Learn how to use a common sentence pattern to say you are allergic to something
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 am David. |
| Nicole: 大家好，我係Nicole。(daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6 Nicole.) |
| David: And we are here with upper beginner, season 1, Lesson 20. A Vegetarian Goes to Hong Kong. |
| Nicole: 冇錯,關於食齋嘅。(mou5 co3, gwaan1 jyu1 sik6 zaai1 ge3.) |
| David: Yes this could be Nicole except that you sometimes eat meat. |
| Nicole: 係呀，有時食肉，有時食齋。(hai6 aa3, jau5 si4 sik6 juk6, jau5 si4 sik6 zaai1.) |
| David: Yeah. So Nicole is a sometimes vegetarian. I am too actually. Nicole, what’s our lesson about today? It takes place where? |
| Nicole: 喺一個飯店。(hai2 jat1 go3 faan6 dim3.) |
| David: Yes it takes place in a restaurant. Two friends are ordering food. This is casual Cantonese as always. Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| Nicole: 好！(hou2 ！) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你唔食肉？ (nei5 m4 sik6 juk6? ) |
| B:我唔鍾意食肉。 (ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 sik6 juk6. ) |
| A:咁你唔食海鮮？ (gam2 nei5 m4 sik6 hoi2 sin1? ) |
| B:我對海鮮敏感。 (ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 man5 gam2. ) |
| A:咁你平時食咩呀？(gam2 nei5 ping4 si4 sik6 me1 aa3? ) |
| B:我食齋。(ngo5 sik6 zaai1.) |
| David: Once more, a bit more slowly. |
| A:你唔食肉？ (nei5 m4 sik6 juk6? ) |
| B:我唔鍾意食肉。 (ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 sik6 juk6. ) |
| A:咁你唔食海鮮？ (gam2 nei5 m4 sik6 hoi2 sin1? ) |
| B:我對海鮮敏感。 (ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 man5 gam2. ) |
| A:咁你平時食咩呀？ (gam2 nei5 ping4 si4 sik6 me1 aa3? ) |
| B:我食齋。(ngo5 sik6 zaai1.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| A:你唔食肉？ (nei5 m4 sik6 juk6? ) |
| A: You don't eat meat? |
| B:我唔鍾意食肉。 (ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 sik6 juk6. ) |
| B: I don't like to eat meat. |
| A:咁你唔食海鮮？ (gam2 nei5 m4 sik6 hoi2 sin1? ) |
| A: Then, do you like seafood? |
| B:我對海鮮敏感。 (ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 man5 gam2. ) |
| B: I'm allergic to seafood. |
| A:咁你平時食咩呀？ (gam2 nei5 ping4 si4 sik6 me1 aa3? ) |
| A: Then, what do you normally eat? |
| B:我食齋。(ngo5 sik6 zaai1.) |
| B: I'm vegetarian. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: This is useful stuff if you go to restaurants. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
| David: Well assuming you are vegetarian. |
| Nicole: 係呀，你要同人哋講你食齋。(hai6 aa3, nei5 jiu3 tung4 jan4 dei6 gong2 nei5 sik6 zaai1.) |
| David: If you are not vegetarian, you can make that sentence negative. I am not – I am not vegetarian. |
| Nicole: 係呀，要強調「我唔食齋」。(hai6 aa3, jiu3 koeng4 diu6 「 ngo5 m4 sik6 zaai1 」.) |
| David: Yeah but our vocab today, it’s about – obviously, it’s about eating Ham. So let’s get to it. |
| Nicole: 好！(hou2 ！) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 肉 (juk6) |
| David: Meat. |
| Nicole: 肉 (juk6) [slow] 肉 (juk6) [normal speed]。菜 (coi3) |
| David: Vegetables. |
| Nicole: 菜 (coi3) [slow] 菜 (coi3) [normal speed]。海鮮 (hoi2 sin1) |
| David: Seafood. |
| Nicole: 海鮮 (hoi2 sin1) [slow] 海鮮 (hoi2 sin1) [normal speed]。水果 (seoi2 gwo2) |
| David: Fruit. |
| Nicole: 水果 (seoi2 gwo2) [slow] 水果 (seoi2 gwo2) [normal speed]。敏感 (man5 gam2) |
| David: To be sensitive. |
| Nicole: 敏感 (man5 gam2) [slow] 敏感 (man5 gam2) [normal speed]。過敏 (gwo3 man5) |
| David: To be allergic. |
| Nicole: 過敏 (gwo3 man5) [slow] 過敏 (gwo3 man5) [normal speed]。平時 (ping4 si4) |
| David: Normally. |
| Nicole: 平時 (ping4 si4) [slow] 平時 (ping4 si4) [normal speed]。食齋 (sik6 zaai1) |
| David: To be vegetarian. |
| Nicole: 食齋 (sik6 zaai1) [slow] 食齋 (sik6 zaai1) [normal speed]。 |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a look at some of these words more closely. Obviously first, we have the word for meat. |
