Intermediate Spoken Chinese

Li finishes shaving and joins his friend (continued from the previous conversation).

Basic Conversation 18-2

1. LI ZHIJIE	Wŏ láile, wŏ láile! Xiăo Niúr, duìbuqĭ, ràng nĭ jiŭ dĕngle.
	I’m coming, I’m coming! Little Niu, sorry to keep you waiting so long.
2. NIU	Méi guānxi, méi guānxi.
	Don’t worry about it.
3. MRS. LI	Xiăo Niúr, zài zhèr chīfàn ba!
	Little Niu, have dinner here!
4. NIU	Bú yòngle. Dĕng huĭr wŏ gēn Xiăo Lĭ tánwánle, jiù huíqu.
	That’s not necessary. In a little while when I finish talking with Little Li, I’ll go home.
5. LI ZHIJIE	Bù, Xiăo Niúr, nĭ jiù zài zhèr chī ba. Zámmen yìbiānr chī yìbiānr tán.
	No, Little Niu, why don’t you just have dinner here. We can talk while we eat.
6. NIU	Nà yĕ hăo. Jiăndān diănr, bié tài máfanle!
	Well, all right. But keep it simple, don’t go to too much trouble!
7. MRS. LI	Ò, bù máfan, măshàng jiù nònghăo.
	Oh, it’s no trouble, it’ll be ready in no time.
	(after the meal)
8. NIU	Xiăo Lĭ, shíhou bù zăole, wŏ gāi zŏule.
	Little Li, it’s getting late, I should be going now.
9. LI ZHIJIE	Zài zuò yihuir ba!
	Why don’t you sit a while longer?
10. NIU	Bù le, wŏ hái dĕi shàngjiē măi diănr dōngxi.
	No, I still have to go out on the street to buy something.
11. LI ZHIJIE	Hăo ba. Jìrán nĭ hái yŏu shì, wŏ jiù bù wănliúle. Yĭhòu yŏukòngr zài lái wánr.
	O.K. Since you still have things to do, I won’t make you stay. Come again when you’re free.
12. NIU	Bómŭ, wŏ zŏule. Xiăo Lĭ, míngtiān xuéxiào jiàn!
	Mrs. Li, I’ll be leaving. Little Li, see you at school tomorrow!
13. LI ZHIJIE	Míngtiān jiàn. Wŏ bú sòngle, màn zŏu!
	See you tomorrow. I won’t see you out, take care!

Build Up

1. Li Zhijie
Wŏ láile, wŏ láile! Xiăo Niúr, duìbuqĭ, ràng nĭ jiŭ dĕngle.	I’m coming, I’m coming! Little Niu, sorry to keep you waiting so long.
2. Niu
Méi guānxi, méi guānxi.	Don’t worry about it.
3. Mrs. Li
Xiăo Niúr, zài zhèr chīfàn ba!	Little Niu, have dinner here!
4. Niu
dĕng huĭr	in a little while [PH]
tán	talk [V]
tánwán	finish talking [RC]
wŏ gēn Xiăo Lĭ tánwánle	I’ve finished speaking with Li
Bú yòngle. Dĕng huĭr wŏ gēn Xiăo Lĭ tánwánle, jiù huíqu.	That’s not necessary. In a little while when I finish talking with Little Li, I’ll go home.
5. Li Zhijie
yìbiān(r)	on the one hand [PW]
yìbiān(r) A yìbiān(r) B	do B while doing A [PT]
yìbiānr chī yìbiānr tán	talk while eating
Bù, Xiăo Niúr, nĭ jiù zài zhèr chī ba. Zámmen yìbiānr chī yìbiānr tán.	No, Little Niu, why don’t you just have dinner here. We can talk while we eat.
6. Niu
máfan	be troublesome [SV]
bié tài máfanle	don’t go to too much trouble
Nà yĕ hăo. Jiăndān diănr, bié tài máfanle!	Well, all right. But keep it simple, don’t go to too much trouble!
7. Mrs. Li
nòng	do, make [V]
nònghăo	fix, prepare, finish [RC]
Ò, bù máfan, măshàng jiù nònghăo.	Oh, it’s no trouble, it’ll be ready in no time.
8. Niu
shíhou bù zăole	the time is no longer early
Xiăo Lĭ, shíhou bù zăole, wŏ gāi zŏule.	Little Li, it’s getting late, I should be going now.
9. Li Zhijie
Zài zuò yihuir ba!	Why don’t you sit a while longer?
10. Niu
jiē	street [N] (M: tiáo)
shàngjiē	go out on the street [VO]
Bù le, wŏ hái dĕi shàngjiē măi diănr dōngxi.	No, I still have to go out on the street to buy something.
11. Li Zhijie
jìrán	since [MA]
jìrán...jiù...	since... [PT]
jìrán nĭ hái yŏu shì	since you still have things to do
wănliú	urge someone to stay [V]
wŏ jiù bù wănliúle	I then won’t urge (you) to stay
Hăo ba. Jìrán nĭ hái yŏu shì, wŏ jiù bù wănliúle. Yĭhòu yŏukòngr zài lái wánr.	O.K. Since you still have things to do, I won’t make you stay. Come again when you’re free.
12. Niu
Bómŭ, wŏ zŏule. Xiăo Lĭ, míngtiān xuéxiào jiàn!	Mrs. Li, I’ll be leaving. Little Li, see you at school tomorrow!
13. Li Zhijie
sòng	see someone off or out [V]
wŏ bú sòngle	I won’t see (you) out
Míngtiān jiàn. Wŏ bú sòngle, màn zŏu!	See you tomorrow. I won’t see you out, take care!

