Mr Wang (王) and Ms Zhang (张) are arranging a dinner date.

Note

• The “ui” combination is pronounced like the english word “way”. This combination should be spelled “uei”, but the designers of pinyin decided to leave out the “e” for your convenience.

Listen and circle the one you hear

• cu – su, ru – rui, zhua – shua, zun – cun,
• zhou – zhuo, cuo – zuo, shu – shuo, shuai – zhuai
• shou – xiu, xue – shui, zuo – zou, rong – rang
• chun – shun, wai – wei, ruan – run, su – sui

Listen and add the correct tone marks

• gan shenme, xingqi, shi
• dian zhong, liang dian ban, kao ya
• fandian, haochi, yi ke
• deng yi xia, mi fan, qing shao deng

Grammar Patterns

Zǎo yìdiǎn

This means “a little earlier”. The pattern is “yìdiǎn”. When yìdiǎn follows an adjective it indicated more. For example hǎo yìdiǎn, would mean “a little better”. [note: yìdiǎnr is the Beijing way to pronounce yìdiǎn]

Xīngqī jǐ

This means “which day of the week”. Previously we learned that jǐ means how many, but in this case it is asking for which number week day. jǐ is also used to ask about the time: jǐ diǎn (what time is it?)

Méishì

This expression is a short for méi yǒu shì, or “don’t have anything in particular to do”. To say the opposite you may use “wǒ yǒu shì”.