Review the basic Cantonese sentence structure
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Intro |
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| Matt: Hello everybody and welcome back to our Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 11. I'm Matt. |
| Nicole: 大家好(daai6 gaa1 hou2), I'm Nicole. |
| Matt: In this lesson we are talking about how to get a free lunch or what to say if you leave your wallet at home. |
| Nicole: And this conversation takes place in the street. |
| Matt: It's going to be between two friends or at least two people that know each other. |
| Nicole: Right. If you say this to a stranger… |
| Matt: You're probably not going to be eating lunch with him. |
| Nicole: And they're speaking casual Cantonese as always. |
| Matt: All right. So let's take a listen to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
| 弊！(bai6 !) |
| 咩事？(me1 si6?) |
| 我冇晒cash！ (ngo5 mou5 saai3 cash!) |
| 唔使驚，我大把。(m4 sai2 geng1, ngo5 daai6 baa2.) |
| English Host: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 弊！(bai6 !) |
| 咩事？(me1 si6?) |
| 我冇晒cash！ (ngo5 mou5 saai3 cash!) |
| 唔使驚，我大把。(m4 sai2 geng1, ngo5 daai6 baa2.) |
| English Host: And now with the English translation. |
| 弊！ (bai6 !) |
| Matt: Shoot! |
| 咩事？ (me1 si6 ?) |
| Matt: What? |
| 我冇晒cash！(ngo5 mou5 saai3 cash !) |
| Matt: I ran out of cash! |
| 唔使驚，我大把。(m4 sai2 geng1, ngo5 daai6 baa2.) |
| Matt: Don't worry. I've got plenty. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: Hey Nicole, I bet you, the girl in this dialogue left her wallet at home on purpose. |
| Nicole: You mean...? |
| Matt: Yeah, I left my wallet at home? That's the oldest line in the book. |
| Nicole: You think she's trying to cheat her friend? |
| Matt: Trying, she is. But who doesn't want a free lunch in this economy? |
| Nicole: I think you think too much. |
| Matt: I wonder if she'll be able to trick her friend in paying for dinner as well. |
| Nicole: I think she just forgot it. |
| Matt: Well we'll see. I guess we can't really judge, since our vocab for this lesson is all about teaching you how to get a free lunch. |
| Nicole: How great is that. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Matt: All right, let's take a look at our vocabulary for today. |
| Nicole: 弊 (bai6) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Shoot! |
| Nicole: 弊 (bai6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 弊 (bai6) [natural native speed]. |
| 咩事 (me1 si6) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: What's wrong? |
| Nicole: 咩事 (me1 si6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 咩事 (me1 si6) [natural native speed]. 冇晒 (mou5 saai3) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: To run out of. |
| Nicole: 冇晒 (mou5 saai3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 冇晒 (mou5 saai3) [natural native speed]. 唔使 (m4 sai2) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: No need to. |
| Nicole: 唔使 (m4 sai2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 唔使 (m4 sai2) [natural native speed]. 驚 (geng1) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: To be scared of or to be afraid of. |
| Nicole: 驚 (geng1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 驚 (geng1) [natural native speed]. |
| 擔心 (daam1 sam1) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: To worry. |
| Nicole: 擔心 (daam1 sam1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 擔心 (daam1 sam1) [natural native speed]. 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Don't worry. |
| Nicole: 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1) [natural native speed]. 大把 (daai6 baa2) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: To have plenty (of); many. |