1. In the first line, Wŏ láile! means not “I have come!” but rather “I’m coming!” Verbs with the suffix -le are often translated into English as present perfect, so Tāmen láile would typically mean “They’ve come.” But, depending on the context, -le sometimes indicates merely that the action of the verb has begun, not necessarily that the action has already been completed. Therefore, Tāmen láile could also mean “They’re coming” or “They’re on their way.”

2. As we’ve noted before, short phrases like Méi guānxi “it doesn’t matter” are often said twice for emphasis.

3. Xiăo Niúr, zài zhèr chīfàn ba! “Little Niu, have dinner here!” Around meal times, Chinese people will often invite visitors to stay to eat with them (18-1: 1A). Similarly, if a Chinese guest arrives at your home around meal time or stays until meal time, it would be polite to invite him or her to join you for the meal.

4–7. INVITATIONS. When invited to something, a guest is expected to decline politely the first time, lest he or she seem too eager to accept, which would be impolite; this is called “ritual refusal.” Even if you’d in fact like to accept something, you mustn’t seem too eager, since it would then appear you don’t care about all the trouble caused for your host. After declining once or twice, you can begin to accept, but it’s best to attach polite conditions: yes, you’ll take the drink or the food, but only a little; yes, you’ll agree to have a meal with the family, but only if it’s a very simple meal. In line 6, for example, the speaker accepts but stipulates Jiăndān dianr “Keep it simple,” and then adds Bié tài máfanle “Don’t go to too much trouble.” To sum up, we could say that in America, the likelihood of an invitation being accepted decreases each time that it’s repeated, while in China the exact opposite is true! Besides the situation in the Basic Conversation, below is another typical situation:

Speaker A: Nĭ zài wŏmen zhèr chī wănfàn ba! “Why don’t you have dinner here with us!”

Speaker A: Zhēnde búyào kèqi, nĭ jiù zài zhèr chī ba. “Really, don’t be polite, why don’t you just eat here.”

Speaker A: Bù máfan, yìdiănr yĕ bù máfan. “It’s no trouble, no trouble at all.”

Note how in Speaker B’s second-to-the-last comment above she uses ba to convey the message “I suppose it would be too much trouble.” Then, in her last comment, rather than enthusiastically accepting as we might in English (“Sure!”), she says Nà...hăo ba “Well...O.K., I guess” and then proceeds to stipulate that the meal should be kept simple. How do you know whether an invitation is a ritual invitation or a genuine one? Ritual invitations are often offered toward the end of a visit rather than at the beginning. Also, if you’ve politely declined once and the host quickly accepts your declining with a comment like Nà, xiàcì ba “Well, then next time,” you can be sure it was just a ritual invitation. On the other hand, if the host keeps trying over and over again to get you to accept, then it’s probably a genuine invitation. If you suspect an invitation is merely a ritual invitation, you can make up most any excuse such as Xièxie nĭ, kĕshi wŏ hái yŏu shì, xiàcì ba “Thanks, but I have stuff to do, next time.” As cultural outsiders, foreigners will usually be forgiven a lot. However, fairly or unfairly, more will often be expected of Chinese-Americans, even if of the second or third generation, simply because they’re of Chinese descent and expected to understand the rules of Chinese culture.

