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 are with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 17.
Nicole: “Recharging phones in Cantonese”.
David: Right. In our last lesson we covered how to pay the phone bill.
Nicole: Now we charge them.
David: Yeah, because you have to keep them fully charged too. Especially at the rate which would people like Nicole will use them. Always texting, always dialing.
Nicole: Living in the modern world.
David: Anyway, we’ve got a dialogue that also lives in the modern world and we’re going to get to that in a sec. We got all these great iPod and iPad and iPhone apps you can download from iTunes.
Nicole: That’s right. They’re very fun and easy to use.
David: Yeah and it will let you study on the go. So, if you’ve got an iPad or iPhone, be sure to check that out. Now though, let’s get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A: 電話冇錢。 (din6 waa2 mou5 cin2.)
B: 充值啦。(cung1 zik6 laa1.)
A: 仲冇電。(zung6 mou5 din6.)
B: 叉電啦。(caa1 din6 laa1.)
A: My phone is out of credit.
B: Top it up.
A: Its battery is also dead.
B: Charge it.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: Nicole, you hear this a lot.
Nicole: I do.
David: Right.
Nicole: It happens a lot.
David: Yes. It’s because you’re always using your phone.
Nicole: Well, I guess it happens so everybody nowadays.
David: Well it happens to everyone in Hong Kong, because everyone in Hong Kong is constantly using their phone.
Nicole: Yes. They said it causes cancer. I don’t believe it though.
David: You wouldn’t. But anyway, we got key vocab which you’re going to use if you need to recharge your phone with either cash or power.
Nicole: Right.
David: So, let’s get to that.
VOCAB LIST
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: “Telephone”.
Nicole: 電話, 電話, 充值。(din6 waa2, din6 waa2, cung1 zik6.)
David: “To top up”.
Nicole: 充值, 充值, 電池。(cung1 zik6, cung1 zik6, din6 ci4.)
David: “Battery”.
Nicole: 電池, 電池, 仲。(din6 ci4, din6 ci4, zung6.)
David: “Even more”.
Nicole: 仲, 仲, 電。(zung6, zung6, din6.)
David: “Electricity”.
Nicole: 電, 電, 叉電。(din6, din6, caa1 din6.)
David: “To charge”.
Nicole: 叉電, 叉電, 充值卡。(caa1 din6, caa1 din6, cung1 zik6 kaat1.)
David: “A recharge card”.
Nicole: 充值卡, 充值卡, 充電器。(cung1 zik6 kaat1, cung1 zik6 kaat1, cung1 din6 hei3.)
David: “Recharger”.
Nicole: 充電器, 充電器。(cung1 din6 hei3, cung1 din6 hei3.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: So, our vocab today is about adding power and adding money to your phone. Especially if you live in Hong Kong. So, our first word is review word and that’s “telephone”.
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: “Telephone”.
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: “Give me a telephone call”.
Nicole: 打電話比我。(daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: “Give me a telephone call”.
Nicole: 打電話比我。(daa2 din6 waa2 bei2 ngo5.)
David: And that’s probably what happened before this dialogue and they realized “Wait a minute! The telephone is out of money and out of power!”
Nicole: Yeah, can’t’ get through.
David: Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of word for topping it up. The first is “to add money”.
Nicole: 充值。(cung1 zik6.)
David: “To add money”.
Nicole: 充值。(cung1 zik6.)
David: So how do you say “refill a phone”?
Nicole: 電話充值。(din6 waa2 cung1 zik6.)
David: “To refill a phone”.
Nicole: 電話充值。(din6 waa2 cung1 zik6.)
David: “I want to refill my phone”.
Nicole: 我要電話充值。(ngo5 jiu3 din6 waa2 cung1 zik6.)
David: “I want to refill my phone”.
Nicole: 我要電話充值。 (ngo5 jiu3 din6 waa2 cung1 zik6.)
David: So that’s going to add money.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: Power is a bit trick here. And we’ve got the word “power” in this dialogue.
Nicole: 電。 (din6.)
David: “Power”.
Nicole: 電。(din6.)
David: Or “electricity”.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: Right. And these characters are really fun too, because it’s a picture of the clouds and then lightning is coming down from them.
Nicole: Exactly.
David: So, that’s electricity.
Nicole: 電。(din6.)
David: And that also gives us the word for “battery”.
Nicole: 電池。(din6 ci4.)
David: “Battery”.
Nicole: 電池。(din6 ci4.)
David: And that word literally means a pool of electricity.
Nicole: Exactly.
David: Right. So, store up the thunder and like that.
Nicole: 電池。(din6 ci4.)
David: Right. Now, to charge your phone you have to do this.
Nicole: 叉電。(caa1 din6.)
David: Which means “to add power”.
Nicole: 叉電 (caa1 din6), the character 叉 (caa1) comes from English. 叉 (caa1) sounds a bit like “charge”, so 叉電 (caa1 din6) is “to charge your phone”.
David: Doesn’t sound that much like “charge”.
Nicole: Well, to our Cantonese ears, it does.
David: Okay. And we’ve got two more words that are key and when you’re shopping you can ask for these. The first is “recharge card”.
Nicole: 充值卡。 (cung1 zik6 kaat1.)
David: “A recharge card”.
Nicole: 充值卡。 (cung1 zik6 kaat1.)
David: You scratch off the back, you put the number in your phone and you’ve added money to it.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: The second is a “power charger”.
Nicole: 充電器。 (cung1 din6 hei3.)
David: “Power charger”.
Nicole: 充電器。(cung1 din6 hei3.)
David: So, these are two the most important words.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: You can go into a convenient store and you can say “I need a recharge card”.
Nicole: 我要充值卡。(ngo5 jiu3 cung1 zik6 kaat1.)
David: Or “I need a power charger”.
Nicole: 我要充電器。 (ngo5 jiu3 cung1 din6 hei3.)
David: And they’ll be able to help you out.
Nicole: Yeah. And if you want to ask for a 100 Hong Kong recharge card, you can say 我要一百蚊充值卡。 (ngo5 jiu3 jat1 baak3 man1 cung1 zik6 kaat1.)
David: Yeah, put the amount of money in front of the word.
Nicole: 充值卡。 (cung1 zik6 kaat1.)
David: And that brings us to the end of our vocab section. Let’s move on to our grammar point.

