Learn about verb reduplication
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: 我係Gimmy, 大家好。 (ngo5 hai6 Gimmy, daai6 gaa1 hou2.) |
| David: And we’re here with Beginner Season 1, Lesson 6… |
| Gimmy: Taking photos in Hong Kong. |
| David: Right. Or having people taking photos of you. So in this lesson, we’re going to make sure that you look good. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: You have to learn how to smile. |
| David: Yes. We’re going to teach you the Cantonese to make sure you’re as pretty or handsome as you can be when someone snaps that shot. |
| Gimmy: Yes, all about pretty. |
| David: We’ve got a dialogue. It’s a bunch of people taking a photo. Let’s take the lesson. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 咪郁！(mai5 juk1!) |
| 我都冇郁。(ngo5 dou1 mou5 juk1.) |
| 笑下啦。(siu3 haa5 laa1.) |
| 得唔得？ (dak1 m4 dak1?) |
| 一，二，三⋯⋯ (jat1 ji6 saam1…...) |
| 俾我睇下。(bei2 ngo5 tai2 haa5.) |
| David: Once again, a bit slower. |
| 咪郁！(mai5 juk1!) |
| 我都冇郁。(ngo5 dou1 mou5 juk1.) |
| 笑下啦。(siu3 haa5 laa1.) |
| 得唔得？ (dak1 m4 dak1?) |
| 一，二，三⋯⋯ (jat1 ji6 saam1…...) |
| 俾我睇下。(bei2 ngo5 tai2 haa5.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 咪郁！(mai5 juk1!) |
| A: Don't move! |
| 我都冇郁。(ngo5 dou1 mou5 juk1.) |
| B: I didn't move. |
| 笑下啦。(siu3 haa5 laa1.) |
| A: Smile a bit! |
| 得唔得？ (dak1 m4 dak1?) |
| B: Is this okay? |
| 一，二，三⋯⋯ (jat1 ji6 saam1…...) |
| A: One, two, three... |
| 俾我睇下。(bei2 ngo5 tai2 haa5.) |
| B: Let me take a look. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So the key to looking good, Gimmy? |
| Gimmy: To smile! |
| David: Right, unless you don’t look good when you smile because there’s… |
| Gimmy: Who doesn’t? |
| David: …because there’s the exception approves of a rule. |
| Gimmy: Okay. |
| David: So if you don’t look good when you smile, don’t smile. Everyone else… |
| Gimmy: Smile. |
| David: Our vocab today, it’s about photography, smiling, looking good. Let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 咪 (mai5) [natural native speed] |
| David: Don't. |
| Gimmy: 咪 (mai5) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 咪 (mai5) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 得唔得 (dak1 m4 dak1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Okay or not. |
| Gimmy: 得唔得 (dak1 m4 dak1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 得唔得 (dak1 m4 dak1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 俾 (bei2) [natural native speed] |
| David: To give. |
| Gimmy: 俾 (bei2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 俾 (bei2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 睇 (tai2) [natural native speed] |
| David: To watch. |
| Gimmy: 睇 (tai2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 睇 (tai2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 見 (gin3) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To see. |
| Gimmy: 見 (gin3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 見 (gin3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 郁 (juk1) [natural native speed] |
| David: To move. |
| Gimmy: 郁 (juk1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 郁 (juk1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 笑 (siu3) [natural native speed] |
| David: To smile. |
| Gimmy: 笑 (siu3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 笑 (siu3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 都 (dou1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Also. |
| Gimmy: 都 (dou1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 都 (dou1) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. |
| Gimmy: The first one is 咪. (mai5.) |
| David: And you translated this as “don’t.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. 咪. (mai5.) |
| David: “Don’t.” |
| Gimmy: 咪郁！(mai5 juk1!) |
| David: “Don’t move.” Now Gimmy, I know what everyone’s thinking, because I’m thinking the same thing. A few lessons ago, we taught everyone a different way to say “don’t move.” |
| Gimmy: Yes, 唔好郁 (m4 hou2 juk1). |
| David: Don’t move. |
| Gimmy: 唔好郁. (m4 hou2 juk1.) |
| David: Right. So we have two ways of saying the same thing. |
| Gimmy: We do. |
| David: The first is… |
| Gimmy: 咪. (mai5.) |
| David: The second is…. |
| Gimmy: 唔好. (m4 hou2.) |
| David: And you can use either of them. |
| Gimmy: Yes, they’re interchangeable. |
| David: Right. So if the police say… |
| Gimmy: 咪郁！(mai5 juk1!) |
| David: Do not stop because you’re waiting for… |
| Gimmy: 唔好郁. (m4 hou2 juk1.) |
| David: Right. These two words are totally interchangeable. |
| Gimmy: Yes, they are. |
| David: For a couple of word samples, you might hear someone say… |
| Gimmy: 咪嘈！(mai1 cou4!) |
| David: “Don’t make noise.” |
| Gimmy: That’s when I’m sleeping, 咪嘈. (mai1 cou4.) |
| David: Right. So literally, no no ruckus. |
| Gimmy: Right. And David, I got another one. When I’m changing and somebody’s around, I have to say 咪睇. (mai1 tai2.) |
| David: “Don’t look.” |
| Gimmy: 咪睇. (mai1 tai2.) |
