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Lesson Transcript

nei5 ho2, ngo5 hai6 Olivia. Hi everybody! I’m Olivia.
Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com’s “saam1 fan1 zung1 gwong2 dung1 waa2”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Cantonese.
In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb heoi3, which means “to go”.
In this lesson, we will learn how to use another common verb lei4, "to come".
Imagine a friend of yours is organizing a party and he asks you: nei5 lei4 m4 lei4? That means "Are you coming?"
So let’s break down this question:
First we had:
nei5 which is simply "you."
Then lei4 m4 lei4 , which is a combination of "come" and “not come”, as you should know by now, it’s a very common way to construct a question in Chinese.
Altogether, [slowly] nei5 lei4 m4 lei4?
What if you want to add some details to the question? Remember, time and date go before the verb, while action and location go after.
Let’s see some examples:
nei5 ting1 jat6 lei4 m4 lei4?
ting1 jat6 means “tomorrow”, so the question is “are you coming tomorrow?”
[slowly] nei5 ting1 jat6 lei4 m4 lei4?
nei5 lei4 m4 lei4 ngo5 gung1 si1?
ngo5 is “me” or “my”, gung1 si1 is “office”, so I’m asking “are you coming to my office?”
[slowly] nei5 lei4 m4 lei4 ngo5 gung1 si1?
nei5 haa6 sing1 kei4 lei4 m4 lei4 tek3 bo1?
haa6 sing1 kei4 is “next week”, and tek3 bo1 means “play soccer”.
So altogether, “are you coming to play soccer next week?
[slowly] nei5 haa6 sing1 kei4 lei4 m4 lei4 tek3 bo1?
To answer this question, you can say
hou2 a3 for “yes”, or m4 lei4 laa6 for “no”.
If you want to say "Yes, and I’ll bring some friends along." Then say hou2 a3, ngo5 daai3 maai4 di1 pang4 jau5 jat1 cai4 lei4.
Let’s break this sentence down:
hou2 a3 → “yes”
ngo5 → “I”
daai3 maai4 → “bring along”
di1 → “some”
pang4 jau5 → “friends”
jat1 cai4 → “together”
lei4 → this lesson’s focus, “to come”
[slowly] hou2 a3, ngo5 daai3 maai4 di1 pang4 jau5 jat1 cai4 lei4.
Now it’s time for Olivia’s insights
Another common usage for lei4, is when you’re trying to persuade someone, for example, to tell you a secret, or go somewhere with you, just say lei4 laa1 with a sweet voice. It’s just like “come on!”
In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb lei4 to invite people!
So now, our lesson series about common Cantonese verbs is over, and from the next lesson, we will jump into some very important interrogative Cantonese words!
I’ll be waiting for you in the next saam1 fan1 zung1 gwong2 dung1 waa2 lesson.
haa6 ci3 gin3.

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