Learn how to talk about something that is original or natural, or "used to be"
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| 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 25. |
| Nicole: 係呀，最後一堂喇！(hai6 aa3, zeoi3 hau6 jat1 tong4 laa3!) |
| David: Yeah this is the last one in the series and it’s all about A Mysterious Animal in Hong Kong. |
| Nicole: 係呀，唔知係貓定狗。(hai6 aa3, m4 zi1 hai6 maau1 ding6 gau2.) |
| David: Right. So we’ve got a dialogue that is between two people talking while they are holding a pet. |
| Nicole: 冇錯。(mou5 co3.) |
| David: We are not quite sure what the pet is but we do know that they are talking in casual Cantonese as always. Let’s get to the dialogue. |
| Nicole: 聽下個對話啦。(teng1 haa5 go3 deoi3 waa6 laa1.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:佢好可愛呀！ (keoi5 hou2 ho2 oi3 aa3 ! ) |
| B:你可以抱吓佢。(nei5 ho2 ji3 pou6 haa5 keoi5.) |
| A:嘩，點解佢可以跳咁高。 (waa1, dim2 gaai2 keoi5 ho2 ji3 tiu3 gam3 gou1. ) |
| B:貓本來就可以跳好高。 (maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 ho2 ji3 tiu3 hou2 gou1. ) |
| A:吓？我以為佢係隻狗嚟㗎。(haa5? ngo5 ji5 wai4 keoi5 hai6 zek3 gau2 lei4 gaa3.) |
| David: Once more, a bit more slowly. |
| A:佢好可愛呀！ (keoi5 hou2 ho2 oi3 aa3 ! ) |
| B:你可以抱吓佢。 (nei5 ho2 ji3 pou6 haa5 keoi5.) |
| A:嘩，點解佢可以跳咁高。 (waa1, dim2 gaai2 keoi5 ho2 ji3 tiu3 gam3 gou1. ) |
| B:貓本來就可以跳好高。 (maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 ho2 ji3 tiu3 hou2 gou1. ) |
| A:吓？我以為佢係隻狗嚟㗎。(haa5? ngo5 ji5 wai4 keoi5 hai6 zek3 gau2 lei4 gaa3.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| A:佢好可愛呀！ (keoi5 hou2 ho2 oi3 aa3 ! ) |
| A: It is so cute! |
| B:你可以抱吓佢。 (nei5 ho2 ji3 pou6 haa5 keoi5.) |
| B: You can hold it. |
| A:嘩，點解佢可以跳咁高。(waa1, dim2 gaai2 keoi5 ho2 ji3 tiu3 gam3 gou1. ) |
| A: Wow, how come it can jump so high? |
| B:貓本來就可以跳好高。 (maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 ho2 ji3 tiu3 hou2 gou1. ) |
| B: Cats can jump really high naturally. |
| A:吓？我以為佢係隻狗嚟㗎。(haa5? ngo5 ji5 wai4 keoi5 hai6 zek3 gau2 lei4 gaa3.) |
| A: Huh? I thought it was a dog. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: We’ve already done dog, we’ve already done cat. We know that you know them. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: And since we are getting up here, what we want to focus on today instead is adjectives really to describe animals. |
| Nicole: 冇錯，好多形容詞可以嚟形容貓貓狗狗。(mou5 co3, hou2 do1 jing4 jung4 ci4 ho2 ji3 lei4 jing4 jung4 maau1 maau1 gau2 gau2.) |
| David: Yeah regardless of if it’s a cat or dog. |
| Nicole: 冇錯。(mou5 co3.) |
| David: Let’s get to our vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 可愛 (ho2 oi3) |
| David: Cute. |
| Nicole: 可愛 (ho2 oi3) [slow] 可愛 (ho2 oi3) [normal speed]。乖 (gwaai1) |
| David: Obedient. |
| Nicole: 乖 (gwaai1) [slow] 乖 (gwaai1) [normal speed]。溫柔 (wan1 jau4) |
| David: Gentle. |
| Nicole: 溫柔 (wan1 jau4) [slow] 溫柔 (wan1 jau4) [normal speed]。善良 (sin6 loeng4) |
| David: Kind. |
| Nicole: 善良 (sin6 loeng4) [slow] 善良 (sin6 loeng4) [normal speed]。可惡 (ho2 wu3) |
| David: Wicked. |
| Nicole: 可惡 (ho2 wu3) [slow] 可惡 (ho2 wu3) [normal speed]。兇惡 (hung1 ngok3) |
| David: Savage |
| Nicole: 兇惡 (hung1 ngok3) [slow] 兇惡 (hung1 ngok3) [normal speed]。抱 (pou6) |
| David: To carry. |
| Nicole: 抱 (pou6) [slow] 抱 (pou6) [normal speed]。攬 (laam2) |
| David: To hug. |
| Nicole: 攬 (laam2)[slow] 攬 (laam2) [normal speed]。 |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Okay. So there is lot of stuff to talk about today, not a lot to review. This is mostly new. First and most importantly we have the word cute. |
| Nicole: 可愛。(ho2 oi3.) |
| David: Which you can use to describe any animal and make its owner happy. |
| Nicole: Yeah of course. 可愛 (ho2 oi3 ) and there is another way to say that 得意。(dak1 ji3.) |
| David: This is a bit more casual. |
| Nicole: Yeah 得意。(dak1 ji3.) |
| David: So you could say, wow, your dog is really cute. |
| Nicole: 嘩！你隻狗好得意呀！(waa1! nei5 zek3 gau2 hou2 dak1 ji3 aa3! ) |
