哈囉，大家好！ 哈啰，大家好！
I’m Grace
Oftentimes, the words and expressions you learn
from your textbooks are quite formal
which makes you sound more polite
However, when we’re chatting with our friends
we don’t usually speak that formally
and being so formal may even make them feel distant from you
So today let’s learn how to speak more casually in Chinese
Now let’s learn some informal words that can be used
to replace the words you learned from textbooks
The first one is 幹嘛
I’ve mentioned this in one of my previous videos
Let’s take a look at it!
幹嘛 has several different meanings
But first of all, you need to keep in mind that
this word is very very casual
you can only use it with people who are close to you
If you use “幹嘛” by itself to form a question
it means “what?”
When your close friend is calling your attention
you can use “幹嘛?” to reply
For example
In this conversation, she asked “你在幹嘛?”
and the person said “我沒在幹嘛啊”
Here “幹嘛” means “做什麼 doing what”
so “你在幹嘛” means “你在做什麼？What are you doing?”
and “我沒在幹嘛啊” means
“我沒在做什麼啊 I’m not doing anything”
Another usage of 幹嘛 is that
it can be added before a verb to mean “為什麼 why”
and it often shows that you’re a bit unhappy
For example
The next one is more regional
you might hear people use “啥” to replace “什麼 what”
In Taiwan, people don’t usually say this word
but some people use it online or in texting
If you go to some area in China and hear a lot of people using it
then you can start using it with your friends there too
Now let’s see some examples
to be more casual, you can say “為啥”
Next, this is also regional
In daily life, it is pronounced as “咋 zǎ”
It can be used to replace “怎麼”
Here are some examples
To be more casual, you can say “咋辦?”
Because 啥 and 咋 are regional
understanding them is important
but whether to use them depends on
where you go or where you live
Observe how people talk in that region
and see if using them is appropriate
In Chinese, we have a lot of modal particles
that can be added at the end of a sentence
to express your tone and mood
So for example, when giving a response
where you want to say “Yes!”, you might say “是!”
but you can add a particle “啊” at the end
“是啊!” to sound more casual
When you want to say “Right!”
instead of simply saying “對”, you can say “對啊”
This is more casual
When you want to say “Okay!”
to be more casual, you can say “好啊!”
Conversely, when you’re talking to your teacher or your boss
and need to be more polite and formal
use the particle “的”
For example
If you’d like to learn more about Chinese sentence final particles
I’ve made several videos about them, and I also created
a complete guide on Chinese sentence final particles in a PDF
Check them out in the links I’ve included in the description below
In daily life, when we communicate with each other
we like to be efficient with our words
spending as little effort as possible to convey meaning
For instance, as an English language learner
I was surprised when I asked my friend
when she was available to do language exchange
and she said “I can do Tuesday”
which meant that she could do it on Tuesday
This is what I learned from my English class
but this is how you can say it in daily life
How efficient!
In Chinese, we have some similar reductions like this
So let’s learn some of them today!
When you’re busy with something, you might say
因為 + something, 所以我很忙
But you can actually use 忙 like a verb, for example
The original version would be
However, you can just say
Another one
You can just say
Another verb that can be used to form reductions is
“睡 to sleep”
For example
You can simply say
Another example
You can just say
The next verb is “走"
"to walk" or "to go”
For example
you can say
Another example
You can say
To speak more naturally and learn more about these reductions
it’s better that you watch more TV shows in Chinese or listen to podcasts
and observe how people use the language and imitate them
If you have been learning Chinese for a while
you may have noticed that
sometimes Chinese native speakers use this structure
V + 個 (个) + N
For example
Instead of saying “吃飯 (to have a meal)”
people might say “吃個飯”
In these cases, the use of “個” is to show that
for the speaker, these activities are casual
and not going to take a lot of time and effort
Therefore, using this structure
would make your sentences sound more casual
For example, if you want to ask your friend out for a meal tomorrow
you can say
If you want to let your friend know that it’s just a casual meal
and that it’s not going to take a lot of time
you can say
Another example, if you’re going to grab something real quick
Instead of saying "我去拿東西"
you can say "我去拿個東西"
Alright, that’s all for today!
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check out my Instagram @gracemandarin
那我們就下次見囉！拜拜！ 那我们就下次见啰！拜拜！ I’ll see you next time! Bye!