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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Anthony: Welcome to chineseclass101, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Chinese.
Echo: 大家好， 我是Echo。 (Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: And I am Anthony and today, we have our 11th lesson in our second season of our beginner series called Paying the Bill. So Echo, what is today’s lesson all about?
Echo: It’s about money, 钱. (Qián.)
Anthony: That’s right money. That’s what makes the world go around.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: And we are also going to be talking about asking how much.
Echo: Right, 多少. (Duōshǎo.)
Anthony: So today’s lesson takes place in a restaurant.
Echo: Between a waiter and a customer.
Anthony: And the customer is ready to pay the bill.
Echo: And of course, they are speaking casually.
Anthony: That’s right but before we go to our dialogue, if you haven’t yet, come to chineseclass101.com, spend $4, become a basic subscriber. With this, you are going to be able to download our lesson notes and PDFs.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: And you are also going to get access to all of our audio files for every lesson that we’ve ever done.
Echo: Yeah it’s a great deal.
Anthony: It is a great deal. Now let’s go to our dialogue.
DIALOGUE
服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duō shǎo qián ?)
50块。 (Wǔshí kuài.)
给你50。 (Gěi nǐ wǔshí.)
整好。 (Zhěng hǎo.)
Anthony: One more time a little slower.
服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duō shǎo qián ?)
50块。 (Wǔshí kuài.)
给你50。 (Gěi nǐ wǔshí.)
整好。 (Zhěng hǎo.)
Anthony: One more time with English.
Echo: 服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duō shǎo qián ?)
Anthony: Waiter, how much money?
Echo: 五十块。 (Wǔshí kuài.)
Anthony: 50 quays.
Echo: 给你五十。 (Gěi nǐ wǔshí.)
Anthony: Here is 50.
Echo: 整好。 (Zhěng hǎo.)
Anthony: Perfect.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anthony: Hey Echo, do you know the secret to getting good service in Chinese restaurants?
Echo: To yell out.
Anthony: That’s right but not only do you have to yell out but you have to use perfect pronunciation.
Echo: Exactly.
Anthony: So if you are not using perfect pronunciation, you are going to get horrible service.
Echo: Or they just can’t hear you.
Anthony: That’s right because Chinese restaurants are pretty loud places. So the way to get proper pronunciation.
Echo: And good service.
Anthony: And good service is by listening to our vocabulary section.
Echo: Right. Okay now, on to the vocab section.
Anthony: Okay.
VOCAB LIST
Anthony: And now the vocab section.
Echo: 服务员 (fúwùyuán)
Anthony: Waiter.
Echo: 服务员, 服务员. 多少 (fúwùyuán, fúwùyuán. duōshǎo)
Anthony: How much.
Echo: 多少, 多少. 钱 (duōshǎo, duōshǎo. qián)
Anthony: Money.
Echo: 钱, 钱. 整好 (qián, qián. zhěnghǎo)
Anthony: Perfect.
Echo: 整好, 整好. 给 (zhěnghǎo, zhěnghǎo. gěi)
Anthony: To give.
Echo: 给, 给. 块 (gěi, gěi. kuài)
Anthony: Measure word for money.
Echo: 块, 块. 毛 (kuài, kuài. máo)
Anthony: One tenth of a Quay.
Echo: 毛, 毛. (máo, máo.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Anthony: So Echo, the first word in our vocabulary section is
Echo: 服务员 (fúwùyuán)
Anthony: Waiter.
Echo: Or you can also say 服务员. (fúwùyuán.)
Anthony: Yes and this is the standard way to say it.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: But in Chinese, there is no distinction between male and female waiter. There is no waitress and no waiter.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: It’s just one.
Echo: Just 服务员. (fúwùyuán.)
Anthony: Makes things easy. Okay so Echo, let’s hear that in a sample sentence.
Echo: Okay 服务员，买单。 (fúwùyuán, Mǎidān)
Anthony: Yes waiter, I am ready to pay the bill.
Echo: 服务员，买单。多少？ (Fúwùyuán, mǎidān. Duōshǎo?)
Anthony: This is how many or how much.
Echo: 多少？ (Duōshǎo?)
Anthony: Yeah and the two characters here are
Echo: 多 (Duō)
Anthony: Which is “many”
Echo: And 少 (Shǎo)
Anthony: Which is ”few“.
Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo)
Anthony: So we have many, few.
Echo: 一共多少钱？ (Yīgòng duōshǎo qián?)
Anthony: Altogether, how much money.
Echo: 一共多少钱？ (Yīgòng duōshǎo qián?)
Anthony: So you’ve asked the clerk how much. Now you want to give him this.
Echo: 钱 (Qián)
Anthony: Money.
Echo: 钱 (Qián)
Anthony: What you don’t want to say is
Echo: 我没钱了。 (Wǒ méi qiánle.)
Anthony: I don’t have any money.
Echo: 我没钱了。 (Wǒ méi qiánle.)
Anthony: This next word you actually want to have.
Echo: 零钱 (Língqián)
Anthony: And that’s change.
Echo: 零钱 (Língqián)
Anthony: These are both second tones.
Echo: 你有零钱吗？ (Nǐ yǒu língqián ma?)
Anthony: Do you have change?
Echo: 你有零钱吗？ (Nǐ yǒu língqián ma?)
Anthony: You know, when I get into a taxi, before I even tell the driver where I want to go, I ask him do you have a change?
Echo: Wow that’s weird Anthony.
Anthony: No it’s not weird because a lot of times, you will find yourself at the end of a taxi ride with only a 100 quay.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: And they want to have change and then it’s, what to do.
Echo: Then I will say, I will give you next time.
Anthony: Yeah.
Echo: And then just go.
Anthony: That’s right.
Echo: It’s not my responsibility to prepare 零钱 (Língqián)
Anthony: But one time, this guy, he inflated my bike tires and I didn’t have free 毛 (Máo) on me.
Echo: God!
Anthony: So I told him I would give him money next time. Actually no, he told me to give him money next time.
Echo: Oh!
Anthony: And about a week later, I got around to paying him, so….
Echo: Oh really.
Anthony: Yeah, it worked out really well.
Echo: Hmm that’s good.
Anthony: Very trusting man.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: So on to our next word.
Echo: 整好 (Zhěng hǎo)
Anthony: And this is perfect as in perfect amount of change.
Echo: 整好 (Zhěng hǎo)
Anthony: Yeah and I like hearing this word as I said earlier.
Echo: 整好五十块钱。 (Zhěng hǎo wǔshí kuài qián.)
Anthony: 50 Renminbi is the perfect amount.
Echo: 整好五十块钱。 (Zhěng hǎo wǔshí kuài qián.)
Anthony: Right. So the next word Echo.
Echo: 给 (Gěi)
Anthony: And this is the verb to give.
Echo: 给 (Gěi)
Anthony: Third tone.
Echo: 给我一双筷子。 (Gěi wǒ yīshuāng kuàizi.)
Anthony: Give me a pair of chopsticks.
Echo: 给我一双筷子。 (Gěi wǒ yīshuāng kuàizi.)
Anthony: Yeah this is one of those very useful sentences in the restaurant especially if you happen to drop your chopsticks on the floor.
Echo: And something else like 餐巾纸，餐巾纸。 (Cānjīnzhǐ, cānjīnzhǐ.)
Anthony: Yes napkins.
Echo: 给我餐巾纸。 (Gěi wǒ cānjīnzhǐ.)
Anthony: Give me napkins. Great, so the last two words in our vocabulary section are measure words for money.
Echo: 没错, (Méi cuò,) first one is 块. (Kuài.)
Anthony: And this is just a standard measure word for money.
Echo: 块. (Kuài.) And we can say 三块钱，行不行？ (Sān kuài qián, xíng bùxíng?)
Anthony: Is 3 quay okay? And this comes in really handy when you are haggling for goods.
Echo: 三块钱，行不行？ (Sān kuài qián, xíng bùxíng?)
Anthony: Okay. Our next unit of currency.
Echo: 毛. (Máo.)
Anthony: And this is like the Chinese dime. It’s 1/10th of a 块. (Kuài.)
Echo: Right 毛. 你有五毛吗？ (Máo. Nǐ yǒu wǔmáo ma?)
Anthony: Do you have 5 mao?
Echo: 你有五毛吗？ (Nǐ yǒu wǔmáo ma?)
Anthony: Okay so we’ve covered a lot of words in our vocabulary section. Now it’s time to go to the grammar section.

Lesson focus
Anthony: So the focus of this grammar section is asking how much.
Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo)
Anthony: In the dialogue, we heard this sentence.
Echo: 服务员，多少钱？ (Fúwùyuán, duōshǎo qián?)
