Learn how to express things to the extreme
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi and welcome to CantoneseClass101.com, where we study modern Cantonese in a fun, educational format. |
| Nicole: 大家好, 我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2 , ngo5 hai6) Nicole. Thanks for being here with us today. |
| David: Right and I’m David. And today we’ve got Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 14. |
| Nicole: “Shopping in Hong Kong.” |
| David: Right. This is a favorite lesson of Nicole’s. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: She’s like, let’s do another shopping lesson. This time, let’s put everything on sale. |
| Nicole: Well I mean Hong Kong is a shopping center. Paradise. |
| David: It is a shopping paradise. So, that’s what our dialogue is about. It’s about two shopaholics who are speaking casual Cantonese as always. |
| Nicole: An exciting Cantonese. |
| David: Yes. Excited because they discovered this amazing sale. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So, we’ve got this dialogue, we’re going to take you to it. Before we do, we want to remind you. If you have not checked the flashcards on CantoneseClass101.com, be sure to go check that out. |
| Nicole: It helps you remember the words. |
| David: It does. And it only takes you a few minutes after each lesson to really get this stuff sticking in your head. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Okay. For now though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 呢個商場打緊折。(ni1 go3 soeng1 coeng4 daa2 gan2 zit3.) |
| B: 打幾折？(daa2 gei2 zit3?) |
| A: 最低三折. (zeoi3 dai1 saam1 zit3.) |
| B: 咁平？一齊去啦。(gam3 peng4? jat1 cai4 heoi3 laa1.) |
| A: This store is having a sale. |
| B: What's the discount? |
| A: Seventy percent off at most. |
| B: That cheap? Let's go! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So this is strange. In Hong Kong it’s not just stores that have sales. |
| Nicole: Yeah. It can happen in the mall. |
| David: The entire mall. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: And that’s actually in the dialogue. Is it the mall that’s having a sale or is it the store that’s having a sale? |
| Nicole: It’s the stores in the mall that’s having sales. |
| David: Yeah, so it’s a bit ambiguous there. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of vocab and we’re going to clear this up for you so why don’t we get right to that? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 商場。(soeng1 coeng4.) |
| David: “Mall”. |
| Nicole: 商場, 商場, 打折。(soeng1 coeng4, soeng1 coeng4, daa2 zit3.) |
| David: “To be on sale”. |
| Nicole: 打折, 打折, 折。(daa2 zit3, daa2 zit3, zit3.) |
| David: “Discount”. |
| Nicole: 折, 折, 最。(zit3, zit3, zeoi3.) |
| David: “The most”. |
| Nicole: 最, 最, 低。(zeoi3, zeoi3, dai1.) |
| David: “Low”. |
| Nicole: 低, 低, 高。(dai1, dai1, gou1.) |
| David: “High”. |
| Nicole: 高, 高, 咁。(gou1, gou1, gam3.) |
| David: “So”. |
| Nicole: 咁, 咁, 平。(gam3, gam3, peng4.) |
| David: “Cheap”. |
| Nicole: 平, 平, 貴。(peng4, peng4, gwai3.) |
| David: “Expensive”. |
| Nicole: 貴, 貴。(gwai3, gwai3.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. The first word we’ll be looking at is the word “mall”. |
| Nicole: 商場。(soeng1 coeng4.) |
| David: Let’s slow that down. |
| Nicole: 商場, 商場。(soeng1 coeng4, soeng1 coeng4.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we heard it in this line. |
| Nicole: 呢個商場打緊折。(ni1 go3 soeng1 coeng4 daa2 gan2 zit3.) |
| David: “This store is having the sale.” |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Although is it the store, is it the mall. It’s a bit unclear. |
| Nicole: Depends on the context. |
| David: Yeah. Maybe the entire mall is having a sale. |
| Nicole: Could be. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: That’d be really exciting. |
| David: So, the next word is of course, “to be on sale”. |
| Nicole: 打折。(daa2 zit3.) |
| David: Let’s slow that down. |
| Nicole: 打 折, 打折。(daa2 zit3, daa2 zit3.) |
| David: The Chinese way of saying things that are on sale is a bit different from the English. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: You don’t say “How much is off” you say “How much the price is on”. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: So you’d say the price is 90 percent. |
| Nicole: 九折。(gau2 zit3.) |
| David: “The price is 80 percent.” |
