A bit easy for anyone but a complete beginner, but I like the way you've done the quiz on this one. Question 5 made me laugh.

This is a good lesson for complete beginners. The atmosphere of the podcast is inviting and non-threatening, gradually covers the bases, and anticipates a lesson on measure words. I thought it was also good that you mentioned the "nei4 versus na4" and the "zhei4 versus zhe4" pronunciations at this stage, as it caused me some confusion early on.

Just a note on question 3 of the quiz:

" nei sì is shorthand for nà yī "

Maybe the question should read "na4ge / nei4ge is shorthand for na4 yi1 ge / nei4 yi1 ge" ?

@quatroclik - I think I see what you mean now... and I guess you'd be right under those assumptions. #4 would be an equally correct answer if you take for granted that 那一 is properly 那一个 which should contract to 那个.

The question as is isn't trying to be that tricky, and 那一 could equally be part of 那一只 or 那一些, the latter of which is a tremendously strange thing to say, if you think about it. The important thing for beginners to know is really that there's some logic behind the change in pronunciation, and they shouldn't be confused hearing the word morph slightly in conversation.

I think Echo was puzzled by your earlier post, since our recording philosophy is generally to encourage our Chinese staff to speak naturally. We sometimes ask them to record slower versions as well. When preparing this lesson I noticed they tended to use nei4 at speed, and revert to na4 whenever they were reading the character in isolation or if they were asked to slow down.

I just found your postcast a couple weeks ago. Its acceptable. Your membership fee is reasonable. Im thinking of subscribing, however, I would like to see a sample of A text-only copy of our PDF.

I am a member of a Canada/Chinese podcast which I think is the best. They have a sample of their PDF on line.

Aloha,

Yupin in Hawaii

Hi Echo and Brendan,

Thanks for your hard work. I am absolute beginner but am finding your lessons easy to follow.

Just a quick question:

When I hear 那个 in the dialogue, its sounds more like nei4ge, rather than na4ge.

I noticed above that quatroclik mentioned that you explained it in the lesson, but I didn't hear it?? travelyan then explains that sometimes that 那 is sometimes pronounced nei4 when spoken quickly?

I'm a little confused, so any clarification would be great.

Thanks!

Hello,

I am a newbie. I am following your lessons and am enjoying them.

The answer choices for question 4 are very confusing:

-nei4 is shorthand for 那一

-nei4 is shorthand for 那个

Can someone explain? I thought that 那 (na4/nei4) means 'that', and 那 is often used with the measure word 个 (ge), so the answer choices don't make sense to me, because nei4 (那) is not IMO shorthand for 那个 or 那一.

@orbital,

Thanks for the reply.

I understand that 那 has 2 pronunciations (na4 and nei4).

What I don't understand is this:

** is na4 or nei4 supposed to be shorthand for na4 yi1 那一? **

I don't think that the lessons explained it, so I am puzzled by it.

I thought that 那 was a real word, same as 这.

@echo,

Thanks for your reply. You said that nei4 is shorthand for na4yi1. Is nei4ge shorthand for na4yi1ge? Is na4 shorthand for anything? And finally, is na4ge shorthand for anything? Please excuse so many questions, but I am a newbie and I don't know the word origins :)

Not easy at all for a completebeginner like me!