If you had known what was going on behind that door, you would never have opened it. We trust you there, but also caught the whole encounter on tape and feel that sharing it really is for the greater good. In addition to helping teach the Chinese word for hello, your awkward performance last week offers a perfect chance to teach the English speaking world a few simple euphemisms for dating that everyone needs to know to avoid having their own foot-in-mouth situations. Thanks for understanding....
jim.veseley
said on July 15, 2009
great dialog - the secret reason I keep returning. useful phrases too, although I imagine absolute beginners could use more focus on the tones as well when starting out.
Fire69
said on October 11, 2010
Can someone explain why "nǐmen liǎ" is used and not "nǐmen èr" ?
Is it the same reason as the "liǎng ge" used in the Point and Eat-lesson?
(http://popupchinese.com/lessons/absolute-beginners/point-and-eat/text)
If so, are there any other forms of liǎ we need to know? :-)
Echo
said on October 11, 2010
@Fire69,There is no "ni3men2 er4" constructure in Chinese. "lia3" is a short way of saying "liang3ge4". Like "sa1" is a short way of saying "san1ge4". Both of "lia3" and "sa1" are very colloquial. There is no other forms of "lia3".In this dialogue, you can only use "ni3men2" as well, but adding lia3 is to emphasize. Like the difference between you and you two in English too I suppose.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
trevelyan
said on October 11, 2010
@Fire69,
Most of the time you'll say 两 instead of 二. Whenever you want "two of something" you'll say 两 + (measure word) + the object. 二 spoken much less frequently. Usually only when reading a sequence of numbers (like a telephone number).
As far as numbers go, people are biased towards saying 二 in numbers under 30. So you'll hear people say 二十五 (er4shi2 wu3) when giving you prices. But as soon as real money starts getting involved, they switch to 两. So people will say 两百二十五 (liang3bai3 er4shi2 wu3) for 225. And everything above that is 两 as well. So 2222 is generally read as "liang3qian1 liang3bai3 er4shi2 er4".
As I understand it, 俩 is a colloquial shortening of 两位 used only when you're talking about two people (你们俩，他们俩...). So it's use in our other podcast was pretty context specific. A quick check confirms it's also the only character pronounced "lia" in my IME, so it is pretty much the only one you need to know. I don't think I learned it until I got to China, for what it's worth.
Fire69
said on October 11, 2010
Thank you both for clearing that up. :-)So simply put, if you're using numbers to count, use er4 if it's less then shi2, otherwise use lia3 or liang3 ?@trevelyan: didn't know what you meant with IME, so I googled it. :-)Maybe a good idea for me to install one also.What software would you recommend?
rachel.friedman
said on October 11, 2013
In the sentence 我还不知道你们俩在一起 why do you say 我还不知道 instead of 我不知道了? Doesn't 还 mean "still"? How does this translate to "I didn't know"?
karin.hagberg
said on December 2, 2013
我不明白在这个对话里‘不久’ 是什么意思。。。 要说的是他们两个人很短时间在那个房间， 还是他们两个人很短时间在一起了？
Grace Qi
said on December 5, 2013
@rachel.friedman,In Chinese "我还不知道" is commonly used as "I didn't know" and it also could mean"I don't know" or "I still don't know"PS: Usually "I still don't know" is"我还是不知道"
Grace Qi
said on December 5, 2013
@karin.hagberg,That's what's so interesting about this conversation. The couple were a little embarrassed because they thought the guy found out about them. So “不久” could mean both: They haven't been together for a long time; OR they haven't been in the room for a long time.
rachel.friedman
said on December 5, 2013
@Grace Qi Thanks! I am always thinking about this when I'm out and about and wanting to say mei2 zhi1dao4. I will do it your way instead.
qzjake
said on January 4, 2014
Is there a way to see my lesson history?
trevelyan
said on January 4, 2014
hi user53046,Whenever you look at a lesson transcript or download lesson audio, we tag that lesson as "studied" in your account. Not sure if this is exactly what you mean, but if you want to see only those lessons, just change the drop-down menu at the top-right (right above the lesson photos) to "studied lessons" on this page:http://popupchinese.com/lessonsBest,--david
sulisha217
said on April 24, 2015
@Echo哦，sa1 我没听说过，很常用吗？写的是仨吗？
trevelyan
said on April 28, 2015
@sulisha217,It isn't used very often, and yes it is that:http://popupchinese.com/dictionary/%E4%BB%A8.-david
joecosgrove
said on July 15, 2016
So, what' is the name '9527' all about?
