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 here we are with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 13.
Nicole: “Cash or card”.
David: Right. Hong Kong is a shopping city.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: And you’ve got tons of ways to pay.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: The two big ones, of course, are cash or card.
Nicole: Yes.
David: So we’re going to learn how to answer this question. Or if you’re starting a business, how do you ask it yourself.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: So, we’ve got a dialogue, we’re going to take you there in a sec. Before we do, Nicole you have something you want to tell people.
Nicole: If you don’t leave a comment, I’m going to cry.
David: Nicole is getting very emotional. If you have any feedback or suggestions, leave a comment on the site or write her at?
Nicole: Contactus@catoneseclass101.com
David: Right. And Nicole will get back to you. That being said, let’s go to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A: 埋單,唔該。(maai4 daan1, m4 goi1.)
B: 現金定碌咭呀?(jin6 gam1 ding6 luk1 kaat1 aa3?)
A: 碌咭。(luk1 kaat1.)
B: 好。(hou2.)
A: Bill, please.
B: Cash or card?
A: Card.
B: Okay.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: So, Nicole. This is the eternal question. Will it be cash or will it be charged?
Nicole: I don’t know. Both I guess.
David: You like cash. I wish I had a better credit card. Anyway, we’ve got a vocab section and it is all about cash or charge, so, let’s get to that now.
VOCAB LIST
Nicole: 單。(daan1.)
David: “Bill”.
Nicole: 單, 單, 埋單。(daan1, daan1, maai4 daan1.)
David: “To pay the bill”.
Nicole: 埋單, 埋單, 現金。(maai4 daan1, maai4 daan1, jin6 gam1.)
David: “Cash”.
Nicole: 現金, 現金, 信用卡。(jin6 gam1, jin6 gam1, seon3 jung6 kaat1.)
David: “Credit card”.
Nicole: 信用卡, 信用卡, 碌咭。(seon3 jung6 kaat1, seon3 jung6 kaat1, luk1 kaat1.)
David: “To swipe the card”.
Nicole: 碌咭, 碌咭, 碌爆咭。(luk1 kaat1, luk1 kaat1, luk1 baau3 kaat1.)
David: “To not be able to use the card”.
Nicole: 碌爆咭, 碌爆咭, 散紙。(luk1 baau3 kaat1, luk1 baau3 kaat1, saan2 zi2.)
David: “Change”.
Nicole: 散紙, 散紙, 貼士。(saan2 zi2, saan2 zi2, tip1 si2.)
David: “Tips”.
Nicole: 貼士, 貼士。(tip1 si2, tip1 si2.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: We’re going to focus on vocab in sec, but Nicole, first things first. Who do you have to tip in Hong Kong?
Nicole: I guess the waitress? In fancy restaurants only.
David: Yeah.
Nicole: Not always.
David: And if there’s a service charge you don’t need to.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: Right, because a lot of restaurants in Hong Kong will do that.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: What about taxi drivers?
Nicole: I don’t tip them.
David: Okay.
Nicole: But you’re welcome to, I mean.
David: I like when you do. You don’t need to. Okay, anyway we’ve got a lot of new vocab here. First, obviously is bill.
Nicole: 單。(daan1.)
David: “Bill”.
Nicole: 單。 (daan1.)
David: And, to order the bill you say?
Nicole: 埋單。(maai4 daan1)
David: “To pay the bill.”
Nicole: 埋單. (maai4 daan1.) it’s literally “to bury the bill”.
David: Yeah.
Nicole: If you’ll look at the PDF you’ll see the character. It’s “to bury the bill”.
David: Yeah. And they stole this in Chinese.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: So, now that you know this in Cantonese, if you cross into the mainland you can say that too.
Nicole: 埋單 (maai4 daan1), it’s exactly the same sound.
David: Exactly the same sound. Now, next we’ve got “cash”.
Nicole: 現金。 (jin6 gam1.)
David: “Cash”.
Nicole: 現金。 (jin6 gam1.)
David: And “credit card”.
Nicole: 信用卡。 (seon3 jung6 kaat1.)
David: Now, next we’ve got “cash”.
Nicole: 現金。(jin6 gam1.)
David: “Cash”.
Nicole: 現金。(jin6 gam1.)
David: And “credit card”.
Nicole: 信用卡。 (seon3 jung6 kaat1.)
David: “Credit card”.
Nicole: 信用卡。 (seon3 jung6 kaat1.)
David: We’re going to come back to these in the grammar section. For now though, we want to talk about two verb phrases that are going to be interested like. The first is “to swipe the card”.
Nicole: 碌咭。(luk1 kaat1.)
David: “To swipe the card”.
Nicole: 碌咭。(luk1 kaat1.)
David: And I love this because our second phrase. Nicole, what is this?
Nicole: 碌爆咭。 (luk1 baau3 kaat1.)
David: One more time!
Nicole: 碌爆咭。 (luk1 baau3 kaat1.)
David: This is lovely. It’s literally “swipe explode the card”.
Nicole: Yeah, you swipe it and it explodes. 碌爆咭. (luk1 baau3 kaat1.)
David: And that means it’s not working.
Nicole: Yeah, it’s out of credit.
David: Yes.
Nicole: You can’t use it.
David: Literally you can’t use it but it’s really suggestive, you swipe it and it explodes.
Nicole: 碌爆咭。(luk1 baau3 kaat1.)
David: “Do you take cash?”
Nicole: 可唔可以比現金? (ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 bei2 jin6 gam1?)
David: So that’s our vocab section, our grammar point today is reviewing how to offer people choices.

