Intermediate Spoken Chinese

Linda Fuentes, a graduate student in art history who is studying Chinese and conducting research in Beijing, visits Hu Xiaoling, a Chinese classmate of hers who is recovering from an illness. Hu’s mother opens the door and lets her in.

Basic Conversation 19-1

1. FUENTES	Bómŭ, nín hăo!
	Hello, Mrs. Hu!
2. MRS. HU	Jìnlái ba. Xiăolíng zài wòfáng tăngzhe ne.
	Come in. Xiaoling is lying down in the bedroom.
3. FUENTES	Xiăolíng, tīngshuō nĭ bìngle. Xiànzài hăo diănr le ma?
	Xiaoling, I heard you were sick. Are you better now?
4. HU XIAOLING	Yĭjīng hăo duōle. Qíshí yĕ méi shémme dà bìng. Xièxie nĭ hái păolai kàn wŏ.
	I’m already a lot better. Actually, it isn’t anything serious. Thanks for coming over to see me.
5. FUENTES	Bĕnlái zăo jiù yīnggāi lái kàn nĭ, zhĭ shi zhèjĭtiān mángde hĕn, yìzhí méiyou gōngfu, suóyi zhí dào jīntiān cái lái. Ò, duìle, gĕi nĭ dàile yidianr shuĭguŏ.
	Ordinarily, I should have come to see you a long time ago, it’s just that the last few days I was always busy and never had time, that’s why I didn’t come until today. Oh, that’s right, I brought you some fruit.
6. HU XIAOLING	Xièxie nĭ. Nà, nĭ zhèjĭtiān máng shémme ne?
	Thanks. So, what have you been busy with the last few days?
7. FUENTES	Hái bú shi mángzhe qīmò kăoshì. Tiāntiān dōu kăo, dōu kuài bă wŏ kăoyūnle!
	I’ve been busy with final exams, what else? I’ve been taking tests every day; soon I’m going to get dizzy from all this testing!

Build Up

1. Fuentes
Bómŭ, nín hăo!	Hello, Mrs. Hu!
2. Mrs. Hu
Xiăolíng	Xiaoling (given name)
wòfáng	bedroom [PW] (M: jiān)
tăng	lie down [V]
zài wòfáng tăng	lie down in a bedroom
Jìnlái ba. Xiăolíng zài wòfáng tăngzhe ne.	Come in. Xiaoling is lying down in the bedroom.
3. Fuentes
bìng	get sick [V]
tīngshuō nĭ bìngle	(I) heard you got sick
Xiăolíng, tīngshuō nĭ bìngle.	Xiaoling, I heard you were sick.
Xiànzài hăo diănr le ma?	Are you better now?
4. Hu Xiaoling
hăo duōle	have become much better
bìng	illness, disease [N]
méi shémme dà bìng	don’t have any major illness
păo	run [V]
păolai	run over here, come over [RC]
Yĭjīng hăo duōle. Qíshí yĕ méi shémme dà bìng. Xièxie nĭ hái păolai kàn wŏ.	I’m already a lot better. Actually, it isn’t anything serious. Thanks for coming over to see me.
5. Fuentes
zăo jiù yīnggāi lái kàn nĭ	should have come to see you long ago
zhĭ shi...	it’s only that...
zhèjĭtiān	these last few days
mángde hĕn	(I’ve been) very busy
gōngfu	time [N]
yìzhí méiyou gōngfu	never had time
zhí dào	straight up to, until [PH]
zhí dào jīntiān cái lái	not come until today
Bĕnlái zăo jiù yīnggāi lái kàn nĭ, zhĭ shi zhèjĭtiān mángde hĕn, yìzhí méiyou gōngfu, suóyi zhí dào jīntiān cái lái. Ò, duìle, gĕi nĭ dàile yidianr shuĭguŏ.	Ordinarily, I should have come to see you a long time ago, it’s just that the last few days I was always busy and never had time, that’s why I didn’t come until today. Oh, that’s right, I brought you some fruit.
6. Hu Xiaoling
Xièxie nĭ. Nà, nĭ zhèjĭtiān máng shémme ne?	Thanks. So, what have you been busy with the last few days?
7. Fuentes
hái bú shi...	if it isn’t... [PT]
mángzhe	be busy with
kăoshì	test [N/VO]
qīmò kăoshì (B)	final examination [PH]
mángzhe qīmò kăoshì	be busy with the final exam
kăo	take a test [V]
tiāntiān dōu kăo	take a test every day
yūn	be dizzy [SV]
-yūn	dizzy [RE]
kăoyūn	become dizzy from testing [RC]
bă wŏ kăoyūnle	made me dizzy from testing
Hái bú shi mángzhe qīmò kăoshì. Tiāntiān dōu kăo, dōu kuài bă wŏ kăoyūnle!	I’ve been busy with final exams, what else? I’ve been taking tests every day; soon I’m going to get dizzy from all this testing!

