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 we’re here today with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 19.
Nicole: “No smoking.”
David: Right. And regardless what you smoke or not, this is an important lesson.
Nicole: Yeah. You’ll learn important useful phrases.
David: Yeah like how to tell people you do want a smoking seat or not smoking seat.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: Right. So, we’ve got a dialogue that’s between a smoker and serving staff at a restaurant.
Nicole: And they’re speaking casual Cantonese.
David: As always. Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue, before we do we want to remind you we got premium PDFs up on the site for you to download.
Nicole: Sign up for premium subscription.
David: And you’ll get access to all of these. The transcripts, the vocab, the grammar point. Everything else, it’s really going to help you learn Cantonese.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: It’s better than a textbook. Okay. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue.
DIALOGUE
A: 呢度可唔可以食煙? (ni1 dou6 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?)
B: 唔好意思,唔可以。 (m4 hou2 ji3 si1, m4 ho2 ji5.)
A: 邊度可以? (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5?)
B: 出便。(ceot1 bin6.)
A: Is smoking allowed here?
B: Sorry, it isn't.
A: Where can I smoke?
B: Outside.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
David: So Nicole, you’re not a smoker.
Nicole: No.
David: Yeah and Hong Kong has banned public smoking.
Nicole: Yeah, that’s a good thing.
David: Yeah. It’s a really fit society, but regardless if you smoke or you don’t smoke, you need to know this vocab, so let’s get to it.
VOCAB LIST
Nicole: 煙。(jin1.)
David: “Cigarette”.
Nicole: 煙, 煙, 食煙。(jin1, jin1, sik6 jin1.)
David: “To smoke”.
Nicole: 食煙, 食煙, 邊度。(sik6 jin1, sik6 jin1, bin1 dou6.)
David: “Where”.
Nicole: 邊度, 邊度, 出便。(bin1 dou6, bin1 dou6, ceot1 bin6.)
David: “Outside”.
Nicole: 出便, 出便, 入便。(ceot1 bin6, ceot1 bin6, jap6 bin6.)
David: “Inside”.
Nicole: 入便, 入便, 打火機。(jap6 bin6, jap6 bin6, daa2 fo2 gei1.)
David: “Lighter”.
Nicole: 打火機, 打火機, 煙灰缸。(daa2 fo2 gei1, daa2 fo2 gei1, jin1 fui1 gong1.)
David: “Ashtray”.
Nicole: 煙灰缸 , 煙灰缸 , 雪茄。(jin1 fui1 gong1, jin1 fui1 gong1, syut3 gaa1.)
David: “Cigar”.
Nicole: 雪茄, 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1, syut3 gaa1.)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. Our first word is “smoke” or “cigarette”.
Nicole: 煙。(jin1.)
David: “Cigarette”.
Nicole: 煙。(jin1.)
David: And that literally means “smoke”.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: And so the word “to smoke” is literally “to eat smoke”.
Nicole: Yeah. 食煙。(sik6 jin1.)
David: “To eat smoke”.
Nicole: 食煙。(sik6 jin1.)
David: If you are a smoker, you can ask “Can I smoke?”
Nicole: 可唔可以食煙? (ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?)
David: Or even maybe “Please, can I smoke?”
Nicole: 唔該, 我可唔可以食煙? (m4 goi1 , ngo5 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?)
David: They’re probably going to tell you “Smoke outside.”
Nicole: 出便食煙。(ceot1 bin6 sik6 jin1.)
David: “Smoke outside.”
Nicole: 出便食煙。(ceot1 bin6 sik6 jin1.)
David: Although in some places they have ventilated rooms.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: And they’ll say “smoke inside”.
Nicole: 入便食煙。(jap6 bin6 sik6 jin1.)
David: “Smoke inside”.
Nicole: 入便食煙。(jap6 bin6 sik6 jin1.)
David: And that introduces two opposite words for us which are new.
Nicole: 出便 (ceot1 bin6) and 入便. (jap6 bin6.)
David: “Outside”.
Nicole: 出便。(ceot1 bin6.)
David: “Inside”.
Nicole: 入便 (jap6 bin6), and you sometimes hear people say 出面 (ceot1 min6) and 入面. (jap6 min6.)They’re almost the same.
David: Let’s hear those again. The two ways of saying “outside”.
Nicole: 出便, 出面。(ceot1 bin6 , ceot1 min6.)
David: And the two ways of saying “inside”.
Nicole: 入便, 入面。(jap6 bin6 , jap6 min6.)
David: Which one is more colloquial?
Nicole: I’d say 出便。(ceot1 bin6.)
David: Okay, with the “b” sound.
Nicole: Yes. Exactly.
David: Okay. Our next three words are all words that you’re going to use if you smoke. That’s a “lighter”.
Nicole: 打火機。(daa2 fo2 gei1.)
David: “Lighter”.
Nicole: 打火機。(daa2 fo2 gei1.)
David: “Do you have a lighter?”
Nicole: 有冇打火機?(jau5 mou5 daa2 fo2 gei1?)
David: “Do you have a lighter?”
Nicole: 有冇打火機?(jau5 mou5 daa2 fo2 gei1?)
David: And you can get away with this in many restaurants, but you might find a place where you need to ask for an “ashtray”.
Nicole: 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.)
David: “Ashtray”.
Nicole: 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.)
David: That’s literally a “smoke ash container”.
Nicole: Exactly. 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.)
David: “Do you have an ashtray?”
Nicole: 有冇煙灰缸?(jau5 mou5 jin1 fui1 gong1?)
David: And even though smoking is outlawed in many public places, there are still occasions where people will celebrate with a cigar.
Nicole: 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1.)
David: “A cigar”.
Nicole: 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1.)
David: “Do you want a cigar?”
Nicole: 要唔要雪茄?(jiu3 m4 jiu3 syut3 gaa1?)
David: “Do you want a cigar?”
Nicole: 要唔要雪茄?(jiu3 m4 jiu3 syut3 gaa1?)
David: So that’s our key smoking vocab. First, we have the word “cigarette” or “smoke”.
Nicole: 煙。(jin1.)
David: Then the verb “to eat smoke”.
Nicole: 食煙 (sik6 jin1) and you can also say 食雪茄. (sik6 syut3 gaa1.)
David: “To smoke a cigar”.
Nicole: 食雪茄。(sik6 syut3 gaa1.)
David: We have the words “outside”.
Nicole: 出便 (ceot1 bin6) or 出面 (ceot1 min6).
David: And the words “inside”.
Nicole: 入便 (jap6 bin6) or 入面 (jap6 min6).
David: And finally we have “lighter”.
Nicole: 打火機。(daa2 fo2 gei1.)
David: “Ashtray”.
Nicole: 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.)
David: And “cigar”.
Nicole: 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1.)
David: And with that, let’s get to our grammar section.