| David: Right. And in both of these cases, you can go with the longer form we taught you before. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So you could also say… |
| Gimmy: 唔好嘈. (m4 hou2 cou4.) |
| David: “Don’t make so much noise” or… |
| Gimmy: 唔好睇. (m4 hou2 tai2.) |
| David: “Don’t look.” This is just it’s a bit shorter, it’s a bit faster. Okay. The second word we want to highlight today is… |
| Gimmy: 睇. (tai2.) |
| David: And this means “to look.” |
| Gimmy: 睇. (tai2.) |
| David: And the reason we want to highlight this is because there’s another verb that’s really close. |
| Gimmy: Yes, 見. (gin3.) |
| David: To see. |
| Gimmy: 見. (gin3.)While they’re close, one is more casual. |
| David: Right. And that’s? |
| Gimmy: 睇 (tai2), It’s a little more casual than 見 (gin3). |
| David: Right. So you’re going to hear it more often. And you do. You hear it more often in our dialogues, too. |
| Gimmy: Right. In the dialogue we have, 俾我睇下啦 (bei2 ngo5 tai2 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: “Let me take a look.” |
| Gimmy: 俾我睇下啦. (bei2 ngo5 tai2 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: “Let me take a look.” And there’s something else that’s a bit of a mystery here, it’s that verb compliment following the verb. |
| Gimmy: 下. (haa5.) |
| David: To learn what this is doing, we’re going to have to go to the grammar section. |
| Gimmy: Okay. |
Lesson focus |
| David: It’s grammar time! In our grammar point for today, we want to talk about doing things a bit. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: In our dialogue, we heard this in two places. |
| Gimmy: 笑下啦. (siu3 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: “Smile a bit.” |
| Gimmy: 笑下啦. (siu3 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: “Smile a bit.” We also heard it… |
| Gimmy: 睇下啦. (tai2 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: “Look a bit.” |
| Gimmy: 睇下啦. (tai2 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: And that was in the line “let me take a look.” |
| Gimmy: Right, 俾我睇下啦. (bei2 ngo5 tai2 haa5 laa1.) |
| David: Right. So really, we should translate that as “let me take a look for a little bit of time.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So what we’ve got is we’ve got a one character verb…. |
| Gimmy: ….plus 下 (haa5). |
| David: So smile. |
| Gimmy: 笑下. (siu3 haa5.) |
| David: Or look. |
| Gimmy: 睇下. (tai2 haa5.) |
| David: And we can do this with any verb. |
| Gimmy: Right. For example, let’s take a look at this verb, 試下. (si3 haa5.) |
| David: The verb there is “to try.” |
| Gimmy: 試 (si3) |
| David: “Try a little bit.” |
| Gimmy: 試下. (si3 haa5.) |
| David: And you’re going to hear this when you’re eating or when you’re trying on clothing. |
| Gimmy: You do. |
| David: For instance, someone can put food on your plate and say, “Try it, it tastes good.” |
| Gimmy: 試下, 好味㗎. (si3 haa5, hou2 mei6 gaa3.) |
| David: “Try it, it tastes good.” |
| Gimmy: 試下, 好味㗎. (si3 haa5, hou2 mei6 gaa3.) |
| David: Or maybe you’re trying on clothes with a friend and they say, “Try this, you’ll like it.” |
| Gimmy: 試下呢個，你會鍾意㗎. (si3 haa5 ni1 go3, nei5 wui5 zung1 ji3 gaa3.) |
| David: “Try this.” |
| Gimmy: 試下呢個. (si3 haa5 ni1 go3.) |
| David: “You’ll like it.” |
| Gimmy: 你會鍾意㗎. (nei5 wui5 zung1 ji3 gaa3.) |
| David: So this is a really easy grammar structure. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Any verb that’s a single character, we can add…. |
| Gimmy: 下. (haa5.) |
| David: And it means doing it for a little bit of time. |
| Gimmy: Right. David, let me give you another example. Let’s say you want to talk to someone. |
| David: Right. But imagine they’re busy, so you need to tell them, “Look, listen for a bit.” |
| Gimmy: 你聽下我講嘢. (nei5 teng1 haa5 ngo5 gong2 je5.) |
| David: “You listen for a bit.” |
| Gimmy: 你聽下我講嘢. (nei5 teng1 haa5 ngo5 gong2 je5.) |
| David: Right. Or literally, “Listen to me for a bit, I’ve got something to say.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So you’re going to run into this again and again and again. Just remember, single character verbs like… |
| Gimmy: 睇, 聽, 笑. (tai2 , teng1 , siu3.) |
| David: When they’re followed by this verb compliment… |
| Gimmy: 下. (haa5.) |
| David: It means you’re doing it for a short period of time. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: And with that, we’re at the end of our lesson. |
Outro |
| Gimmy: David, before we let people go, let’s remind them together free account. |
| David: Right. At CantoneseClass101.com, it takes all of seven seconds to sign-up at CantoneseClass101.com. |
| Gimmy: That’s the best deal! |
| David: Yeah. And with that, we’re done for today. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: I’m Gimmy. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we’ll see you on the site. |
| Gimmy: 下次見. (haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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