Intermediate Spoken Chinese

Mark Donnelly has been invited to the Taipei home of his friend Zhou Zengmo. Donnelly has been driving back and forth on his motorcycle searching for his friend’s house for some time but, even though Zhou gave him directions, he can’t find the right street. He calls Zhou from a public telephone to ask for more precise directions.

Basic Conversation 11-3

1. ZHOU	Wéi?
	Hello?
2. DONNELLY	Lăo Zhōu a, wŏ shi Xiăo Dŏng. Wŏ gēn nĭ shuō a, wŏ zhuànlái zhuànqù zĕmme zhăo yĕ zhăobudào nĭ shuōde nèitiáo xiàngzi.
	Old Zhou, it’s me, Mark. Listen, I’ve been driving back and forth and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t find that lane you mentioned.
3. ZHOU	Nĭ xiànzài zài náli a?
	Where are you now?
4. DONNELLY	Wŏ zài nĭ shuōde nèige xiăo miào ménkŏu dă gōngyòng diànhuà gĕi nĭ.
	I’m calling you from a public phone at the entrance to that little temple you mentioned.
5. ZHOU	Hăo, wŏ gàosu nĭ, nĭ jìxù wàng yóujú nèibian zŏu, chàbuduō liăngbăigōngchĭ jiù huì kàndào yìjiā jiājù diàn. Diàn bú tài dà, nĭ shāowēi zhùyì yixia, búyào cuòguo. Cóng nèitiáo xiàngzi zhuănjìnlái zuŏshŏubiān dì’èrdòng sānlóu jiù shi wŏmen jiā.
	O.K., I’ll tell you, you continue going over toward the post office; after about 200 meters you’ll see a furniture store. The store isn’t very large, pay some attention, don’t miss it. Turning in from that lane, the second building on the left-hand side, third floor, is our home.
6. DONNELLY	Hăo, zhīdaole. Yìhuĭr jiàn.
	O.K., I know now. See you in a little while.

Build Up

1. Zhou
Wéi?	Hello?
2. Donnelly
Zhōu	Zhou [SN]
a	(pause filler) [P]
Lăo Zhōu a	Old Zhou
gēn...shuō	tell (someone something) [PT]
wŏ gēn nĭ shuō	I tell you
zhuàn	turn, go around [V]
zhuànlái	come turning around [RC]
...-lái...-qù	...all over the place [PT]
zhuànlái zhuànqù	turn around all over the place
zĕmme zhăo yĕ zhăobudào	no matter how search can’t find
xiàngzi	lane [N]
nĭ shuōde nèitiáo xiàngzi	that lane you were talking about
Lăo Zhōu a, wŏ shi Xiăo Dŏng. Wŏ gēn nĭ shuō a, wŏ zhuànlái zhuànqù zĕmme zhăo yĕ zhă nĭ shuōde nèitiáo xiàngzi.	Old Zhou, it’s me, Mark. Listen, I’ve been driving back and forth and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t find that lane you mentioned.
3. Zhou
Nĭ xiànzài zài náli a?	Where are you now?
4. Donnelly
miào	temple, shrine [N]
nĭ shuōde nèige xiăo miào	that little temple you mentioned
gōngyòng	public [AT]
gōngyòng diànhuà	public telephone [PH]
dă gōngyòng diànhuà gĕi nĭ	call you from a public telephone
Wŏ zài nĭ shuōde nèige xiăo miào ménkŏu dă gōngyòng diànhuà gĕi nĭ.	I’m calling you from a public phone at the entrance to that little temple you mentioned.
5. Zhou
gàosu	tell [V]
wŏ gàosu nĭ	I tell you
yóujú	post office [PW]
wàng yóujú nèibian zŏu	go toward the post office over there
gōngchĭ	meter [M]
chàbuduō liăngbăigōngchĭ	about two hundred meters
kàndào	see [RC]
jiājù	furniture [N] (M: jiàn)
diàn	shop, store [N] (M: jiā)
jiājù diàn	furniture store [PH]
huì kàndào yìjiā jiājù diàn	will see a furniture store
shāowēi (B)	somewhat, slightly [A]
zhùyì	pay attention to [V/VO]
shāowēi zhùyì yixia	pay a little attention
-guò	(indicates motion past or by) [RE]
cuòguo	miss [RC]
búyào cuòguo	don’t miss (it)
zhuănjìnlái	turn in [RC]
cóng nèitiáo xiàngzi zhuănjìnlái	from that lane turn in
shŏu	hand [N] (M: zhī)
zuŏshŏu	left hand [PW]
zuŏshŏubiān	left-hand side [PW]
dòng	(for buildings) [M]
zuŏshŏubiān dì’èrdòng	the second building on the left
Hăo, wŏ gàosu nĭ, nĭ jìxù wàng yóujú nèibian zŏu, chàbuduō liăngbăigōngchĭ jiù huì kàndào yìjiā jiājù diàn. Diàn bú tài dà, nĭ shāowēi zhùyì yixia, búyào cuòguo. Cóng nèitiáo xiàngzi zhuănjìnlái zuŏshŏubiān dì’èrdòng sānlóu jiù shi wŏmen jiā.	O.K., I’ll tell you, you continue going over toward the post office; after about 200 meters you’ll see a furniture store. The store isn’t very large, pay some attention, don’t miss it. Turning in from that lane, the second building on the left-hand side, third floor, is our home.
6. Donnelly
yìhuĭr jiàn	“see you in a little while” [IE]
Hăo, zhīdaole. Yìhuĭr jiàn.	O.K., I know now. See you in a little while.