| Nicole: 肉 (juk6) |
| David: Meat. |
| Nicole: 肉 (juk6) |
| David: And if we are in restaurants, we have to specify |
| Nicole: 豬肉 (zyu1 juk6) |
| David: Pork. |
| Nicole: 牛肉 (ngau4 juk6) |
| David: Beef. |
| Nicole: 雞肉 (gai1 juk6) |
| David: Chicken and that’s chicken meat, cow meat, pig meat. |
| Nicole: Or you can even say 魚肉。(jyu4 juk6.) |
| David: Yeah and that would be fish. It’s really – its flesh really…. |
| Nicole: Yeah it’s flesh. |
| David: This is what the character means. So you specify. The next word is obviously vegetables. |
| Nicole: 菜 (coi3) |
| David: And that’s one word for vegetables but it’s not the only one. |
| Nicole: Yeah you can also say 青菜。(ceng1 coi3.) |
| David: Right, which is – if you are ordering something, that’s what you are going to say. |
| Nicole: Yeah, 青菜(ceng1 coi3) or 青菜 (cing1 coi3). You want to be specific because 菜 (coi3) itself can mean just dish. |
| David: Yeah it’s the character. In addition to this, we have the word to be vegetarian. |
| Nicole: 食齋。(sik6 zaai1.) |
| David: To be vegetarian. |
| Nicole: 食齋。(sik6 zaai1.) |
| David: And what is that Nicole? And that’s the eat |
| Nicole: 齋，齋 (zaai1, zaai1) means vegetarians. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: To eat anything that’s non-meat. |
| David: Yes. So we have multiple words for vegetables here in this lesson. |
| Nicole: Yeah but you can never use 齋 (zaai1 ) on itself. You know, it would be weird. You can’t say out yeah. |
| David: It would definitely be weird. Here is a question for you Nicole. In English, you know, there are different levels of vegetarianism. |
| Nicole: Right. |
| David: You know, if you go into a restaurant and you just tell someone that you are a vegetarian and you are in Hong Kong, what does that mean? |
| Nicole: It means that you would 食菜 (sik6 coi3)，just 青菜 (cing1 coi3 ) but not, like 唔食牛肉，唔食豬肉，唔食雞肉。(m4 sik6 ngau4 juk6, m4 sik6 zyu1 juk6, m4 sik6 gai1 juk6.) |
| David: Yeah what about fish? |
| Nicole: Normally we assume that you won’t eat fish as well. 你唔食魚肉。(nei5 m4 sik6 jyu4 juk6.) |
| David: So somebody who is vegetarian in Hong Kong, people are going to assume no fish, no chicken. |
| Nicole: I think so yeah. |
| David: Okay. Moving on, we have two words here that are very close. We’ve got to be sensitive. |
| Nicole: 敏感 (man5 gam2) |
| David: And to be allergic. |
| Nicole: 過敏 (gwo3 man5) |
| David: And allergic literally means overly sensitive, past the point of it being reasonable. |
| Nicole: 係呀，因為你好敏感，所以你過敏。(hai6 aa3, jan1 wai6 nei5 hou2 man5 gam2, so2 ji3 nei5 gwo3 man5.) |
| David: Yeah in our dialogue, if you will notice, one of the speakers said that they were allergic to seafood. |
| Nicole: 我對海鮮敏感。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 man5 gam2.) |
| David: They could also have said |
| Nicole: 我對海鮮過敏。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 gwo3 man5.) And I think actually the latter one is more common. |
| David: Yeah it would be more common. It’s more precise too. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: So you prefer to say 我對海鮮過敏。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 gwo3 man5.) |
| David: Right. People will understand you if you use the other though and with that, that’s our vocab section. In our grammar point, we are going to take closer look at this phrase. |
| Nicole: 好！(hou2 ！) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Okay our grammar point today is about a really, really common sentence pattern and in English, we are going to find that it works completely differently than in Cantonese. |
| Nicole: 係順序唔同。(hai6 seon6 zeoi6 m4 tung4.) |
| David: Yeah. The pattern comes from this line in the dialogue. |
| Nicole: 我對海鮮敏感。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 man5 gam2.) |