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time! In our grammar section today we’re reviewing how to offer people choices. If you remember, in our earlier lesson, we offered you the choice of going to a movie or seeing a play.
Nicole: 電影定話劇? (din6 jing2 ding6 waa2 kek6?)
David: “Movie or play”.
Nicole: 電影定話劇? (din6 jing2 ding6 waa2 kek6?)
David: And the key word there was?
Nicole: 定。(ding6.)
David: Which means “or”.
Nicole: 定。(ding6.)
David: In this lesson, we see this again in the phrase “Cash or card?”
Nicole: 現金定碌咭呀? (jin6 gam1 ding6 luk1 kaat1 aa3?)
David: “Cash or card?”
Nicole: 現金定碌咭呀? (jin6 gam1 ding6 luk1 kaat1 aa3?)
David: Right. Before we go on, what’s this 呀(aa3) at the end of the sentence.
Nicole: It’s a pronounced question mark, in here. You can live it up if you don’t want. 現金定碌咭?(jin6 gam1 ding6 luk1 kaat1?)
David: Right. So the 呀 (aa3) is optional, you just add that tone, you know, which one do you want. You could also say “movie or play?”
Nicole: 電影定話劇呀? (din6 jing2 ding6 waa2 kek6 aa3?)
David: Now, there’s something a bit different about this choice compared to the one we offered before.
Nicole: That’s right. There’s different types of words are combined in one sentence.
David: Right. In our earlier lesson, we told you to put the same kinds of words together. As in “concert or movie”.
Nicole: 演唱會定電影? (jin2 coeng3 wui5 ding6 din6 jing2?)
David: We also told you how to put two verbs together, for instance “to eat or watch a movie”.
Nicole: 食飯定睇戲? (sik6 faan6 ding6 tai2 hei3?)
David: In this lesson, we have an unbalanced pair. We have one which is a noun.
Nicole: 現金。 (jin6 gam1.)
David: And one which is technically a verb.
Nicole: 碌咭。(luk1 kaat1.)
David: “Cash”.
Nicole: 現金。 (jin6 gam1.)
David: Versus “to swipe the card”.
Nicole: 碌咭。 (luk1 kaat1.)
David: This is more complex, but in Cantonese we can do this too.
Nicole: That’s right. 現金定碌咭?(jin6 gam1 ding6 luk1 kaat1?) Different types of words.
David: Right. We can even use adjectives. As in the sentence “good looking or bad looking”.
Nicole: 好睇定唔好睇? (hou2 tai2 ding6 m4 hou2 tai2?)
David: You can even use this with colors. For instance, “red or white”.
Nicole: 紅色定白色?(hung4 sik1 ding6 baak6 sik1?)
David: Right. So this lesson is mostly review, but it’s really important. Remember, if you’re giving people a choice, the key word is?
Nicole: 定。 (ding6.)
David: And optionally you can add this sound at the end of the sentence to make it feel like more of a question.
Nicole: 呀?(aa3?)
David: “Will that be cash or charge?”
Nicole: 現金定碌咭呀? (jin6 gam1 ding6 luk1 kaat1 aa3?)

Outro

David: Right. So that just about does it for today. Now, we want to remind you.
Nicole: Get instant access to all of our language learning lessons.
David: With any subscription level. You’re going to instantly be able to listen to all of these lessons, as well watch our video lessons, too.
Nicole: You can download the lessons or listen or watch it online!
David: Right. And that means you can watch it on your iPhone or your iPod or any other mobile device which is a really convenient way to learn.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: So, be sure to go check that out. If you haven’t signed up yet, sign up and get a free seven day trial. Okay. With that, thanks a lot for listening and we hope to see you on the site! I’m David.
Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole.
David: Thanks a lot for listening.
Nicole: See you!
David: Bye-bye.

Grammar

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