Learn the pattern for a special kind of rhetorical question and the divorce laws in China
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| 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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