| David: I am sensitive about seafood. |
| Nicole: 我對海鮮敏感。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 man5 gam2.) |
| David: Or I am allergic to seafood right. It’s the same pattern if we actually use the word allergy. |
| Nicole: 我對海鮮過敏。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 gwo3 man5.) |
| David: Right. Now the important thing to notice, in English, when we say I am allergic to something or I am sensitive about something, we are putting this after the verb, I am sensitive about and then the thing that we are sensitive about, but the pattern is different in Cantonese. |
| Nicole: 係，完全反轉。(hai6, jyun4 cyun4 faan2 zyun2.) It’s a reverse order. |
| David: Yes. We have the preposition here that is |
| Nicole: 對 (deoi3) |
| David: To or towards. |
| Nicole: 對 (deoi3) |
| David: And then after that, we put the object that we are sensitive or allergic to. For instance, to meat. |
| Nicole: 對肉 (deoi3 juk6) |
| David: To pork |
| Nicole: 對豬肉 (deoi3 zyu1 juk6) |
| David: To beef |
| Nicole: 對牛肉 (deoi3 ngau4 juk6) |
| David: And then we put allergic or sensitive. So it’s I am to beef allergic. |
| Nicole: 我對牛肉過敏。(ngo5 deoi3 ngau4 juk6 gwo3 man5.) |
| David: I am allergic to peanuts. |
| Nicole: 我對花生過敏。(ngo5 deoi3 faa1 sang1 gwo3 man5.) |
| David: I am allergic to seafood. |
| Nicole: 我對海鮮過敏。(ngo5 deoi3 hoi2 sin1 gwo3 man5.) |
| David: And this can be tough for people who are starting out because you want to translate the English sentence but you can’t. You got to remember to put this in front of the verb or the adjective in this case. Let’s have some more examples and different kinds of sentences. Let’s say we were making this into a question. What are you allergic to? |
| Nicole: 你對乜嘢敏感？(nei5 deoi3 mat1 je5 man5 gam2? ) |
| David: What are you allergic to? |
| Nicole: 你對乜嘢過敏？(nei5 deoi3 mat1 je5 gwo3 man5? ) |
| David: Right. Both of those work and the thing to note, even in a question, our speech patterns are different in Cantonese. How about the sentence, he is sensitive about that topic? |
| Nicole: 佢對嗰個話題好敏感。(keoi5 deoi3 go2 go3 waa6 tai4 hou2 man5 gam2.) |
| David: He is sensitive about that topic. |
| Nicole: 佢對嗰個話題好敏感。(keoi5 deoi3 go2 go3 waa6 tai4 hou2 man5 gam2.) |
| David: And notice we used the adverb |
| Nicole: 好 (hou2) |
| David: In that sentence. We can do that as well modifying the adjective. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: He is extremely sensitive about that topic. |
| Nicole: 佢對嗰個話題非常敏感。(keoi5 deoi3 go2 go3 waa6 tai4 fei1 soeng4 man5 gam2.) |
| David: Or something you will hear someone say. He is really – he is too sensitive about that topic. |
| Nicole: 佢對嗰個話題太敏感。(keoi5 deoi3 go2 go3 waa6 tai4 taai3 man5 gam2.) |
| David: Right. So remember, when you are using this pattern |
| Nicole: 對 (deoi3) something 敏感(man5 gam2)，或者 對 (waak6 ze2 deoi3) something 過敏。(gwo3 man5.) |
| David: Remember that the object you are sensitive or allergic to precedes the adjective or verb. |
| Nicole: 冇錯。(mou5 co3.) |
Outro |
| David: And with that, we are done our show for today. Before we go, we want to remind you that ILL has a ton of language products. |
| Nicole: That’s right. We have Spanish, Korean, Japanese everything. |
| David: Yes. Well not everything but we are well over 20. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So if you want to learn a language, chances are that we’ve got it in the family. Go check that out, great shows and pretty much – pretty much all the language people speak. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: With that though, that’s our show for today. From Hong Kong, I am David. |
| Nicole: 我係Nicole。(ngo5 hai6 Nicole.) |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Nicole: Bye bye. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide