Learn how to ask for recommendations, which could save you quite a bit of time
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to Cantoneseclass101.com. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 大家好，我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: Yes, and Nicole has lots of secrets for us today. |
| Nicole: That’s right. It’s about Hong Kong TV. |
| David: Yes, we’ve got Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 8 – “TV secrets of Hong Kong”. We’ve got a lesson which takes place at home and it’s between two friends. |
| Nicole: So, as always they’re speaking casual Cantonese. |
| David: Right. We’ve got a dialogue, we’re going to get you to that in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you if you’re just starting with Cantonese make sure you get your hands on our premium PDFs. They’ve got a copy of the dialogue, copy of the vocab as well as a written down grammar point. Print them out, review the day after you listen this podcast and it’s really going to help you remember. |
| Nicole: That’s right. You can find it in Cantoneseclass101.com, the premium Center. |
| David: Right. With that said, let’s go to the dialogue. So, Nicole, we’re going to put you on the spot: TV secrets of Hong Kong. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:電視有咩好睇？ (din6 si6 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| B: 電視劇。(din6 si6 kek6.) |
| A:仲有呢？ (zung6 jau5 ne1?) |
| B: 廣告。 (gwong2 gou3.) |
| A: What's good on TV? |
| B: TV series. |
| A: Anything else? |
| B: Commercials. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Nicole: I know lots of them. |
| David: Yeah? |
| Nicole: The famous TV station in Hong Kong is called TVB. |
| David: Mm-hmm. |
| Nicole: That’s the main channel and the other one is called Pearl TV Channel. |
| David: That’s not a secret. |
| Nicole: I mean let’s start. |
| David: A secret is something no one else knows. |
| Nicole: The TV Series in Hong Kong sucks. |
| David: Okay, well, we’re going to change the title, it’s like “Not TV secrets in the Hong Kong”. So, that’s our dialogue anyway. As you can tell, our vocab today is all about television, watching it, television series, television dramas. So, let’s get to the vocab section now, where we’re going to review this. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: Alright. 電視。(din6 si6.) |
| David: “Television” |
| Nicole: 電視, 電視, 電視機。(din6 si6, din6 si6, din6 si6 gei1.) |
| David: “Television set” |
| Nicole: 電視機, 電視機, 電視劇。(din6 si6 gei1, din6 si6 gei1, din6 si6 kek6.) |
| David: “Television series” |
| Nicole: 電視劇, 電視劇, 電視節目。 (din6 si6 kek6, din6 si6 kek6, din6 si6 zit3 muk6.) |
| David: “Television show” |
| Nicole: 電視節目, 電視節目, 電影。(din6 si6 zit3 muk6, din6 si6 zit3 muk6, din6 jing2.) |
| David: “Movie” |
| Nicole: 電影, 電影, 廣告。(din6 jing2, din6 jing2, gwong2 gou3.) |
| David: “Advertisement”, “commercial” |
| Nicole: 廣告, 廣告, 仲有呢? (gwong2 gou3, gwong2 gou3, zung6 jau5 ne1?) |
| David: “Anything else?” |
| Nicole: 仲有呢, 仲有呢? (zung6 jau5 ne1, zung6 jau5 ne1?) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of these words and phrases. Our first word is of course the word for “television”. |
| Nicole: 電視, 電視。(din6 si6 , din6 si6.) |
| David: And what are the tones on that? |
| Nicole: Both of them are six. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: So mid-level flat tongues. 電視。 (din6 si6.) |
| David: How about “to watch television”? |
| Nicole: 睇電視。 (tai2 din6 si6.) |
| David: “To watch television” |
| Nicole: 睇電視。 (tai2 din6 si6.) |
| David: So the verb “to watch” is: |
| Nicole: 睇。(tai2.) |
| David: We can also watch a TV series. |
| Nicole: 睇電視劇。(tai2 din6 si6 kek6.) |
| David: Or watch a TV show. |
| Nicole: 睇電視節目。 (tai2 din6 si6 zit3 muk6.) |
| David: Let’s try putting these in sentences. |
| Nicole: Alright. |
| David: “I want a TV.” |
| Nicole: 我要一部電視。(ngo5 jiu3 jat1 bou6 din6 si6.) |
| David: “I want to watch TV.” |
| Nicole: 我要睇電視。(ngo5 jiu3 tai2 din6 si6.) |
| David: “I want to watch a TV series.” |
| Nicole: 我要睇電視劇。(ngo5 jiu3 tai2 din6 si6 kek6.) |
| David: “I want to watch a TV show.” |
| Nicole: 我要睇電視節目。 (ngo5 jiu3 tai2 din6 si6 zit3 muk6.) |
| David: Right. So a lot of our words are really close in this lesson. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: They’re all words based on 電視 (din6 si6) television. |
| David: Yeah. An additional wanting if you’re an office in Hong Kong… |
| Nicole: Mm-hmm. |
| David: People talk about TV all the time. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: So, you might hear someone asking you “What TV show do you like?”. |
| Nicole: 你鍾意睇咩節目？ (nei5 zung1 ji3 tai2 me1 zit3 muk6?) |
| David: That’s a little bit tricky. Let’s hear that again. |
| Nicole: 你鍾意睇咩節目？(nei5 zung1 ji3 tai2 me1 zit3 muk6?) That’s literally “You like to watch what shows?” |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Nicole: 你鍾意睇咩節目？ (nei5 zung1 ji3 tai2 me1 zit3 muk6?) |
| David: Right. And you may answer “I don’t like TV. I like movies.” |
| Nicole: 我唔鍾意睇電視，我鍾意睇電影。(ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 tai2 din6 si6, ngo5 zung1 ji3 tai2 din6 jing2.) |
| David: “I don’t like TV. I like movies.” |
| Nicole: 我唔鍾意睇電視，我鍾意睇電影。(ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 tai2 din6 si6, ngo5 zung1 ji3 tai2 din6 jing2.) |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: In the example I just gave I add a verb 睇 (tai2) in the middle sentence, because that’s the usual way Cantonese do. We add the verb before the noun. So, instead of just saying 我鍾意電視 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 din6 si6) “I like TV.”, I said 我鍾意睇電視 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 tai2 din6 si6) “I like to watch TV shows.”. |
