In this lesson, we observe a rather one-sided conversation between our host Tongtong and
a young guest. Let’s start by looking at how Tongtong approaches the guest at the ice
skating rink.
Tongtong calls the guest xiǎo péng you,
literally meaning “little friend”. Kids in China can be addressed as xiǎo péng you
if you don’t know their name. After addressing the guest as xiǎo péng you, Tongtong asks
her how old she is. nǐ jīn nián jǐ suì le? What did xiǎo péng you say？
bā suì. eight years old.
nǐ shì dì yī cì huá bīng ma? The literal
translation of this question is “you are // the first time // ice skating?” nǐ shì
// dì yī cì // huá bīng ma? First, huá bīng means ice-skating. Huá means “slip”
or “slide” and bīng means “ice”. So, huá bīng is literally “sliding on
ice”, or ice-skating. It’s a verb-object verb. How about “huá xuě”, sliding on
snow? Well, right, that’s skiing. Xuě is snow. huá xuě。
In the beginner conversational Chinese lesson 76, we learned that to say “this is my first
time doing something”, we say zhè shì wǒ dì yī cì doing something. This is my
first time ice-skating” should be zhè shì wǒ dì yī cì huá bīng. So to ask “is
this your first time ice skating”, you can say “zhè shì nǐ dì yī cì huá bīng
ma”. This is a bit different from the sentence Tongtong is using here. Tongtong says “nǐ
shì dì yī cì huá bīng ma?”, By beginning her question with nǐ shì, Tongtong allows
herself a moment’s time to decide what she wants to ask the guest, because the words
nǐ shì could be followed by nearly any question or comment! It’s like saying “So, you
are…here for the first time” in English. So you may hear Chinese people ask you “nǐ
shì dì yī cì lái zhōng guó ma”? That’s just a different way of asking you “is this
your first time coming to China”? So what did xiáo péng you say?
The xiáo péng you simply says bú shì, without elaborating, so Tongtong has to scramble
to come up with a way to keep the conversation going. She buys a moment’s time by beginning
with a long and slow nà..nǐ It’s like saying “Oh…so then…”
This time, Tongtong decides to ask an open-ended question, rather than a yes-or-no question.
She says, “When do you usually come ice skate?” nǐ dōu // píng shí // shén
me shí jiān // guò lái // huá bīng // ne? Let’s look at this question piece by piece
from the beginning. She begins with nǐ dōu. The word dōu here should not be thought of
as meaning “all” or “both”, as it usually means. Here, it holds no real meaning,
but is added simply to make the sentence sound a bit “softer” or more pleasant. It can
be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. Next, we come across an old
way to say “usually” or “generally”: píng shí. We learned this word in our previous
intermediate lesson 13.
píng shí is often followed by shén me shí jiān or shén me
shí hòu, to form the question “what time (or when) do you usually do something?”
Now for the action parts of the sentence—“come to ice skate”: guò lái huá bīng. The
guò here can be omitted. The difference between lái and guò lái is like the difference between
saying “come” and “come over”. Actually, the formation of the phrase guò lái contains
a very useful grammar point “complement of direction”. You can find more details
in our grammar lesson 34-36. And finally, she ends the question with the
particle ne. Using the ne here is another way to “soften” the sentence and make
it sound a bit more pleasant. Remember, the whole sentence can be shortened to nǐ píng
shí shén me shí hòu lái huá bīng? Let’s say the whole question together once
more: nǐ dōu píng shí shén me shí jiān guò lái huá bīng ne？
lǐ bài rì， Sunday. For different ways of saying Sunday and other days in a week,
please refer to our lecture notes. Now, let’s see what question Tongtong was able to come
up with next:
Tongtong asks, “So, who did you come with
today?” Here, we come across the shì de sentence structure. You may remember that
a sentence using the shì de pattern is talking about details from an even that has already
happened. If you’re a little fuzzy on this, do go back to Grammar Lessons 22 and 23, as
well as Chinese Learning Tips Lesson 33 to review. But I really want you to memorize
this sentence “who did you come with”, nǐ gēn shuí lái de？or you can say nǐ
gēn shuí yì qǐ lái de? Repeat after me, nǐ gēn shuí lái de？or nǐ gēn shuí
yì qǐ lái de. Now, let’s see if Tongtong is able to get
more than a single-word answer out of our young guest this time:
This xiǎo péng you is too funny! If she insists on single-word answers, we’ll have
to create a full sentence answer on our own. How should we answer the question nǐ jīn
tiān shì gēn shuí lái de? // wǒ jīn tiān shì gēn mā ma lái de. Remember,
for “content word questions”, questions mirror the answers. You can also add a yì qǐ to
make it even more complete: nǐ jīn tiān shì gēn shuí yì qǐ lái de？ Answer wǒ jīn
tiān shì gēn mā ma yì qǐ lái de. Next, Tongtong asks if the little girl’s
mother knows how to ice-skate:
mā ma huì huá bīng ma？Can mom ice skate?
Yet another single-word answer! bú huì, cannot. Let’s see what Tongtong comes up
with next:
nǐ jué de huá bīng nán ma？Do you think
ice-skating is hard? Will the xiǎo péng you give us another single-word answer?
Finally! A more complex answer from our xiǎo péng you! She says yì diǎn // dōu // bù
nán，not difficult at all. Please please memorize this phrase structure， yì diǎn
dōu bù+adjective. yì diǎn dōu bù is literally “a little all not” and it means
“not at all”. For example, not busy at all, yì diǎn dōu bù máng. Not tired at
all, yì diǎn dōu bú lèi. not difficult at all, yì diǎn dōu bù nán. Please note
that yì diǎn dōu bù can also work with verbs. For example, you might express your
dislike for something by saying wǒ yì diǎn dōu bù xǐ huān. I don’t like it at all.
Or “I don’t want to go at all”. wǒ yì diǎn dōu bù xiǎng qù.
Please note here that in this “yì diǎn dōu bù” structure, the dōu can be replaced
by yě without changing the meaning We’re going to do more drills on this in our “audio
lesson review”.
xiǎo péng you wèi shén me xǐ huān huá bīng? Why does the little kid like to ice skate?
She says bú shì wèi shén me . No reason.
She could also have said méi yǒu wèi shén me to mean the same thing. Then she explains,
saying that jiù jué de shì yì zhǒng kuài le. Literally, she “just feels that it is
a type of happiness”. Of course, you would never express it that way in English, but
in Chinese, you can say that something that brings you happiness is yì zhǒng kuài le.
And since it has come up, you should learn the word zhǒng. Zhǒng is a measure word
used in much the same way that the words “type” or “kind” are used in English. For instance,
“Basketball is a type of sports” in Chinese is “lán qiú shì yì zhǒng yùn dòng”.
You should already know that kuài lè means happy or happiness as in zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài
lè, remember the happy birthday song in chinese? zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè, zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè
Ok, so fēi cháng hǎo! That’s all for this lesson. xià cì jiàn. Bye bye.