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time! Our grammar point is covering this character.
Nicole: 仲。 (zung6.)
David: This means “even more”.
Nicole: 仲。 (zung6.)
David: We use this when we’re talking about two situations.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: A is true and, even more B is true. In the dialogue, we heard it like this.
Nicole: 電話冇錢, 仲冇電。(din6 waa2 mou5 cin2, zung6 mou5 din6.)
David: First we had the subject, the telephone.
Nicole: 電話。(din6 waa2.)
David: Then we had A.
Nicole: 冇錢。(mou5 cin2.)
David: “Even more”.
Nicole: 仲。(zung6.)
David: B.
Nicole: 冇電。(mou5 din6.)
David: “It doesn’t have money”.
Nicole: 冇錢。(mou5 cin2.)
David: “Even more”.
Nicole: 仲。(zung6.)
David: “It doesn’t have money”.
Nicole: 冇錢。(mou5 cin2.)
David: Let’s hear that full sentence again.
Nicole: 電話冇錢, 仲冇電。(din6 waa2 mou5 cin2, zung6 mou5 din6.)
David: Right. So, in this chase, we’re stressing the B is even worse than A.
Nicole: That’s right. Or in some case it can be even better.
David: Let’s have some more examples.
Nicole: 佢識唱歌,仲識跳舞。(keoi5 sik1 coeng3 go1, zung6 sik1 tiu3 mou5.)
David: “She can sing and even more, she can dance.”
Nicole: 佢識唱歌,仲識跳舞。(keoi5 sik1 coeng3 go1, zung6 sik1 tiu3 mou5.)
David: Now, if you’ve just moved to Hong Kong and you’re poor, you might say this next sentence.
Nicole: 我冇樓,仲冇車。(ngo5 mou5 lau2, zung6 mou5 ce1.)
David: “I have no houses and no car.”
Nicole: 我冇樓,仲冇車。(ngo5 mou5 lau2, zung6 mou5 ce1.) I can’t decide which situation is worse.
David: Right.
Nicole: What’s your opinion David?
David: I think this stings a bit close to home. So, let’s hear that again. “I have no houses and no cars.”
Nicole: 我冇樓,仲冇車。(ngo5 mou5 lau2, zung6 mou5 ce1.)
David: Right. In all of those cases, we’ve been changing together verb phrases. Here, in our next sentence we can chain together adjectives.
Nicole: 天氣熱,仲曬。 (tin1 hei3 jit6, zung6 saai3.)
David: We’ve heard all of these words before. Nicole, say that again and let’s see if you can understand it.
Nicole: 天氣熱,仲曬。(tin1 hei3 jit6, zung6 saai3.)
David: We have “the weather”.
Nicole: 天氣。(tin1 hei3.)
David: “It’s hot”.
Nicole: 熱。(jit6.)
David: “And also”.
Nicole: 仲。(zung6.)
David: “Too sunny”.
Nicole: 曬。(saai3.)
David: “It’s hot and too sunny”.
Nicole: 天氣熱,仲曬。(tin1 hei3 jit6, zung6 saai3.)
David: Our last example comes right out from the film industry.
Nicole: 佢係演員,仲係導演。(keoi5 hai6 jin2 jyun4, zung6 hai6 dou6 jin2.)
David: “He’s an actor and even more a director.”
Nicole: 佢係演員,仲係導演。(keoi5 hai6 jin2 jyun4, zung6 hai6 dou6 jin2.)
David: “He’s an actor and even more a director.”
Nicole: Steven Chau.
David: You like Steven Chau.
Nicole: Who doesn’t? Oh you don’t?
David: Oh no, I like him too. He’s great. So, that’s our point for today. We’ve got a really, really simple grammar structure. We can put the subject at the beginning and then separate two verbs or adjectives with.
Nicole: 仲。(zung6.)
David: To stress not only A, but even more B.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: “My phone is out of money and even more is out of power.”
Nicole: 電話冇錢, 仲冇電。(din6 waa2 mou5 cin2, zung6 mou5 din6.)

Outro

David: So that just about does it for today. Now, before you go, we want to remind you if you were ever pressed for time, this can come around really handy.
Nicole: That’s right. Listen to the dialogue lesson recap.
David: These audio tracks are available only to premium subscribers and they contain only a lesson dialogue.
Nicole: So, go to CantoneseClass101.com and sign up for a premium account.
David: Great and with that, that’s our lesson for today. As always, we hope to hear from you and if you have any questions, leave a note on the site.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: I’m David.
Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole.
David: Thanks a lot for listening and we’ll see you later.
Nicole: See you!
David: Bye-bye.

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