Dialogue 1

Zěnme yang? How are you?

hăo very jiŭ long (as of time) bú jiàn not see zěnme how? Zěnme yang? How are you?/How are things? shì [emphatic word] zuìjìn recently gōngzuò work/to work máng to be busy/busy hái hăo to be all right/to be fine zuótiān yesterday chūmén to be away/to go away qù to go/to go to năr where? xià ge next xīngqī week huílai to return (lit “return come”) nán male péngyou friend ràng to let/to allow jièshào to introduce yíxià [softens abruptness] cháng often/always shuōqĭ to mention/to talk zhōngyù finally/at last jiànmiàn to meet

Shūlán, háo jiŭ bú jiăn.  Ní zěnme yang?

Shulan, I haven’t seen you for ages.  How are you.

Wŏ hén hăo.  Ní hăo ma?  Nĭ kànshangqu yŏu yìdiăn lèi.

I’m very well.  Are you well?  You look a little tired.

Wŏ shì hěn lèi. Zuìjìn wŏde gōngzuò hěn máng. Yánzhōng zěnme yang?

I am tired.  I’ve been very busy with work recently.  How is Yanzhong?

Hái hăo, xièxie.  Tā zuótiān chūmén le.

Fine thanks.  He went away yesterday.

Qù năr le?

Where has he gone?

Měiguó.  Xià ge xīngqī huílai.  Nĭde nán péngyou lái le ma?

America.  He’s coming back next week. Has your boyfriend come with you.

Lái le….

Yes.

 

Stuart, ràng wŏjièshào yíxià.  Zhè shì wŏde hăo péngyou Shūlán.  Shūlán, zhè shì wŏde nán péngyou Stuart.

Stuart let me introduce you to my god friend, Shulan.  Shulan, this is my boyfriend, Stuart.

Ní hăo, Shūlán.  Rachel cháng shuōqi nĭ.

Hello, Shulan.  Rachel is always talking about you.

Ní hăo, Stuart.  Wŏmen zhōngyú jiànmiàn le.

Hello Stuart.  We meet at last.

Notes to Dialogue 1

Háo jiŭ bú jiăn

This is a very common expression to be used if you have not seen someone for a long time.  Literally it means ‘very long no see’.  The word hăo, although the same as hăo as in ní hăo , in this instance means ‘very’ and is used as an adverb.  There is an element of informality as well as exaggeration when hăo is used to mean ‘very’ or ‘so’. For example:

Wó hăo lèi.    

I’m so tired.

Tā hăo gāoxìng jiàndào nĭ.      

He is so happy to see you.

 

Zěnme yang?

The greeting expression Ní zěnme yáng? (How are you?/How are things?) is used very often among colleagues and friends, basically people who know each other.  It is one of those phrases which are difficult to analyse grammatically. Let us concentrate on its usage. If the question is aimed at the person you are speaking to, nĭ (you) is usually omitted.  If you enquire about someone or something you must place that person or thing at the beginning of the question.  For example:

Nĭde nán péngyou zěnme yàng?

How is your boyfriend?

Tiānqì zěnme yàng?

How is the weather?

In response to the question Ní zěnme yáng?, you can use the following:

Hén hăo            Very well

Hái hăo              Fine

Hái bú cuò        Not bad

Măma hūhu      Just so-so

Bú tài hăo          Not very well

Bù hăo                Not well

Hěn zāo              Terrible

 

Emphatic shì

In order to emphasise certain phrases, the word shì (lit: to be) can be used before these phrases.   In these notes, whenever this word is used for emphasis purposes it will be written in italics shì   For example:

Měixīn shì hěn máng           

Meixin is very busy.

 

Wŏ shì bú xiăng hē kāfēi.  

I don’t want coffee.

Obviously shì cannot be used in sentences where the verb is itself shì.  More on this below.

Use of máng

When the English sentence ‘She is busy with work’ is translated into Chinese it becomes ‘Her work is busy’.  For example:

Shūlán de gōngzuò hěn máng

Shulan’s work very be busy.

In such cases the word de can be omitted.  If you are asked to specify what you are busy with, you can put such information after máng.  For example:

Q:  Nĭ zuìjìn máng shénme?

      You recently busy what?