1. VISITING THE SICK. In Chinese society, where even minor illnesses are viewed more seriously than in America, people will go to considerable trouble to visit sick friends or acquaintances in their homes or in the hospital. When they do, they will almost always bring a gift. Suitable gifts for visiting the sick include fruit, cakes, cookies, dry milk powder, tea, homemade foods, and Chinese medicine. Actually, most any food item is fine; even if the sick person can’t eat them, family members can. Flowers aren’t usually given to the sick, since flowers are used for funerals. Some people believe it’s inauspicious to visit sick people at night, as this could be interpreted as meaning that the sick person doesn’t have much time left. If you have a friend or acquaintance who is ill, it will be much appreciated if you go visit them. On the other hand, if you’re the one who is ill and word gets out, don’t be surprised if friends, classmates, teachers, or colleagues come unannounced to your dormitory or home to visit you. Even if their visit is unexpected and inconvenient, you must be careful not to express displeasure, since your visitors’ intentions are good.

3–4. DIFFERENT WAYS TO EXPRESS “SICK.” In line 3, the word bìng is a verb meaning “get sick” or “become ill.” In line 4, bìng is a noun meaning “sickness” or “disease.” Study the different uses of bìng as exemplified in the Basic Conversation and in the additional examples below:

To say “He/she is sick,” say Tā bìngle (lit. “He/she has gotten sick”; you CANNOT say *Tā shi bìng or *Tā hĕn bìng).

To say “He/she isn’t sick,” say Tā méiyou bìng (lit. “He/she doesn’t have an illness”; you CANNOT say *Tā bú bìng).

To say “He/she is very sick,” say Tā bìngde hĕn lìhai (lit. “He/she sicks severely”; you CANNOT say *Tā hĕn bìng).

4A. Xièxie nĭ hái păolai kàn wŏ “Thanks for coming over to see me.” The hái here means “still” or “even”; the implication is “despite being very busy, you still came over to see me.”

4B. The basic meaning of păo is “run,” but this verb is often used colloquially to mean “go” or “come.” Examples of the colloquial use of păo meaning “go” or “come”:

5A. Mángde hĕn means “be very busy.” As we explored in 16-3: 3B, the pattern STATIVE VERB + -de + hĕn means “very.” Other common examples include hăode hĕn “be very good,” duōde hĕn “be very many,” and guìde hĕn “be very expensive.”

5B. DIFFERENT WORDS FOR “TIME.” Learn the noun gōngfu “time” as in yìzhí méiyou gōngfu “never have time.” The word gōngfu is especially colloquial and characteristic of northern Mandarin. You’ve now had several words that translate as “time”: shíjiān (3-4), shíhou(r) (7-3), kòng(r) (17-1), and gōngfu (19-1). These are used in somewhat different ways. Gōngfu and kòng(r) refer to “free time,” i.e., time which a person has available for their own use. Shíhou is usually used for a point or period in time when something happens. The most general of these terms is shíjiān, which can be used almost anywhere. To sum up:

5C. Zhí dào jīntiān cái lái “all the way up until today only then come” or “not come until today.” Zhí is an abbreviated form of yìzhí.