| David: Or how about, wow, that’s really cute. What is it? |
| Nicole: 嘩！好得意呀！咩黎架？(waa1! hou2 dak1 ji3 aa3! me1 lai4 gaa3?) |
| David: Next up, we’ve got the word obedient. |
| Nicole: 乖。(gwaai1.) |
| David: Used more often to describe dogs than cats. |
| Nicole: That’s right 乖。(gwaai1.) For example, 你隻狗好乖呀！(nei5 zek3 gau2 hou2 gwaai1 aa3! ) |
| David: Your dog is really obedient. |
| Nicole: Or 嘩！你隻貓好乖呀！(waa1! nei5 zek3 maau1 hou2 gwaai1 aa3! ) |
| David: That is, that’s less likely. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: An interesting thing is that, often this will mean kind of the same thing as cute. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: I mean technically it doesn’t but people describing a cute animal will still use this word to describe it. |
| Nicole: Yeah it’s the most general compliment actually to pass. |
| David: Yeah. Now if you have an animal that is not cute and not obedient, people probably won’t mention that but they do describe animals negatively using the following words. |
| Nicole: 可惡 (ho2 wu3) |
| David: Wicked |
| Nicole: Or 兇惡 (hung1 ngok3) |
| David: Savage |
| Nicole: And you can simply say 惡 (ngok3) |
| David: Savage |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: It’s kind of wicked and savage they are kind of… |
| Nicole: But 可惡 (ho2 wu3 ) it’s too strong in tone you know. You are really cursing this animal. You know what I mean. You don’t want to do that. |
| David: So you could use it to describe to say, your up door neighbor’s dog which keeps barking in the evening. |
| Nicole: Yeah and it’s really wicked. |
| David: That dog is – it’s evil. |
| Nicole: Yeah 太可惡喇，隻狗太可惡啦。(taai3 ho2 wu3 laa3, zek3 gau2 taai3 ho2 wu3 laa3.) but normally you just say 隻狗比較惡。(zek3 gau2 bei2 gaau3 ngok3.) |
| David: And that’s quite savage. |
| Nicole: Yeah quite 比較惡。(bei2 gaau3 ngok3.) |
| David: You are not taking it all the way. |
| Nicole: That’s right. You don’t want to do that. |
| David: Yeah. Moving on, we’ve got these two verbs at the end of our vocab list that are a bit confusing. |
| Nicole: Yeah they are 抱 (pou5) |
| David: Which means to carry or to hold. |
| Nicole: And 攬 (laam2) |
| David: Which means to hug. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: This is confusing because technically to carry or hold means you are holding it in your arms and your chest. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So it’s – they kind of mean the same thing but not really. |
| Nicole: But not really yeah. In colloquial Cantonese 抱 (pou5 ) is more like to carry it to somewhere. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: But when you say 攬 (laam2 ) it has only one meaning that is to hug. |
| David: To give love. |
| Nicole: Yeah to give love. |
| David: Yeah. So again |
| Nicole: 抱 (pou5) |
| David: Technically means embracing something but here it’s used for carrying and moving and holding. |
| Nicole: Yeah, for example 抱隻狗出街 (pou5 zek3 gau2 ceot1 gaai1) is to carry the dog to the street. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: And when you take it for the walk but you don’t carry your dog. Yeah I just realized that. |
| David: No, no I have seen some people in Hong Kong that go for a walk carrying their dog. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: It’s like it doesn’t. |
| Nicole: Small size dogs, maybe not the large one. |
| David: It gets tired walking. If you bring a pet to Hong Kong, you should do this too and you are going to let us know on the site.. |
| Nicole: Definitely. |
| David: If you get any reaction from people. I was kind of surprised when I see it. Anyway, moving on, let’s get to our grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Okay Nicole, our grammar point comes from which line in the dialogue? |
| Nicole: 貓本來就可以跳好高。(maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 ho2 ji3 tiu3 hou2 gou1.) |