| Nicole: 八折。(baat3 zit3.) |
| David: In our dialogue, the prince is 30 present. |
| Nicole: 三折。(saam1 zit3.) |
| David: Yeah. Three out of ten isn’t bad. And the word of discount is part of that verb. |
| Nicole: 折。 (zit3.) |
| David: So it’s a three discount. |
| Nicole: 三折。(saam1 zit3.) |
| David: To hit a three discount is to put something on at 30 present. |
| Nicole: 打三折。 (daa2 saam1 zit3.) |
| David: Right. The rest of our vocab is common adjectives we’re going to use a lot of the time. “Low”. |
| Nicole: 低。(dai1.) |
| David: “This price is very low.” |
| Nicole: 價錢好低。(gaa3 cin4 hou2 dai1.) |
| David: “High”. |
| Nicole: 高。(gou1.) |
| David: “This price is very high”. |
| Nicole: 價錢好高。 (gaa3 cin4 hou2 gou1.) |
| David: And this corresponds to the words “cheap”. |
| Nicole: 平。(peng4.) |
| David: And “expensive”. |
| Nicole: 貴。(gwai3.) |
| David: “This is very cheap.” |
| Nicole: 呢個好平。 (ni1 go3 hou2 peng4.) |
| David: “This is too expensive.” |
| Nicole: 呢個太貴。(ni1 go3 taai3 gwai3.) |
| David: Now most of this is review. In our grammar section, we’re going to learn a new way to express extremes with adjectives. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Let’s get to that now. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time! Our focus in this grammar section is expressing extremes with adjectives. In the dialogue, we heard this. |
| Nicole: 最低三折。 (zeoi3 dai1 saam1 zit3.) |
| David: “Seventy percent off at most.” |
| Nicole: 最低三折。(zeoi3 dai1 saam1 zit3.) |
| David: Let’s dissect this sentence a bit. The last two characters we already know. |
| Nicole: 三折。(saam1 zit3.) |
| David: That’s a three discount. |
| Nicole: 三折。(saam1 zit3.) |
| David: Which means the price is 30 percent of the original. |
| Nicole: Uhmm, 三折。(saam1 zit3.) |
| David: Or 70 percent off. What are those two first characters, though? |
| Nicole: 最低 (zeoi3 dai1), “lowest”. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: 最低。(zeoi3 dai1.) |
| David: “Most low”. Now, we can use this with any adjective. For instance, “most high”. |
| Nicole: 最高。 (zeoi3 gou1.) |
| David: “Most expensive”. |
| Nicole: 最貴。 (zeoi3 gwai3.) |
| David: “Most cheap”. |
| Nicole: 最平。 (zeoi3 peng4.) |
| David: Right. First, we put the adverb. |
| Nicole: 最。(zeoi3.) |
| David: And then we add an adjective. For instance, “July is the most hot”. |
| Nicole: 七月最熱。 (cat1 jyut6 zeoi3 jit6.) |
| David: “July is the hottest month.” |
| Nicole: 七月最熱。 (cat1 jyut6 zeoi3 jit6.) |
| David: If you meet someone and want to compliment them, you might say “You are the most beautiful.” |
| Nicole: 最靚係你。 (zeoi3 leng3 hai6 nei5.) |
| David: “You are the most beautiful.” |
| Nicole: 最靚係你。 (zeoi3 leng3 hai6 nei5.) |
| David: Right. What’s that again? “Most beautiful.” |
| Nicole: 最靚。 (zeoi3 leng3.) |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: It could be the best! It could be an adjectives to describe cars or computers, laptops, anything. |
| David: Right. “Your computer is the best.” |
| Nicole: 你部電腦最靚。(nei5 bou6 din6 nou5 zeoi3 leng3.) |
| David: “This apartment is the best.” |
| Nicole: 呢間屋最靚。(ni1 gaan1 uk1 zeoi3 leng3.) |
| David: “This room is the best.” |
| Nicole: 呢間房最靚。(ni1 gaan1 fong2 zeoi3 leng3.) |
| David: Right. If you’re still having trouble forming complete sentences, just remember the adverb plus the adjective. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: “Most best”. |
| Nicole: 最靚。(zeoi3 leng3.) |
| David: “Most cheap”. |
| Nicole: 最平。(zeoi3 peng4.) |
| David: “Most expensive”. |
| Nicole: 最貴。(zeoi3 gwai3.) |
| David: “Most low”. |
| Nicole: 最低。(zeoi3 dai1.) |
| David: And “Most high”. |
| Nicole: 最高。(zeoi3 gou1.) |
Outro |
| David: With these two words you can communicate a lot of ideas. And that brings us the end of our lesson today. As always, we want to remind you that Nicole is sitting here, waiting for comments. Waiting for email so she can get back to you. If you have any questions, if you’re having trouble with other things in Cantonese and you’re looking for advice, send us an email at. |
| Nicole: Contactus@cantoneseclass101.com |
| David: And we will be delighted to get back at you. For now though, thanks for listening. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: We’ll see you on the site. |
| Nicole: See you. |
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