Learn how to say "how long" and two different words that translate as "to live"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo.(Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And we are here with elementary lesson 49 in our first season. |
| Echo: 第四十九课。(Dì sìshíjiǔ kè.) |
| David: Right and this is a lesson all about family and holidays. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Holidays that never end, family that never leave. |
| Echo: Yeah Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year. |
| David: This may hit a bit close to home but we are going to give you the language to deal with it. So we’ve got a dialogue that takes place between probably a husband and wife. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Or a boyfriend and girlfriend around the holiday season. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Before we take you to the dialogue, we want to remind you that the holiday season is upon us and we are in the middle of our Christmas countdown. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So we’ve got great discounts on the site. Great discounts on our entire family of language products actually. |
| Echo: Yes everything. |
| David: The discount is getting less and less every passing day. So if you are looking for a gift for someone else, if you are looking for a gift for yourself, now is the perfect time to drop by chineseclass101.com |
| Echo: Right and the sooner you get it, the more you save. |
| David: Yeah with that though, let’s go to our dialogue for today. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你的朋友还要住多久？(Nǐ de péngyou hái yào zhù duōjiǔ?) |
| B:没多久，他马上就走了。(Méi duōjiǔ, tā mǎshàng jiù zǒu le.) |
| A:可是他已经住了一个多月了。(Kěshì tā yǐjīng zhù le yī ge duō yuè le.) |
| B:他就快走了。(Tā jiù kuài zǒu le.) |
| A:而且，他一到咱们家就坐到电视机前面，也不跟我们说话。(érqiě, tā yī dào zánmen jiā jiù zuòdào diànshìjī qiánmian, yě bù gēn wǒmen shuōhuà) |
| B:他就这样，你会习惯的。(Tā jiù zhèyàng, nǐ huì xíguàn de.) |
| David: One more time a bit slower. |
| A:你的朋友还要住多久？(Nǐ de péngyou hái yào zhù duōjiǔ?) |
| B:没多久，他马上就走了。(Méi duōjiǔ, tā mǎshàng jiù zǒu le.) |
| A:可是他已经住了一个多月了。(Kěshì tā yǐjīng zhù le yī ge duō yuè le.) |
| B:他就快走了。(Tā jiù kuài zǒu le.) |
| A:而且，他一到咱们家就坐到电视机前面，也不跟我们说话。(érqiě, tā yī dào zánmen jiā jiù zuòdào diànshìjī qiánmian, yě bù gēn wǒmen shuōhuà) |
| B:他就这样，你会习惯的。(Tā jiù zhèyàng, nǐ huì xíguàn de.) |
| Echo: 你的朋友还要住多久？(Nǐ de péngyou hái yào zhù duōjiǔ?) |
| David: How long is your friend going to stay here? |
| Echo: 没多久，他马上就走了。(Méi duōjiǔ, tā mǎshàng jiù zǒu le.) |
| David: Not that long. He will be going right away. |
| Echo: 可是他已经住了一个多月了。(Kěshì tā yǐjīng zhù le yī ge duō yuè le.) |
| David: But he has already stayed a month. |
| Echo: 他就快走了。(Tā jiù kuài zǒu le.) |
| David: He will be gone soon. |
| Echo: 而且，他一到咱们家就坐到电视机前面，也不跟我们说话。(érqiě, tā yī dào zánmen jiā jiù zuòdào diànshìjī qiánmian, yě bù gēn wǒmen shuōhuà) |
| David: And what’s more? Ever since he arrived, he’s been sitting in front of the television and hasn’t spoken with us. |
| Echo: 他就这样，你会习惯的。(Tā jiù zhèyàng, nǐ huì xíguàn de.) |
| David: He’s just this way. You will get used to it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So have you ever had friends visiting like this? |
| Echo: Fortunately not yeah. |
| David: Mother, mom, dad. |
| Echo: No, they are not like that but I have had some friends behave in another way you know. |
| David: We’ve got a lot of vocab and the theme for our vocab here is basically visiting and staying with friends and family. So let’s get into that now. And now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 住 (zhù) |
| David: To live in a place. |
| Echo: 待 (Dài) |
| David: To stay for a short period of time. |
| Echo: 多久(duōjiǔ) |
| David: How long? |
| Echo: 朋友 (péngyou) |
| David: Friend. |
| Echo: 亲戚 (qīnqi) |
| David: Relative. |
| Echo: 一...就 (yī...jiù) |
| David: As soon as, then. |
| Echo: 就这样 (jiùzhèyàng) |
| David: Just this way. |
| Echo: 习惯 (xíguàn) |
| David: To be accustomed. |
