Learning Chinese? We've already had a few lessons about basic numbers in mandarin, so in today's show we take a step beyond that and talk about ordinals, or how to say that it is your first, second, third or four hundredth time doing something. The rules for doing this are much easier in Chinese than in English, so take a listen and in less than ten minutes you'll be well on your way to the elementary level, at least as far as numbers are concerned.
丹尼
 said on
August 24, 2012
This is exactly what I wanted to learn today.... how did you know?
Echo
 said on
August 25, 2012
@赢正龙,

:D

Btw, your name is very special....

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
丹尼
 said on
August 25, 2012
@Echo

Yeah one of my students gave it to me when I was in China. So much better than 齐丹, the name my Chinese teacher gave me yesterday -_-
Echo
 said on
August 25, 2012
@赢正龙,

齐丹 isn't bad either. However, people may think you say 契丹 when you tell them what your name is :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

丹尼
 said on
August 26, 2012
@Echo

Oh 丹 just reminds me of eggs haha.
Echo
 said on
August 26, 2012
@赢正龙,

Hahaha, then you need to really be careful of your tone :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
james_eatonuk
 said on
August 30, 2012
What the usual place for 第一次 in a sentence? Is it after the pronoun or at the end of the sentence?

Also is it different for 一次 ?

Thanks,
richard
 said on
September 1, 2012
@David /Echo,

do you know what happen to 'toneandcolor' on PopUp ?

he was such help with his supplementary sentences and grammar points. his way of including Hanzi / Pinyin with tones and translation was very useful for us beginner/elementary students.
Echo
 said on
September 3, 2012
@james_eatonuk,

It's usually after the pronoun. For instance:

今天我第一次吃中国菜。 Today it's my first time having Chinese food.

这是我第一次来中国。 This is my first time coming to China.

Yes, it is different from 一次. 一次 means one time. You can say things like 我再试一次 (Let me try one more time). However, 第一次 is only the first time.

@richard,

I think he's just busy. I'll let him know someone misses him on the site :) I'm sure he will be happy to hear that.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
breannadoomy
 said on
October 2, 2012
So toady was good I'm doing each podcast at least twice.

Just to make sure I have it all down for my trip to China next year.

:)
LincolnDog
 said on
October 3, 2012
Hi Echo, this question is not about this dialogue but what is the difference between these two constructions: 我带把球来... and 我什么球都没有..? I am wondering about the difference between 把 and 什么 when it comes to these types of phrases. Is there a dialogue that talks about these two? They seem to have similar uses to me. Thanks.
Xiao Hu
 said on
October 3, 2012
@Echo，

Let ToneandColor know that there's more than one person on the site who misses him. :)
LYNX
 said on
October 5, 2012
@Echo,

ToneandColor's supplementary vocab & insight were phenomenal! Echo, use your powers of persuasion to convince him to make time for a comment every once in a while.
Echo
 said on
October 6, 2012
@LincolnDog,

I think you mean 我把球带来 (I will bring the ball over)？ 我什么球都没有 means I don't have any balls. You can understand 把 as to take. It doesn't really have anything in common with 什么.

@Xiao Hu & LYNX,

Haha, ok, I will try my best :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
tuckerdimi
 said on
March 22, 2013
I want to see a picture of echo and what she looks like. @echo she sounds really cute
dragonfly
 said on
March 22, 2013
echo's voice is adorable for sure...

http://popupchinese.com/lessons/advanced/regional-dialect-party-mix

Echo
 said on
March 22, 2013
@tuckerdimi & dragonfly,

Thank you guys :)

Here you can see all of us three: http://popupchinese.com/how-to-learn-chinese

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
alekxos
 said on
May 23, 2013
Hellooo Echo and Brendan,

Thanks for the great lesson! I was just wondering if you could help with the use of de 的 in the context of "zhe4 shi4 wo3 de di4 yi2 ci4". I noticed you left it out in some of the other examples given. I've come across the idea that for close relationships such as "wo3 ma1ma" the de isn't required, but it seems to be able drop out of many sentences and I wondered if there were any strict rules regarding its use? I imagine there are many situations where not using it causes the sentence to lose its intended meaning! Cheers :)
Echo
 said on
May 23, 2013
@alekxos,

If you use "di4 yi1 ci4" alone at the end of a sentence, as in "Zhe4 shi4 wo3 de5 di4 yi1 ci4", you can omit the "de5" in the spoken speech, because that's really colloquial.

If you want to say : this is my first time doing sth, for example, this is my first time having Chinese food "Zhe4 shi4 wo3 di4 yi1 ci4 chi1 zhong1guo2cai4". You can not use "de5" before "di4 yi1 ci4", because "di4 yi1 ci4" there is used to indicate the time in that sentences, but not a noun.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
Brendan
 said on
May 23, 2013
Echo nailed it -- the quick and dirty rule is that if you've got a verb phrase coming after "di yi ci," then you have to drop the "de."
alekxos
 said on
May 23, 2013
Cool, thanks for the speedy replies!
lauracdaniell
 said on
August 3, 2016
I am wondering about the difference in the lai(1) character shown in the vocabulary. In the second column, the character is incorrect? Or am I missing something.
trevelyan
 said on
August 12, 2016
Laura,

The second column shows characters in the traditional script. If you don't want to see it you can customize your account and remove it from display site-wide:

http://popupchinese.com/account/customize

edjaymail
 said on
July 10, 2017
great podcast! 我第一次寫東西。