Dialogue

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 15th lesson in our second season of our beginner series titled Bank Cards in China.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: In today’s dialogue, a customer is seeing if he can use his bank card to buy some stuff at a department store.
Echo: Right. So today, we are going to talk about bank related vocabulary.
Anthony: And we are also going to talk about a very useful verb in the grammar section, something that you don’t want to miss.
Echo: Yes.
Anthony: Before we go to our dialogue, if you want to study Chinese faster, sign up as a premium subscriber at chineseclass101.com.
Echo: Right.
Anthony: What do you get Echo if you sign up?
Echo: You get tons of good stuff.
Anthony: Right. PDFs…
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Voice recorder tool. You will also get line by line translations.
Echo: Exactly.
Anthony: So that’s all on the website. With that said, let’s go to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
可以刷卡吗? (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?)
可以。是信用卡吗? (Kěyǐ. Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?)
对,国际信用卡。 (Duì, guójì xìnyòngkǎ.)
哦,不可以。国际信用卡不可以。 (O, bù kěyǐ. Guójì xìnyòngkǎ bù kěyǐ)
Anthony: One more time, a little bit slower.
可以刷卡吗? (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?)
可以。是信用卡吗? (Kěyǐ. Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?)
对,国际信用卡。 (Duì, guójì xìnyòngkǎ.)
哦,不可以。国际信用卡不可以。 (O, bù kěyǐ. Guójì xìnyòngkǎ bù kěyǐ)
Anthony: One more time with English.
可以刷卡吗? (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?)
Can I use my card here?
可以。是信用卡吗? (Kěyǐ. Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?)
Yes, you can. Is it a credit card?
对,国际信用卡。 (Duì, guójì xìnyòngkǎ.)
Yes it’s an international credit card.
哦,不可以。国际信用卡不可以。 (O, bù kěyǐ. Guójì xìnyòngkǎ bù kěyǐ)
Oh, I'm sorry. You can't use an international credit card.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anthony: Yeah one rule of thumb, in China, I make sure that I have at least some cash on me at all times.
Echo: Well you know, I think now most places will accept international cards at especially like large department stores and the shopping malls.
Anthony: You know a place that always accepts credit cards.
Echo: Where?
Anthony: Starbucks.
Echo: Huh!
Anthony: Now Visa is pretty widely accepted in both Beijing and Shanghai. One of the first things I did when I came to Beijing was to open up a Chinese bank account.
Echo: Right. It is really easy to do. All you need is your passport.
Anthony: Yep. And there is literally ATMs on every corner that I can use to get money out of.
Echo: So to get the cash you need for the things you want to buy, you would need this vocabulary coming up.
Anthony: Absolutely, so let’s go on to the vocabulary section.
VOCAB LIST
Anthony: And now the vocab section.
Echo: 可以 (kěyǐ)
Anthony: To be able.
Echo: 可以, 可以. 刷卡 (kěyǐ, kěyǐ. shuākǎ)
Anthony: To pay with the credit card.
Echo: 刷卡, 刷卡. 信用卡 (shuākǎ, shuākǎ. xìnyòngkǎ)
Anthony: Credit card.
Echo: 信用卡, 信用卡. 国际 (xìnyòngkǎ, xìnyòngkǎ. guójì)
Anthony: International.
Echo: 国际, 国际. 现金 (guójì, guójì. xiànjīn)
Anthony: Cash.
Echo: 现金, 现金. 密码 (xiànjīn, xiànjīn. mìmǎ)
Anthony: Password.
Echo: 密码,密码. ATM机 (mìmǎ, mìmǎ. ATMjī)
Anthony: Automated teller machine.