| Echo: 习惯 (xíguàn) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay. Lots of interesting vocab. The two ones that leap out at me at least are those first two. |
| Echo: 住 (zhù) and 待(Dài)。 |
| David: Yeah. The first is fourth tone |
| Echo: 住。(zhù.) |
| David: And it means to stay for a long period of time. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Or to live in the place as in he lives in America. |
| Echo: 他住在美国。(Tā zhù zài měiguó.) |
| David: Or I live in Beijing. |
| Echo: 我住在北京。(Wǒ zhù zài běijīng.) |
| David: And the second one is first tone. |
| Echo: 待。(Dài.) |
| David: And it means to stay for a short period of time and to stay overnight for a couple of days. |
| Echo: Yeah right and also it’s very pretty colloquial. |
| David: Yeah it’s much more colloquial. So we might have the sentence, how long are you going to stay. |
| Echo: 你要待多久？ (Nǐ yào dài duōjiǔ?) |
| David: He’s staying for three days. |
| Echo: 他待3天。(Tā dài 3 tiān.) |
| David: Yep. Short difference in those, bear them in mind. And with all of these verbs, we can put 在 (Zài) after it. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: So it becomes part of the verb, not as the preposition that goes before. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So once again, we would say I am living in America. |
| Echo: 我住在美国。(Wǒ zhù zài měiguó.) |
| David: Or he is living in China. |
| Echo: 他住在中国。(Tā zhù zài zhōngguó.) |
| David: Yep. Pay attention to the word order there. The other big one that’s kind of tricky is this how long. |
| Echo: 多久。(Duōjiǔ.) |
| David: Now this is a question word. So it’s a lot like the word how much. |
| Echo: 多少。(Duōshǎo.) |
| David: Right but here how long. |
| Echo: 多久。(Duōjiǔ.) |
| David: And 久 (Jiǔ) literally means a long period of time. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So it’s how much of this long period of time. Well it’s a question word. So we are going to put it at the end of the sentence just like we do with 多少 (Duōshǎo) right? |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: We’ve got some examples for you. You are going to hear this one in China a lot. |
| Echo: 你来中国多久了？(Nǐ lái zhōngguó duōjiǔle?) |
| David: You are going to get that from all of the cabbies in the city. |
| Echo: Yeah top three questions. |
| David: Also with can you use chopsticks and are you used to Chinese food? |
| Echo: Yeah and where are you from. |
| David: Yeah let’s hear it one more time. |
| Echo: 你来中国多久了？(Nǐ lái zhōngguó duōjiǔle?) |
| David: How long have you been in China? |
| Echo: Yeah. And you know what the next sentence will be? |
| David: Well it depends on what your answer is. They will say you know, I’ve been there for two weeks. |
| Echo: Yeah but they will say 你的中文不错 (Nǐ de zhōngwén bùcuò) or 你的中文很好。(Nǐ de zhōngwén hěn hǎo.) |
| David: Yeah. Another sample sentence we’ve got for you is how long do you want to be gone? |
| Echo: 你想去多久。(Nǐ xiǎng qù duōjiǔ.) |
| David: So the tricky thing to pay attention to here is the word order. Put it at the end of the sentence. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. We’ve got a lot of other vocab here. We’ve got the word for friend. |
| Echo: 朋友。(Péngyǒu.) |
| David: Pay attention to the neutral tone there. |
| Echo: 朋友。(Péngyǒu.) |
| David: Yep. In Mainland China, that’s a neutral sound. In Taiwan, they are going to give you the follow through in tone. There is also the word for relatives or family. |
| Echo: 亲戚。(Qīnqī.) |
| David: And the last word we want to highlight for you is just this way. |
| Echo: 就这样。(Jiù zhèyàng.) |
| David: This is really, really 口语 (Kǒuyǔ) Echo. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: So tell us how we would use this. |
| Echo: Yeah and sometimes people will add 儿 (Er) sound after 样 (Yàng) like 样儿。(Yàng er.) |
| David: Yeah especially in the north. |
| Echo: Yeah. |
| David: And this is really – it’s really casual. It’s really colloquial and it’s just kind of – that’s the way it is. |
| Echo: Yeah. And I don’t want to explain it. |
| David: Why are we doing things this way? |
