Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David.
Nicole: 大家好, 我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2 , ngo5 hai6) Nicole.
David: And welcome to Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 16.
Nicole: “Paying Phone Bills in Hong Kong.”
David: Right. You still have to pay them in Hong Kong.
Nicole: Too bad.
David: Yeah. So, we’ve got a dialogue here that’s between two friends. So, they’re not actually paying a phone bill but they’re going to talk about it.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: And because they’re friends, they’ll be speaking casual Cantonese as always, right? Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue in a sec, before we do we want to remind you we have these great dialogue only recordings on CantoneseClass101.com.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: Download these through IPod, it’s a really quick way to review.
Nicole: It really helps.
David: Yeah, with that, let’s go to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A: 你電話打唔通。(nei5 din6 waa2 daa2 m4 tung1.)
B: 係咩? (hai6 me1?)
A: 要交電話費喇!(jiu3 gaau1 din6 waa2 fai3 laa3!)
B: 咩係電話費呀?(me1 hai6 din6 waa2 fai3 aa3?)
A: I couldn't reach you by phone.
B: Really?
A: You should pay your phone bill.
B: What's a phone bill?
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: I’ve been guilty of this.
Nicole: Why?
David: Not not knowing what a phone bill is, but just you know, letting it go for a while.
Nicole: Really?
David: Yeah.
Nicole: Yeah, I think this person in this dialogue just does the same thing.
David: Yeah. Okay. Well, we’ve got a vocab section here, which is all about phones and recharging them and phone bills. So, you’re going to need to use this stuff , let’s get right to the vocab section.
Nicole: Alright.
VOCAB LIST
Nicole: 打。(daa2)
David: “To dial”.
Nicole: 打, 打, 電話。(daa2, daa2, din6 waa2.)
David: “Telephone”.
Nicole: 電話, 電話, 通。(din6 waa2, din6 waa2, tung1.)
David: “To get through”.
Nicole: 通, 通, 短信。(tung1, tung1, dyun2 seon3)
David: “Text message”.
Nicole: 短信, 短信, 留言。(dyun2 seon3, dyun2 seon3, lau4 jin4.)
David: “To leave a message”.
Nicole: 留言, 留言, 電話費。(lau4 jin4, lau4 jin4, din6 waa2 fai3.)
David: “Phone bill”.
Nicole: 電話費, 電話費, 交。(din6 waa2 fai3, din6 waa2 fai3, gaau1.)
David: “To pay”.
Nicole: 交, 交。(gaau1, gaau1.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases.
Nicole: Alright. The first word we want to look at is 打. (daa2.)
David: “To dial”.
Nicole: 打。(daa2.)
David: And of course, what you’re dialing is a telephone.
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: telephone.
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: So literally actually is to “hit the telephone”.
Nicole: Exactly.
David: Right.
Nicole: Because that what you do.
David: Yeah.
Nicole: Hit the numbers.
David: Yeah, so “to hit the telephone”.
Nicole: 打電話。(daa2 din6 waa2.)
David: “To dial the telephone”.
Nicole: 打電話。(daa2 din6 waa2.)
David: “I need to dial the telephone”.
Nicole: 我要打電話。(ngo5 jiu3 daa2 din6 waa2.)
David: “Give me a telephone call.”
Nicole: 打電話比我。(daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: That’s a really useful one.
Nicole: Let’s hear it one more time. 打電話比我。(daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: “Give me a telephone call.” So you can give someone your number and you can say this.
Nicole: 打電話比我。(daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: And hopefully they’ll call you.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: Yeah. Assuming that you’ve paid your telephone bill.
Nicole: 電話費。(din6 waa2 fai3.)
David: “Telephone bill”.
Nicole: 電話費。(din6 waa2 fai3.)
David: Just like in English, we have the word for “telephone”.
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: And then the word for “expense” or “fee”.
Nicole: 費。(fai3.)
David: And that’s an English language loanword, right?
Nicole: Yeah.
David: It comes from English, so easy to remember.
Nicole: I’m not sure about that, but yeah.
David: Yeah. I think it does. So that’s “telephone bill”.
Nicole: 電話費。(din6 waa2 fai3.)
David: And Nicole, there’s a point you want to make about the word “telephone”.
Nicole: Yeah. In oral Cantonese, 電話 (din6 waa2) can mean both “telephone” and “cellphone”.
David: Yeah. Is there a special word for cellphone?
Nicole: Yes, there is. 手提電話 (sau2 tai4 din6 waa2), “hand carried telephone”.
David: Right. So, that’s a “hand styled phone”.
Nicole: Yeah. 手提電話 (sau2 tai4 din6 waa2) or you can say 手機. (sau2 gei1.)
David: “Cellphone”.
Nicole: 手提電話。(sau2 tai4 din6 waa2.)
David: Or?
Nicole: 手機。(sau2 gei1.)
David: Right. Now, you dial someone’s number and you don’t get through, you might be asked to “leave a message”.
Nicole: 留言。(lau4 jin4.)
David: “Leave a message”.
Nicole: 留言。(lau4 jin4.)
David: “Leave a message after the beep.”
Nicole: 嗶一聲之後留言。(bit1 jat1 seng1 zi1 hau6 lau4 jin4.)
David: “Leave a message after the beep.”
Nicole: 嗶一聲之後留言。 (bit1 jat1 seng1 zi1 hau6 lau4 jin4.)
David: And anyone who asks you to do that in Hong Kong is toying with you because they’re always carrying their cell phones.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: Right? So, if someone does that, you know they’re playing with you. If you do need to get in touch though, you can also send them a “text message”.
Nicole: 短信。(dyun2 seon3.)
David: “Text message”.
Nicole: 短信。(dyun2 seon3.)
David: Nicole is always text messaging.
Nicole: Yeah, it’s fun.
David: So, if you meet someone you can say “Hey, text me”.
Nicole: 發短信比我。 (faat3 dyun2 seon3 bei2 ngo5.)
David: And that’s literally “Issue a text message to give to me”.
Nicole: Yeah. Or “send text message to me”. 發短信比我。(faat3 dyun2 seon3 bei2 ngo5.)
David: That sentence is really close to something we already learned. Let’s hear that again with “give me a telephone call”.
Nicole: 打電話比我。 (daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: “Send me a text message”.
Nicole: 發短信比我。 (faat3 dyun2 seon3 bei2 ngo5.)
David: So the last two sounds, “for me”, don’t change.
Nicole: 比我。(bei2 ngo5.)
David: We’re just changing the verb object.
Nicole: It’s either 打電話 (daa2 din6 waa2) or 發短信 (faat3 dyun2 seon3).
David: Right. “Give me a call.”
Nicole: 打電話比我。(daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: “Send me a text message”.
Nicole: 發短信比我。 (faat3 dyun2 seon3 bei2 ngo5.)
David: And that brings us to the end of the vocab section. In the grammar section, we’re going to take a closer look at one of trickier verbs in this dialogue.