Anthony: Waiter, how much money?
Echo: And the word 多少 (Duōshǎo) how many or how much is a compound of the words 多 (Duō) and 少. (Shǎo.)
Anthony: And this means many and few or much and little. Now this word can be used as a question on its own.
Echo: 多少？ (Duōshǎo?)
Anthony: How much or as in our dialogue,
Echo: 多少钱？ (Duōshǎo qián?)
Anthony: How much money? Let’s take a look at a few examples on how we can use this word. Echo.
Echo: 她有多少衣服？ (Tā yǒu duōshǎo yīfú?)
Anthony: How many clothes does she have?
Echo: 她有多少衣服？ (Tā yǒu duōshǎo yīfú?)
Anthony: And usually it’s a lot, right?
Echo: Usually it’s like always one less.
Anthony: One less.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: I always need one more piece of clothing.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: Okay got it. Okay so our next example.
Echo: 你家有多少房间？ (Nǐ jiā yǒu duōshǎo fángjiān?)
Anthony: How many rooms does your house have?
Echo: 你家有多少房间？ (Nǐ jiā yǒu duōshǎo fángjiān?) And 多少 (Duōshǎo) combined with measure words like 个 (Gè) to form questions like 多少个人？ (Duōshǎo gèrén?)
Anthony: Yeah. How many people?
Echo: 多少个人？ (Duōshǎo gèrén?)
Anthony: Okay so there is a formula that we can use when using measure words and asking how much. Echo, what’s that formula?
Echo: It’s 多少 (Duōshǎo) plus the measure word and plus the object.
Anthony: Great. So let’s try out a few sample sentences using this formula.
Echo: 你们有多少个人？ (Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?)
Anthony: How many people are there?
Echo: Like if you walk into a Chinese restaurant, they may ask you this question.
Anthony: That’s right or when you are booking a hotel room.
Echo: 你们有多少个人？ 你们有多少个人？ (Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén? Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?) Notice that the measure word directly followed 多少。你们有多少个人？ (Duōshǎo. Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?)
Anthony: Okay so our next example.
Echo: 你看了多少本书？ (Nǐ kànle duōshǎo běn shū?)
Anthony: How many books have you read?
Echo: Here the measure word is 本 (Běn) and it is directly placed after 多少。你看了多少本书？ (Duōshǎo. Nǐ kànle duōshǎo běn shū?)
Anthony: So in the last few sample sentences, we’ve been placing how many before the object. The last point we are going to cover is a way to put how many after the subject.
Echo: Right like 价格多少？ (Jiàgé duōshǎo?)
Anthony: How much is the price.
Echo: 价格多少？ (Jiàgé duōshǎo?)
Anthony: Okay let’s see another example.
Echo: 号码多少？ (Hàomǎ duōshǎo?)
Anthony: What’s the number?
Echo: 号码多少？ (Hàomǎ duōshǎo?)
Anthony: So remember, how many can go after the subject.
Echo: And also like in our previous lesson, we’ve learned 密码多少？ (Mìmǎ duōshǎo?)
Anthony: That’s right when we are asking for the wireless internet and the password.
Echo: 密码多少？ (Mìmǎ duōshǎo?)
Anthony: So to review, we’ve learned that.
Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo) can be used to ask how few or how many, and we also learned that you can place a measure word directly after 多少 (Duōshǎo) as in the sentence 你们有多少个人？ (Nǐmen yǒu duōshǎo gèrén?)
Anthony: Right. How many people are there? And lastly, how many can be placed directly after the subject.
Echo: Right like 价格多少？ (Jiàgé duōshǎo?)
Anthony: Yeah. How much is the price. Okay so that’s the end of our grammar section and that brings us to the end of this lesson.
Echo: Right.

Outro
Anthony: Before we go though, repetition is the best way to quickly improve your Chinese. That’s why our line by line audio tool is perfect for rapidly improving listening comprehension.
Echo: The line by line audio lets you listen to lines of the conversation again and again.
Anthony: Listening again and again until every word and syllable becomes clear. Basically we break down the dialogue into comprehensible bite size sentences.
Echo: And you can try the line by line audio in the premium learning center at chineseclass101.com
Anthony: That’s right. From Beijing, I am Anthony.
Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: Thanks for listening and we will see you next time.
Echo: 下次见，拜拜。 (Xià cì jiàn, bàibài.)
Anthony: Bye bye.

Grammar

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