| Echo: 我们为什么这么做？(Wǒmen wèishéme zhème zuò?) |
| David: Very, very common. You are going to run into that and that brings us to our grammar point. It’s grammar time. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: And today’s grammar point is 一....就。(Yī.... Jiù.) |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: Someone has said that it’s pretty easy for foreigners. |
| David: I said that you guys are going to get this really quickly and Echo is like, it’s a complex grammar structure. |
| Echo: Yeah I think so. |
| David: So we will see. |
| Echo: Because it has 就 (Jiù) there. |
| David: Okay. So it’s got two characters. The first is as easy as 1, 2, 3. |
| Echo: Right it’s 一。(Yī.) |
| David: Which means one. |
| Echo: 一。(Yī.) |
| David: And then the second character is of course our old friend, 就。(Jiù.) |
| Echo: 就。(Jiù.) |
| David: Which means then. And we see this in the pattern where we put the subject and then |
| Echo: 一。(Yī.) |
| David: And then the first part of our sentence and then we stick. |
| Echo: 就。(Jiù.) |
| David: In as a conjunction. And what this means is as soon as then. Let’s take a look at our sentence from the dialogue. |
| Echo: Okay 他一到咱们家，就坐在电视机前面。(Tā yī dào zánmen jiā, jiùzuò zài diànshì jī qiánmiàn.) |
| David: So that’s |
| Echo: 他一到咱们家。(Tā yī dào zánmen jiā.) |
| David: He as soon as gets to our home. |
| Echo: 就坐在电视机前面。(Jiùzuò zài diànshì jī qiánmiàn.) |
| David: Then sits in front of the television. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: So it’s actually pretty easy structure. We’ve got some more examples for you. You guys are going to pick this up really quickly. |
| Echo: Right. 我一回家就睡了。(Wǒ yī huí jiā jiù shuìle.) |
| David: As soon as I got home, I fall asleep and we’ve got the 了 (Le) there telling us that’s past tense. |
| Echo: 没错。我一看见他就笑了。(Méi cuò. Wǒ yī kànjiàn tā jiù xiàole.) |
| David: Which is a sweet sentence. As soon as I saw him or her, I smiled. Again |
| Echo: 我一看见他就笑了。(Wǒ yī kànjiàn tā jiù xiàole.) |
| David: Right. So this is a really easy structure. |
| Echo: Let’s see more sentences. 他一到美国就习惯了。(Tā yī dào měiguó jiù xíguànle.) |
| David: That’s as soon as he got to the United States, he got used to the things. |
| Echo: Yeah 他一到美国就习惯了。(Tā yī dào měiguó jiù xíguànle.) |
| David: Echo, before we go, there is something you’d like to stress. |
| Echo: Right. In our grammar point today, besides the structure 一...就 (Yī... Jiù) you need to remember, also you need to be careful of the tone of 一。(Yī.) |
| David: Because it can change. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: If it comes before a fourth tone character, we got to switch that up and it becomes second tone. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Can you give us one example of that before we leave? |
| Echo: 一到。(Yī dào.) |
| David: As soon as he comes home. |
| Echo: 他一到家。(Tā yī dàojiā.) |
Outro |
| David: Yep. So that’s our lesson for today. We’ve given you a lot of stuff. We’ve got some new vocab, some review. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: A couple of verbs talk about living in places and staying in places. And a grammar point you are going to run into again and again. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: As always, if you are having trouble with any of the stuff, we encourage you to come to the site and check out our PDF transcripts. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: We’ve got all of these example sentences and an elaborate grammar note written up so that you can review this very, very quickly. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. They are going to help the stuff stick. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: And that’s it from us for this week. From Beijing, I am David. |
| Echo: 我是Echo.(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Echo: 下次见吧 Bye bye.(Xià cì jiàn ba Bye bye.) |
| David: Bye bye. |
Comments
HideWhat are the most common problems you have when friends and relatives come to visit?