| Nicole: 大把 (daai6 baa2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 大把 (daai6 baa2) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: All right, great. Let's take a closer look at how to use some of our vocabulary words. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Nicole: Okay. You know what my favorite word in this lesson is? |
| Matt: What's that, Nicole? |
| Nicole: 弊 (bai6) |
| Matt: That means "shoot" or "dang." I hear you saying that all the time especially while writing the scripts. |
| Nicole: 弊 (bai6) |
| Matt: "Shoot." |
| Nicole: You'll hear this a lot. 弊喇 (bai6 laa3.) |
| Matt: Oh no! |
| Nicole: 弊喇 (bai6 laa3.) Remember do add the extra 喇 (laa3) sound to the end. 弊喇 (bai6 laa3)! |
| Matt: So how strong is this? Is it rude when we say it like this? |
| Nicole: No. It's not that rude at all. |
| Matt: Okay. Well, the next phrase we have for you is going to be? |
| Nicole: 咩事 (me1 si6) |
| Matt: "What's the matter?" |
| Nicole: 咩事 (me1 si6) |
| Matt: "What's the matter?" |
| Nicole: 咩事呀，你點呀？ (me1 si6 aa3, nei5 dim2 aa3?) |
| Matt: "What's the matter, are you okay?" |
| Nicole: 咩事呀，你點呀？ (me1 si6 aa3, nei5 dim2 aa3?) |
| Matt: "What's the matter, are you all right?" |
| Nicole: Yup. See how I added the 呀 (aa3) to the end of these phrases? |
| Matt: Very nice, very Cantonese. |
| Nicole: Yeah, that's right. 咩事呀，你點呀？ (me1 si6 aa3, nei5 dim2 aa3?) |
| Matt: Now, what's our next word? |
| Nicole: Our next word is "cash." |
| Matt: Now, this should be pretty easy for our listeners. This is an English word you'll hear a lot. |
| Nicole: Yeah, everybody uses it. And the Cantonese way of saying “money” is 錢 (cin2). |
| Matt: Money. |
| Nicole: 錢 (cin2) |
| Matt: Money. |
| Nicole: So if you lose your wallet, you might say 弊！我冇錢！ (bai6! ngo5 mou5 cin2!) |
| Matt: “Shoot! I have no money!” Now, Nicole, you don't even really have to have lost your wallet to be able to say this. |
| Nicole: That's not true. You say that a lot. |
| Matt: That's because I really have no money in my wallet. |
| Nicole: That's a great sentence anyway. Remember the verb 冇 (mou5) from our earlier lessons? |
| Matt: Of course I do. It means "not to have." |
| Nicole: That's right, 冇 (mou5). |
| Matt: So what about I don't have money. |
| Nicole: 我冇錢 (ngo5 mou5 cin2). |
| Matt: I'm very familiar with that one. |
| Nicole: In the dialogue, we heard a verb 冇晒 (mou5 saai3.) |
| Matt: That means "to run out of". |
| Nicole: 冇晒 (mou5 saai3). |
| Matt: "To run out of." |
| Nicole: 冇晒 (mou5 saai3). And this 晒 (saai3) should be familiar because it's from another phrase, 唔該晒 (m4 goi1 saai3), it’s the same 晒 (saai3). So 冇晒 (mou5 saai3) is to run out of. |
| Matt: So how can we use this? |
| Nicole: So we can say 我冇晒 (ngo5 mou5 saai3) cash！or 我冇晒錢！(ngo5 mou5 saai3 cin2!) |
| Matt: I ran out of money. What else can we run out of besides money? |
| Nicole: 佢冇晒面 (keoi5 mou5 saai3 min2). |
| Matt: He ran out of face. |
| Nicole: That's right. 佢冇晒面 (keoi5 mou5 saai3 min2). |
| Matt: Okay now, this is a little bit funny, but face really represent respect, so if you're a little embarrassed, right? |
| Nicole: Yeah, he's really embarrassed and he feels ashamed. 佢冇晒面 (keoi5 mou5 saai3 min2). 面 (min2) “face” is very important in the Cantonese philosophy. We take this very seriously. |
| Matt: That's right. So we should always keep enough money on hand so that we can avoid this kind of shame. |
| Nicole: Right and this lets us say 我好有面 ( ngo5 hou2 jau5 min2). |
| Matt: I have a lot of face. |
| Nicole: 我好有面 ( ngo5 hou2 jau5 min2). |
| Matt: And if you do have money, you can always say, "Don't worry, I have money." |
| Nicole: 唔使驚(m4 sai2 geng1)，我有錢 (ngo5 jau5 cin2) Or you can say 唔使驚，我好有錢 (m4 sai2 geng1, ngo5 hou2 jau5 cin2). |
| Matt: The second one means, don't worry, I have enough money. |
| Nicole: Or it actually means, don't worry, I am rich because in Cantonese 有錢 (jau5 cin2) or “to have money” means “rich”. So 唔使驚，我好有錢 (m4 sai2 geng1, ngo5 hou2 jau5 cin2). “I'm rich.” |
