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| 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 with Absolute Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 21. |
| Nicole: “Cantonese Summer”. |
| David: Right. And it gets hot in Hong Kong in the summer. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Yeah. You’re going to be sweating a lot, you’re drinking a lot of liquids. And that’s what the lesson is about. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So, we’ve got a dialogue here that’s between two friends. |
| Nicole: So they’re speaking casual Cantonese as always. |
| David: Right. And they are suffering in the summer heat. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: And we’re going to take you there in a sec. Before we do, we want to remind you we got these fantastic premium PDFs on the site. We won’t go into a lot of details about what the tones of any words are in our podcast, but if you’re having trouble picking it out, make sure to get your hands on these PDFs. |
| Nicole: Yes, it’s all written down. |
| David: Yeah. And with that said, let’s go to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 越嚟越熱! (jyut6 lei4 jyut6 jit6!) |
| B: 係咩？(hai6 me1?) |
| A: 可唔可以開冷氣？(ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 hoi1 laang5 hei3?) |
| B: 已經開咗。(ji5 ging1 hoi1 zo2.) |
| A: It's getting hotter and hotter. |
| B: Is it? |
| A: Can you turn on the air conditioning? |
| B: It's already on. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Yeah. Hong Kong, hot. |
| Nicole: I know. |
| David: It’s really, really, really hot. |
| Nicole: And the summer in Hong Kong is long. |
| David: Yeah. And it’s not just that it’s hot, it’s really humid, too. |
| Nicole: True. That’s the worst part. |
| David: Yeah. You live in air conditioned office, you step outside and you’re going to be drenched in a couple of minutes. |
| Nicole: Exactly. |
| David: Fun, fun, fun. So, with that in mind we’ve got a lot of vocab that’s about climate control. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: So, let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 越嚟越。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6.) |
| David: “More and more”. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越, 越嚟越, 開。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6, jyut6 lei4 jyut6, hoi1.) |
| David: “To turn on”. |
| Nicole: 開, 開, 熄。(hoi1, hoi1, sik1.) |
| David: “To turn off”. |
| Nicole: 熄, 熄, 開大。(sik1, sik1, hoi1 daai6.) |
| David: “To turn up”. |
| Nicole: 開大, 開大, 熄細。(hoi1 daai6, hoi1 daai6, sik1 sai3.) |
| David: “To turn down”. |
| Nicole: 熄細, 熄細, 冷氣。(sik1 sai3, sik1 sai3, laang5 hei3.) |
| David: “Air conditioner”. |
| Nicole: 冷 氣, 冷氣, 暖氣。(laang5 hei3, laang5 hei3, nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: “Heating”. |
| Nicole: 暖氣, 暖氣, 已經。(nyun5 hei3, nyun5 hei3, ji5 ging1.) |
| David: “Already”. |
| Nicole: 已經, 已經。(ji5 ging1, ji5 ging1.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases. And the most important word today is “air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 冷氣。(laang5 hei3.) |
| David: “Air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 冷氣。(laang5 hei3.) |
| David: When you’re renting an apartment, you’re going to want to ask “Does this have air conditioning?” |
| Nicole: 有冇冷氣？ (jau5 mou5 laang5 hei3?) |
| David: Literally “Is there air conditioning?” |
| Nicole: 有冇冷氣？ (jau5 mou5 laang5 hei3?) |
| David: Most places in Hong Kong these days should have air conditioning. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: If you’re in a taxi though, you might want to ask them to “turn on the air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 開冷氣。 (hoi1 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: We have the verb there “to turn on”. |
| Nicole: 開。(hoi1.) |
| David: “Turn on the air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 開 冷氣。(hoi1 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: “Can you turn on the air conditioning?” |
| Nicole: 可唔可以開冷氣？ (ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 hoi1 laang5 hei3?) |
| David: Sometimes, the air conditioning might be on, but it’s lower than you want. In this cases you want “to turn up”. |
| Nicole: 開大, 開大冷氣。(hoi1 daai6 , hoi1 daai6 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: The verb there is “to turn up”. |