你好 robert groulx,
You are very welcome. 😇
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
雷文特
Team ChineseClass101.com
thanks for the lesson
my favorite phrase is 就坐在电视机前面
robert
Hello KMM,
Thank you for your comment.
You're right about the change of the tone of '一'. You can check out this lesson for more information on the Tone Change Rules:
https://www.chineseclass101.com/lesson/ultimate-chinese-pronunciation-guide-9-tone-change-rules/
As always, let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
At the end of the podcast, they mentioned that the tone of “一” changed if it followed a fourth tone character. Could you please tell me other situation when the tone changes? I believe I listened to one of the podcasts that mentioned that after a series of certain tones, the tone of a certain character changes.
Hi, 杰米,
我一回家就睡觉。
As soon as I get home, I will sleep. (I will sleep right after I get home.)
我回家了就睡觉。
After I get home, I will sleep.(Maybe I will do something else and then go to bed.)
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Very useful structure. Another way I have learned to express the same thing as “一。。。就。。。” is “。。。了。。。就。。。”
比如说:
我回家了就睡觉了。
Is there any particular difference between the two?
Hi Herman,
两句的意思是一样的 :grin:
Echo
Team ChineseClass101.com
我经常听人说： 你在这里住了“多长时间”，不是 “多久“。这两词句的意思一样吗， 可是它的用法怎样。 请老师解释好吗？
Sure. We have a proverb: "Waste not, want not."
I bet it was borrowed from the Chinese. :smile:
Wow, some serious thoughts about what to do with the leftover turkey... We should have something similar for Chinese holiday leftovers!
:razz:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Meat-and-Poultry/Turkey/Leftovers/Main.aspx
@蓝大卫
Pity we didn't know that... All we did was heating up leftovers from the fridge. The most frequent words we said after opening the fridge was "怎么还有火鸡？！" It seemed we were never going to finish that turkey.
@Lanzi.
Leftover turkey is great! You can make soup and sandwiches and all sorts of other things, not to mention mashed potatoes, stuffing, and egg noodles. Leftovers are part of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. Yummmm......:smile:
Yes, I suppose the food is 狮子头. I'll ask next time.
@蓝大卫
I guess the meat balls are 狮子头(shi1 zi5 tou2), lion heads. Huge meat balls with gravy. Love that!
Yes I tried a roasted turkey in England. It was great with the gravy. Tasted like roasted chicken to me. But because it was so big, we ended up eating turkey leftovers for a whole week.:sad:
Since I don't know the names I really can't answer that except for the meat balls. It seems like every culture has those! :smile:
For us, we have turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas.
Have you tried a roasted turkey. Many Chinese tell me that turkey is too dry. "That's what the gravy is for" is my reply. :smile:
@蓝大卫
Nice! I know turkey is the typical food on Thanksgiving. What does your mother-in-law cook for Chinese New Year? Because in Guangdong where I come from, we have chicken on every special occasion. It's not bad but to be honest, I am a bit tired of it :neutral:
No problems. When my in-laws come over for Thanksgiving or Christmas, they bring a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. We have a nice meal together and after cooking and stuffing myself, I typically take a short nap! :grin: We typically go to my in-law's for Chinese New Year and have a wonderful meal prepared by my mother-in-law. She's a fantastic cook!
Speaking of relatives coming to visit, Spring Festival is absolutely the time. Relatives that you haven't seen for ages would come to your house with cookies, candies, fruits or/and wine. And it's the convention to give them back similar presents, plus a 红包 when they leave. It's called 礼尚往来(li3 shang4 wang3 lai2), that is, courtesy demands reciprocity.
The fun part is that in most cases people who come to visit would get back 90 percent of what they bring, because the host normally take out things they really like and replace them with something else in the present basket. :mrgreen:
Also, it's polite for the guests to pretend that they would never accept the presents, saying "oh you don't have to do this (returning presents). That's too 客气（ke4 qi5, hospitable or courteous）", and at the same time take the gifts.:grin: I've always enjoyed watching this scene since i was a kid.