Have you been to Texas?
Yes.
Do you like chocolate?
Yes.
Can I watch Korean dramas?
Yes.
You do not like cucumbers, do you?
Yes.
Yes yes yes yes.
But, in Mandarin,
we have a different word for all these yeses.
Welcome to another video brought to you by Glossika.
I'm jun and I'll be teaching you how
to use your yeses and no's
at the right time.
Because sometimes we're not that straightforward.
If you've been studying Chinese for a while,
you might have also noticed that each of
these yeses will be translated into a
different word.
None of these words directly correspond to
Which is what many facebook will offer
as a translation for the word,
yes.
So, how do you express yourself when answering a yes
or no question.
Here's how you do it.
Yes and no are known more formally as an
affirmation and negation.
Fancy words indicating that you are responding
positively or negatively to a question.
Do you want to go to the store?
Yes.
That's an information?
No,
that's a negation.
How do you say yes and no in Chinese?
First,
if you want to respond to a question with a
yes in Chinese,
you could simply take
whatever verb a speaker use in their question
and then repeat it in your answer.
Are you going out or not?
I'm going.
So, for example,
do you like Taiwan?
Yes, I like it.
But, in Chinese, you were simply just say
like
Have you been to Paris?
Yes, I've been there.
In Chinese,
have been.
Here's another example to consider,
is anyone home?
Literally, it means exist people at home.
So, in Chinese, you would say
have
or exist.
Yes, there are people at home.
The speaker here isn't asking a question of location,
they're asking about the presence or absence of people.
As such the response is
Notice, that we have also recognized the
distinction in English.
Question of presence,
is there anyone home?
No, there is not.
A question of location,
where are you?
Home?
Negation involves one more step.
You still repeat the verb.
But, use the
Before it.
There are a few other options for negation
such as
or
But, they are used in specific situations,
and deserve it's own episode.
For now, simply worry about the following.
If you're talking about
In these three situations,
use
For pretty much everything else,
use
For example, do you watch tv dramas?
In English, we would say
I don't watch them.
But, in Chinese,
not watch
Do you have a car?
In English,
I don't have one.
In Chinese,
not have
Now, you've got the textbook explanation.
But, often we don't really give such
straightforward yes or no answers.
We like to be around the bush.
In some situations, it might seem unnatural
or even rude to respond like this.
Especially in lots of asian cultures.
Instead, they might say not now,
maybe later or I can't,
sorry.
Similarly, it could also be a bit awkward to
simply state, yes.
You'd more likely to give an answer like,
sounds good.
Okay, sure.
Why not?
For example,
would you like to go see a movie?
Okay.
In Chinese, it literally means
not now,
not convenient.
I hope this is helpful.
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Until next time.
Bye-bye.