7A. Look at Hái bú shi mángzhe qīmò kăoshì. This means “If it isn’t that I’ve been busy with final exams” or, in freer English, “I’ve been busy with final exams, what else?” The Hái bú shi... is here a rhetorical device that implies “Of course this is how it is, how could it be otherwise?”

7B. Mángzhe qīmò kăoshì means “being busy with final exams.” Máng can be a regular verb meaning “be busy doing something.” Other examples:

7C. The word kăoshì can function both as a verb-object compound meaning “to test, to take a test” and as a noun meaning “a test” (in the abstract). On the other hand, if a specific test or exam paper is meant, then the word kăojuàn(r) is used.

7D. Qīmò kăoshì “final exam” can be abbreviated to qīmòkăo. In Taiwan, these two expressions are pronounced qímò kăoshì and qímòkăo with a Tone Two on the syllable qí-.

7E. REDUPLICATION OF MEASURES AND NOUNS TO MEAN “EACH” OR “EVERY.” As we saw in 10-3, tiān “day” when reduplicated as tiāntiān gains the meaning “every day” (the meaning of tiāntiān is about the same as mĕitiān). A limited number of measures and monosyllabic nouns can be reduplicated in this manner to add emphasis and mean “each” or “every.” These reduplicated forms cannot occur as objects after the verb; to say “I like everyone” you couldn’t say *Wŏ xĭhuan rénrén; in this case, you would have to prepose the rénrén and say Wŏ rénrén dōu xĭhuan. These reduplicated forms are often, though not always, followed by the adverb dōu. Examples of common reduplicated measures and nouns that mean “each” or “every”:

Here are some more examples of reduplicated measures and nouns within sentences:

It’s best to learn these reduplications as you come across them and not to make them up on your own. While tiāntiān “every day” and rénrén “every person” work fine, *gŏugŏu for “every dog” (which the author once, early in his studies of Chinese, mistakenly said) would definitely not!

7F. Contrast carefully the pronunciation of tiāntiān “every day” with that of qiántiān “day before yesterday.”

7G. Kăoyūn literally means “take tests to the point where one becomes dizzy.”

SV1. In Taiwan, mainland Chinese qīzhōng kăoshì is pronounced qízhōng kăoshì.

SV5. YŎU (YI)DIANR + STATIVE VERB. Consider in this line Wŏ yŏu diănr yūn “I’m a little dizzy.” Yŏu (yi)dianr occurs frequently with stative verbs (sometimes also with certain other verbs) to indicate that something is “a little” something, or that something is “somewhat” something. The literal meaning of this pattern is “have a little...,” “be a little...,” or “somewhat....” The tones on yìdiănr are optional, tending to be lost in rapid speech. The basic pattern is:

The meaning of the yŏu (yi)dianr + VERB pattern is usually negative or infelicitous, indicating less than ideal or less than comfortable conditions, not what you might desire to be the situation or to have happen. (Only the last example above is an exception to this.) For example, you could say Tāmen màide dōngxi yŏu diănr guì “The things they sell are a little expensive” (i.e., more expensive than you’d have liked); but you could NOT say *Tāmen màide dōngxi yŏu diănr piányi “The things they sell are a little inexpensive,” since “being inexpensive” is normally a desirable quality. Similarly, you could say Wŏ yŏu yìdiăn bù gāoxìng “I’m a little upset” but you could NOT say *Wŏ yŏu yìdiăn gāoxìng “I’m a little happy.”

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using this pattern, be careful always to include the yŏu. You could NEVER say *Wŏ yìdiănr máng but should always say Wŏ yŏu yìdiănr máng. Also, be careful to distinguish the following two patterns:

In other words, if yidianr appears AFTER a stative verb, then comparison with something else is involved; but if yŏu yidianr occurs BEFORE a stative verb, then there is no comparison implied and you are merely stating that something “is a little something else.”