1. The speakers in the video for this lesson both have a strong Taiwan accent. The most notable feature of this accent is that the h in the standard retroflex initials zh- ch- sh- is dropped. Such an accent is actually quite common not only in Taiwan but also in the Mandarin spoken in most of southern and western China as well. Below is a transcription of the Basic Conversation for this lesson with all the non-standard pronunciations that were recorded on the video underlined (note that the Build Up of the basic conversation was recorded by a speaker of standard Mandarin, so it doesn’t contain non-standard pronunciations):

2A. The a in Lăo Zhōu a is a pause filler. Like the pause filler ne (7-1: 10B), it gives the speaker more time to plan the rest of his utterance and makes his speech seem smoother, less abrupt, and more conversational.

2B. GĒN...SHUŌ. The pattern gēn...shuō means “tell (somebody) (something).” This is one common way to say “tell” (another way is introduced in note 5A below). The pattern is:

2C. The a in Wŏ gēn nĭ shuō a is again a pause filler (cf. 2A above). Some speakers have a habit of using such pause fillers very frequently, there often being a whole series of phrases, each of which ends in a.

2D. In 7-1: 1B we learned about common phonetic changes that can take place in the sentence-final particle a so that, depending on the sound that precedes it, it changes to ya, wa, ra, na, or nga. In this sentence, we encounter two variants of a: the a in Lăo Zhōu a, which is actually pronounced like wa, so the whole phrase sounds like Lăo Zhōu wa; and the a in Wŏ gēn nĭ shuō a, which is actually pronounced like ya, so the whole phrase sounds like Wŏ gēn nĭ shuō ya. Always pay attention to how a changes depending on the preceding sound.

2E. VERB-LÁI VERB-QÙ. The very common and useful pattern VERB-lái VERB-qù expresses the sense of “do something back and forth,” “do something here and there,” “do something all over the place,” or “do something again and again.” The basic pattern is:

“I looked all over the place, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t find it.”

“You can say what you want, the fact remains it’s easier finding a job if you’ve studied computer science.”

“Why are you Americans always kissing people all over the place?” (qīn is a verb meaning “kiss”)

2F. Some speakers, including the one in the video and the conversation for listening, pronounce zhuàn “turn, go around” with a third tone as zhuăn. Thus, the more standard zhuànlái zhuànqù “go around all over” is then pronounced zhuănlái zhuănqù. While both pronunciations occur, zhuàn is considered better usage (zhuăn is a closely related word written with same character that means “turn” that you learned in 9-1 and that occurs in line 5 of this Basic Conversation in zhuănjìnlái “turn in.”

2G. ZĔMME (VERB) YĔ NEGATIVE VERB. The pattern zĕmme (VERB) yĕ + NEGATIVE VERB means “no matter (how hard one tries, no matter what one does), one doesn’t/didn’t/can’t/couldn’t (do something).” The first occurrence of the verb is optional, but the second occurrence of the verb (i.e., the negative verb form) is mandatory. The pattern is:

2H. As we’ve seen before, many speakers pronounce nèi- “that” as nà-. Thus, in line 2 of the video for this lesson, and also in the conversation for listening, nèitiáo xiàngzi “that lane” is pronounced as nàtiáo xiàngzi; in line 4, nèige “that” is pronounced as nàge; and in line 5, nèibian “over there” is pronounced as nàbian, and nèitiáo is again pronounced as nàtiáo. Both nèi- and nà- are correct.

4. You were introduced to the expression dă diànhuà “make a telephone call” in 8-3. There are two ways to indicate to whom a telephone call is made; you say either gĕi...dă diànhuà “call (somebody) on the telephone” or, as in this line, dă diànhuà gĕi..., with exactly the same meaning. Examples:

5A. Gàosu “tell (somebody) (something)” is a very common and useful verb. It must always have an indirect object, with a direct object being optional. For example:

The verb gàosu has an alternate form gàosong which is used by some speakers in northern China.

5B. In mainland China and Taiwan, yóujú “post offices” offer more services than in the U.S. You can send letters, make long distance telephone calls, send telegrams, deposit or withdraw money, and subscribe to newspapers and magazines.

5C. METRIC SYSTEM. The official system of measurement in both mainland China and Taiwan is the metric system. The key terms are:

5D. The Chinese word for “slightly, somewhat” is pronounced by some speakers as shāowēi and by other speakers as shāowéi. You can say either.

5E. Cuòguo means “miss,” e.g., miss seeing something that you had planned to see or miss an opportunity. A common collocation is cuòguo jīhui “miss an opportunity.” Examples:

5F. Nĭ shāowēi zhùyì yixia, literally “You slightly pay attention a little,” is a politer, softer, and less direct way of saying Nĭ zhùyì “You pay attention.” When speaking politely to non-intimates, Chinese people often add words such as shāowēi and yixia so as to tone down the force of the command.

5G. Zhuănjìnlái means “turn in (coming closer to the speaker).” If the speaker had meant “turn in (going further away from the speaker),” he would have said zhuănjìnqù.

6. The changed status le on zhīdao indicates that while the speaker didn’t know the directions before, he does now.

SV1. Distinguish fángzi “house” from jiā “family, home,” which you learned in 4-3. Fángzi is the bricks and mortar that constitute a physical house, while jiā refers to the family that lives in that house. Sometimes in English we say things like “at my house we speak French and English” when we really mean “in my family.” In this case, in Chinese you’d normally say wŏmen jiāli and not wŏmen fángzili. Though Wŏ zài wŏde fángzili shuō Făguo huà isn’t incorrect, it would rarely be said and literally means that the second you step out the door of your house, you no longer speak French.

SV3. Instead of gōngyòng cèsuŏ “public toilet,” some Chinese speakers say gōnggòng cèsuŏ, with exactly the same meaning.

SV4A. GĒN...JIĂNG. Gēn...jiăng “tell (somebody) (something)” is a synonym of gēn...shuō in 2B above. The pattern is:

“I tell you, this problem definitely needs to be solved as soon as possible.”

To sum up, in this lesson, you’ve been introduced to three ways to say “tell (someone) (something),” namely, gēn...shuō, gēn...jiăng, and gàosu (cf. note 5A in this lesson). Compare the following three sentences, all of which mean “Don’t tell her/him that I didn’t go”:

SV4B. RAPID SPEECH. The type of standard Mandarin pronunciation we’ve been learning so far applies to Mandarin when spoken slowly and carefully. In rapid speech, especially as spoken by native Mandarin speakers from northern China, various kinds of sound changes typically occur. (This is also true of English; consider the pronunciation of “incomplete” as “ingcomplete” and of “What do you want to do?” as “Wudja wanna do?”)

Now look at the last example in the previous note: Bié gàosu tā wŏ méi qù “Don’t tell her/him that I didn’t go.” When Chinese people say this rapidly, it may sound somewhat like Bié gào ta wŏ méi qù. Below we’ll describe some of the sound changes that are common in Chinese rapid speech. (This section is for your future reference; you don’t have to learn this material now, nor should you try to speak this way yourself, at least not until your Mandarin is at a much more advanced level. Your goal should be always to make good use of the context and try to the extent possible to understand Mandarin when spoken this way.)

1. Certain sounds may influence certain other sounds occurring after them. For example, n before b or before m often changes into m. Examples: qiānbĭ “pencil” becomes qiāmbĭ, and sānmáo qián “30 cents” becomes sāmmáo qián.

2. In the speech of many people, the consonant n at the end of a syllable may be nasalized when the next syllable starts with a y, an h, or a vowel sound. Examples: piányi “cheap,” zhēn hăo “truly good,” and hĕn è “very hungry.”

3. In two-syllable words where the second syllable begins with an m-, is unstressed, and doesn’t occur before a pause, the two syllables are often combined into a single syllable ending in m. Examples: wŏmen “we” becomes wŏm, shénme “what” becomes shém, and zĕnme “how” becomes zĕm.

4. Some other common two-syllable words may be combined into a single syllable. Examples: zhèiyang may become jiàng, or nèiyang may become niàng.

5. If the previous syllable is Tone Four, vowels occurring after the voiceless initials c-, f-, q-, s-, and sh- in un-stressed syllables themselves become voiceless and sound as though they were whispered. Examples: bù hăo yìsi “be embarrassed” sounds like bù hăo yìs, bú kèqi “you’re welcome” sounds like bú kèq, and dòufu “bean curd” sounds like dòuf.