Lesson focus

David: It’s grammar time! Our grammar focus this lesson is the difference between two really easy questions concerning where can you do something. In the dialogue, we heard this line.
Nicole: 邊度可以? (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5?)
David: That’s literally “where can”.
Nicole: 邊度 可以? (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5?)
David: And here it means “Where can I smoke?”
Nicole: 邊度可以食煙? (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?)
David: But you don’t need to say.
Nicole: 邊度? (bin1 dou6?)
David: You could also say.
Nicole: 邊? (bin1?)
David: For example, “where can?”
Nicole: 邊可以? (bin1 ho2 ji5?)
David: “Where can I smoke?”
Nicole: 邊可以食煙? (bin1 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?)
David: So we’ve got two ways of saying “where”.
Nicole: 邊度 (bin1 dou6) and 邊 (bin1)?
David: Nicole, what’s the difference?
Nicole: In most of cases they’re interchangeable, but 邊度 (bin1 dou6) is more formal than 邊 (bin1).
David: Okay. So, if you’re walking around Hong Kong, you should usually say.
Nicole: 邊 (bin1)?
David: It’s shorter, it’s easier.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: And that’s what people are used to.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: But, when you’re on the subway when you’re listening to public announcements, you’re going to hear.
Nicole: 邊度? (bin1 dou6?)
David: Because it’s a bit more formal and maybe even a bit more polite.
Nicole: That’s right.
David: Okay. Let’s practice this by going over some very simple sentences. “Where to go?”
Nicole: 去邊? (heoi3 bin1?)
David: Or.
Nicole: 去邊度? (heoi3 bin1 dou6?)
David: “Where do you live?”
Nicole: 你住邊? (nei5 zyu6 bin1?)
David: Or.
Nicole: 你住邊度? (nei5 zyu6 bin1 dou6?)
David: “Where are you?”
Nicole: 你哋喺邊?(nei5 dei6 hai2 bin1?)
David: Or.
Nicole: 你哋喺邊度?(nei5 dei6 hai2 bin1 dou6?)
David: Although if you’re walking lost around Hong Kong, you’re going to wonder reverse that. And make it “Where am I”?
Nicole: Yeah. 我喺邊?(ngo5 hai2 bin1?) or 我喺邊度?(ngo5 hai2 bin1 dou6?)
David: So, to review. There are two ways of saying “where”. The first is more colloquial.
Nicole: 邊?(bin1?)
David: The second is a bit politer and a bit more formal.
Nicole: 邊度?(bin1 dou6?)

Outro

David: And that just about does it for today. Now Nicole, there’s something you want to remind people about leaving comments.
Nicole: Yeah. If you have a comment or have a question about Cantonese or about our lesson, please come to our website CantoneseClass101.com and leave us a comment.
David: Right. Nicole is reading them every day and she also takes suggestions.
Nicole: Yeah.
David: So if you have something that you’d like to learn and we haven’t covered, just say “Nicole, I want to learn this.” Okay, so that’s it for today. Thanks for listening. I’m David.
Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole.
David: And we look forward to seeing you on the site.
Nicole: See you!
David: Bye-bye.

Grammar

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