Learn how to ask about different sizes, which will be good when it comes to looking for that new apartment in China
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Nicole: Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 10 – “Renting an apartment in Hong Kong”. |
| David: Welcome to Cantoneseclass101.com. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 大家好，我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2 , ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: And if you move to Hong Kong, you’re going to need a place to live. We’re finally going to get you around and talking about this, right? |
| Nicole: Finally. |
| David: So, we’re going to get you off the street in this lesson into a nice apartment, okay? |
| Nicole: Yay! |
| David: So, we’ve got a dialogue today that takes place in an apartment, a real estate rental agency. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Right? There’re tons of these in Hong Kong, if you’re looking for a place to stay, you can look online or you can find an agent. |
| Nicole: Yeah, it’s just around the corner. |
| David: Yeah, and finding an agent is usually more expensive, but a bit easier. |
| Nicole: Less trouble. |
| David: Yeah. So, that’s our dialogue. Before we take you to it we want to remind you. |
| Nicole: Comments, comment, comment on our site. |
| David: Right. If you have any questions, if you have any suggestions, Nicole is reading them every day. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Right? |
| Nicole: Basically. |
| David: And she’s writing down the one she likes and passing them along, so… if you’re getting good with Nicole, your ideas and suggestions are definitely given to me to put in the lesson. |
| Nicole: Mm-hmm. No hate mails, though. |
| David: Yeah. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue. This isn’t that big an apartment. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 我要租屋。 (ngo5 jiu3 zou1 uk1.) |
| B: 想要幾大？ (soeng2 jiu3 gei2 daai6?) |
| A: 五百呎。 (ng5 baak3 cek3.) |
| B: 冇問題。(mou5 man6 tai4.) |
| A: I want to rent a house/apartment. |
| B: How big do you want? |
| A: Five hundred square feet. |
| B: No problem. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Nicole: No. |
| David: Right, that’s… |
| Nicole: It’s usually like one room, two bedroom. |
| David: Yes, that’s like what 60 square meters or… |
| Nicole: Yeah, approximately like that. |
| David: Okay, yeah. |
| Nicole: 50. |
| David: Yeah, one of the things you noticed about Hong Kong is that all of the rooms are smaller. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Because everyone is you know… if real estate is so expensive. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: You know, you go to a hotel and your hotel room is the size of a closet. That… Anyway, our vocab section today is all about renting apartment. |
| Nicole: Mm-hmm. |
| David: So, we’ve got key vocabs so that you can find the closet of your own. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 租。(zou1.) |
| David: “To rent” |
| Nicole: 租, 租, 合租。(zou1, zou1, hap6 zou1.) |
| David: “To share an apartment” |
| Nicole: 合租, 合租, 屋。(hap6 zou1, hap6 zou1, uk1.) |
| David: “Apartment” |
| Nicole: 屋, 屋, 房。 (uk1, uk1, fong2.) |
| David: “Room” |
| Nicole: 房, 房, 屋租。(fong2, fong2, uk1 zou1.) |
| David: “Rent” |
| Nicole: 屋租, 屋租, 想要。(uk1 zou1, uk1 zou1, soeng2 jiu3.) |
| David: “To want” |
| Nicole: 想要, 想要, 幾大？(soeng2 jiu3, soeng2 jiu3, gei2 daai6?) |
| David: “How big?” |
| Nicole: 幾大？ 幾大？ 五百。(gei2 daai6? gei2 daai6? ng5 baak3.) |
| David: “500” |
| Nicole: 五百, 五百, 呎。(ng5 baak3, ng5 baak3, cek3.) |
| David: Measure word for “square feet”. |
| Nicole: 呎, 呎。(cek3, cek3.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: So, that’s the word for both apartment and house. |
