Learn how to ask a question using a Chinese character followed by an adjective
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brendan: Hello. And welcome back to Chineseclass101.com, the fastest, easiest and funniest way to learn Chinese. I’m Brendan. |
| Echo: 嗨，大家好，我是Echo. (Hāi, dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| Brendan: And we’re coming at you today with Lower Intermediate Series, Season 1, Lesson 6 – “Jogging in China”. In this lesson you’ll learn why having a roommate can be . |
| Echo: Yes, this conversation takes place in University dorm. |
| Brendan: And it’s between two roommates who are studying in China. |
| Echo: Right. They’re friends, so they’re speaking casual mandarin. |
| Brendan: Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in a moment. But, before we do that, a reminder. You’ve got full transcripts of all the dialogues and much more in our premium PDF. Check it out. It is very, very useful. All right. Let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:今天我们跑多远？(Jīntiān wǒmen pǎo duōyuǎn?) |
| B:不远。(Bù yuǎn.) |
| A:太好了。我昨天没睡好。(Tài hǎole. Wǒzuótiān méi shuì hǎo.) |
| B:放松，只有五公里。(Fàngsōng, zhǐyǒu wǔgōnglǐ.) |
| A:没问题。(Méiwèntí.) |
| B:上山。(Shàngshān.) |
| A:呃……那太远了。(E ......NāTàiyuǎn le.) |
| Brendan: Once more, slowly. |
| A:今天我们跑多远？(Jīntiān wǒmen pǎo duōyuǎn?) |
| B:不远。(Bù yuǎn.) |
| A:太好了。我昨天没睡好。(Tài hǎole. Wǒzuótiān méi shuì hǎo.) |
| B:放松，只有五公里。(Fàngsōng, zhǐyǒu wǔgōnglǐ.) |
| A:没问题。(Méiwèntí.) |
| B:上山。(Shàngshān.) |
| A:呃……那太远了。(E ......NāTàiyuǎn le.) |
| Brendan: And now, with English translation. |
| A:今天我们跑多远？(Jīntiān wǒmen pǎo duōyuǎn?) |
| A: How far are we running today? |
| B:不远。(Bù yuǎn.) |
| B: Not far. |
| A:太好了。我昨天没睡好。(Tài hǎole. Wǒzuótiān méi shuì hǎo.) |
| A: Great. I didn't sleep well last night. |
| B:放松，只有五公里。(Fàngsōng, zhǐyǒu wǔgōnglǐ.) |
| B: Relax. It's only five kilometers. |
| A:没问题。(Méiwèntí.) |
| A: That’s no problem. |
| B:上山。(Shàngshān.) |
| B: ...uphill. |
| A:呃……那太远了。(E ......NāTàiyuǎn le.) |
| A: Enn...That's far. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: So, Brandon, you enjoy running? |
| Brendan: Oh, all the time. |
| Echo: 真的？ (Zhēn de?) |
| Brendan: “We’re watching you.” |
| Echo: 所以你从来不跑？ (Suǒyǐ nǐ cónglái bu pǎo?) |
| Brendan: I don’t even think about it, to be very honest. This lesson… |
| Echo: 从来不想。 (Cónglái bu xiǎng.) |
| Brendan: Yes, this lesson is filled with vocabulary that is of no use, what so ever, to me. |
| Echo: I know. |
| Brendan: But it might be useful to you, so here goes. We’ve got lesson all about running and jogging and other things people do in mornings, for some reasons. |
| C: And now, the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brendan: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Echo: 跑步 (pǎobù) |
| Brendan: “To run” |
| Echo: 下坡 (xiàpō) |
| Brendan: “Downhill” |
| Echo: 上坡 (shàngpō) |
| Brendan: “Uphill” |
| Echo: 困难 (kùnnan) |
| Brendan: “Difficult” |
| Echo: 级别 (jíbié) |
| Brendan: “Level” |
| Echo: 跑步机 (pǎobù jī) |
| Brendan: “Treadmill” |
| Echo: 公里 (gōnglǐ) |
| Brendan: “Kilometer” |
| Echo: 圈 (quān) |
| Brendan: “Lap” |
| Echo: 远 (yuǎn) |
| Brendan: “Far” |
| Echo: 近 (jìn) |
| Brendan: “Near” |
| Echo: 跑道 (pǎodào) |
| Brendan: “Running track” |
| Echo: 跑道 (pǎodào) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Brendan: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words we just learned. |
| Echo: Ok. 第一个词:跑步。 (Dì yī gè cí: Pǎobù.) |
| Brendan: “To run” |
| Echo: 跑步，非常有用。 (Pǎobù, fēicháng yǒuyòng.) |
| Brendan: If you run. If you like me, you may want to skip to the grammar section. |