6. Especially in the speech of people from Beijing, and especially with the commonest words in the spoken language, there is a tendency to slur syllables together. For example, wŏ gàosu nĭ “I tell you” may sound like wŏ gào ni. Moreover, the initials ch-, sh-, and zh- when occurring in unstressed syllables are often pronounced very lightly, losing much of their consonantal quality and retaining only the r-sound. For example, wŏ bù zhīdào “I don’t know” may become wŏ bērdào or Wáng Xiānshēng “Mr. Wang” may sound somewhat like Wáng xianr.

7. In three-syllable words and expressions where the first syllable is Tone One or Tone Two and the second syllable is Tone Two or unstressed, the second syllable often changes to Tone One. Examples: Jiā’nádà “Canada” becomes Jiā’nādà, and zŏu yuānwang lù “go a long way for nothing” changes to zŏu yuānwāng lù.

1. fángzi	house [N] (M: dòng)
Nèisāndòng fángzi dōu shi tāde.	Those three houses are all hers.
2. yòushŏu	right hand [PW]
yòushŏubiān	right-hand side [PW]
Nĭ zhăode fángzi bú zài zuŏshŏubiān, zài yòushŏubiān.	The house you’re looking for isn’t on the left, it’s on the right.
3. gōngyòng cèsuŏ	public toilet [PH]
Gōngyòng cèsuŏ dōu hĕn zāng.	Public toilets are all dirty.
4. gēn...jiăng	tell (someone something) [PT]
gēn tā jiăng	tell him
Nĭ bié gēn tā jiăng wŏ huì qù.	Don’t tell him that I’ll go.

A:	Lăo Zōu a, wŏ si Xiăo Dŏng. Wŏ gēn nĭ suō a, wŏ zuànlái zuànqù zĕmme zăo yĕ zăobudào nĭ suōde nèitiáo xiàngzi.
B:	Nĭ xiànzài zài náli a?
A:	Wŏ zài nĭ suōde nèige xiăo miào ménkŏu dă gōngyòng diànhuà gĕi nĭ.
B:	Hăo, wŏ gàosu nĭ, nĭ jìxù wàng yóujú nèibian zŏu, càbuduō liăngbăigōngcĭ jiù huì kàndào yìjiā jiājùdiàn. Diàn bú tài dà, nĭ sāowēi zùyì yixia, búyào cuòguo. Cóng nèitiáo xiàngzi zuănjìnlái zuŏsŏubiān dì’èrdòng sānlóu jiù si wŏmen jiā.
A:	Hăo, zīdaole. Yìhuĭr jiàn.

zŏulái zŏuqù	“walk back and forth”
zhuànlái zhuànqù	“go around all over”
kànlái kànqù	“look at over and over again”
xiănglái xiăngqù	“think over and over again,” “rack one’s brains”
bānlái bānqù	“move all over the place”
mánglái mángqù	“be busy all over the place,” “be very busy”
fēilái fēiqù	“fly back and forth”
tăolùnlái tăolùnqù	“discuss again and again”
yánjiūlái yánjiūqù	“research again and again”

Wŏ zĕmme yĕ măibudào.	“No matter what I did, I wasn’t able to buy one.”
Wŏ zĕmme yĕ shuìbuzháo.	“No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t fall asleep.”
Tā zĕmme xué yĕ xuébuhuì.	“No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t learn it.”
Tā zĕmme xiĕ yĕ xiĕbuhăo.	“No matter how he wrote it, he just couldn’t write it well.”

Qĭng nĭ gĕi Wáng Xiānsheng dă diànhuà.	“Please call Mr. Wang.”
Qĭng nĭ dă diànhuà gĕi Wáng Xiānsheng.	(same meaning as above)

PERSON₁	GĒN	PERSON₂	SHUŌ
Wŏ	gēn	tā	shuōle.
“I told her.”

SUBJECT	ZĔMME	(VERB)	YĔ	NEGATIVE VERB
Wŏ	zĕmme	(zhăo)	yĕ	zhăobudào.
“No matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find it.”

Qĭng nĭ gàosu wŏ. (indirect object only)	“Please tell me.”
Qĭng nĭ gàosu wŏ wèishemme. (both direct and indirect objects)	“Please tell me why.”

gōngfēn “centimeter”	gōngkè “gram”
gōngchĭ “meter”	gōngjīn “kilogram, kilo”
gōnglĭ “kilometer”	gōngshēng “liter”

Tā méi zhùyì, cuòguo jīhui le.	“He didn’t pay attention and missed his chance.”
Nĭ bié cuòguo zhèige hăo jīhui!	“Don’t miss this good opportunity!”