| Matt: Don't worry, I'm rich. And that's the next vocabulary word that we wanted to mention. |
| Nicole: 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1) |
| Matt: Don't worry. |
| Nicole: Like in the sentence, 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1)，我好好 (ngo5 hou2 hou2). |
| Matt: Which means don't worry, I'm very good. |
| Nicole: 唔使驚，冇問題 (m4 sai2 geng1, mou5 man6 tai4). |
| Matt: Don't worry, there's no problem. |
| Nicole: 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1)，冇問題 (mou5 man6 tai4). You'll hear this a lot. And you'll also hear people say 唔使擔心(m4 sai2 daam1 sam1) |
| Matt: Which also means “Don't worry or don't be concerned.” |
| Nicole: Yeah. It's more serious. You say to your parents 唔使擔心(m4 sai2 daam1 sam1), Don't worry about me, 唔使擔心(m4 sai2 daam1 sam1), 唔使擔心(m4 sai2 daam1 sam1). |
| Matt: And that's another point we want to bring up is that you'll usually hear people say this twice in a row. |
| Nicole: That's right. 唔使擔心(m4 sai2 daam1 sam1), 唔使擔心(m4 sai2 daam1 sam1). or 唔使驚(m4 sai2 geng1), 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1). |
Lesson focus |
| Matt: Perfect. Let's move on to our grammar section now, Nicole. |
| Nicole: Okay. |
| Matt: Our grammar point today is a basic review lesson. |
| Nicole: And we're going to review the basic ways we have of making sentence. |
| Matt: Our first sentence uses adjectives. |
| Nicole: Like 好 (hou2). |
| Matt: Good. |
| Nicole: 肚餓 (tou5 ngo6). |
| Matt: Hungry. |
| Nicole: 口渴 (hau2 hot3). |
| Matt: Thirsty. |
| Nicole: Or 攰 (gui6). |
| Matt: Tired. To make sentences with adjectives, we start with a pronoun. |
| Nicole: like 我 (ngo5). |
| Matt: Which means me. |
| Nicole: Or 你 (nei5) |
| Matt: You. Then we say? |
| Nicole: 好 (hou2) |
| Matt: Then we say our adjective. |
| Nicole: Right. Like 我好口渴 (ngo5 hou2 hau2 hot3). |
| Matt: Which means I am thirsty. |
| Nicole: 佢好肚餓 (keoi5 hou2 tou5 ngo6). |
| Matt: He is hungry. |
| Nicole: 我好攰 (ngo5 hou2 gui6). |
| Matt: I am tired. |
| Nicole: Perfect. And remember, to put these in the negative, replace 好 with 唔. So the sentence 我好肚餓 (ngo5 hou2 tou5 ngo6) |
| Matt: I am hungry. |
| Nicole: Will be 我唔肚餓 (ngo5 m4 tou5 ngo6) |
| Matt: I'm not hungry. |
| Nicole: Except that's not true. We are hungry now. Another example would be 佢唔口渴 (keoi5 m4 hau2 hot3). |
| Matt: Remember, this is negating, so it's she's not thirsty. |
| Nicole: Right or 我唔攰 (ngo5 m4 gui6). |
| Matt: I'm not tired. And if you have kids, you'll probably hear this a lot. |
| Nicole: So those are the adjectives we learn. And verbs are different. |
| Matt: That's right. We just put the verbs right after our subject. |
| Nicole: For instance 我有錢. (ngo5 jau5 cin2). |
| Matt: I have money. |
| Nicole: 我好有錢 (ngo5 hou2 jau5 cin2). |
| Matt: I am rich. |
| Nicole: Yup. 我要呢個 (ngo5 jiu3 ni1 go3). |
| Matt: I want this. |
| Nicole: Or 我鍾意你 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 nei5). |
| Matt: "I like you." |
| Nicole: How sweet. |
| Matt: You trick me. Now don't forget, to put verbs in the negative, we either use |
| Nicole: 唔 (m4). Or replace 有 (jau5) with 冇 (mou5) |
| Matt: Like in these sentences. |
| Nicole: 我唔要嗰個 (ngo5 m4 jiu3 go2 go3). |
| Matt: I don't want that. |
| Nicole: 我冇晒錢 (ngo5 mou5 saai3 cin2). |
| Matt: I don't have any money left. |
| Nicole: Too bad. Anyway today we had a pretty long lesson, |
| Matt: That's true. But we finished it with a review of things we learned before. So hopefully you didn't feel too overwhelmed or lost. |
| Nicole: If you're having trouble though, make sure to download the PDFs. |
| Matt: That's right. These are located in the premium learning center. |
| Nicole: And you can find them on CantoneseClass101.com. |
| Matt: Thanks for tuning in. |
| Nicole: I'm Nicole. |
| Matt: And I am Matt. See you next time. |
| Nicole: See you. |
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