"There's no excuse to find oneself stuck in a desert these days," Philip muttered as he crested another dune. Between satellite positioning systems and cellular phones, it was practically impossible to get disconnected from society at all. So what were they doing trudging through what appeared to be the Sahara desert? The last few days may have been a bit muddled in his mind, but whatever the reason, Philip was pretty sure this was somehow James' fault. Whenever they got into a situation like this it was always James' fault....Learning Chinese? Our lesson today is intended for absolute beginners who are just starting to learn Chinese. This means that even if you don't know any mandarin, you'll still be able to make sense of this dialogue. And by the end of our ten minute lesson, you'll be able to use a simple sentence pattern to say or ask how much more of something is left, whether it be distance or time.
mooreharry_2
said on September 20, 2012
Thanks for another great podcast! Instead of 还有多久, is it possible to use 还剩多久(to really stress the 'how much time is LEFT)'?
Brendan
said on September 20, 2012
@moorcharry_2 I'll see what Echo thinks about 还剩多久, but for me (non-native speaker; all disclaimers apply; offer void in Indiana) it sounds slightly weird -- I'd say that while you can use 剩 to talk about time, it's much more common to use it for things that are countable (hours, pieces of cake, bottles of water). (Thinking of it as being analogous to the English "left over," rather than "left," might be the way to go here.) When people are talking about remaining time, I usually hear them using 要 or 有. "还要多久" is the most common way of asking "how much longer will this take?"
Echo
said on September 21, 2012
@mooreharry_2,Yes, exactly like what Brendan said :)--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
breannadoomy
said on October 2, 2012
How do you learn to write using this program?
breannadoomy
said on October 2, 2012
How do you learn to write using this program?
dragonfly
said on February 6, 2013
it was mentioned: 还有谁？ (who else is coming over?)is this complete, or would you need to add more? something like: 还有会来的谁?
Echo
said on February 6, 2013
@dragonfly,Usually we say 还有谁 if there is context.Or you can say 还有谁会来？--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
stephenjpmiller
said on March 3, 2016
Hey guys. I really like the podcasts so keep up the good work! I'm just wondering about 一定要 here. How do you use it in a sentence? Could you say 我一定要吃饭？ （I must eat).
rjcaste
said on March 6, 2016
@stephenjpmiller,I'm pretty sure that's right, but I think we need a native speaker to confirm this.
trevelyan
said on March 9, 2016
@rjcaste, stephenjpmiller,Yes, that's right.