| Nicole: 開大。(hoi1 daai6.) |
| David: Which is “turn on” with? |
| Nicole: 大。(daai6.) |
| David: Added to it. |
| Nicole: 開大。(hoi1 daai6.) |
| David: So you can tell someone “Please, turn up the air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 唔該, 開大冷氣。(m4 goi1 , hoi1 daai6 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: Or you can be more polite. “Excuse me, can you turn up the air conditioning?” |
| Nicole: 唔好意思, 可唔可以開大冷氣？(m4 hou2 ji3 si1 , ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 hoi1 daai6 laang5 hei3?) |
| David: On the other hand, if it’s winter in Hong Kong, you don’t want the air conditioning. |
| Nicole: No. |
| David: In this – you definitely don’t want the air conditioning. In this case, you want “to turn off”. |
| Nicole: 熄。(sik1.) |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Nicole: 熄。(sik1.) |
| David: This is very close to the verb “to eat”. |
| Nicole: 食。(sik6.) |
| David: But the tone is different. Nicole, what’s the difference? |
| Nicole: The word “to turn off”, 熄 (sik1) is using the high flat tone. The highest tone. 熄 (sik1) While the word “to eat”, 食 (sik6) uses the flat tone. Middle level flat tone. |
| David: Right. |
| Nicole: 食。(sik6.) |
| David: So these are both flat tones, there’s just a small difference in pitch. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
| David: Let’s hear them again. “To turn off”. |
| Nicole: 熄。 |
| David: “To turn off”. |
| Nicole: 熄。(sik1.) |
| David: “To eat”. |
| Nicole: 食。(sik6.) |
| David: Be careful with this one. If it’s too cold and the air conditioning is on you want to “turn off the air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 熄冷氣。(sik1 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: You could also ask someone to “turn down the air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 熄細 冷氣。(sik1 sai3 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: “Turn down the air conditioning”. |
| Nicole: 熄細 冷氣。(sik1 sai3 laang5 hei3.) |
| David: And of course, when it’s winter you’re not talking about the air conditioning, but the heating. |
| Nicole: That’s right. 暖氣. (nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: “Heating”. |
| Nicole: 暖氣。(nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: So let’s do a quick review of all of these verbs using “heating” instead. “Turn on the heating”. |
| Nicole: 開暖氣。(hoi1 nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: “Turn up the heating”. |
| Nicole: 開大暖氣。(hoi1 daai6 nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: “Turn down the heating”. |
| Nicole: 熄細 暖氣。(sik1 sai3 nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: “Turn off the heating”. |
| Nicole: 熄暖氣。(sik1 nyun5 hei3.) |
| David: And don’t forget, to be polite, you’ll always want to ask people “Can you turn on the heating?” |
| Nicole: 可唔可以開暖氣? (ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 hoi1 nyun5 hei3?) |
| David: With that, let’s get to our grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: It’s grammar time! So summer in Hong Kong starts really nicely. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: And then it gets hotter and hotter. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越熱! (jyut6 lei4 jyut6 jit6 !) |
| David: Let’s hear that again, slowly. “Hotter and hotter”. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越熱! (jyut6 lei4 jyut6 jit6 !) |
| David: And this continues for about a month or so, and then just when you think it can’t get any hotter, it gets hotter and hotter. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越熱! (jyut6 lei4 jyut6 jit6 !) |
| David: And this is our grammar point for today. It’s how to communicate this idea of “more and more” adjective. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: In our dialogue, we heard this with the adjective “hot”. However, you can use this with any adjective. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: You can say that things are “more and more expensive”. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越貴。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6 gwai3.) |
| David: Or you could say that they’re “cheaper and cheaper”. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越平。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6 peng4.) |