A:  Máng gōngzuò

      Busy work

 

Time-related phrases

In Chinese, time-related phrases (e.g. ‘next week’, ‘today’) are placed either at the beginning of a sentence or before the verb.  For example:

Jonathan xià ge xīngqī lái Táiwān.

Jonathan next week comes Tiawan.

Xià ge xīngqī, Yánghōng qù Yīngguó.

Next week Yanghong go Britain.

Note that when the time-related phrase such as xià ge xīngqī (next week) is used, the context itself makes it very clear that it is a future event we are talking about.  This sentence order applies to questions as well.

Question word năr

Earlier we saw the question word nă.  When nă means where, it is pronounced năr.  As with other question words it is placed in a sentence where the information would go. For example:

Q:  Nĭ xià ge xīngqī qù năr?

      You next week go where?

A:  Wŏ xià ge xīngqī qù Făguó

       I next week go France.

 

More on le

Earlier we saw one usage of the particle le (in Nĭ duō dà le?)   Here le is added after some verbs to indicate that an event happened in the past (especially when a time related phrase is used).  For example

Rachel zuótiān chūmén le

Rachel went away yesterday.

Tā qù năr le?

Where did she go?

Depending on the context, especially when no time related phrases are used, le can either indicate a past event or an event which has happened and is still happening:

Rachel chūmén le.

Rachel has been away (she is still away)

Tā qù năr le?

Wherehas she gone? (she is still away)

If there are other words/phrases (i.e. objects) after the verb, and they are not very long, le can be placed either after the verb or after the object.  For example:

Měixīn qù Táiwān le.    or         Měixīn qù le Táiwān.   

either of which can mean ‘Meixin went to Taiwan’ or ‘Meixin has gone to Taiwan’.  Note that le cannot be added to every verb.

Omission of the personal pronoun.

The personal pronoun is often omitted from spoken Chinese where they can be easily inferred from the context.  For example:

Qù năr le? instead of Tā qù năr le?

 

Use of yíxià

The word yíxià does not have any specific meaning except that it softens abruptness.  For example, the use of ràng wŏjièshào yíxià (let me introduce) without the use of yíxià would sound very bossy and tactless.

Difference between jiànmiàn and jiàndào

The main difference between the two verbs ‘to meet’ lies in their usage.  Generally, jiàndào is used when two people meet while jiànmiàn is used when more than two people are involved.   See the following examples:

Shúlán zuátiān jiàndào le Stuart.

Shulan met Stuart yesterday.

Wŏmen xià ge xīngqī jiànmiàn.

We are going to meet next week.

Dialogue 2

Tā jiéhūn le ma?  -  Is he married?

nà that (see note) liăng two (a pair) gè [measure word – people] tóu [measure word – pigs, cattle etc] tiáo [measure word – fish, rivers, etc] shéi who gōngsi company fù deputy/vice jīnglĭ manager shuài to be smart jiéhūn to be married méi yŏu not búguò however/but yŏu to have nŭ female ài [exclamation word] zhēn kěxī what a shame/pity (lit “really pity”) wèishénme why méi shénme nothing (lit “not anything”) nà ge nŭ de that woman jiù [emphatic word]

Shūlán, nà liăng ge rén shì shéi?

Shulan, who are those two people?

Nán de jiào Stuart.  Shì WP gōngsī de fù jīnglĭ.

The man is called Stuart. He is the Deputy Manager of the WP company.

Tā zhēn shuài.  Nĭ zhīdào tā jiéhūn le ma?

He is realy smart.  Do you know if he is married?

Méi yŏu jiéhūn.  Búguò, tā yóu nŭ péngyou le.

No, he isn’t.  But he’s got a girlfriend.

āi!  Zhēn kěxī.

What a shame.

Wèishénme?

 Why?

Méi shénme.  Nà ge nŭ de shì shéi?

Nothing.  Who is that woman?

Tā jiù shì Stuart de nŭ péngyou.   Tā jiào Rachel.

She is Stuart’s girlfriend.  She’s called Rachel.

Notes to Dialogue 2

Measure words

Discussing quantities of things in Chinese can be a little complicated in that a qualifier or measure word must be used between a number and its noun.  Measure words are also used between zhè/nà (this/that) and its noun.  Different categories of nouns require different measure words.  For instance ge is used for human beings whereas tóu is used for pigs, cattle, etc and tiáo is used for fish, rivers, etc.  For example:

Wŏ rénshi sān ge Yīngguórén.

