Ms Wáng (王) and Ms Lǐ (李) are arranging a lunch meeting over the phone.

PinyinChineseEnglish
李Níhǎo，nǐ máng ma?你好，你忙吗？Hi, are you busy?
王Bù máng, nǐ ne?不忙，你呢？Not at all. And you?
李Wó yě bù máng. Wǒmen qù chī fàn ba.我也不忙，我们去吃饭吧。I’m also not busy. Let’s go eat.
王Hǎo. Qù nálǐ?好，去哪里?Okay. Where to?
李Wǒ zài bàngōngshì. Nǐ kéyǐ lái zhèlǐ ma?我在办公室，你可以来这里吗？I am at the office. Can you come here?
王Wǒ zài xuéxiào. Qù shāngdiàn jiàn, hǎo bù hǎo?我在学校，去商店见,好不好？I am at school. Can we meet at the store?
李Hǎo.好.Okay.
张Zàijiàn!再见！Bye!
Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

 

Vocabulary

Pinyin Chinese English
nálǐ 哪里 where Interrogative pronoun used to ask about location.
nàlǐ 那里 there Pronoun, located away from the speaker. Compare to zhèlǐ (here)
qù 去 go Verb indicating motion in the direction away from the speaker.
lái 来 come Verb indicating motion in the direction towards the speaker.
zài 在 at Verb, meaning “located at”
ba 吧   Particle, turns the sentence into a suggestion.
xuéxiào 学校 school Noun, any type school
bàngōngshì 办公室 office Noun, any type office
shāngdiàn 商店 store Noun, any type of store
fàndiàn 饭店 restaurant Noun, any type of restaurant
duì 对 correct Adjective, indicating the state or condtion of being correct.
jiàn 见 meet Verb, to meet someone casually
kéyǐ 可以 can Modal verb, indicates permission or ability

 

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials:
finals:		   b p m d t n l j q x  
i yi bi pi mi di ti ni li ji qi xi
ia ya             lia jia qia xia
ie ye bie pie mie die tie nie lie jie qie xie
iao yao biao piao miao diao tiao niao liao jiao qiao xiao
iou you     miu diu   niu liu jiu qiu xiu

This group is a subset of the “i” medials (the ones with the “i” sound in the middle). Except for the first column and the first row, each word from this set consists of three parts. For example “bie” is composed of:

  • initial: “b”
  • medial: “i”
  • final: “e”

These words almost sound like they have two syllables “bie” = bee-eh, but the two syllables merge into a single sound.

Please note the last row. The combination of “iou” is an example of an inconsistency in the pinyin “spelling” system.

  • In the first column, “you”, the “y” simply replaces the “i” in “iou”. But in the others, the “o” has been dropped, leaving “iu”.
  • Unfortunately, by dropping the “o”, an important visual clue for pronunciation is lost.
  • Due to regional dialects, “iu” is pronounced differently in different parts of China. In particular, “liu” is sometimes pronounce lee-ew, even though the standard pronunciation is lee-oh.

Listening Practice

  Circle the one you hear   Add the correct tone marks
1 bie – bei, die – dei, yi – ye, yao – you,   xuexiao, bangongshi, shangdian,
2 yi – ya, ji – jia, bi – bie, qi – qia,   nali, zheli, nali,
3 niao – niu, liao – liu, jiao – jiu, jiao – qiao,   bi, mian tiao, pi jiu
4 xia – xie, qi – qie, qia – qiao, tie – tiao,   qu, lai, zai, dui, keyi, qing wen

 

Grammar patterns

Verb-not-verb pattern

The verb-not-verb pattern is used to ask a question. If a verb-not-verb pattern appears in a sentence, there will be no “ma” at the end of the sentence. There are a number of variations on this pattern, involving adjectives, modal verbs and action verbs.

verb type subject verb-not-verb object alternate verbs
adjective tāmen máng bù máng   lèi bú lèi, hǎo bù hǎo
action verb lǎoshī qù bú qù xuéxiào lái bù lái, zài bú zài
modal verb Wáng xiānsheng yào bú yào hē jiǔ xiǎng bù xiǎng

Note that when using the verb-not-verb pattern with yǒu, you must use méi.

  • nǐ yǒu méi yǒu dìdi?

It is also used with duì and hǎo when seeking confirmation on a statement

statement verb-not-verb
shū zài zhèli duì bú duì
wǒmen qù shāngdiàn hǎo bù hǎo

Multi-verb Sentences

A Chinese sentence may have more than one verb phrase and no connecting word is required. However, any verb phrase indicating time, manner or location should come before an action phrase. Here are some examples.

Subject Modal verb Location phrase Action phrase (Question)
Nǐmen xiǎng lái wǒ jiā jiàn péngyou ma?
Wǒmen yào qù fàndiàn chī fàn hǎo bù hǎo?
Tāmen bù kéyǐ zài bàngōngshì hē píjiǔ.  

Practice

Multi-verb sentences have the form: [subject][modal verb][action phrase]

  • [subject] can be a pronoun, type of person, or name
  • [modal verb] can be xiǎng, yào, or kěyǐ
  • can use qù, lái, or zài
  • [action phrase] can use jiàn, chī, or hē

Using vocabulary from this lesson, write 3 mult-verb sentences using “ba” to indicate a suggestion, 3 in the form of a question using “ma” and, finally, 3 in the form of a question using verb-not-verb. Please bring your sentences to the next class and share.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice 

Audio

Click on the player to hear the dialog.

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