Learn two incredibly useful words to navigate what can be a delicate social situation
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 大家好, 我係 (daai6 gaa1 hou2 , ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: And we’re here today with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 19. |
| Nicole: “No smoking.” |
| David: Right. And regardless what you smoke or not, this is an important lesson. |
| Nicole: Yeah. You’ll learn important useful phrases. |
| David: Yeah like how to tell people you do want a smoking seat or not smoking seat. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Right. So, we’ve got a dialogue that’s between a smoker and serving staff at a restaurant. |
| Nicole: And they’re speaking casual Cantonese. |
| David: As always. Now, we’re going to take you to the dialogue, before we do we want to remind you we got premium PDFs up on the site for you to download. |
| Nicole: Sign up for premium subscription. |
| David: And you’ll get access to all of these. The transcripts, the vocab, the grammar point. Everything else, it’s really going to help you learn Cantonese. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: It’s better than a textbook. Okay. With that though, let’s get to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 呢度可唔可以食煙？ (ni1 dou6 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?) |
| B: 唔好意思，唔可以。 (m4 hou2 ji3 si1, m4 ho2 ji5.) |
| A: 邊度可以？ (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5?) |
| B: 出便。(ceot1 bin6.) |
| A: Is smoking allowed here? |
| B: Sorry, it isn't. |
| A: Where can I smoke? |
| B: Outside. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So Nicole, you’re not a smoker. |
| Nicole: No. |
| David: Yeah and Hong Kong has banned public smoking. |
| Nicole: Yeah, that’s a good thing. |
| David: Yeah. It’s a really fit society, but regardless if you smoke or you don’t smoke, you need to know this vocab, so let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 煙。(jin1.) |
| David: “Cigarette”. |
| Nicole: 煙, 煙, 食煙。(jin1, jin1, sik6 jin1.) |
| David: “To smoke”. |
| Nicole: 食煙, 食煙, 邊度。(sik6 jin1, sik6 jin1, bin1 dou6.) |
| David: “Where”. |
| Nicole: 邊度, 邊度, 出便。(bin1 dou6, bin1 dou6, ceot1 bin6.) |
| David: “Outside”. |
| Nicole: 出便, 出便, 入便。(ceot1 bin6, ceot1 bin6, jap6 bin6.) |
| David: “Inside”. |
| Nicole: 入便, 入便, 打火機。(jap6 bin6, jap6 bin6, daa2 fo2 gei1.) |
| David: “Lighter”. |
| Nicole: 打火機, 打火機, 煙灰缸。(daa2 fo2 gei1, daa2 fo2 gei1, jin1 fui1 gong1.) |
| David: “Ashtray”. |
| Nicole: 煙灰缸 , 煙灰缸 , 雪茄。(jin1 fui1 gong1, jin1 fui1 gong1, syut3 gaa1.) |
| David: “Cigar”. |
| Nicole: 雪茄, 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1, syut3 gaa1.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. Our first word is “smoke” or “cigarette”. |
| Nicole: 煙。(jin1.) |
| David: “Cigarette”. |
| Nicole: 煙。(jin1.) |
| David: And that literally means “smoke”. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: And so the word “to smoke” is literally “to eat smoke”. |
| Nicole: Yeah. 食煙。(sik6 jin1.) |
| David: “To eat smoke”. |
| Nicole: 食煙。(sik6 jin1.) |
| David: If you are a smoker, you can ask “Can I smoke?” |
| Nicole: 可唔可以食煙? (ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?) |
| David: Or even maybe “Please, can I smoke?” |
| Nicole: 唔該, 我可唔可以食煙? (m4 goi1 , ngo5 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?) |
| David: They’re probably going to tell you “Smoke outside.” |
| Nicole: 出便食煙。(ceot1 bin6 sik6 jin1.) |
| David: “Smoke outside.” |
| Nicole: 出便食煙。(ceot1 bin6 sik6 jin1.) |
| David: Although in some places they have ventilated rooms. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: And they’ll say “smoke inside”. |
| Nicole: 入便食煙。(jap6 bin6 sik6 jin1.) |
| David: “Smoke inside”. |
| Nicole: 入便食煙。(jap6 bin6 sik6 jin1.) |
| David: And that introduces two opposite words for us which are new. |
| Nicole: 出便 (ceot1 bin6) and 入便. (jap6 bin6.) |
| David: “Outside”. |
| Nicole: 出便。(ceot1 bin6.) |
| David: “Inside”. |
| Nicole: 入便 (jap6 bin6), and you sometimes hear people say 出面 (ceot1 min6) and 入面. (jap6 min6.)They’re almost the same. |
| David: Let’s hear those again. The two ways of saying “outside”. |
| Nicole: 出便, 出面。(ceot1 bin6 , ceot1 min6.) |
| David: And the two ways of saying “inside”. |
| Nicole: 入便, 入面。(jap6 bin6 , jap6 min6.) |
| David: Which one is more colloquial? |
| Nicole: I’d say 出便。(ceot1 bin6.) |
| David: Okay, with the “b” sound. |
| Nicole: Yes. Exactly. |
| David: Okay. Our next three words are all words that you’re going to use if you smoke. That’s a “lighter”. |
| Nicole: 打火機。(daa2 fo2 gei1.) |
| David: “Lighter”. |
| Nicole: 打火機。(daa2 fo2 gei1.) |
| David: “Do you have a lighter?” |
| Nicole: 有冇打火機？(jau5 mou5 daa2 fo2 gei1?) |
| David: “Do you have a lighter?” |
| Nicole: 有冇打火機？(jau5 mou5 daa2 fo2 gei1?) |
| David: And you can get away with this in many restaurants, but you might find a place where you need to ask for an “ashtray”. |
| Nicole: 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.) |
| David: “Ashtray”. |
| Nicole: 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.) |
| David: That’s literally a “smoke ash container”. |
| Nicole: Exactly. 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.) |
| David: “Do you have an ashtray?” |
| Nicole: 有冇煙灰缸？(jau5 mou5 jin1 fui1 gong1?) |
| David: And even though smoking is outlawed in many public places, there are still occasions where people will celebrate with a cigar. |
| Nicole: 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1.) |
| David: “A cigar”. |
| Nicole: 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1.) |
| David: “Do you want a cigar?” |
| Nicole: 要唔要雪茄？(jiu3 m4 jiu3 syut3 gaa1?) |
| David: “Do you want a cigar?” |
| Nicole: 要唔要雪茄？(jiu3 m4 jiu3 syut3 gaa1?) |
| David: So that’s our key smoking vocab. First, we have the word “cigarette” or “smoke”. |
| Nicole: 煙。(jin1.) |
| David: Then the verb “to eat smoke”. |
| Nicole: 食煙 (sik6 jin1) and you can also say 食雪茄. (sik6 syut3 gaa1.) |
| David: “To smoke a cigar”. |
| Nicole: 食雪茄。(sik6 syut3 gaa1.) |
| David: We have the words “outside”. |
| Nicole: 出便 (ceot1 bin6) or 出面 (ceot1 min6). |
| David: And the words “inside”. |
| Nicole: 入便 (jap6 bin6) or 入面 (jap6 min6). |
| David: And finally we have “lighter”. |
| Nicole: 打火機。(daa2 fo2 gei1.) |
| David: “Ashtray”. |
| Nicole: 煙灰缸。(jin1 fui1 gong1.) |
| David: And “cigar”. |
| Nicole: 雪茄。(syut3 gaa1.) |
| David: And with that, let’s get to our grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time! Our grammar focus this lesson is the difference between two really easy questions concerning where can you do something. In the dialogue, we heard this line. |
| Nicole: 邊度可以？ (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5?) |
| David: That’s literally “where can”. |
| Nicole: 邊度 可以？ (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5?) |
| David: And here it means “Where can I smoke?” |
| Nicole: 邊度可以食煙？ (bin1 dou6 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?) |
| David: But you don’t need to say. |
| Nicole: 邊度? (bin1 dou6?) |
| David: You could also say. |
| Nicole: 邊? (bin1?) |
| David: For example, “where can?” |
| Nicole: 邊可以? (bin1 ho2 ji5?) |
| David: “Where can I smoke?” |
| Nicole: 邊可以食煙？ (bin1 ho2 ji5 sik6 jin1?) |
| David: So we’ve got two ways of saying “where”. |
| Nicole: 邊度 (bin1 dou6) and 邊 (bin1)? |
| David: Nicole, what’s the difference? |
| Nicole: In most of cases they’re interchangeable, but 邊度 (bin1 dou6) is more formal than 邊 (bin1). |
| David: Okay. So, if you’re walking around Hong Kong, you should usually say. |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1)? |
| David: It’s shorter, it’s easier. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: And that’s what people are used to. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: But, when you’re on the subway when you’re listening to public announcements, you’re going to hear. |
| Nicole: 邊度? (bin1 dou6?) |
| David: Because it’s a bit more formal and maybe even a bit more polite. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Okay. Let’s practice this by going over some very simple sentences. “Where to go?” |
| Nicole: 去邊？ (heoi3 bin1?) |
| David: Or. |
| Nicole: 去邊度？ (heoi3 bin1 dou6?) |
| David: “Where do you live?” |
| Nicole: 你住邊？ (nei5 zyu6 bin1?) |
| David: Or. |
| Nicole: 你住邊度？ (nei5 zyu6 bin1 dou6?) |
| David: “Where are you?” |
| Nicole: 你哋喺邊？(nei5 dei6 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: Or. |
| Nicole: 你哋喺邊度？(nei5 dei6 hai2 bin1 dou6?) |
| David: Although if you’re walking lost around Hong Kong, you’re going to wonder reverse that. And make it “Where am I”? |
| Nicole: Yeah. 我喺邊？(ngo5 hai2 bin1?) or 我喺邊度？(ngo5 hai2 bin1 dou6?) |
| David: So, to review. There are two ways of saying “where”. The first is more colloquial. |
| Nicole: 邊？(bin1?) |
| David: The second is a bit politer and a bit more formal. |
| Nicole: 邊度？(bin1 dou6?) |
Outro |
| David: And that just about does it for today. Now Nicole, there’s something you want to remind people about leaving comments. |
| Nicole: Yeah. If you have a comment or have a question about Cantonese or about our lesson, please come to our website CantoneseClass101.com and leave us a comment. |
| David: Right. Nicole is reading them every day and she also takes suggestions. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So if you have something that you’d like to learn and we haven’t covered, just say “Nicole, I want to learn this.” Okay, so that’s it for today. Thanks for listening. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Nicole. |
| David: And we look forward to seeing you on the site. |
| Nicole: See you! |
| David: Bye-bye. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide