Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to ChineseClass101.com. I'm David.
Amber: 大家好,我是安伯。(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì ān bó)
David: And, Amber, we’re here today with Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 23 - Shopping for real estate in China.
Amber: 对,在中国买房子。(Duì, zài zhōngguó mǎi fángzi.)
David: Right. So, Amber, we’ve got a lesson that’s a bit of a review cause we’ve done buying houses before ….
Amber: 唔,没错。(Wú, méi cuò.)
David: but we’ve got some new stuff here too. So where does our lesson take place?
Amber: 发生在办公室里。(Fāshēng zài bàngōngshì lǐ.)
David: Right. So, it’s in an office and it’s between two colleagues who are speaking casual Chinese, as always.
DIALOGUE
A: 我最近在看房。(Wǒ zuìjìn zài kàn fáng.)
B: 你不是有个公寓吗?(Nǐ bùshì yǒu ge gōngyù ma?)
A: 那房子太小,我想换别墅。(Nà fángzi tài xiǎo, wǒ xiǎng huàn biéshù.)
B: 你要结婚啦?(Nǐ yào jiéhūn la?)
A: 不,我要离婚。(Bù, wǒ yào líhūn.)
B: 啊?(ā?)
A: 我老婆把我赶出来了。(Wǒ lǎopo bǎ wǒ gǎn chūlái le.)
A: Lately I've been looking at real estate.
B: Don't you have an apartment?
A: That place is too small, I want to change to a villa.
B: You want to get married?
A: No, I want to get divorced.
B: Ah?
A: My wife drove me out.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: Okay. So, that’s our dialogue. It’s about looking for a house, getting a divorce.
Amber: 没错,还有离婚。(Méi cuò, hái yǒu líhūn.)
David: Right. So we’ve got a lot to talk about but first let’s go through our vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Amber: 最近。(zuìjìn)
David: Recently.
Amber: 最 近, 最近, 公寓。(zuì jìn, zuìjìn, gōngyù.)
David: Apartment.
Amber: 公 寓, 公寓, 房子。(gōng yù, gōngyù, fángzi.)
David: House.
Amber: 房 子, 房子, 换。(fáng zi, fángzi, huàn.)
David: To change.
Amber: 换, 换, 别墅。(huàn, huàn, biéshù.)
David: Villa.
Amber: 别 墅, 别墅, 结婚。(bié shù, biéshù, jiéhūn.)
David: To get married.
Amber: 结 婚, 结婚, 离婚。(jié hūn, jiéhūn, líhūn.)
David: To divorce.
Amber: 离 婚, 离婚, 老婆。(lí hūn, líhūn, lǎopo.)
David: Wife.
Amber: 老 婆, 老婆, 老公。(lǎo po, lǎopo, lǎogōng.)
David: Husband.
Amber: 老 公, 老公, 赶出来。(lǎo gōng, lǎogōng, gǎn chūlái.)
David: To drive out.
Amber: 赶 出 来, 赶出来。(gǎn chū lái, gǎn chūlái.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: Okay. Let’s take a look at some of today’s words, but we’re going to start by reviewing some of the language we learned in an earlier lesson. If you remember, earlier we had a lesson about someone looking for a house online, right? They wanted to rent.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: And we covered the four basic kinds of apartments and housing you find in Beijing. For instance…
Amber: 胡同。(Hútòng.)
David: 胡同。(Hútòng.)
Amber: 胡同。(Hútòng.)
David: Which is a small house or a neighborhood of small brick houses.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: These are also known as…
Amber: 平房。(Píngfáng.)
David: Single story house.
Amber: 平房。(Píngfáng.)
David: So, you might say…
Amber: 他想租胡同, 或者他想租平房。(Tā xiǎng zū hútòng, huòzhě tā xiǎng zū píngfáng.)
David: “He wants to rent a traditional Chinese residence.” Right? Now, stepping up, a more expensive form of residence is…
Amber: 四合院。(Sìhéyuàn.)
David: A traditional courtyard.
Amber: 四合院, 四合院是有钱人住的房子。(Sìhéyuàn, sìhéyuàn shì yǒu qián rén zhù de fángzi.)
David: Yes, the traditional courtyards are the homes of rich people.
Amber: 没错, 四合院是有钱人住的房子。(Méi cuò, sìhéyuàn shì yǒu qián rén zhù de fángzi.)
David: Right. Now, in an earlier lesson, we also taught you the word for building.
Amber: 楼房。(Lóufáng.)
David: Like an apartment building.
Amber: 没错,大部份的人住在楼房里。(Méi cuò, dà bù fèn de rén zhù zài lóufáng lǐ.)
David: “Most people live in apartments.” Okay, so four words to review.
Amber: 胡同, 四合院, 平房, 楼房。(Hútòng, sìhéyuàn, píngfáng, lóufáng.)
David: Let’s take a look at some of the newer words we saw in this lesson.
Amber: 唔 … 唔。(Wú… wú.)
David: First, we saw the generic word for “house”.
Amber: 房子。(Fángzi.)
David: House.
Amber: 房子。(Fángzi.)
David: And this is not necessarily house, it’s just a generic word for where you live.
Amber: 对,在中国你住的地方就是你的房子。(Duì, zài zhōngguó nǐ zhù dì dìfāng jiùshì nǐ de fángzi.)
David: Right. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s in a 胡同(Hútòng) or it’s in a new word we’re learning today, “a fancy western apartment”.
Amber: 公寓。(Gōngyù.)
David: A modern apartment.
Amber: 公寓。(Gōngyù.)
David: Most of these are condos, actually.
Amber: 唔 … 唔, 对,没错。(Wú… wú, duì, méi cuò.)
David: Right, so we think of the 公寓 (Gōngyù) as more of a condo, whereas 楼房 (Lóufáng) are closer to kind of older apartments.
Amber: 没错,公寓一般好一点。(Méi cuò, gōngyù yībān hǎo yīdiǎn.)
David: Right. They’re more expensive, they’re more upmarket. So if you’re renting a place and they ask you, “Do you want to see 公寓(Gōngyù) ?”
Amber: 你想看公寓吗?(Nǐ xiǎng kàn gōngyù ma?)
David: They’re really asking you if you’ve got a bigger budget.
Amber: 对,然后一个月可能花几千块钱哪种。(Duì, ránhòu yīgè yuè kěnéng huā jǐ qiān kuài qián nǎ zhǒng.)
David: Yeah, it’s going to be in Beijing, these days, much more expensive. At least 8,000, maybe 10,000, but moving on. In our dialogue, the man is moving out of his apartment.
Amber: 他要离开他的公寓。(Tā yào líkāi tā de gōngyù.)
David: He wants to leave his apartment.
Amber: 他要离开他的公寓。(Tā yào líkāi tā de gōngyù.)
David: And he wants to switch it for a villa.
Amber: 他要换别墅。(Tā yào huàn biéshù.)
David: He wants to exchange it for a villa.
Amber: 他要换别墅。(Tā yào huàn biéshù.)
David: Now, in English, when we say the word villa, we think of a fancy house, outdoor pool, roman villa, [unintelligible 00:06:06] mansion.
Amber: 对,更像一个皇宫。(Duì, gèng xiàng yīgè huánggōng.)
David: Yeah, in China it just means a house, right? So the word itself has the meaning of “it’s very expensive, it’s very luxurious”, but it isn’t the kind of luxury you think of when you read that English translation.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Right? It’s just a normal house in the west would constitute a villa in China.
Amber: 对,中国的别墅,就是西方的房子。(Duì, zhōngguó de biéshù, jiùshì xīfāng de fángzi.)
David: “The Chinese villa is a normal western house.” So, two new words here – “apartment”.
Amber: 公寓。(Gōngyù.)
David: Villa.
Amber: 别墅。(Biéshù.)
David: We’ve covered the word “to marry” in the past.
Amber: 结婚。(Jiéhūn.)
David: To get married.
Amber: 结婚。(Jiéhūn.)
David: In this lesson, we see the word “to divorce”.
Amber: 离婚。(Líhūn.)
David: Which literally means “to leave the marriage”.
Amber: 唔 … 唔, 离婚。(Wú… wú, líhūn.)
David: You may already know the word “to leave”.
Amber: 离开。(Líkāi.)
David: To leave.
Amber: 离开, 比如说他今天早上离开了中国。(Líkāi, bǐrú shuō tā jīntiān zǎoshang líkāile zhōngguó.)
David: He left China this morning.
Amber: 今天早上离开了中国。(Jīntiān zǎoshang líkāile zhōngguó.)
David: He left China this morning. Okay, so a vocab section that’s mostly review although we have some new words in here.
Amber: 唔 … 唔。(Wú… wú.)
David: With that, let’s get to our grammar point which is about rhetorical questions.

Lesson focus

M2: It’s grammar time!
David: Our grammar point today is about a special kind of rhetorical question.
Amber: 不是 …….. 吗?(Bùshì…….. Ma?)
David: Right. Let’s hear that structure again.
Amber: 不是 …….. 吗?(Bùshì…….. Ma?)
David: Right. So that’s a split structure where first we have…
Amber: 不是 …….. (Bùshì……..)
David: Which means “Isn’t it the case that…”
Amber: 唔 … 唔, 不是 …….. (Wú… wú, bùshì……..)
David: And then we have a statement that consists, usually, of a verb and an object.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: And then we follow this with our yes/no question marker.
Amber: 吗?(Ma?)
David: In our dialogue, we saw this in the following line –
Amber: 你不是有个公寓吗?(Nǐ bùshì yǒu gè gōngyù ma?)
David: Don’t you have an apartment?
Amber: 你不是有个公寓吗?(Nǐ bùshì yǒu gè gōngyù ma?)
David: “Don’t you have an apartment?” A couple of things to note. The first is that 吗 (Ma) here, it’s a yes/no question. But we’re expecting the answer yes.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Right? So there’s a slight bias here.
Amber: 对,其实说话的人已经知道答案。(Duì, qíshí shuōhuà de rén yǐjīng zhīdào dá'àn.)
David: Yeah, he already knows the answer so he’s not really asking “Don’t you have an apartment? I know you have an apartment. Why are you house hunting.”
Amber: 没错,他只是在问 你有房子,为什么还要看房子?(Méi cuò, tā zhǐshì zài wèn nǐ yǒu fángzi, wèishéme hái yào kàn fángzi?)
David: Right. “You have a house, why are you looking for one?”
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Now, to make this a bit clearer, let’s take that sentence and change it from a rhetorical question to a straightforward question. If the rhetorical question is…
Amber: 你不是有个公寓吗?(Nǐ bùshì yǒu gè gōngyù ma?)
David: What’s the straightforward question?
Amber: 你有公寓吗?(Nǐ yǒu gōngyù ma?)
David: Or…
Amber: 你有没有公寓?(Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu gōngyù?)
David: Let’s hear those straightforward questions again.
Amber: 你有公寓吗?或者你有没有公寓?(Nǐ yǒu gōngyù ma? Huòzhě nǐ yǒu méiyǒu gōngyù?)
David: Right. So, in those cases, we don’t know what the answer is going to be. We’re asking, we genuinely don’t know.
Amber: 没错, 你确实是在问一个问题。(Méi cuò, nǐ quèshí shì zài wèn yīgè wèntí.)
David: Right. In this case, though, we already know the answer. Let’s hear the rhetorical question one more time.
Amber: 你不是有个公寓吗?(Nǐ bùshì yǒu gè gōngyù ma?)
David: But don’t you have an apartment?
Amber: 唔 … 唔。(Wú… wú.)
David: Now, another thing to note about this structure is it lets us put two verbs together.
Amber: 是 , 有。(Shì, yǒu.)
David: Right. Normally, this would be strange.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: Right? But we’re not breaking it down to a character level, this is a pattern.
Amber: 不是 …….. 吗?(Bùshì…….. Ma?)
David: Right. We’ve got a couple more examples for you to make this clear. First…
Amber: 你们不是结婚了吗?(Nǐmen bùshì jiéhūnle ma?)
David: Aren’t you two married?
Amber: 你们不是结婚了吗?(Nǐmen bùshì jiéhūnle ma?)
David: Aren’t you married?
Amber: 或者他不是离开中国了吗?(Huòzhě tā bùshì líkāi zhōngguóle ma?)
David: Hasn’t he left China?
Amber: 他不是离开中国了吗?(Tā bùshì líkāi zhōngguóle ma?)
David: “Hasn’t he left China?” Now, note here that 是 (Shì) is not the main verb in this sentence, right?
Amber: 唔 … 唔, 主要的动词是 “离开”。(Wú… wú, zhǔyào de dòngcí shì “líkāi”.)
David: Right. Our verb is coming after 是.(Shì.)
Amber: 你们不是结婚了吗?他不是离开中国了吗?(Nǐmen bùshì jiéhūnle ma? Tā bùshì líkāi zhōngguóle ma?)
David: The reason we can do this is that, in China, saying…
Amber: 不是 …..(Bùshì…..)
David: It’s sort of like saying “Isn’t it the case that…” - that's the start of our sentence. So, it’s outside the normal rules of how we put together a Chinese sentence.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: So, think of it that way – “Isn’t it the case that you like this villa?”
Amber: 你不是喜欢这个别墅吗?(Nǐ bùshì xǐhuān zhège biéshù ma?)
David: A real estate agent might ask you that – “Isn’t it the case that you like this villa?”
Amber: 你不是喜欢这个别墅吗?怎么你还不买?(Nǐ bùshì xǐhuān zhège biéshù ma? Zěnme nǐ hái bú mǎi?)
David: Right, “Why don’t you buy it? Why are you so worried about price?” And this is the thing that makes this pattern special. It’s that 是 is not the main verb in this sentence. It makes it a rhetorical question. Before we go, if you remember, in an earlier lesson we taught you another structure.
Amber: 不 …….. 吗?(Bù…….. Ma?)
David: Right. In that sentence, we could have 是 (Shì) as a main verb. For instance…
Amber: 没错, 他不是中国人吗?(Méi cuò, tā bùshì zhōngguó rén ma?)
David: Isn’t he Chinese?
Amber: 他不是中国人吗?(Tā bùshì zhōngguó rén ma?)
David: Right. Now, this earlier structure can be a rhetorical question, but it doesn’t need to be. However…
Amber: 不是........ 吗?(Bùshì........ Ma?)
David: Is almost always going to be a rhetorical question.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)
David: And the kicker is that the main verb follows.
Amber: 不是........(Bùshì........)
David: Now, rhetorical questions are a bit tough. In this lesson, we’ve given you a couple of easy examples. If you’d like some more, check out our premium transcripts on ChineseClass101.com.
Amber: 唔 … 唔, 它们会有很大的帮助的。(Wú… wú, tāmen huì yǒu hěn dà de bāngzhù de.)
David: Right. And you can review them the day after listening to our show. It’s really going to help the stuff stick.
Amber: 没错。(Méi cuò.)

Outro

David: Right? For now, though, that’s all the time we have. From Beijing, I'm David.
Amber: 我是安伯。(Wǒ shì ān bó.)
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we’ll see you on the site.
Amber: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.)

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