| David: Cats can jump really high naturally. |
| Nicole: 貓本來就可以跳好高。(maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 ho2 ji3 tiu3 hou2 gou1.) |
| David: It’s an adverb day at CantoneseClass101. We want to talk about this adverb. |
| Nicole: 本來 (bun2 loi4) |
| David: And this has a bunch of meanings. |
| Nicole: It can mean like as in the sentence naturally or originally. |
| David: Or you could be just talking about the way something used to be in the past. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Right. And how exactly to translate it really depends on the sentence. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Like in the dialogue, we were talking about a cat. |
| Nicole: 貓本來就可以跳好高。(maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 ho2 ji3 tiu3 hou2 gou1.) |
| David: Yeah. So they are not saying that in the past, the cats used to be able to jump really high. They are saying naturally or originally because of the way they are…. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: They are their fundamental nature. So the interesting thing about this is, you will hear it used to describe kind of natural characteristics of something, things that exist as a result of the state of nature. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: But also more commonly describing actions and situations that exist in the past. |
| Nicole: For example, 佢本來係老師。(keoi5 bun2 loi4 hai6 lou5 si1.) |
| David: He used to be a teacher. |
| Nicole: Yeah but now he is a doctor. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: Oh which is even better. 佢本來係老師，而家係醫生。(keoi5 bun2 loi4 hai6 lou5 si1, ji4 gaa1 hai6 ji1 sang1.) |
| David: How about a sentence like I used to prefer dogs, but now I prefer cats. |
| Nicole: 我本來鐘意狗，依家鍾意貓。(ngo5 bun2 loi4 zung1 ji3 gau2, ji1 gaa1 zung1 ji3 maau1.) |
| David: And you can switch that around. |
| Nicole: Yeah 我本來鐘意貓，依家鍾意狗。(ngo5 bun2 loi4 zung1 ji3 maau1, ji1 gaa1 zung1 ji3 gau2.) |
| David: Yeah. Another example for the example of naturally talking about cats, you’d say that you know, cats naturally like to eat fish. |
| Nicole: 貓本來就鐘意食魚。(maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 zung1 ji3 sik6 jyu2.) |
| David: And that’s something you hear quite a lot actually. |
| Nicole: That’s right. 本來就 (bun2 loi4 zau6) It’s kind of a common pattern. |
| David: Yeah it’s providing even more emphasis to this. |
| Nicole: Yeah to say that yeah, it naturally is this way. |
| David: Yeah. So in that sentence yeah. |
| Nicole: 貓本來就鐘意食魚。(maau1 bun2 loi4 zau6 zung1 ji3 sik6 jyu2.) |
| David: Yeah. And so that’s describing nature but it is again you know, describing the past. You might say for instance, Hong Kong used to be a fishing village. |
| Nicole: 香港本來係漁村。(hoeng1 gong2 bun2 loi4 hai6 jyu4 cyun1.) |
| David: Hong Kong used to be a fishing village but now it’s a huge city. |
| Nicole: 香港本來係漁村，而家係一個大城市。(hoeng1 gong2 bun2 loi4 hai6 jyu4 cyun1, ji4 gaa1 hai6 jat1 go3 daai6 sing4 si5.) |
| David: Yeah. So this is a pretty simple grammar point. It’s an adverb that we stick in front of verbs of course but it’s also a bit so. It can be naturally, it can be originally, it can mean in the past. How exactly to translate it depends on context. |
| Nicole: 冇錯，「本來就」就係咁用㗎喇。(mou5 co3, 「 bun2 loi4 zau6 」 zau6 hai6 gam3 jung6 gaa3 laa3.) |
Outro |
| David: Yeah and with that, that brings us to the end of this lesson and the end of season 1, upper beginner. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: If you have any questions about this lesson or about any of the lessons, we really strongly encourage you to leave a note on the site. |
| Nicole: Or email us. |
| David: Right. Our address is contact us at cantoneseclass101.com. For now though, from Hong Kong. |
| Nicole: 我係Nicole。(ngo5 hai6 Nicole.) |
| David: And I am David. Thanks for listening. |
| Nicole: Bye bye. |
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