Echo: ATM机, ATM机. (ATMjī, ATMjī.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Anthony: Okay. So let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Echo: The first one is 可以 (kěyǐ)
Anthony: To be able.
Echo: 可以 (kěyǐ)
Anthony: And we are going to take a more in depth look at this in the grammar section.
Echo: Let’s have a sample sentence first here now.
Anthony: Okay.
Echo: 我可以去吗? (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?)
Anthony: Can I go?
Echo: 我可以去吗? (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?)
Anthony: No you may not. Stay right here.
Echo: Yeah next one is very, very useful 刷卡。 (shuākǎ.)
Anthony: To pay with a card.
Echo: 刷卡。 (shuākǎ.)
Anthony: And you can use this with a bank card, credit card. Even a metrocard, you can use this.
Echo: Yes, yes. 刷卡。我想刷卡。 (shuākǎ. Wǒ xiǎng shuākǎ.)
Anthony: I feel like paying with my card.
Echo: 我想刷卡。 (Wǒ xiǎng shuākǎ.)
Anthony: Okay now there is a special type of card for our next word.
Echo: Yeah 信用卡。 (xìnyòngkǎ.)
Anthony: And this is credit card.
Echo: 信用卡。 (xìnyòngkǎ.)
Anthony: So this actually means credit and card.
Echo: Right. 信用,卡。 (Xìnyòng, kǎ.)
Anthony: Right.
Echo: Right and if you are using a 信用卡 (xìnyòngkǎ) you really don’t want to say this sentence. 我的信用卡没钱了。 (Wǒ de xìnyòngkǎ méi qiánle.)
Anthony: Yeah my credit card doesn’t have any money on it.
Echo: 我的信用卡没钱了。 (Wǒ de xìnyòngkǎ méi qiánle.)
Anthony: Okay.
Echo: Well I have another credit card.
Anthony: Yeah. Digging yourself into debt.
Echo: 国际 (guójì)
Anthony: International.
Echo: 国际 (guójì)
Anthony: That’s second tone, fourth tone.
Echo: 你有国际信用卡吗? (Nǐ yǒu guójì xìnyòngkǎ ma?)
Anthony: Do you have an international credit card?
Echo: 你有国际信用卡吗? (Nǐ yǒu guójì xìnyòngkǎ ma?)
Anthony: You know, usually I am asked this question at an ATM when I put my card in. It needs to recognize if it’s a Chinese card or an international card.
Echo: 中国信用卡 (Zhōngguó xìnyòngkǎ) or we can say 国内信用卡。 (Zhōngguó xìnyòngkǎ.)
Anthony: Yes.
Echo: It’s national, yeah…
Anthony: Inside the country card.
Echo: Or 国际信用卡。 (Shì xìnyòngkǎ ma?)
Anthony: Echo, our next word is this. It’s the opposite of credit card.
Echo: Right 现金。 (xiànjīn)
Anthony: Cash.
Echo: 现金。 (xiànjīn)
Anthony: Cash money.
Echo: So if you are buying some stuff in the like really big department stores and we are paying the money, they will ask you 刷卡还是现金? (Shuākǎhái shì xiànjīn?)
Anthony: And that’s when you are without card, the Union Pay Card.
Echo: Yeah 刷卡还是现金? (Shuākǎhái shì xiànjīn?)
Anthony: Yeah do you want to pay by card or by cash?
Echo: And then they will ask you about this word. 密码 (mìmǎ)
Anthony: And that’s the password.
Echo: 密码 (mìmǎ)
Anthony: And they will give you this little contraption and you can punch it…
Echo: Yeah 有密码吗? (Yǒu mìmǎ ma?)
Anthony: Do you have a password?
Echo: 有密码吗? (Yǒu mìmǎ ma?)
Anthony: Okay now if you want to get cash, you got to go to this place.
Echo: ATM机。 (ATMjī)
Anthony: Yes and you guessed right, this is the word for ATM.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Very ingenious. Just putting the word machine after ATM.
Echo: Yeah it’s like DVD机,(DVDjī,) like DVD machine.
Anthony: Yes.
Echo: ATM机在哪儿? (ATMjī zài nǎr?)
Anthony: Yeah where is the ATM machine?
Echo: ATM机在哪儿? (ATMjī zài nǎr?)
Anthony: And you might get pointed in a bunch of directions.
Echo: Yes because they have a lot.
Anthony: Okay. So that’s it for our vocab section. We are going to go right on over to the grammar point.
Echo: Okay.

Lesson focus

Anthony: Okay. So the focus of today’s grammar section is on the usage of the verb can or to be able to.
Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: Now this is an auxiliary verb that expresses permission or possibility. It’s similar to the English auxiliary verb may.
Echo: Using 可以 (Kěyǐ) in a question is a very common way to ask for permission. In our dialogue, we saw this 可以刷卡吗? (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?)
Anthony: Can I use my credit card?
Echo: 可以刷卡吗? (Kěyǐ shuākǎ ma?)
Anthony: Now because this is an auxiliary verb, it should be followed by another verb.
Echo: Right for example, 我可以去吗? (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?)
Anthony: Can I go there?
Echo: 我可以去吗? (Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?) The verb 去 (Qù) “to go” follows 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: Now before we take a look at another example, let’s introduce the sentence pattern to follow.
Echo: Okay so the sentence pattern is, subject plus 可以 (Kěyǐ) plus a verb.
Anthony: So give us an example.
Echo: 你可以来。 (Nǐ kěyǐ lái.)
Anthony: You can come.
Echo: 你可以来。 (Nǐ kěyǐ lái.) So the subject is 你 (Nǐ) here and the verb is 来. (Lái.)
Anthony: Yeah it’s pretty simple. Now there is one thing to note. When the subject is obvious, we can just simply omit it.
Echo: Yeah in the next sample sentences, we are going to omit the pronoun, the subject 可以过吗? (Kěyǐguò ma?)
Anthony: Can I cross, can I pass?
Echo: 可以过吗? (Kěyǐguò ma?)
Anthony: And what was the pronoun omitted there?
Echo: It is 我。 (Wǒ.)
Anthony: I.
Echo: 可以停车吗? (Kěyǐ tíngchē ma?)
Anthony: Can you park the car?
Echo: 可以停车吗? (Kěyǐ tíngchē ma?) And the subject omitted was 你 (Nǐ)
Anthony: You.
Echo: 可以看电视吗? (Kěyǐ kàn diànshì ma?)
Anthony: Can I watch TV?
Echo: 可以看电视吗? (Kěyǐ kàn diànshì ma?) And the subject omitted was 我 (Wǒ)
Anthony: Okay so there are two ways of responding to a question using this verb. One is yes
Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: And the other is no.
Echo: 不可以 (Bù kěyǐ) For example, like the question can be 你可以过来吗? (Nǐ kěyǐ guòlái ma?)
Anthony: Can you come over here?
Echo: 你可以过来吗? (Nǐ kěyǐ guòlái ma?)
Anthony: One answer is
Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: Yes I can come over.
Echo: Or 不可以。 (Bù kěyǐ.)
Anthony: No I cannot come over. So you don’t have to repeat the entire sentence. All you have to say is
Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: Or
Echo: 不可以 (Bù kěyǐ.)
Anthony: Very simple. Okay let’s see another example.
Echo: 这儿可以下车吗? (Zhè'er kěyǐ xià chē ma?)
Anthony: Can I get out of the car here?
Echo: 这儿可以下车吗? (Zhè'er kěyǐ xià chē ma?) So the answer can be 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: Yes you can get out of the car here.
Echo: Or 不可以。 (Bù kěyǐ.)
Anthony: No you can’t get out of the car here because we are on the highway.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Okay so Echo, we’ve learned a few things. Let’s go over a quick review.
Echo: Okay right you place 可以 (Kěyǐ) in between the subject and the verb.
Anthony: Okay so let’s see one more sample sentence.
Echo: 我可以坐吗? (Wǒ kěyǐ zuò ma?)
Anthony: Can I sit?
Echo: Yeah 我可以坐吗? (Wǒ kěyǐ zuò ma?)
Anthony: And to answer, all you have to say is
Echo: 可以 (Kěyǐ)
Anthony: Yes you can sit or
Echo: 不可以。 (Bù kěyǐ.)
Anthony: No you cannot sit.
Echo: Right.

Outro

Anthony: Okay so that does it for our grammar section today. Okay so if you want to brush up on everything that you’ve learned today, come to the website chineseclass101.com, become a subscriber. For only $4 a month, you can become a basic subscriber. You get our lesson notes.
Echo: Yeah.
Anthony: Which come to you in the form of PDFs which you can print out or take anywhere with you on your laptop.
Echo: Right. That’s very easy, very convenient.
Anthony: Very convenient and very effective.
Echo: 没错。 (Méi cuò.)
Anthony: Okay. So with that said, I am Anthony.
Echo: 我是Echo。 (Wǒ shì Echo.)
Anthony: From Beijing, we enjoyed having you here today and we will see you next time.
Echo: Okay. Thanks for listening 下次见! (Xià cì jiàn!)
Anthony: Bye bye.

Grammar

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Comments

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29 Comments
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ChineseClass101.com
2010-07-20 18:30:00

Do you prefer paying with cash, or credit?

ChineseClass101.com
2020-07-03 08:27:37

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

robert groulx
2020-06-28 22:12:50

thank you for lesson

my favorite words are 你可以过来吗?

robert

ChineseClass101.com
2019-03-18 18:22:26

Hello Gerald,

不客气!有任何问题,请随时联络我们。😄

Ngai Lam

Team ChineseClass101.com

Gerald
2019-03-15 21:57:28

都很好, 谢谢你😁

ChineseClass101.com
2019-03-15 18:47:56

Hello Gerald,

Thank you for your comment. You can say:

这课有用 => 这课很有用。

我喜欢用现金在我的国而且刷卡买国际的书的时候.....虽然信用卡总是很有用 => 在我的国家我喜欢用现金买东西,买外文书籍的时候才刷卡.....虽然信用卡很有用。 (I hope I got what you meant correctly.)

To say you didn't know how to say something in Chinese, you can say 我以前不知道"现金"和''信用卡''用中文怎么说,但是现在知道了。You add 以前 to indicate it was in the past.

As always, let us know if you have any questions.

Ngai Lam

Team ChineseClass101.com

Gerald
2019-03-14 02:34:34

大家好!谢谢你的课!

这课有用 我不知道怎么中文说“现金” 和 ''信用卡'', 所以现在知道😄

我喜欢用现金在我的国而且刷卡买国际的书的时候.....虽然信用卡总是很有用

还有一个问题:

1. How do I say I ''didn't'' know (past) how to say (something) in chinese?? Do I still have to say just ''我不知道''?

ChineseClass101.com
2017-10-23 02:17:53

Hello, Albert Wingate,

Thank you for your suggestion of increasing variety in expansions.

We are trying to give some but not too much expansions to users. But if you want to know more details about some topics or some situations, please contact us. And we will list extra words or sentences for you.

And yes, we can also feel how much we have bought by paying in cash, haha.

In Chinese, we don't have such difference between "can" and "may".

我可以去吗?= May I go? = 我能去吗?

我可以去吗?= Can I go? = 我能去吗?

If only you ask, it is a polite way.

Cho

Team ChineseClass101.com

Albert Wingate
2017-10-20 03:50:53

Also, a question about culture. In our culture, back in the day, we were required by parents to show respect by making the request of wanting to do something using "may" instead of "can". Some would say, why of course you can, you are able are you not? On the other hand using can was considered impolite. So it would be "May I go." This would be politely asking for permission. Do Chinese folks have such a tradition?

我可以去吗?

Wǒ kěyǐ qù ma?

Can I go?

May I go?

Albert Wingate
2017-10-20 03:44:53

On one other thing about paying cash. If you buy gold or silver, do you really want the government to be aware of your purchase in that area. I don't. Yeah. So cash makes the purchase "secret." Shhhh!

Albert Wingate
2017-10-18 18:39:14

Cho, I prefer to pay cash. It maintains privacy. The recognition of an expenditure is enhanced. (Wallet has less money). And an awareness of the enhancement of bargaining can come up. In today's economy, cash is king. Of course, there are downsides to paying cash. For example, one has little leverage once the cash has left my hand. Nevertheless, it is a freedom issue and therefore using cash is an exercise in freedom. No banks, transaction fees and there is a measure of privacy which is an important concern for me in this day of the "all seeing eye."

Albert Wingate
2017-10-18 18:16:48

Need to increase variety in expansions, else they are not expansions but repetions in another format.

