Learn how to use the Chinese copula shi to talk about permanent states of being
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Frank: Hey, everyone! |
| Echo: Da jia hao! |
| Frank: Welcome back to ChineseClass101.com, Season 1, Lesson 6 in our Beginner Series. I’m your host, Frank Fradella and I’m joined in the studio today by the ravishing Echo. |
| Echo: Hello! |
| Frank: Today, we’ve got a dialogue for you featuring our old friends…. |
| Echo: Zhang Fei and Ma Li. |
| Frank: One is a native speaker; the other isn’t. |
| Echo: Now we finally out where Zhang Fei is from. |
| Frank: That’s right. The mystery of Zhang Fei’s nationality is revealed. This dialogue takes place where? |
| Echo: Maybe in a café. |
| Frank: They are speaking casually but you can use this language formally as well. |
| Echo: Exactly. |
| Frank: Let’s have a listen. But before we learn where Zhang Fei is from, we want to know where you are from. So come to the site. Come to ChineseClass101.com. Leave a comment. |
| Echo: Yeah. Tell us. Yes. |
| Frank: Let us know where you’re coming from. We’d love to know more about you. We’ll see you there. Let’s go on to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 马丽:你是哪儿人？(MǍ LÌ: Nǐ shì nǎr rén?) |
| 张飞:我是英国人。你呢？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shì yīngguó rén. Nǐ ne?) |
| 马丽:我是中国人，北京人。(MǍ LÌ: Wǒ shì Zhōngguó rén, Běijīng rén.) |
| Frank: Now let’s listen to that dialogue just a little slower. |
| 马丽:你是哪儿人？(MǍ LÌ: Nǐ shì nǎr rén?) |
| 张飞:我是英国人。你呢？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shì yīngguó rén. Nǐ ne?) |
| 马丽:我是中国人，北京人。(MǍ LÌ: Wǒ shì Zhōngguó rén, Běijīng rén.) |
| Frank: Okay, we’re back. Echo I’m curious where are you from originally. |
| Echo: I’m front around here. |
| Frank: From Beijing. |
| Echo: Yes, 我是北京人.(Wǒ shì běijīng rén.) |
| Frank: That’s actually one of the sentences in today’s dialogue. Let’s go and get through line-by-line. |
| Echo: Right. |
| 马丽:你是哪儿人？(MǍ LÌ: Nǐ shì nǎr rén?) |
| Frank: Where are you from? |
| 张飞:我是英国人。你呢？(ZHĀNG FĒI: Wǒ shì yīngguó rén. Nǐ ne?) |
| Frank: I am British, and you? |
| 马丽:我是中国人，北京人。(MǍ LÌ: Wǒ shì Zhōngguó rén, Běijīng rén.) |
| Frank: I'm a Chinese person, a Beijing person. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Frank: At last, the mystery of Zhang Fei’s nationality has been revealed. |
| Echo: 英国人。(Yīngguó rén.) |
| Frank: That’s right. He’s from England. His a Brit. He’s from across the pond. I can see that we’re behind the schedule, my dear, so let’s go ahead and get to the vocabulary. |
| Male: And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 是(shì) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: To be. |
| Echo: 是(shì)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 是(shì)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 人(rén) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Person. |
| Echo: 人(rén)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 人(rén)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 英国(Yīngguó) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: England. |
| Echo: 英国(Yīngguó)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 英国(Yīngguó)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 中国(Zhōngguó) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: China. |
| Echo: 中国(Zhōngguó)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 中国(Zhōngguó)[natural native speed]. |
| Echo: 北京(Běijīng) [natural native speed]. |
| Frank: Beijing. |
| Echo: 北京(Běijīng)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. 北京(Běijīng)[natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Frank: You know Echo, you come out of the airport here in China, you get in that cab. I tell you, it’s not unusual that the first question you’re going to hear is, “Where are you from?” |
| Echo: 你是哪儿人？(Nǐ shì nǎr rén?) |
| Frank: Now, this is really interesting because we already know the word for “where”. |
| Echo: Yes, 哪儿。(Nǎ'er.) |
| Frank: Now, we just learn the word for person. |
| Echo: 人。(rén.) |
| Frank: So you’re a “where person”. |
| Echo: 你是哪儿人。(Nǐ shì nǎ'er rén.) |
| Frank: The other way that you’ll hear this is, “What country are you from?” |
| Echo: Yes, 你是哪国人？(Nǐ shì nǎ guórén?) |
| Frank: “What country are you from?” Let’s hear those two together side-by-side, Echo. |
| Echo: 你是哪儿人？你是哪国人？(Nǐ shì nǎ'er rén? Nǐ shì nǎ guórén?) |
| Frank: Let’s go and play a game for our listeners. I’ll have you say the name of a country and then see if our listeners can guess what that country is. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: Because a lot of these things sound like their English counterparts. |