| David: “Things are more and more expensive.” |
| Nicole: 越嚟越貴。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6 gwai3.) |
| David: “Things are cheaper and cheaper.” |
| Nicole: 越嚟越平。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6 peng4.) |
| David: You can also use this to compliment someone. You can say “You’re getting more and more pretty”. |
| Nicole: 你越嚟越靚。(nei5 jyut6 lei4 jyut6 leng3.) |
| David: “You’re prettier and prettier”. |
| Nicole: 你越嚟越靚。(nei5 jyut6 lei4 jyut6 leng3.) |
| David: Or you could say a man is “more and more handsome”. |
| Nicole: 你越嚟越靚仔。(nei5 jyut6 lei4 jyut6 leng3 zai2.) |
| David: And Nicole is often fond of telling us that “Tony Liang is more and more handsome.” |
| Nicole: 梁朝偉越嚟越靚仔. (loeng4 ciu4 wai5 jyut6 lei4 jyut6 leng3 zai2.) That’s true. |
| David: We’ve heard this before. So, a really simple grammar point one that’s hopefully easy to remember. |
| Nicole: 越嚟越 ……...。(jyut6 lei4 jyut6……….) |
| David: Means “more and more”. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: And we follow this with an adjective. |
| Nicole: Or adverb. |
Outro |
| David: And that just about does it for our podcast for today. Before we go, we want to remind you there’s nothing like a little competition. |
| Nicole: Even against yourself. |
| David: Right. So you can test what you’ve learned in this lesson with our fun review quizzes. |
| Nicole: Master your vocabulary and grammar with short, challenging quizzes. |
| David: And you can find these on the lesson’s page at CantoneseClass101.com |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: 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. |
| David: Bye-bye. |
Comments
HideHi Grace,
I understand what you mean. But 開大 [hoi1 daai6] is not itself a verb. The podcast was just illustrating the actual verb 開 [hoi1] by pairing up with an adjective 大 [daai6]. It is, however, one of the many senses of 開. Imagine in English, we wouldn't say "grow large" as a verb but in the form of verb+adjective.
If you memorise 開大 by brute force, chances are, you will erase chances of remembering other senses of 開, such as 開光 (brighten), 開暗 (dim), 開早 (work early), 開遲 (work late).
Arnold
Team CantoneseClass101.com
Hi there
I agree with the comment below about hoi1 daai6 not being included - I was looking for it too.
The speakers in the podcast talk about it when they run through the vocabulary list, so its absence from the written list is confusing.
Hi Michael,
開大 [hoi1 daai6], right? It is not put in the vocab list because it is not a vocab. What does it mean? It means, despite being used, it is not what we might regard as a phrasal verb in English grammar. The structure of 開大 here is verb (開; turn) + adjective (大; big). We can imagine there is a scale in mind about, say speakers, then we want to turn the volume up. Similarly, you can pair up 開 with 細 (small), 光 (bright), 暗 (dim), 早 (early), 遲 (late). It all bears a meaning of scaling upwards in that adjective's orientation. That's why, we don't need to keep it in a separate entry. It is so flexible, we couldn't include all.
Arnold
Team CantoneseClass101.com
There is no Hoi dai on the vocabulary list.
Thanks
M goi
Hi David,
Yes, you're correct!
Since adding negation 唔 [m4] before an adjective would make it contrary in meaning. Imagine adding "not" in front of an adjectives.
So, when you say "You're more and more not talkative" would mean "You're less and less talkative", right? It's that easy! 😁
Another way to say less and less, in fact, is by saying "more and more" + antonym of the adjective. For example, "You're more and more tacit" = "You're less and less talkative".
Arnold
Team CantoneseClass101.com
Hello,
So in Cantonese when you want to say "less and less" only uses the contrary adjective with the most structure?
Hi Richard,
而家我個冷氣機滴水呀！ That`s not good. 快啲搵師傅整番好部冷氣機啦！:sweat_smile:
Siuling
Team CantoneseClass101.com
而家我個冷氣機滴水呀！
Hi Grace,
Sorry for the confusion. 嚟 can be pronounced as "lei4" or "lai4"; they are interchangeable, and no preference over each other, just depends on the speaker.
Olivia
Team CantoneseClass101.com
Hello,
The word "嚟 is prounced "lei4" under the Lesson Materials but "lai4" under vacabulary. Please kindly check and update which one is correct.
Thanks,
Grace