卫力 (aka Alexis)
2015-10-06 22:40:32

太好了!

谢谢!

Team ChineseClass101.com
2015-10-06 22:13:35

Sorry, I made a mistake.

For papers, we use 张.

Cho

Team ChineseClass101.com

Team ChineseClass101.com
2015-10-06 22:12:32

卫力,

You mastered "当。。。的时候"! Great!

For books, we use 本, and for papers, we use map.

一本书,两本杂志,3张地图。。。

Cho

Team ChineseClass101.com

卫力 (aka Alexis)
2015-10-01 01:16:11

太谢谢你!

That makes sense.

Let me try it out:

When I go to the store, I buy two magazines (I'm not sure if the measure word is 张 (for flat objects) or 本 (for a book), perhaps I should just have stayed with good old 个)。

当我去商店的时候,我买两张杂志。

Dāng wǒ qù shāngdiàn de shíhòu, wǒ mǎi liǎng zhāng zázhì.

去商店的时候,我买两张杂志。

Qù shāngdiàn de shíhòu, wǒ mǎi liǎng zhāng zázhì.

好吧?

卫力

Team ChineseClass101.com
2015-09-30 23:48:52

卫力,

Thank you for telling your weakness point.

It will be easy for me to find what I should explain.

In my opinion,

当/在+S+...+的时候

....的时候 (no S, no 当)

E.g. 当我吃早饭的时候,我喜欢一边吃一边看报纸。(a)

When I eat breakfirst, I'd like to read newspapers while eating.

=吃早饭的时候,我喜欢 。。。(b)

And you can think in this way.

If you want to use "when", translate it with 的时候, and if there is any S in the phrase, add 当。

Try it, please.

Cho

Team ChineseClass101.com

卫力 (aka Alexis)
2015-09-26 22:55:24

Cho,

To tell the truth, I don't really understand the use of 当, I just use the formula 当。。。的时候, whenever I want to write a when statement, but I see sometimes the 当 is not included.

I like the idea of not having too many I's in a single sentence. It's humble and humility is a virtue.

卫力

Team ChineseClass101.com
2015-09-26 15:54:50

卫力,

不吵的时候,我可以。。。。

不吵的 is an adjective, not a phrase, so we omit 当.

当 周围 很吵的时候

When around is noisy,

但是 在网上 买东西 的时候我 用 信用卡。(a)

but online buy things I use my credit card.

在网上买东西的时候=当我在网上买东西的时候

In this case, we can also say, 但是当我在网上买东西的时候我用信用卡。(b)

For the total sentence, we will use 我 for 3 times(我用现金买东西,我在网上买东西,我用信用卡), which is considered too much in just one sentence, so we usually omit one or two of "我“.

So, perhaps (a) is better for the whole sentence.

我用现金买东西,但是在网上买东西的时候,我用信用卡。

卫力 (aka Alexis)
2015-09-24 13:33:16

大家好,

The grammar in this lesson is interesting. When it is not noisy, I can study Chinese in my room. When it is noisy, I want to leave. I use cash to buy things, but use my credit card to buy things online.

这个课的语法很有趣。当没有吵的时候,我可以在我的房里学习中文。当有吵的时候, 我想离开。我用现金买东西,但是我刷卡买东西上网。(Zhège kè de yǔfǎ hěn yǒuqù. Dāng méiyǒu chǎo de shíhòu, wǒ kěyǐ zài wǒ de fáng lǐ xuéxí zhōngwén. Dāng yǒu chǎo de shíhòu, wǒ xiǎng líkāi. Wǒ yòng xiànjīn mǎi dōngxī, dànshì wǒ shuākǎ mǎi dōngxī shàngwǎng.)

再见,

卫力

ChineseClass101.com
2014-07-25 08:28:12

Hi laderon,

In Chinese, credit card and debit card are different. Credit card in Chinese is 信用卡,debit card is 借记卡.

But when you say 卡,you could refer to either of them. Like when you say 刷卡, you could mean you are using either your debit or credit card.

Yinru

Team ChineseClass101.com

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