Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Start speaking Chinese in minutes and grasp the language, culture and customs in just minutes more with Chinese survival phrases, a completely new way to master the basics of Chinese. To get more Chinese lessons and for free, go to chineseclass101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. Signing up takes less than a minute and you will find more great lessons just like this one. To get more free Chinese lessons, go to chineseclass101.com
Today’s phase is, how much which in Chinese is 多少钱(Duōshǎo qián?). All right guys, the phrase is 多少钱(Duōshǎo qián), let’s break down the meaning first. 多(duō) means a lot or many, 少(shǎo) means few, 多少(duōshǎo) together means how much or how many and 钱(qián) means money. So you say, how much money, 多少钱(duōshǎo qián). All right guys, let’s see the tones, 多(duō) is first tone, 少(shǎo) is third tone and 钱(qián) is second tone. So the flat tone, the falling, rising tone and then the rising tone. So 多少钱(Duōshǎo qián)? You are going to use this phrase all the time. In fact, this is other than maybe hello and goodbye and thank you, other than these phrases, 多少钱(duōshǎo qián) is probably going to be your most common phrase. I mean China is sort of a Shopper’s paradise. So the easiest, most rudimentary way you can use this phrase is you just point at something and say 多少钱(duōshǎo qián) you know I point at some fruit and say 多少钱(duōshǎo qián) and they tell you how much. There are special hand signals in Chinese for the numbers 6 through 10. Numbers 1 through 5 are just you know 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 fingers but after that, there are special hand signals. So you are not even guaranteed to understand people’s hand signals when they are trying to tell you how much money. That is why it’s really important to learn the numbers but now if you want to get a little bit more articulate, then just sort of pointing and saying how much, how much, how much, try how much is this 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián?) One more time, 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián?). 这个(zhè ge) means this. So you point at something and say 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián?). 这个(zhè ge) is fourth tone and then no tone. So falling tone, no tone, 这个(zhè ge), 这个(zhè ge), 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián?). You probably notice that in Chinese, the this came before the how much. So literally it was this how much. So you say this how much and then they say this four Yuan. All right guys, if we are going t learn this, we should probably learn that. So we can say, how much is this 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián?) but maybe we are not sure we want to buy this, so we say, oh and how much is that? 那个多少钱(Nàge duōshǎo qián). 那个(nà ge) in Chinese is that. So that how much 那个多少钱(Nàge duōshǎo qián?), 那个(nà ge) is fourth tone and then no tone. So falling tone and then no tone 那个(nà ge), 那个(nà ge), 那个多少钱(Nàge duōshǎo qián?)
All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu)! Okay. Let’s go. How much 多少钱(Duōshǎo qián?), how much is that 那个多少钱(Nàge duōshǎo qián?), how much is this 这个多少钱(Zhège duōshǎo qián?)
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