| David: Yeah, adding that verb is really important. So, before we go to the grammar point, let’s review this again. First, we have the word “television”. |
| Nicole: 電視。 (din6 si6.) |
| David: This always goes with the verb “to watch”. |
| Nicole: 睇。(tai2.) |
| David: “To watch television” |
| Nicole: 睇電視。(tai2 din6 si6.) |
| David: “To watch a TV series.” |
| Nicole: 睇電視劇。 (tai2 din6 si6 kek6.) |
| David: Or “to watch a TV show” |
| Nicole: 睇電視節目。 (tai2 din6 si6 zit3 muk6.) |
| David: Right. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our grammar point today is focusing on asking people “What’s good on TV?” |
| Nicole: 電視有咩好睇？ (din6 si6 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. “What’s good on TV?” |
| Nicole: 電視有咩好睇？ (din6 si6 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: Right. Nicole, what’s going on here? |
| Nicole: We use 有咩好 (jau5 me1 hou2) plus the verb to form the sentence. |
| David: Right. And our verb here is “to watch”. |
| Nicole: 睇。(tai2.) |
| David: So, that’s: |
| Nicole: 有咩好睇？ (jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: “What’s good to watch?”. And that sentence was really “Television, what’s good to watch?” |
| Nicole: Exactly. 電視有咩好睇？(din6 si6 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: You could ask for recommendations on a film the same way. |
| Nicole: Exactly. Just replace 電視 (din6 si6) with 電影. (din6 jing2.) |
| David: “Movies, what’s good to watch?” |
| Nicole: 電影有咩好睇？ (din6 jing2 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: “Movies, what’s good to watch?” |
| Nicole: 電影有咩好睇？ (din6 jing2 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: So, as long as you know the verb, this is a really easy way to ask people for help. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Right? If you’re looking for a good restaurant, you could say “What’s good to eat?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好食? (jau5 me1 hou2 sik6?) |
| David: “What’s good to eat?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好食? (jau5 me1 hou2 sik6?) |
| David: And you can use this in a restaurant, too, if you’re looking at the menu. |
| Nicole:有咩好食? (jau5 me1 hou2 sik6?) |
| David: You could also ask “What’s good to drink?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好飲? (jau5 me1 hou2 jam2?) |
| David: “What’s good to drink?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好飲? (jau5 me1 hou2 jam2?) |
| David: Or “What’s good to do?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好做? (jau5 me1 hou2 zou6?) |
| David: If you’re new to Hong Kong you can use this to ask people how you should spend your time. |
| Nicole: That’s right, usually when you’re bored or something. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: 有咩好做? (jau5 me1 hou2 zou6?) |
| David: And hopefully they won’t tell you “Watch television.” |
| Nicole: Or it could be fun. |
| David: “What’s good to do?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好做? (jau5 me1 hou2 zou6?) or sometimes people may ask you 有咩好玩? (jau5 me1 hou2 waan2?) |
| David: “What’s good to play?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好玩? (jau5 me1 hou2 waan2?) |
| David: This is really a Cantonese thing. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: In English no one is going to say “Hey, let’s go play.”, but in Cantonese you can. |
| Nicole: Yeah, it’s asking ways to have fun. |
| David: Yeah. “What’s good to play?” |
| Nicole: 有咩好玩? (jau5 me1 hou2 waan2?) |
| David: Right. So, a really simple grammar point, to ask people for recommendation say: |
| Nicole: 有咩好 (jau5 me1 hou2) plus the verb. |
| David: Yeah. And before we go, Nicole, you have something a bit more difficult. |
| Nicole: That’s right. In the Cantonese grammar the word “although” is quite loose. So, you can place the noun wherever you want. Let’s take this structure for example. You can put the noun after 有咩 (jau5 me1), so when you want to ask “What’s good on TV?”, instead of just saying 電視有咩好睇 (din6 si6 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2), you can also say 有咩電視好睇. (jau5 me1 din6 si6 hou2 tai2.) |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: So, it’s literally “What TV is good to watch?” |
| David: Let’s hear those two sentences again. First, with “television” at the beginning of the sentence. |
| Nicole: 電視有咩好睇? (din6 si6 jau5 me1 hou2 tai2?) |
| David: And now, with “television” in the middle of the sentence. |
| Nicole: 有咩電視好睇? (jau5 me1 din6 si6 hou2 tai2?) |
Outro |
| David: As always, if you have any questions about this stuff, your first stopping point should be our premium PDFs on Cantoneseclass101.com where we’ve got all of this written down along with sample sentences to help you understand. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Anyway, that’s our podcast for today. We hope you enjoyed it even if Nicole did not give us any Hong Kong TV secrets. |
| Nicole: You find out yourself. |
| David: Right, if you watch television. |
| Nicole: Well, you should. |
| David: Right. So, thanks a lot for listening. That's our podcast for today. I am David. |
| Nicole: I am Nicole. |
| David: And we will see you on the site. |
| Nicole: Bye Bye. |
Comments
Hide