| Nicole: Yeah, but if you want to rent specifically an apartment you may want to mention 公寓. (gung1 jyu6.) |
| David: That’s the formal word for an “apartment” or “condominium”. |
| Nicole: 公寓。(gung1 jyu6.) |
| David: And there’s another one for “house” or “villa”. |
| Nicole: 別墅。 (bit6 seoi6.) |
| David: “Villa” |
| Nicole: 別墅. (bit6 seoi6.) Those are for rich people. Beach houses. |
| David: In Hong Kong they’re totally for rich people. |
| Nicole: Totally. |
| David: So, when you go into the real estate agency, you’re going to want to tell them “I want an apartment.” |
| Nicole: 我要租屋。(ngo5 jiu3 zou1 uk1.) |
| David: That’s literally “I want to rent an apartment.” |
| Nicole: That’s right. 我要租屋。(ngo5 jiu3 zou1 uk1.) |
| David: If you want to be more specific, you can say “I want to rent a condominium.” |
| Nicole: 我要租公寓。 (ngo5 jiu3 zou1 gung1 jyu6.) |
| David: Or “I want to rent a villa.” |
| Nicole: 我要租別墅。 (ngo5 jiu3 zou1 bit6 seoi6.) |
| David: If you’re really wealthy. |
| Nicole: You can buy one. 我要買屋。(ngo5 jiu3 maai5 uk1.) |
| David: Yeah, but I think renting is better, especially if you’re going to stay on Hong Kong island. |
| Nicole: Yeah, that’s right. Beach houses. |
| David: Because if you’ve got the money, some of those condos are absolutely gorgeous. |
| Nicole: Great view. |
| David: Yeah. Anyway, the rest of our vocab here is really functional. If you’re student you’re just working your way up, you may want to share an apartment with someone. |
| Nicole: 合租。 (hap6 zou1.) |
| David: This literally means “together to rent”. |
| Nicole: 合租, 合租。(hap6 zou1, hap6 zou1.) |
| David: So you could tell the agent “I want to share an apartment.” |
| Nicole: 我要合租。(ngo5 jiu3 hap6 zou1.) |
| David: Although most of the time for this, you’re going to want to look online. |
| Nicole: Yeah, that’s right. |
| David: And the rest of our vocab is really functional as well. We’ve got the words for “rent”: |
| Nicole: 屋租. (uk1 zou1.) If you pay attention, you will find 屋租 (uk1 zou1) is just the same characters with 租屋 (zou1 uk1), so if you reverse the order… |
| David: They’re reversed. |
| Nicole: Yeah. 租屋 (zou1 uk1) becomes 屋租. (uk1 zou1.) |
| David: Right, it goes from “to rent an apartment” to “apartment rent”. |
| Nicole: Exactly. 租屋 (zou1 uk1) and 屋租. (uk1 zou1.) |
| David: There’s one more really important word and that’s “rooms”. |
| Nicole: 房。(fong2.) |
| David: “Rooms” |
| Nicole: 房。(fong2.) |
| David: When you rent an apartment, you’re going to want to ask for “two rooms”. |
| Nicole: 兩間房。(loeng5 gaan1 fong2.) |
| David: “Three rooms” |
| Nicole: 三間房。 (saam1 gaan1 fong2.) |
| David: Nicole, how does this work out? Does that include the living room? |
| Nicole: I don’t think so. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: We’re only referring to the bedrooms. |
| David: Right, so if you’re renting a “two-room apartment”: |
| Nicole: 兩房公寓。 (loeng5 fong2 gung1 jyu6.) |
| David: That’s going to be two bedrooms. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Because a living room, and the kitchen and the bathroom don’t count. |
| Nicole: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. |
| David: Okay? So, now you’ve got the vocab to rent, we’re going to take you to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our grammar focus this lesson is learning how to ask about sizes. |
| Nicole: Mm-hmm. |
| David: In the dialogue we heard this line: |
| Nicole: 想要幾大？ (soeng2 jiu3 gei2 daai6?) |
| David: “How big do you want?” |
| Nicole: 想要幾大？ (soeng2 jiu3 gei2 daai6?) |
| David: And literally that’s “To want how big?” |
| Nicole: 想要幾大？ (soeng2 jiu3 gei2 daai6?) |
| David: So, our patter here is the word “how”. |