| Echo: Brandon. 跑步是一种运动。 (Pǎobù shì yī zhǒng yùndòng.) |
| Brendan: “Running is a type of sport.” |
| Echo: 跑步是一种运动。(Pǎobù shì yī zhǒng yùndòng.) And, when you run, you either run 上坡。(Shàng pō.) |
| Brendan: “Uphill” |
| Echo: Or 下坡。 (Xià pō.) |
| Brendan: “Downhill” |
| Echo: 上坡，下坡。 (Shàng pō, xià pō.) |
| Brendan: How do you say “running on a flat surface”? |
| Echo: 平地 (Píngdì) |
| Brendan: Oh, of course. “Flat ground”. |
| Echo: Yes, so I have 上坡，下坡，平地。 (Shàng pō, xià pō, píngdì.) |
| Brendan: And we have some sample sentences for you runners, too. |
| Echo: The first is? |
| Brendan: “It’s easier to go downhill.” |
| Echo:跑下坡会轻松一些。 (Pǎo xià pō huì qīngsōng yīxiē.) |
| Brendan: Literally, it’s a bit more relaxing to go downhill. |
| Echo: Yes. 跑下坡会轻松一些。(Pǎo xià pō huì qīngsōng yīxiē.). And the opposite is 上坡 (Shàng pō) as in 走上坡很困难。 (Zǒu shàng pō hěn kùnnán.) |
| Brendan: “It’s hard to go uphill.” |
| Echo: So, 走上坡很困难。 (Zǒu shàng pō hěn kùnnán.) |
| Brendan: Actually, a lot of runners here in Beijing don’t run outside because of the pollution. So, they have to use a treadmill instead. |
| Echo: Yes. 跑步机 (Pǎobù jī) |
| Brendan: “Treadmill”. Or, literally, a running machine. |
| Echo: 跑步机 (Pǎobù jī) |
| Brendan: I hear it’s actually harder running on a treadmill. |
| Echo: 对，用跑步机跑步更无聊。 (Duì, yòng pǎobù jī pǎobù gèng wúliáo.) |
| Brendan: Yes. Using a treadmill is more boring than running outside. |
| Echo: 用跑步机跑步更无聊。 (Yòng pǎobù jī pǎobù gèng wúliáo.) |
| Brendan: Remember that word for “boring” from our last lesson? |
| Echo: 无聊 (Wúliáo) |
| Brendan: Yes. |
| Echo: So, 别忘了。 (Bié wàngle.) |
| Brendan: Yes, that’s an important one. Even with the pollution, there’s still some gluttons for punishment who insist on running outside. My head is off to you, you crazy magnificent health freaks. |
| Echo: Yes, 很棒。 (Hěn bàng.) |
| Brendan: Indeed. And, if you’re one of those, you might want to run on a running track. |
| Echo: 跑道 (Pǎodào) |
| Brendan: “Running track” |
| Echo: 跑道 (Pǎodào) |
| Brendan: These are the round circular tracks you see at schools and universities. |
| Echo: 比如说，他在跑道上跑了一个小时了。 (Bǐrú shuō, tā zài pǎodào shàng pǎole yīgè xiǎoshíliǎo.) |
| Brendan: “He’s been running on the track for an hour now.” |
| Echo: 他在跑道上跑了一个小时了。 (Tā zài pǎodào shàng pǎole yīgè xiǎoshíliǎo.) |
| Brendan: So, we already have “uphill”, “downhill”, “flat ground”, “treadmill” and “running track”. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: One last word. |
| Echo: 圈 (Quān) |
| Brendan: Yes, “lap”. |
| Echo: 圈 (Quān) |
| Brendan: That’s “lap” as in “running a lap”. |
| Echo: Right. Or 三圈，我已经跑了三圈了。 (Sān quān, wǒ yǐjīng pǎole sān quānle.) |
| Brendan: “I’ve already run three laps.” |
| Echo: 我已经跑了三圈了。 (Wǒ yǐjīng pǎole sān quānle.) |
| Brendan: Now, notice that there is no measure word there. |
| Echo: Because 圈 (Quān) is already the measure word. |
| Brendan: Right. And it means “a rind” or “a lap”. |
| Echo: 我已经跑了三圈了 and 累死了。 (Wǒ yǐjīng pǎole sān quānle and lèi sǐle.) |
| Brendan: Yes. |
| Echo: I see you, right? |
| Brendan: Yes, that’s… I think three laps would probably, yes, just knock me out for the rest of the day. |
| Echo: Especially, I would say it. Better to use 跑步机 (Pǎobù jī) or the 游泳池 (Yóuyǒngchí) |
| Brendan: Yes, I’d actually, I do better with swimming I think, than with running. Anyway, that is our vocab section. On to the grammar section. |
| Echo: 好的。 (Hǎo de.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brendan: Now, our grammar point for today is something you’re going to see all the time. |
| Echo: It’s 多 (Duō) plus an adjective. |
| Brendan: Yes. Now, in the dialogue, we heard this: |
| Echo: 今天我们跑多远？ (Duō jīntiān wǒmen pǎo duō yuǎn?) |
| Brendan: “How far are we running today?” |
| Echo:今天我们跑多远？多远？ (Jīntiān wǒmen pǎo duō yuǎn? Duō yuǎn?) |
| Brendan: Now, that is 多 (Duō) plus the adjective: |
| Echo: 远 (Yuǎn) |
| Brendan: For “far”. |
| Echo: It’s a lot like a word we already know. |
| Brendan: You mean… |
| Echo: 多少 (Duōshǎo) |
| Brendan: Right. And that’s a question, too. In fact, there are a lot of these. |
| Echo: There are: 多好. (Duō hǎo.) |
| Brendan: “How good” |
| Echo: 多难 (Duō nàn) |
| Brendan: “How hard”. And these are all questions like in these sentences. |
| Echo: Yes. 这儿离你家多远啊？ (Zhè'er lí nǐ jiā duō yuǎn a?) |
| Brendan: “How far is this from your house?” |
| Echo: 这儿离你家多远啊？他有多聪明啊？ (Zhè'er lí nǐ jiā duō yuǎn a? Tā yǒu duō cōngmíng a?) |
| Brendan: “How clever is he?” |
| Echo: 他有多聪明啊？ (Tā yǒu duō cōngmíng a?) |
| Brendan: And that’s useful, actually. It’s a good reminder that our adjective can be more than one character long. |
| Echo: And these are all questions. |
| Brendan: Yes, but, because you know there had to be a “but”… |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: Sometimes, sometimes we see this used when it isn’t a question. |
| Echo: Right. |
| Brendan: Like in this sentence, for instance: |
| Echo: 他多善良啊！ (Tā duō shànliáng a!) |
| Brendan: Right. Now, that isn’t the question. It’s more of an exclamation, you know. “Isn’t she kind hearted?” |
| Echo: Yes. 多 (Duō) in this case is the same as 多么.(Duōme.) |
| Brendan: Right. It’s an exclamation. Literally, it’s “How kind hearted she is.”. |
| Echo: Yes. 他多善良啊！(Tā duō shànliáng a!). Or you can say 你今天多么漂亮啊！(Nǐ jīntiān duōme piàoliang a!) |
| Brendan: “You’re so beautiful today.” |
| Echo: 你今天多么漂亮啊！ (Nǐ jīntiān duōme piàoliang a!) |
| Brendan: I hear that one all the time. |
| Echo: Yes. You can also use 多(Duō) instead of 多(Duō)。你今天多漂亮啊！(Nǐ jīntiān duō piàoliang a!) |
| Brendan: And again, that just means “How beautiful you look today.”. People are always saying that to me. |
| Echo: Yes, they’re all the same. 你今天多么漂亮啊！你今天多漂亮啊！(Nǐ jīntiān duōme piàoliang a! Nǐ jīntiān duō piàoliang a!) |
| Brendan: Yes, these are both perfectly fine. So, to review. When you see 多 (Duō) followed by an adjective, it’s doing one of two things. |
| Echo: Either it’s a question like 多少 or 多远？(Duōshǎo or duō yuǎn?) |
| Brendan: Or it’s an exclamation where多 (Duō) means the same thing as 多么。(Duōme.) |
| Echo: Yes. I think this grammar point is pretty easy. |
Outro |
| Brendan: Yes. You guys are going to be fine with this. That just about does it for today. But, before we go, we want to tell you about a way of improving your pronunciation in a serious way. |
| Echo: Right. The voice recording tool. Record your voice with a click of a button. |
| Brendan: And play it back just as easily. |
| Echo: Yes, record and listen. |
| Brendan: Then, you can compare yourself to a native speaker’s and adjust your pronunciation according to it. This is really painful. It is humiliating and just physically uncomfortable to listen to yourself speaking Chinese. I know, I’ve done it. |
| Echo: 啊，没有那么困难。(A, méiyǒu nàme kùnnán.) |
| Brendan: It’s hard, it’s hard. |
| Echo: 多么有意思呀！ (Duōme yǒuyìsi ya!) |
| Brendan: Well, it is a great way to improve your pronunciation. It’s the best way I know. |
| Echo: Yes. |
| Brendan: In the meantime, if you have any questions about today’s lesson… |
| Echo: You can always leave a comment on the site or write to us at contactus@Chineseclass101.com. |
Comments
HideWould you like to join us for a morning jog in China?
Hello Rob,
Thank you for your feedback. We collaborate with different voice actors, their speech style may have affected the clearness as well. We will take your feedback into account for our future development.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
Thanks for letting me try the 7 day trial. It helps me understand how difficult Chinese is because of the multiple Chinese accents. I wish for beginning Chinese learners like me we would have examples that are easier to copy and are clear and unaccented.
One of your Male Voices seems to have an accent that makes it hard to understand (the sounds do not match the Pinyin (not even close) While the other male voice doesn't have that accent. Is that done on purpose? Where is his accent from? Can I choose to only use the narrator that is clear and skip the one that has a fuzzy accent?
Hi John,
Thank you for studying with us.
Please try downloading a keyboard app on your device or checking your keyboard settings.👍
Some sites allow you to type in Chinese like this:
https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/chinese.php
Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Lena
Team ChineseClass101.com
in the writing quiz i put in pniyin which was marked wrong how do i enter the hanzi?
Hello Iris,
There are 4 types of accounts on ChineseClass101: Free Lifetime Account, Basic, Premium, and Premium PLUS.
When you sign up for ChineseClass101 for the first time, you have a 7-day Premium trial to check the entire site out. After those 7 days, you're a Free user... which means you have access to all our new lessons that we publish and the first 3 of every series.
It costs nothing to register and start listening to these lessons. It will only cost if you'd like to upgrade and access more lessons and features.
Hope this answered your question!
Best Regards,
Lena
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi i have a question, previously the past lessons have been free for the audio, vocab and grammar, but now after 6 lessons its asking me to pay for the basic subscription? Was i on a limited free trial that i wasnt aware of? Im just wondering because im very confused right now.
Thank you
你好 samia，
谢谢你的留言！句子写得很好！
如果你有任何问题，请随时联系我们。
Ngai
Team ChineseClass101.com
今天的课多么有趣啊!❤️️❤️️❤️️
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
thank you forvthe lesson
my favorite words are Zhè'er lí nǐ jiā duō yuǎn a? Tā yǒu duō cōngmíng a?
robert
你好 Leah，
谢谢你的留言。不，这不是“是（形容词）的”句型。“是”很多时候可以放在“那么/多么 + 形容词”的前面，句末通常有感叹词，比如“啊”，“呀”。
衣服是多么漂亮啊！=> 不用加“的”
她是多善良啊！=>加或不加“是”都可以
如果你有任何问题，请随时联系我们。
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
我注意到那些例子用“是” 在“多么” 前面，但是没有“的”在句子的后面。这不是 “是（形容词）的” 的句型吗？
比如说，“衣服是多么漂亮啊”。 不用“的”或者用“的”都可以吗？
那“多”呢？可以说“她是多善良啊”吗？还是不用“是”？
谢谢😄
Hello Mark,
Thank you for your comment. We will consider your suggestion for our future development.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
Why does she speak with a Beijing dialect (-er at the end of words) when most people in China do not live in Beijing? She should speak the most common form of Chinese. This language is difficult enough without confusing us with local dialects.
杰米
I think you'd like to ask if you can say '分例子'， no. Only 例子. It's possible to put a modifier for 例子, such as 主要的-main.
Either ‘我每天跑步’ or ‘我每天都跑步’ is all right, and both of them are used in daily life, while ‘我每天都跑步’ is stronger, emphasizing the frequency.
When both of sentences can be translated into: 'I run everyday', ‘我每天都跑步’ implies 'I don't miss any day'.
However, people may choose to use 都 or not in speaking, and may not really take it seriously in talking about exercises.
Thanks for learning with us.
Amy
Team ChineseClass101.com
在上面写着一个（分？）例子：我每天跑步。
但是我认为因为写着“每天”我们也应该用“都” --> 我每天都跑步。
有什么区别？我每天跑步和我每天都跑不？
谢谢·
Hi Dave,
Most of the time we just use the question tone and question mark to distinguish the two, so it's not always easy to tell in speech. For example:
他多聪明？"How smart is he?"
他多聪明！"How smart he is!"
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
With regard to the grammar point. Can anyone shed some light on how to distinguish between when 多 followed by an adjective is used as a question or an exclamation? Ive found it's quite easy to use this combo pretty badly when speaking in the past.