Beijing has a lot of stray cats. Which translates into a lot of stray kittens. They are small, cute and usually covered with mud. And should you run into one while out on a date, you're likely to witness something along the lines of what happens in our lesson for today. So listen up and be prepared for the next time savage cuteness intrudes on your love life.
jim.veseley
said on June 29, 2009
poor creature. everyone knows you're supposed to feed them before petting. that's the easiest way to make friends with strays.
toneandcolor
said on June 29, 2009
补充例句 Supplementary Sentences from this lesson:The character 得 has multiple readings and uses. In this lesson, it is pronounced [dé] and is used for getting or receiving things, in this case getting a disease：我得了猫流感。[wǒ déle māo liúgǎn]我得了流感。[wǒ déle liúgǎn]我得了非典。 [wǒ déle fēidiǎn]我得了猪流感。[wǒ déle zhū liúgǎn]However, for the common cold, 感冒 [gǎnmào] is both a noun and a verb, so I caught a cold becomes:我感冒了。Although you may have learned early on that 好 is an adjective, it can also be used as an adverb substitute for 很 to mean very.This is usage is very cute and girly. Supposedly, this was originally a Taiwanism, but it has since spread to the mainland as well.Thus, 很可爱 ［hěn kěài］ and 好可爱 ［hǎo kěài］are basically synonymous.
menglelan
said on June 29, 2009
>>>This is usage is very cute and girly.
:-)
gaford
said on June 30, 2009
First time I've heard of a Taiwanism. I'm going to start using that to refer to everything my gf says. :)
mat
said on June 30, 2009
Well, I didn't know this usage regarding 得 （tone change was why) so this is pretty awesome. Any further examples of what you can get/receive with 得？I don't seem to have come across it so far.
得 in this tone also seems to be used as a finishing statement too right? 得了，别说了。Okay, stop talking now.
Gail天堂的声音
said on June 30, 2009
@mat,
for other examples, we can say:
她得了肺炎。
那个人得了猪流感。
他得了肝炎。
etc。
and the pronouciation is dé。
henning
said on June 30, 2009
I really like those "special effects"!:)BTW: I know 喵喵, but how do you write "meou-ux"? [The sound that comes when the cat switches to attack mode]?Oh, and you do have to be careful. The wife of a friend of mine tried to help out a poor little rat once that got trapped somewhere. The rat was quick - quicker even then the kong-fu-black-belt woman (no kidding here!). She got bitten and got a life-threatening sickness from that.
mat
said on June 30, 2009
Thanks Gail, what I failed to articulate was whether the use of 得 like this was only for catching illness. I assumed it had uses beyond that. It seemed like an unusually narrow exception if so.
paglino9
said on June 30, 2009
After 10 takes the meowing began to lose all meaning for this podcast.
This kitty experience was a true one coming from a stray sickly skinny kitten stuck on a roof in Zhengzhou. The locals couldn't figure out how to climb atop a 7 ft roof.
I had to lure the kitten out of her hiding place with some Chinese brand meat sticks. Once the kitten was in my possession(she was a slippery kitty) I then safely dropped her into a sack that was being held open by one of the local residents. Kitty saved, disaster averted. Job well done. And no bites, cat fever, or rabies.
Just one of countless random entertaining experiences you can't find in the textbooks =)
Gail天堂的声音
said on June 30, 2009
@mat,
yes, 得really has many different meanings.
（1）to get, to gain（contrary to LOSE）eg. 得病，得到。
（2）in calculation: 二三～六。2*3=6.
（3）＜infml.＞indicating agreement or disagreement:～，就这么办｜～了，别说了。
Echo
said on June 30, 2009
@henning,
猫的叫声是 miao1~miao1~; 狗的叫声是 wang1~ wang1~
Rats 太危险~~
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
mat
said on June 30, 2009
Thanks Gail, I'm familiar with the neutral tone usage.
What I don't understand is what kinds of things can you use 得 to 'get' something. Anything at all?
Google seems happy enough to suggest that 我得了帽子 means "I got the hat" alright. I think my surprise from this stems that I feel I should have learned this in the first few weeks and not now. Hehe.
Echo
said on June 30, 2009
@mat,
Yes, usually you can use 得 to get almost anything. Chinese people would like to use "得到" together though (except for 得病) in order to balance the syllables--if the object has one syllable, we should usually use one syllable verb too.Same with multisyllable words.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
Gail天堂的声音
said on June 30, 2009
@mat,
Echo说得对。We could say 我得了帽子 60 years ago, but now, it sounds weired. usually we can use it with the complement "到"，我得到了一顶帽子 is good.
mat
said on June 30, 2009
现在真清楚，谢谢！
So would it be more correct to say 我得到流感? Although... do you consider 了 in that preference so 我得了流感 sounds more balanced than 我得到了流感?
Thanks so much you wonderful people :)
Gail天堂的声音
said on July 1, 2009
@mat,
yes, 我得了流感。or 我得流感了are natural here.o(∩_∩)o...
jyh
said on April 16, 2010
The guy says 小心得貓流感. That pretty much comes out as "beware of catching cat flu," with a positive form. Does Chinese also has a common way of phrasing that with an explicit negative "be careful of *not* getting cat flu"? If yes, is the "positive" form used in the dialog the more common one?
Echo
said on April 16, 2010
@jyh,
You can say "小心别得猫流感" (just add a "别" ). I think people use the positive form more than the negative one, but both of them are pretty common.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
jyh
said on April 16, 2010
@Echo - The version with 別 makes more sense to me because it seems less ambiguous; it says clearly what it is the interlocutor should be careful about without making assumptions about anything. I can see the 別-less form leading to ambiguity when it is not clear whether what follows is bad (小心往左边 or 小心別往左边: in either case, which way should I go?）
Does it work the same way with 担心? Are the following two sentences correct and equivalent in meaning?
去年每个人都担心别得猪流感 and 去年每个人都担心得猪流感
lauracdaniell
said on September 27, 2016
Great lesson!I have been wondering how I can adjust the lesson audios so that I can stop and start at will because I would like to repeat things I missed without having to replay the whole lesson. Any tips?