| Nicole: 幾。(gei2.) |
| David: Plus an adjective. |
| Nicole: 大。 (daai6.) |
| David: And that’s big. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: So, “How big do you want?” |
| Nicole: 想要幾大？ (soeng2 jiu3 gei2 daai6?) |
| David: “You want how big?” |
| Nicole: 想要幾大？幾 大？ (soeng2 jiu3 gei2 daai6? gei2 daai6?) |
| David: Is not only asking how big. |
| Nicole: Yeah, it can be also how old. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: Asking for age. |
| David: So, if you meet someone you can be really abrupt with them and say “How old are you?” |
| Nicole: 你幾大？ (nei5 gei2 daai6?) |
| David: “How old are you?” |
| Nicole: 你幾大？ (nei5 gei2 daai6?) so you’re not asking about the size. |
| David: Yeah, you don’t want to know their name, just tell me right away how old are you. But, this is a pattern we see everywhere. It’s “how”: |
| Nicole: 幾。 (gei2.) |
| David: Plus an adjective. If you’re shopping you’d often be asked “How many?” |
| Nicole: 幾多？ (gei2 do1?) |
| David: Or “How much?” |
| Nicole: 幾多？ (gei2 do1?) |
| David: As in “How many do you want?” |
| Nicole: 你要幾多？ (nei5 jiu3 gei2 do1?) |
| David: “How much do you want?” |
| Nicole:你要幾多？ (nei5 jiu3 gei2 do1?) |
| David: And so you can tell them and then you can ask them in return “How much?” |
| Nicole: 幾多錢？ (gei2 do1 cin2?) |
| David: Which is literally “How much money?” |
| Nicole: 幾多錢？ (gei2 do1 cin2?) |
| David: A couple of other examples. You can ask “How fast?”. |
| Nicole: 幾快？ (gei2 faai3?) |
| David: “How fast?” |
| Nicole: 幾快？(gei2 faai3?) |
| David: “This car is how fast?” |
| Nicole: 部車幾快？ (bou6 ce1 gei2 faai3?) |
| David: How about “How tall?” |
| Nicole: 幾高？ (gei2 gou1?) |
| David: “How tall?” |
| Nicole: 幾高？ (gei2 gou1?) |
| David: “How tall are you?” |
| Nicole: 你幾高？ (nei5 gei2 gou1?) |
| David: So this is a really useful grammar pattern. We’ve got “how”: |
| Nicole: 幾。(gei2) |
| David: Plus an adjective: |
| Nicole: In this lesson it’s 大. (daai6.) |
| David: “How big?” |
| Nicole: 幾大？ (gei2 daai6?) |
| David: So, a quick review. “How big?” |
| Nicole: 幾大？ (gei2 daai6?) |
| David: “How old?” |
| Nicole: 幾大？ (gei2 daai6) |
| David: “How many?” |
| Nicole: 幾多? (gei2 do1?) |
| David: “How much?” |
| Nicole: 幾多? (gei2 do1?) |
| David: “How fast?” |
| Nicole: 幾快？ (gei2 faai3?) |
| David: “How high?” |
| Nicole: 幾高？ (gei2 gou1?) |
| David: One final point before we go. You noticed the measure word in this lesson that we used for “square feet” is: |
| Nicole: 呎。(cek3.) |
| David: This is short for: |
| Nicole: 平方呎。 (ping4 fong1 cek3.) |
| David: “Square feet” in Hong Kong. |
| Nicole: Yeah. If you just say 呎 (cek3) can refers to both length and size. |
| David: Right. However, if you are in 廣東 (gwong2 dung1), you’re going to hear something different. |
| Nicole: 平方米。 (ping4 fong1 mai5.) |
| David: Right. So, be warned. Although in both cases if you say: |
| Nicole: 呎。 (cek3.) |
| David: People are going to understand you. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
Outro |
| David: Okay. That just about does it for our lesson for today. As always we want to remind you that instant access to all of our lessons with any subscription. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: That’s our entire library of audio and video lessons, really inexpensive and it’s really worth the money to get yourself to fluency. |
| Nicole: That’s right. You can put them on your IPhone and listen to us anytime. |
| David: Right. And you’ll have access to the website as well. |
| Nicole: Mm-hmm. |
| David: With that though, we are done for today. Thanks a lot for listening and we will see you on the site. |
| Nicole: See you! |
| David: Bye Bye. |
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