Learn about the usage of a key Chinese character, 没, and also how to ask for help
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Echo: Hi, 大家好, 我是Echo。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And we are here today with lower beginner, season 1, Lesson 17. |
| Echo: Asking for help in Chinese. |
| David: Right. So we have a dialogue that takes place in someone’s house. It’s them and a friend. They are asking the friend to give them a hand. |
| Echo: 没错 (Méi cuò) And they are speaking casual Mandarin as always. |
| David: Right. Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:可以帮我个忙吗？(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?) |
| B: 没问题，做什么？ (Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?) |
| A: 帮我扶一下，我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.) |
| B: 这样行吗？(Zhèyàng xíng ma?) |
| A:就这样，谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.) |
| B: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: Once more a bit slower. |
| A:可以帮我个忙吗？(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?) |
| B: 没问题，做什么？ (Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?) |
| A: 帮我扶一下，我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.) |
| B: 这样行吗？(Zhèyàng xíng ma?) |
| A:就这样，谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.) |
| B: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: And now with an English translation. |
| Echo:可以帮我个忙吗？(Kěyǐ bāng wǒ gè máng ma?) |
| David: Can you lend me a hand? |
| Echo: 没问题，做什么？(Méi wèntí, zuò shénme?) |
| David: No problem, what do you want me to do? |
| Echo: 帮我扶一下，我要换灯泡。(Bāng wǒ fú yíxià, wǒ yào huàn dēngpào.) |
| David: Hold this for me. I need to change the light bulb. |
| Echo: 这样行吗？(Zhèyàng xíng ma?) |
| David: Like this? |
| Echo: 就这样，谢谢。(Jiù zhèyàng, xièxiè.) |
| David: Yes thank you. |
| Echo:没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: You are welcome. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: So David, 你换过灯泡吗? (Nǐ huànguò dēngpào ma?) |
| David: I need to change the light bulb, are you kidding? Yes, yes why don’t we just move on right away and take a look at some of the words in this lesson. |
| Echo: Okay. 可以。(Kěyǐ.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Can. |
| Echo: 可以,可以,帮。(Kěyǐ, kěyǐ, bāng.) |
| David: To help. |
| Echo: 帮,帮,扶。(Bāng, bāng, fú.) |
| David: To hold. |
| Echo: 扶,扶,换。(Fú, fú, huàn.) |
| David: To change. |
| Echo:换,换,一下。(Huàn, huàn, yīxià.) |
| David: A bit. |
| Echo: 一下,一下,灯泡。(Yīxià, yīxià, dēngpào.) |
| David: Light bulb. |
| Echo: 灯泡,灯泡,这样。(Dēngpào, dēngpào, zhèyàng.) |
| David: This way. |
| Echo: 这样,这样,没事。(Zhèyàng, zhèyàng, méishì.) |
| David: You are welcome. |
| Echo: 没事,没事。(Méishì, méishì.) |
| David: There are a lot of more tricky words in this. So let’s move on to them right away. Echo, the first one I want to touch on is this verb to hold. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 扶。(Fú.) |
| David: To hold. |
| Echo: 扶。(Fú.) |
| David: Because it’s not exactly to hold. |
| Echo: 对, 这个更多的好像就是, 这不是把它全放在你的手里, 你就是帮忙。(Duì, zhège gèng duō de hǎoxiàng jiùshì, zhè bùshì bǎ tā quán fàng zài nǐ de shǒu lǐ, nǐ jiùshì bāngmáng.) |
| David: Yes it’s not holding your hand and grasping you, it’s more like supporting it. |
| Echo: 没错, 没错, 比如说你可以扶什么人, 或者是什么东西都可以。(Méi cuò, méi cuò, bǐrú shuō nǐ kěyǐ fú shénme rén, huòzhě shì shénme dōngxī dū kěyǐ.) |
| David: Right. So if someone is kind of leaning on you and you are kind of holding them up |
| Echo: 对, 你可以....(Duì, nǐ kěyǐ....) |
| David: By the arm, you should lift or 扶。(Fú.) |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: Right like you are lifting up their arm to help them. |
| Echo: 没错, 可以扶老人过马路。(Méi cuò, kěyǐ fú lǎorénguò mǎlù.) |
| David: Right. That’s to 扶 an old lady across the road. |
| Echo: 对, 你不是抱他们过马路。(Duì, nǐ bùshì bào tāmenguò mǎlù.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: You 扶他们过马路。(Fú tāmenguò mǎlù.) |
| David: Yes it’s impolite if you 抱 them. |
| Echo: No那很恐怖, 不然你可以帮别人扶椅子。(Nà hěn kǒngbù, bùrán nǐ kěyǐ bāng biérén fú yǐzi.) |
| David: Yes to kind of – that’s holding a chair for them. |
| Echo:对, 比如说 我去换灯泡, 你帮我扶一下椅子。(Duì, bǐrú shuō wǒ qù huàn dēngpào, nǐ bāng wǒ fú yīxià yǐzi.) |
| David: Yeah. Moving on, we have the verb |
| Echo: 换。(Huàn.) |
| David: Which we’ve run into before. There we were using it to change money. |
| Echo: 对, 换钱, 换美元。(Duì, huànqián, huàn měiyuán.) |
| David: Yes. So to change US dollars into Renminbi. |
| Echo: 唔, 把美元换成人民币。(Wú, bǎ měiyuán huàn chéng rénmínbì.) |
| David: Right. Here it just means to change, to change light bulbs. |
| Echo: 对, 换灯泡, 或者是换水龙头。(Duì, huàn dēngpào, huòzhě shì huàn shuǐlóngtóu.) |
| David: Right. Our next word has a secret sound tucked at the end. |
| Echo: 一下。(Yīxià.) |
| David: Can you hear it? |
| Echo: 一下。(Yīxià.) |
| David: Yeah it’s not 一下 it’s 一下。 |
| Echo: 对 With the R. |
| David: Yes it’s got these and that’s standard Mandarin, that’s not the Beijing accent although down it says, people will drop it off sometimes. How do we use this? |
| Echo: Well we use 一下 after verbs. |
| David: Right. |
| Echo: To make it sound more polite. |
| David: Yeah to make it sound like it’s not a big deal. |
| Echo: 对, 比如说等一下。(Duì, bǐrú shuō děng yīxià.) |
| David: Wait a little bit. |
| Echo: 或者说扶一下。(Huòzhě shuō fú yīxià.) |
| David: Right. Just you know, hold it up for a little bit. It won’t take long. |
| Echo: 换一下。(Huàn yīxià.) |
| David: Yes. Last but not least, we have the word for light bulb. |
| Echo: 灯泡。(Dēngpào.) |
| David: Light bulb. |
| Echo: 灯泡。 |
| David: Which is, literally its lantern bubble? |
| Echo: 唔, 对, 灯泡, 挺好的我觉。(Wú, duì, dēngpào, tǐng hǎo de wǒ jué.) |
| David: Sometimes, you need to change the lantern bubble. |
| Echo: 换灯泡。(Huàn dēngpào.) |
| David: Right. Okay and with that, let’s get on to our grammar section. |
| Echo: 好! (Hǎo!) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time. Okay, we are not going to go into grammar today so much as just reviewing some of these common words and phrases that start with a character |
| Echo: 没。(Méi.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we ran into two of these. |
| Echo: 唔, 第一个是 没问题。(Wú, dì yī gè shì méi wèntí.) |
| David: No problem. |
| Echo: 没问题。(Méi wèntí.) |
| David: No problem. |
| Echo: 第二个是 没事。(Dì èr gè shì méishì.) |
| David: Literally also no problem. Right? |
| Echo: But in the dialogue, it means you are welcome. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: It’s not a big deal. |
| Echo: Yeah 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: Yes there are a couple of other really common ones and we just wanted to review them. Echo? |
| Echo: 比如说 没关系, 我们的 old friend. (Bǐrú shuō méiguānxì, wǒmen de old friend.) |
| David: Yes which is literally you know, no connection, no relation. |
| Echo: 对不起, 没关系。(Duìbùqǐ, méiguānxì.) |
| David: Yeah it’s also kind of you are welcome or it’s not a big deal often. |
| Echo: 对, 其实这些词都可以通用 (Duì, qíshí zhèxiē cí dōu kěyǐ tōngyòng) They can use pretty much interchangeably and not in a lot of situations. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 比如说 谢谢,啊!没关系。(Bǐrú shuō xièxiè, a! Méiguānxì.) |
| David: Next we have |
| Echo: 没什么。(Méishénme.) |
| David: It’s nothing. |
| Echo: 没什么。(Méishénme.) |
| David: Right and that 什么 (Shénme) means anything. It’s not a question. |
| Echo: 对, 所以它也可以是 不客气的意思。(Duì, suǒyǐ tā yě kěyǐ shì bù kèqì de yìsi.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 谢谢, 啊! 没什么。(Xièxiè, a! Méishénme.) |
| David: Yeah. So all of these are really casual. |
| Echo: 唔, 对, 很口语的 (Wú, duì, hěn kǒuyǔ de) |
| David: Right. Echo, let’s hear them again. |
| Echo: 没问题, 没事, 没关系, 没什么。(Méi wèntí, méishì, méiguānxì, méishénme.) |
| David: And again notice the special R tucked on the end of that second one. |
| Echo: 没事。(Méishì.) |
| David: Right. You’ve got to have that 没事 (Méishì) |
| Echo: 对, 不能说没事, 太奇怪了。(Duì, bùnéng shuō méishì, tài qíguàile.) |
| David: Yeah it will make you sound a bit weird. So maybe we should change the title of this lesson and have it about hidden R right? |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: Because if you leave them off in both cases |
| Echo: 唔, 就有事了。(Wú, jiù yǒushìle.) |
Outro |
| David: Yes you will have 事 (Shì) okay and with that, we are out of time for today. Before we let you go Echo, something that you wanted to mention. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Number five. Yes if you have questions or comments, feel free to leave a note on our site. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: We’d love to hear from you. For now though, that is all the time we have. From Beijing, |
| Echo: 我是Echo。(Wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And I am David. |
| Echo: 请大家给我们留言吧! 再见。(Qǐng dàjiā jǐ wǒmen liúyán ba! Zàijiàn.) |
| David: Bye bye. |
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