The above comments concern the foreigner as guest. There will, of course, also be times when you’re the host. You must then be careful not to accept your guests’ ritual refusal of food or drink without coming back once or twice and inviting them again. Indeed, many polite English questions don’t translate into Chinese. For example, in English we would ask a guest “Would you like something to drink?” It would seem as though this would translate into Nĭ yào bu yào hē dianr shémme? but that would be the wrong question, since a polite Chinese would have to say he or she wants nothing, even if they were very thirsty. A better question would be Nĭ xiăng hē dianr shémme? “What would you like to drink?” Alternatively, many hosts just pour tea or juice without asking. Putting several cans of carbonated drinks on the coffee table and instructing your guests to “help themselves” would not be appropriate in Chinese culture, since they would usually be hesitant to drink without a more specific, repeated invitation.

We’ve previously mentioned the natural tendency to transfer the grammar and vocabulary of your native language into a foreign language. Be aware that such inappropriate transfer, and the temptation to assume that all in the foreign language is the same as in the native, also applies to culture. So be very careful about making assumptions and always observe those around you carefully! The above discussion of ritual politeness applies to most host-guest situations in China. However, if you’re on very familiar terms with someone who is your peer (e.g., two college students who know each other quite well), then matters will be simpler, more direct, and less formal.

5. YÌBIĀN(R) A YÌBIĀN(R) B. The paired adverb pattern yìbiān(r) A yìbiān(r) B is used to indicate that one action (action B) occurs while another action (action A) is in progress. It often translates as English “on the one hand...on the other hand...” or “(do B) while (doing A).” Note that with this pattern, the main or longer action (action A) comes first, with the secondary action (action B) coming last. Oftentimes where in English you’d use an “and,” you’d in Chinese use yìbiān(r) A yìbiān(r) B. For example, for English “Let’s eat and talk,” the best equivalent would be Wŏmen yìbiānr chī yìbiānr tán ba; in this case, you could NOT say *Wŏmen chīfàn gēn tánhuà ba. The basic pattern is:

The pattern biān...biān... is a somewhat more formal equivalent of yìbiān(r)...yìbiān(r).... Examples:

There is also the pattern yímiàn...yímiàn..., which is used in the same way and with the same meaning as yìbiān(r)...yìbiān(r).... Example:

One other related pattern is yìfāngmiàn..., (lìng) yìfāngmiàn... “on the one hand..., on the other hand....” Example:

Dàxuésheng yìfāngmiàn yào yònggōng dúshū, (lìng) yìfāngmiàn yĕ yào huì wánr.

“College students on the one hand should study hard, but on the other they should also know how to have a good time.”

6A. Nà yĕ hăo literally means “That also is good” and is used to “give in” to a suggestion from someone else which is different from what was originally intended. Yĕ hăo alone is also quite common as a response to a suggestion or invitation. It’s considered less direct than just saying Hăo; the implication is “It doesn’t have to be this way, but this way also would be fine.”

6B. Note the le in Bié tài máfanle. It’s common to have a final le with negative imperatives.

7. The verb nòng is here a so-called “dummy” verb for zuò “make.” Nònghăo literally means “do to the extent that something becomes good.” Nòng, which has the general meaning “do, make, fix, tinker with, get, handle,” is a very versatile, all-purpose verb which can substitute for a more specific one that you don’t know or can’t think of quickly enough. Examples:

Wŏ yĭjīng nòngle hăo jiŭ le, yìzhí nòngbuhăo, nĭ bāng wŏ nòngnong, hăo ma?

“I’ve been trying to fix it for a long time, and I just can’t; you help me fix it, O.K.?”

You’ve had several other general verbs like nòng, including zuò “do, make,” găo “do, make,” and gàn “do.” Sometimes these are interchangeable, sometimes not. For example, instead of Wŏ găocuòle “I got it wrong,” you could also say Wŏ nòngcuòle. And to say “I got several tickets,” you could say either Wŏ găodàole jĭzhāng piào or Wŏ nòngdàole jĭzhāng piào.

8. The common and useful remark Shíhou bù zăole literally means “The time isn’t early anymore.” You could also say Shíjiān bù zăole. If you wish for whatever reason to leave a function, look at your watch or a clock, act a bit surprised, and say Ò, shíhou bù zăole, wŏ gāi zŏule “Oh, it’s getting late, I ought to be leaving now.”

9. Zài zuò yihuir ba! “Sit a while longer!” A Chinese host will often invite a guest who has announced his or her intention to depart to stay a while longer. You should try to do the same to your Chinese guests.

10. If a guest truly wishes to depart, all he or she needs to do is give a vague reason and repeat the desire to leave.

11A. Notice the use of hăo ba here as a discourse marker indicating the end of the discussion about whether John Niu should stay longer or not.

11B. JÌRÁN...JIÙ.... The paired adverb pattern jìrán...jiù... means “since” or “given the fact that” (not “since” as in “since a certain time”). Jìrán is a moveable adverb and can stand either before or after the subject of the clause it occurs in. However, jiù always follows the subject and stands before the verb. Unlike English, where the “since” clause may come first or last (you can say either “Since it’s already so late, I don’t think I’ll go” or “I don’t think I’ll go, since it’s already so late”), in Chinese the clause with jìrán normally comes first. The pattern is:

Distinguish carefully between jìrán...jiù... and yīnwei...suóyi.... With yīnwei...suóyi..., there is a strong flavor of “cause and effect,” whereas with jìrán...jiù..., the relationship between the first and second clauses is weaker. Also, jìrán...jiù... is often used to give suggestions for what to do in the future; it’s generally not used to describe past events. For example, take English “Since it rained yesterday, they didn’t meet.” In Chinese this would be Yīnwei zuótiān xiàyŭ, suóyi tāmen méiyou kāihuì. You couldn’t say *Jìrán zuótiān xiàyŭ, tāmen jiù méiyou kāihuì.

12A. It’s considered good manners to announce your departure to all those who greeted you when you arrived.

12B. Míngtiān xuéxiào jiàn “See you at school tomorrow” is an abbreviated form of Wŏmen míngtiān zài xuéxiào jiàn.

13. As we noted earlier, Chinese hosts are ordinarily expected to escort their guests out of their home to the street, or at least to the door of their building or the elevator on their floor. In informal situations among peers who know each other well, this isn’t always necessary, but tradition then calls for an acknowledgement or explanation: Wŏ bú sòngle “I won’t be escorting you out (even though I know I really should).”

1. dàshĭ	ambassador [N]
tánhuà	talk, speak [VO]
Xiăo Sūn, dàshĭ yào gēn nĭ tánhuà.	Little Sun, the ambassador wants to talk to you.

SUBJECT	YÌBIĀN(R)	VERB PHRASE₁	YÌBIĀN(R)	VERB PHRASE₂
Tā	yìbiānr	chī zăofàn,	yìbiānr	kàn bào.
“He read the newspaper while he ate breakfast.”

Wŏ qù nòng dianr chīde.	“I’ll go make something to eat.”
Nĭ zài nòng shémme?	“What are you doing?”
Wŏ xiān qù nòng dianr shuĭ lái.	“I’ll go get some water first.”

Nĭ bă tā nònghuàile!	“You broke it!”
Tā bă yīfu nòngzāngle.	“He got his clothes dirty.”
Wŏ tàitai bă wénzi nòngsĭle.	“My wife killed the mosquito.”

Jìrán nĭ xĭhuan, wŏ jiù sònggei nĭ ba.	“Since you like it, I’ll give it to you.”
Jìrán nĭ bù zhīdào, wŏ jiù gàosu nĭ ba.	“Since you don’t know, I’ll tell you.”
Jìrán tā jīntiān bù lái, nèmme wŏ yĕ jiù huíqule.	“Since she’s not coming today, I’ll head back.”
Jìrán nĭ wàngle dàilái, nà jiù suànle ba.	“Since you forgot to bring them, just forget about it.”

JÌRÁN	PHRASE₁	SUBJECT	JIÙ	PHRASE₂
Jìrán	nĭ hái yŏu shì,	wŏ	jiù	bù wănliúle.
“Since you still have things to do, I won’t make you stay.”