Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

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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