PART 1

Buying Meat at a Traditional Market

Cindy Han, an American student in Beijing, has agreed to cook an American-style meal for her Chinese friends. She goes shopping for meat at a traditional Beijing market.

 Basic Conversation 13-1

1. HAN	Qĭng nín gĕi wŏ chēng shíkuài qiánde zhūròu.
	Please weigh out ¥10 worth of pork for me.
2. MEAT SELLER	M.
	Uh-huh.
3. HAN	(points to a piece of pork) Nèibianrde shòu yidianr, nín gĕi wŏ qiē nèibianrde ba.
	That over there is leaner, why don’t you cut that over there for me.
4. MEAT SELLER	Qíshí dōu chàbuduō.
	Actually, it’s all about the same.
	(after she has cut the pork) Hái yào biéde ma?
	Do you want anything else?
5. HAN	Bú yàole, jiù zhèixiē ba. Gĕi nín qián.
	No, just this, I suppose. Here’s the money.
	(after she has paid) Ò, láojià, năr mài miànbāo?
	Oh, excuse me, where do they sell bread?
6. MEAT SELLER	Miànbāo diàn, shípĭn diàn dōu mài.
	Bakeries and grocery stores both sell it.
7. HAN	Yuăn bu yuăn?
	Are they far away?
8. MEAT SELLER	Jìnjíle, yìdiănr yĕ bù yuăn. Jiù zài pángbiānrde hútòngrli.
	They’re very close, not far at all. They’re right in the next alley.
9. HAN	Xièxie.
	Thanks.

 Build Up

1. Han
chēng	weigh, weigh out [V]
qĭng nín gĕi wŏ chēng	please you weigh out for me
zhū	pig [N] (M: zhī)
ròu	meat [N]
zhūròu	pork [N]
shíkuài qiánde zhūròu	ten dollars’ worth of pork
Qĭng nín gĕi wŏ chēng shíkuài qiánde zhūròu.	Please weigh out ¥10 worth of pork for me.
2. Meat seller
M.	Uh-huh.
3. Han
qiē	cut, slice [V]
nín gĕi wŏ qiē	you cut for me
Nèibianrde shòu yidianr,	That over there is leaner,
nín gĕi wŏ qiē nèibianrde ba.	why don’t you cut that over there for me.
4. Meat seller
chàbuduō	be about the same [PH]
Qíshí dōu chàbuduō.	Actually, it’s all about the same.
Hái yào biéde ma?	Do you want anything else?
5. Han
Bú yàole, jiù zhèixiē ba. Gĕi nín qián.	No, just this, I suppose. Here’s the money.
miànbāo	bread [N] (M: tiáo “loaf”)
năr mài miànbāo	where is bread sold
Ò, láojià, năr mài miànbāo?	Oh, excuse me, where do they sell bread?
6. Meat seller
miànbāo diàn	bakery [PH]
shípĭn	food product; groceries [N]
shípĭn diàn	grocery store [PH]
Miànbāo diàn, shípĭn diàn dōu mài.	Bakeries and grocery stores both sell it.
7. Han
Yuăn bu yuăn?	Are they far away?
8. Meat seller
-jíle	extremely [PT]
jìnjíle	extremely close
yìdiăn(r) yĕ bù...	not at all, not the least bit [PT]
yìdiănr yĕ bù yuăn	not at all far
hútòng(r) (B)	small street, lane, alley [N]
pángbiānrde hútòngrli	in the next alley
Jìnjíle, yìdiănr yĕ bù yuăn.	They’re very close, not far at all.
Jiù zài pángbiānrde hútòngrli.	They’re right in the next alley.
9. Han
Xièxie.	Thanks.

 Supplementary Vocabulary

1. jī	chicken [N] (M: zhī)
jīròu	chicken meat [N]
niú	cow, ox [N] (M: tóu)
niúròu	beef [N]
Nĭ xiăng chī niúròu háishi jīròu?	Would you like to eat beef or chicken?
2. yáng	sheep [N] (M: zhī)
yángròu	mutton [N]
Bĕifāng rén ài chī yángròu.	Northerners like to eat mutton.
3. yāzi	duck [N] (M: zhī)
Tā yăngle jĭbăizhī yāzi.	He raised several hundred ducks.
4. yāròu	duck meat [N]
féi	be fatty (of food) [SV]
Yāròu hăochī, kĕshi tài féile.	Duck meat tastes good, but it’s too fatty.
5. xiā	shrimp [N] (M: zhī)
Tā bù néng chī yú, xiā.	She can’t eat fish and shrimp.
6. chīsù	eat vegetarian food [VO]
Wŏ bù chī ròu, wŏ chīsù.	I don’t eat meat; I’m a vegetarian.
7. fùjìn	in the vicinity, nearby [PW]
Fùjìn yŏu shípĭn diàn ma?	Is there a grocery store nearby?

Grammatical and Cultural Notes

1.        Shíkuài qiánde zhūròu literally means “ten dollars of pork.” In good English, we would have to add the words “worth of,” i.e., “ten dollars’ worth of pork.” Another example of a quantity expression followed by -de which modifies a noun is Tā xuéle sānniánde Zhōngwén “She studied three years of Chinese.”

4.        The adverb qíshí “actually” can be useful for making smooth revisions or corrections of what another speaker—or even the speaker herself or himself—has said previously.

5.        Note the use of năr in the question Năr mài miànbāo? “Where (do they) sell bread?” or “Where is bread sold?”

8A.     -JÍLE AS A VERB SUFFIX TO EXPRESS “EXTREMELY.” Especially in Northern Mandarin, the suffix -jíle is often attached to stative verbs to indicate “extremely.” This suffix is most commonly attached to one-syllable stative verbs like hăo “be good” and màn “be slow,” but it may also be attached to two-syllable stative verbs like hăochī “be good to eat” and hăokàn “be attractive.” The basic pattern is:

SUBJECT	STATIVE VERB	-JÍLE
Miànbāo diàn	jìn	-jíle.
“The bakery is extremely close.”

More examples:

Hăojíle!	“Great!”
Nèige rén huàijíle!	“That person is very bad!”
Wŏ zuìjìn mángjíle.	“Recently, I’ve been extremely busy.”
Kăoshì nánjíle.	“The test was extremely difficult.”
Hăochījíle!	“It’s delicious!”
Hăokànjíle!	“It’s beautiful!”
Tā gāoxìngjíle.	“She was extremely happy.”

The suffix -jíle is sometimes also used with regular verbs, for example, with xĭhuan as in Wŏ xĭhuanjíle “I like it extremely much,” but you can’t make up these constructions at will; say only what you’ve heard a native speaker use. And if you use -jíle, don’t use hĕn or fēicháng. Also, -jíle is usually not negated with bù (so you could NOT say *bù hăokànjíle). In Taiwan and southern mainland China, the forms with -jíle are understood but aren’t as common as in North China.

8B.     YÌDIĂN(R) YĚ BÙ... AND YÌDIĂN(R) YĚ MÉI.... The very common structure yìdiăn(r) yĕ bù literally means “a little bit also not,” i.e., “not even by a little” or in good English “not the least bit” or “not at all.” It may be followed by stative verbs, auxiliary verbs, and other kinds of verbs. The basic pattern is:

YÌDIĂN(R)	YĔ	BÙ	SV/AV/V
Yìdiănr	yĕ	bù	yuăn.
“It’s not far at all.”

Some more examples:

Wŏ yìdiăn(r) yĕ bú lèi.	“I’m not at all tired.”
Wŏ yìdiăn(r) yĕ bú huì xiăng tā.	“I don’t miss him in the least.”
Wŏ yìdiăn(r) yĕ bù xĭhuan tā.	“I don’t like her at all.”

In this pattern, the adverb dōu can always be substituted for the yĕ. Examples with yìdiăn(r) dōu bù:

Wŏ juéde Zhōngwén yìdiănr dōu bù nán.	“I feel that Chinese isn’t at all difficult.”
Zhèrde dōngxi yìdiăn dōu bú guì.	“The things here aren’t at all expensive.”

If the verb is méiyou “not have, there is/aren’t,” then méiyou is used instead of bù. A preposed object may be added between the yìdiăn(r) and the yĕ or dōu. Examples:

Wŏ yìdiăn qián yĕ méiyou.	“I don’t have any money at all.”
Wŏ yìdiăn yĕ méiyou.	“I don’t have any at all.”

Similarly, in the case of negative completed action, méi(you) is used instead of bù. Examples:

Wŏ gĕi tā zuòde fàn, tā yìdiănr dōu méi chī.	“She didn’t eat any of the food I made for her.”
Tā yìdiăn yĕ méiyou biàn.	“He hasn’t changed at all.”

Remember that this pattern can be used only in the negative, as in Rìwén, wŏ yìdiănr yĕ bú huì “I don’t know any Japanese at all.” You could NEVER say a sentence like *Rìwén, wŏ yìdiănr yĕ huì. If you intend to say “I know a little Japanese,” you should say Wŏ huì yìdiănr Rìwén.

8C.     THE HÚTÒNG OF BEIJING. The noun hútòng(r) refers to the characteristic small and narrow streets, lanes, or alleys that used to be very common in traditional Beijing. In other parts of mainland China and Taiwan, the word xiàngzi “lane” that you learned in 11-3 would usually be used instead of hútòng(r). In old Beijing, series of traditional courtyard residences with tiled roofs, called sìhéyuànr, were typically joined one to the next, thus creating the hútòng. Hútòng have existed in Beijing since the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). At their high point, they numbered over 6,000. Since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, large numbers of hútòng have been demolished to make way for roads and more modern structures. In recent years, attempts have been made to preserve some of the hútòng for posterity. Tours of Beijing’s hútòng are available and quite popular with foreign students and tourists.

SV1–5. In China, if the word ròu is used alone, it usually refers to pork, the favorite meat of the Han Chinese people. If there is a need to specify the kind of meat, this can be added before the word ròu, e.g., niúròu “beef,” yángròu “mutton,” and zhūròu “pork.” What do you think would be the meaning of gŏuròu?

SV1A. As with English “chicken,” the Chinese noun jī can refer either to the animal or to its flesh, so to say “I want to eat chicken” it’s possible to say either Wŏ yào chī jī or Wŏ yào chī jīròu. On the other hand, niú “cow” refers only to the animal, so to say “I want to eat beef” you must say Wŏ yào chī niúròu.

SV1B. Be sure to pronounce the niú of niúròu “beef” accurately, being careful to distinguish the syllable niú from the very different syllable nǚ as in nǚde “woman, female.”

SV4.   The stative verb féi means “be fatty” when referring to food. To say that a person or an animal is “fat,” use the stative verb pàng that you learned in 5-3. On the other hand, the stative verb shòu “be thin, lean” that you also learned in 5-3 can refer to people, animals, or foods.

SV5.   Be careful to distinguish the pronunciation of xiā “shrimp” from that of shā “sand, gravel” (10-2).

Stand selling fish at Hong Kong outdoor market