can we also omit 的 in 你的媽媽 or is it a must?
Enjoying the lesson by the way. Thanks!
Hi 卫力，
Exactly. We have quite a lot dialects for different areas.
So even we speak mandarin, the pronounciation is usually different for the standard one.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
谢谢！
That's so encouraging Cho! It's as though you are saying: "Don't worry foreigners, Chinese people have to study to speak Chinese, because they can make mistakes. Interesting!
别急，老外。中国人要需学习说汉语，因为他们会说错。 太有趣了。（Bié jí, lǎowài. Zhōngguó rén yào xū xuéxí shuō hànyǔ, yīnwèi tāmen huì shuō cuò. Tài yǒuqùle..）
卫力
Hi 卫力，
Maybe Taiwan has no neutral tones.
But in mainland, we have.
Standard mandarin use neutral tones for the second character.
But only in oral test, you should make it clearly. In common dialogue, talking to people, either is ok.
Actually, without learning and practices, most Chinese people can not pass standard oral test.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
大家好，
我很喜欢这个课。我想我明白了. 今天上晚我会学习它的。现在我有一个问题。（Wǒ hěn xǐhuān zhège kè. Wǒ xiǎng wǒ míngbáile. Jīntiān shàng wǎn wǒ huì xuéxí tā de. Xiànzài wǒ yǒu yīgè wèntí.）。
David said one of the differences between Chinese on the mainland and in Taiwan is the neutral tones. In Taiwan, are there no neutral tones? In the lesson notes, the pinyin for 告诉gàosù and 知道zhīdào, both have falling tones for the second character. Does standard mandarin have a neutral tone for the last character in these words?
再见，
卫力
Hi Scott,
The 会...的 pattern can be used in written and colloquial, it adds a hint of confirmation to the sentence, showing that the speaker is sure about the fact. The 2 sentences you provided are correct, and so are these:
今天会下雨的。"(I'm sure) today will rain."
我明天会去的。"I will go tomorrow (for sure)."
Please let us know if you have any further questions, we are here to help :wink:
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
I have used multiple websites and software and have never come across 的 used with 会.
今天会下雨.
我明天会去.
Are these all wrong or is the use of 的 only "textbook" Chinese and not used in the real world?
谢谢