| Echo: Okay. |
| Frank: Let’s do it. |
| Echo: 美国。(Měiguó.) |
| Frank: America. |
| Echo: 美国。(Měiguó.) |
| Echo: 中国。(Zhōngguó.) |
| Frank: China |
| Echo: 中国。(Zhōngguó.) |
| Echo: 英国。(Yīngguó.) |
| Frank: England. |
| Echo: 中国。(Zhōngguó.) |
| Echo: 加拿大。(Jiā'nádà.) |
| Frank: It’s Canada. |
| Echo: 日本。(Rìběn.) |
| Echo: 日本。(Rìběn.) |
| Frank: Japan. |
| Echo: 法国。(Fǎguó.) |
| Echo: 法国。(Fǎguó.) |
| Frank: France. |
| Echo: 德国。(Déguó.) |
| Echo: 德国。(Déguó.) |
| Frank: Germany. |
| Echo: 德国。(Déguó.) |
| Echo: 澳大利亚。(àodàlìyà.) |
| Frank: Australia. |
| Echo: 澳大利亚。(àodàlìyà.) |
| Echo: 意大利。(Yìdàlì.) |
| Frank: Italy. |
| Echo: 意大利。(Yìdàlì.) |
| Frank: Okay. So now we just learned the word for “person”. |
| Echo: 人。(rén.) |
| Frank: You add this to any country and you’ve got a nationality. Let’s give this a try. I’m an American. |
| Echo: 我是美国人。(Wǒ shì Měiguó rén.) |
| Frank: He is Chinese. |
| Echo: 他是中国人。(Tā shì zhōngguó rén.) |
| Frank: You are Canadian. |
| Echo: 你是加拿大人。(Nǐ shì jiānádà rén.) |
| Frank: She is Australian. |
| Echo: 她是澳大利亚人。(Tā shì àodàlìyǎ rén.) |
| Frank: And that’s all there is to it. You know the word for “person”. |
| Echo: 人。(rén.) |
| Frank: If you know their nationality like American... |
| Echo: 美国。(Měiguó.) |
| Frank: …put them together and you could say, “I am an American”. |
| Echo: 我是美国人。(Wǒ shì Měiguó rén..) |
| Frank: Let’s head over to the grammar section now where we’ve got some really interesting thing to talk about. |
Lesson focus |
| Male: It’s grammar time. |
| Frank: Okay. Here we are in the grammar section. We’re here with adding bomb of verbs “to be”. |
| Echo: Yes. 是。(shì.) |
| Frank: This roughly translate as “to be” but it’s actually more like an equal sign. You take any few things, like me, I’m an American person, put this in the middle and I can say “I am an American”. |
| Echo: 我是美国人。(Wǒ shì Měiguó rén.) |
| Frank: Let’s hear some other examples. “I am a Canadian”. |
| Echo: 我是加拿大人。(Wǒ shì jiānádà rén.) |
| Frank: He is an American. |
| Echo: 他是美国人。(Tā shì měiguó rén.) |
| Frank: Is he French? |
| Echo: 他是法国人吗？(Tā shì fàguó rén ma?) |
| Frank: She is not Chinese. |
| Echo: 她不是中国人。(Tā bùshì zhōngguó rén.) |
| Frank: Now before we close out for today, we do want to remind you, and we told you at the beginning of the podcast and you’re still here listening to us but we really want you to… |
| Echo: Making comments. |
| Frank: …go up to site. I mean, you’ve got to have questions. If you don’t have questions, we’ll just keep making these things harder. We will until you’ve got questions and then you’ll have to come ask us. We’ve got nothing but training professionals here ready to answer any questions you’ve got and we’re looking forward to seeing you there. |
| Echo: Yeah, and just make comments. |
| Frank: But for now, from Beijing I’m Frank Fradella. |
| Echo: 我是(Wǒ shì) Echo. |
| Frank: And we’d like to say 再见(Zàijiàn). |
| Echo: 再见。(Zàijiàn.) |
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121 Comments
HideA couple lessons in and you should know all about us by now. Now it's your turn. Where are you from and what brings you to Chinese? We'd like to hear, so please tell us.
你好黄飞，
谢谢你的留言。继续加油！
Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
嗨, 我是黄飞。我是越南人。
Thank you for this lesson.
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 他是法国人吗？
robert
你好 Claudia！
谢谢 for commenting. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. We will consider your feedback certainly!
For the time being, I'd advise you to follow the romanization along with the example sentence pronunciations to get the sounds more easily! Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello!
under the vocabulary the examples spoken in Chinese are so fast, i simply cannot grasp the sounds. I keep repeating them but get really frustrated because I really want to hear the sounds. I understand that people speak fast in China, but to learn the sounds I just need a slower version. You do give slower versins in the dialogue, but why not in these exam[ples??
你好 David！
我是中国人。😄
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
你好！
我是匈牙利人但是我住在瑞典。
你是哪国人？
Hello Kristine,
Thank you for your positive comment, we're glad to know that you found our site useful! 😄
We're constantly adding new learning materials, so stay tuned!
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello there! Im from Philippines🇵🇭. Is any Filipinos here who also wants to learn Chinese and its culture? This site is fun and very informative. I wish I find this site a little sooner. Working in Taiwan now so its very useful. Thanks!