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time! Our grammar focus today is a fairly tricky verb construction.
Nicole: Yeah, it’s a bit difficult.
David: Right. And it comes from this line in the dialogue.
Nicole: 你電話打唔通。 (nei5 din6 waa2 daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: “I couldn’t reach you by phone.”
Nicole: 你電話打唔通。 (nei5 din6 waa2 daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: Or literally it’s “your telephone”.
Nicole: 你電話。(nei5 din6 waa2.)
David: “Would not connect through”.
Nicole: 打唔通。 (daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: Let’s hear that verb again, “would not connect”.
Nicole: 打唔通。 (daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: Right. Nicole, what’s going on?
Nicole: Well, this is a very useful structure, we have the verb 打 (daa2) and then the negation 唔 (m4) and then the adjective 通. (tung1.)
David: Right. Sometime it’s an adjective, sometimes it will be a verb at the end.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: But when you see this, it’s actually one verb unit.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: It’s saying to dial, but the result of this is that it does not go through in this case.
Nicole: Exactly. So, it says something about the action and then mentions the result of it.
David: Yes, so it’s technically known as a resultative verb complement.
Nicole: Exactly.
David: And here we’re seeing in the negative, in the case of “to dial but not to get through”.
Nicole: 打唔通。(daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: This is a really common verb structure in Cantonese.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: We’re going to give you a couple of more example, although as always we encourage you to check out the details in the premium PDF. More examples though, you can say “Can’t get done”.
Nicole: 做唔晒。(zou6 m4 saai3.)
David: “Not to be able to finish”.
Nicole: That’s right. 做唔晒。(zou6 m4 saai3.)
David: Or what if you go to a fancy restaurant and they serve you these really small dishes?
Nicole: That’s right.
David: And you order ten of them and you still can’t get full.
Nicole: Oh, I hate it!
David: You might complain.
Nicole: 食唔飽。 (sik6 m4 baau2.)
David: “I can’t eat full.”
Nicole: 食唔飽 (sik6 m4 baau2), so we have the word “eat”, 食 (sik6) and the negation 唔 (m4) and then “full”, 飽 (baau2). Together we have 食唔飽. (sik6 m4 baau2.)
David: Right. If you like going to bars instead, you might find some places in Hong Kong that water down the drinks. In which case -
Nicole: Yeah, it might happen.
David: - you might be saying something else.
Nicole: 飲唔醉。 (jam2 m4 zeoi3.)
David: “Can’t get drunk”.
Nicole: 飲唔醉。 (jam2 m4 zeoi3.)
David: “Can’t get drunk”. And again, it’s the same pattern. We have the verb…..
Nicole: 飲。 (jam2.)
David: Which means “to drink”, and then the negation.
Nicole: 唔。(m4.)
David: And the verb or adjective that tells us the result.
Nicole: 醉。(zeoi3.)
David: “Can’t get drunk”.
Nicole: 飲唔醉。 (jam2 m4 zeoi3.)
David: So all of these verbs are simple variations on the pattern we see in our dialogue.
Nicole: 你電話打唔通。 (nei5 din6 waa2 daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: Now, in the later lesson we’re going to cover how to do the same thing in a positive sense.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: For now though, just pay attention to how this works in a negative. “We’ll not go through.”
Nicole: 打唔通。(daa2 m4 tung1.)
David: “Can’t get done”.
Nicole: 做唔晒。 (zou6 m4 saai3.)
David: “Can’t eat full”.
Nicole: 食唔飽。(sik6 m4 baau2.)
David: “Can’t get drunk”.
Nicole: 飲唔醉。 (jam2 m4 zeoi3.)
David: And that’s our grammar point this lesson.

Outro

David: Before we go, I want to remind all of our iPhone, iPod and iPad users.
Nicole: Listen, tap and swipe your way to fluency with our Cantonese language apps.
David: Right. We’ve got a bunch of Cantonese apps on the iTunes store that you can use to study on the go.
Nicole: They’re fun and easy to use. Just visit our iPhone page on CantoneseClass101.com to learn more about it.
David: And that’s it for today. I’m David.
Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole.
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we hope to see you on the site.
Nicole: See you!

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