1. qīzhōng kăoshì (B)	mid-term examination [PH]
2. păoqu	run over there [RC]
păolái păoqù	run all over the place
Xiăo háizi zuì xĭhuan păolái păoqù.	Kids like nothing better than running all over the place.
3. păobù	run paces, run [VO]
Wŏ mĕitiān xiàwŭ păobù.	I run every afternoon.
4. zhuàn	earn [V]
zhuànqián	earn money [VO]
mángzhe zhuànqián	be busy earning money
huā	spend (money, time) [V]
huāqián	spend money [VO]
mángzhe huāqián	be busy spending money
Xiānsheng mángzhe zhuànqián, tàitai mángzhe huāqián.	The husband is busy earning money while the wife is busy spending it.
5. yŏu yìdiăn(r)...	be a little... [PT]
yŏu yìdiănr yūn	be a little dizzy
Wŏ xiăng zuò yihuir, wŏ yŏu yidianr yūn.	I’d like to sit down for a while, I’m a little dizzy.

1. xiăokăo	quiz [N]
2. zhōukăo	weekly test [N]
3. dàkăo	final exam [N]
4. kăojuàn(r)	test paper [N]

Tā păodao náli qùle?	“Where did he go?”
Nĭ păo zhèr lái gàn shémme?	“What did you come here for?”

Nĭ yŏu méiyou gōngfu?	“Do you have time?”
Nĭ yŏu méiyou kòng(r)?	“Do you have time?”
Nĭ yŏu méiyou shíjiān?	“Do you have time?”

Nĭ shémme shíhou qù?	“What time will you go?”
Nĭ shémme shíjiān qù?	“What time will you go?”

Tāmen mángzhe bānjiā.	“They’re busy moving.”
Wŏ gēge zài Niŭyuē mángzhe zhuànqián.	“My older brother is busy making money in New York City.”

PLAIN FORM		REDUPLICATED FORM
tiān	“day”	tiāntiān	“every day”
nián	“year”	niánnián	“every year”
zhāng	“sheet”	zhāngzhāng	“every sheet”
bĕn	“volume”	bĕnbĕn	“every volume”
rén	“person”	rénrén	“everybody”

Rénrén dōu zhīdao.	“Everyone knows.”
Tā tiāntiān dōu lái shàngbānr.	“She comes to work every single day.”
Tāmen jiāde rén gègè dōu ài xiào.	“Every single one of the people in their family likes to laugh.”
Zhèxiē zhĭ wŏ zhāngzhāng dōu yào.	“I want every sheet of this paper.”
Wŏmen zhèr niánnián dōu fāshēng zhèige wèntí.	“This problem occurs here every year.”
Lăoshī jiăngde huà wŏ jùjù dōu jìde.	“I remember every single sentence of what the teacher said.”

YŎU	(YI)DIANR	STATIVE VERB
yŏu	yìdiănr	wăn
“be a little late”

Wŏ yŏu diănr è.	“I’m a bit hungry.”
Wŏ yŏu diănr bù shūfu.	“I’m a little uncomfortable.”
Zhèijiàn shì yŏu diăn máfan.	“This matter is somewhat troublesome.”
Tā zhèijĭtiān yŏu yìdiănr máng.	“The last few days she’s been a little busy.”
Cài hĕn hăochī, kĕshi yŏu yìdiănr là.	“The food is very good, but it’s a little hot.”
Lăobăn hăoxiàng yŏu yìdiănr bù mănyì.	“The boss seems somewhat dissatisfied.”
Wŏ yŏu diănr bù xĭhuan ta.	“I somewhat dislike him.”
Wŏ yŏu diănr xĭhuan ta.	“I kind of like him.” (e.g., when said by a shy young woman to a confidant about a young man she met recently)

Zhèitiáo kùzi yŏu yidianr dà.	“This pair of trousers is a little big.”
Zhèitiáo kùzi dà yidianr.	“This pair of trousers is bigger (than some other pair).”