I know three British people.

Tā yŏu èrshí tóu zhū.

He has twenty pigs.

If you cannot remember which measure word to use, use ge instead.

Use of pronouns nà and zhè

When nà or zhè (that or this) is followed by the verb shì (to be), they function as subjects.  For example:

Nà/Zhè shì wŏde kāfēi.

That/This is my coffee.

When nà or zhè precedes nouns, or numbers plus nouns, measure words such as ge must be used and when the number is yī it is almost always omitted. So nà yī ge rén becomes nà ge rén .  When nà is followed by numbers other than one and measure words, it means ‘those’.  This rules also applies to zhè. For example:

nà/zhè ge Měiguórén            that/this American

nà sān bēi kāfēi                      those three cups of coffee

zhè sān bēi kāfēi                    these three cups of coffee

Remember nà (that) has the fourth tone while nă (which) has the third tone.

Use of liăng

When you count the number to use for two is èr.  However, if you want to say ‘two somethings’ use liăng instead – like couple.  For example:

liăng bēi kāfēi

two cups of coffee

 

liăng ge Běijīngrén

two Beijing people.

 

Changing adjectives to nouns by adding de

Adjectives such as nán (male) and nŭ (female) can be changed into nouns by adding de after them.  Thus we have:

Adjective                      Noun

nán      male                  nán de          man

nŭ        female               nŭ de            woman

lăo       old                      lăo de            the old one

xiăo     young/small      xiăo de          the young/small/little one

Note that you can also add the word rén after nán and nŭ to form nán rén (male person) and nŭ rén (female person), which are more formal than nán de and nŭ de .  On public signs, nán means ‘men’s toilet’ and nŭ means ‘women’s toilet’.

Linking two nouns with de

Another use of de is to link two nouns, the first being subordinate to the second.  It is equivalent to the English ‘of’ or ‘’s’. For example:

gōngsī de jīnglĭ

the manager of the company

 

Rachel de nán péngyou

Rachel’s boyfriend

 

Question word shéi

The question word shéi (who) can appear at the beginning or at the end of the question depending on how you want the question to be structured.  For example:

Shéi shì WP gōngsī de jīnglĭ? 

Who be WP company’s manager.

WP gōngsī de jīnglĭ shì shéi?

WP company’s manager be who?

Negation word méi yŏu

So far we have been using bù to negate adverbs, verb-adjectives and verbs for present and future events.  Another important negation word is méi yŏu (yŏu is often omitted).  It is mainly used to indicate that an action has not taken place; (b) indicate that an actiondid not happen; and (c) negate the verb yŏu (to have).  You must never use méi to negate an adverb or verb-adjective.  It is only verbs which can be negated by méi or méi yŏu.  Simply add them before the verb.  For example:

Zuótian wŏ méi yŏu qù Lúndūn

Yesterday I didn’t go London

Stuart méi yŏu lái.

Stuart hasn’t arrived

Wú Hái méi yŏu nán péngyou

Wu Hai not have boyfriend

Remember: whenever méi or méi yŏu is used, le is usually not used.  Le can only be used together with méi yŏu when you want to indicate that you had something before but now it is running out.  For example:

Wŏ méi yŏu kāfēi le.

I’ve run out of coffee.

Kāfēi méi yŏu le.

Coffee is running out.

Pronoun shénme

Earlier we saw shénme (what) used as a question word.  Shénme can also be used as a pronoun meaning ‘anything’  and is usually used with the negation word méi to form negative sentences.  For example:

Wŏ méi shuō shénme.

I didn’t say anything/I said nothing

Tā méi hē shénme

He didn’t drink anything/He drank nothing

 

Emphatic word jiù

Earlier we saw how sentences with the verb shì cannot be emphasised using shì. The correct word to use in such cases is jiù.  Simply add jiù before shì . You can think of the combination as ‘very be’.  For example:

Wŏ jiù shì Kàn Qiàn

I am Kan Chian (often used on the telephone)

Tā jiù shì gōngsī de jīnglĭ

He is the company manager

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