In today's lesson we return with another outburst of marital dischord, and a dialogue that falls somewhere around the upper boundary of our Elementary series. The mandarin here will come at you fast and furious as our voice actors tear into each other at full speed and sometimes even yell over each other - just like a real argument.

If you find yourself despairing of the speed, take a deep breath though. With the exception of a single idiom, our vocabulary is relatively basic. And in addition to all the screaming and melodrama you can handle in a Monday podcast, this podcast covers a very useful way and relatively basic way to express the Future Tense. This is the powerful 会... 的 construct, which you'll be using all the time.
 said on
June 22, 2009
非常好的博客!

Disappointed there's no uncontrolled sobbing at the end! :-)

I'm loving 勾三搭四。 You guys sure do dish up the useful vocab, haha.

 said on
June 22, 2009
awesome podcast. keep it coming guys. :)
 said on
June 22, 2009
补充例句 Supplementary Sentences from this lesson:

The ...的 pattern is used to express things that will happen in the future. here is acting as an auxillary verb similar to the English will. The 的 adds a sense of certainty, but it can be omitted.

别担心,明天他一定来的。[bié dānxīn, míngtiān tā yí dìng huì lái de] Don't worry - he will come tomorrow.

我明年拿到奖学金的。[wǒ míngnián huì nádào jiǎngxuéjīn de] I will get a scholarship next year.

面包有的,牛奶有的,好日子也有的。[miànbāo huì yǒude, niúnǎi huì yǒude, hǎorìzǐ yě huì yǒude] There will be bread, there will be milk, there will be good days.

我永远不爱你的,别做梦了![wǒ yǒngyuǎn búhuì ài nǐ de, bié zuòmèngle] I will never love you - stop dreaming!

Additional Vocabulary

[chéngtiān] as a synonym of [zhěngtiān]

Note that the character is read [] when it means to leave behind, but [luò]when it means to drop.

 said on
June 23, 2009
Reminds me, name of the Soviet movie regarding the phrase 面包会有的,牛奶会有的,好日子也会有的 would be interesting to look at if anyone knows? :)

Another thing, one for Trevelyan, you reckon there's any chance you could customise the colours for tones in account? Technically pretty easy but I understand if you've got better things to do. It's just I've decided I've probably invested too much in the colours I use right now, I visualise words in those...

 said on
June 23, 2009
呵呵,breaking up 的 part 2, 比第一部分更有意思了。。。
 said on
June 23, 2009
或许在第三部分,有人会被杀死吗?

:-)
 said on
June 23, 2009
@mat,

"Reminds me, name of the Soviet movie regarding the phrase 面包会有的,牛奶会有的,好日子也会有的 would be interesting to look at if anyone knows? :)"

--That's our goal, haha

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
June 24, 2009
@mat,

i hope not.

...........
 said on
June 30, 2009
Well, a Chinese pen friend of mine demanded to know who taught me 勾三搭四. Your work here is done :)
 said on
April 18, 2010
I just don't "get" the second 的 in 我不走成天看着你和别的男的勾三搭四吗. Can you please give another example of a sentence where 的 is called for in a similar fashion?

[or is it just that 男的 really stands for 男的人?]
 said on
April 18, 2010
@jyh,

Yes you are right. 男的 really stands for 男的人, because 的 is a mark of a noun. Actually, it can change an adjective or a verb to a noun. For instance:

红的=红的东西

女的=女的人

走的=走的东西 / 人

来的=来的人 / 东西

usually if we use adjective/verb+的,it seems too long if we still add the real noun there. The native way is to omit the noun at the end.

 said on
April 18, 2010
@Gail - Thanks. Part of the problem is that I erroneously believed that 男 was a noun, not an adjective (same with 女). Also, in every example that I had encountered before of such an omission of the 人 / 東西 being referred to, that 人 / 東西 had been explicitly mentioned earlier in the dialog. So,then, it seems that the hanging 的 could generally be translated as "one/ones" in English: 紅的 = red one/ones.
 said on
October 29, 2010
I think the movie is "Lenin in 1918" (列寧在1918) - a 1939 Soviet film.
 said on
September 15, 2016
There's a grammar part I can't make sense of. I was taught 没有 means haven't or didn't and 不是 means isn't. For the sentence 我没有那样,why is it not 我不是那样 (I am not like this)?
 said on
September 18, 2016
jaq.james,

There's an implied 做 at the end of that sentence. I didn't (behave) that way. Great question.

 said on
September 18, 2016
Oh cool, that makes sense now. Thanks heaps!