Learn how to ask which of something looks good, such as color or clothes
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Hi! Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Cantonese. I’m David, and I’m here with... |
| Nicole: Nicole! |
| David: And we’re here at Absolute Beginner Season 2 lesson 7. |
| Nicole: “What Color Looks Good in Hong Kong?” |
| David: As you can guess, it’s gonna be a lesson all about colors. We’re gonna teach you the most common colors, how to use them in conversation, and which one Nicole loves the best. |
| Nicole: Black, without doubt. |
| David: So we’ve got a dialogue that takes place at a shopping mall. |
| Nicole: It’s between 2 friends |
| David: And they’re buying clothes. Which color will they buy? |
| DIALOGUE |
| 邊隻顏色好呢？ (bin1 zek3 ngaan4 sik1 hou2 ne1?) |
| “Which color looks good?” |
| 白色？ (baak6 sik1?) |
| “White?” |
| 唔好。(m4 hou2.) |
| “No.” |
| 紅色？(hung4 sik1?) |
| “Red?” |
| 唔好。(m4 hou2.) |
| “No.” |
| 黑色？ (haak1 sik1?) |
| “Black?” |
| 好。(hou2.) |
| “Yes.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So Nicole, you wrote this dialogue. You put your own prejudice and stuck it in. |
| Nicole: Because black is really good, it’s never outdated. |
| David: Anyway, we’ve got a vocab section today which is all about colors, so let’s get to that now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1) [natural native speed] |
| David: which |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 隻 (zek3) [natural native speed] |
| David: measure word for colors |
| Nicole: 隻 (zek3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 隻 (zek3) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 顏色 (ngaan4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: color |
| Nicole: 顏色 (ngaan4 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 顏色 (ngaan4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 白色 (baak6 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: white |
| Nicole: 白色 (baak6 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 白色 (baak6 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 紅色 (hung4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: red |
| Nicole: 紅色 (hung4 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 紅色 (hung4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 黑色 (hak1 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: black |
| Nicole: 黑色 (hak1 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 黑色 (hak1 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 綠色 (luk6 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: green |
| Nicole: 綠色 (luk6 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 綠色 (luk6 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 藍色 (laam4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: blue |
| Nicole: 藍色 (laam4 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 藍色 (laam4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 黃色 (wong4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Yellow |
| Nicole: 黃色 (wong4 sik1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 黃色 (wong4 sik1) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: So our vocabs for this lesson is all about color. In a moment we’re gonna play a game with you. Before we do though, Nicole, there’s something you’re going to say. |
| Nicole: That’s right! We’re going to tell you how Cantonese people form the color words. First you say the name of the color, there is a single character which corresponds with the color and then we have the character 色 (sik1), and this describes the color, so it’s like “the color red”, “the color black”. |
| David: We’re gonna play a game with you. But first, let’s just quickly review all of these colors. We’ve got “white”... |
| Nicole: 白色 (baak6 sik1). |
| David: “Red”... |
| Nicole: 紅色 (hung4 sik1). |
| David: “Black”... |
| Nicole: 黑色 (hak1 sik1). |
| David: “Green”... |
| Nicole: 綠色 (luk6 sik1). |
| David: “Blue”... |
| Nicole: 藍色 (laam4 sik1). |
| David: “Yellow”... |
| Nicole: 黃色 (wong4 sik1). |
| David: Hope that you’ve been paying attention, because now we’re gonna play a game. Nicole is gonna give us the name of a color in Cantonese, we’re gonna give you a second to think about what the English is before I provide the English translation. See how well you do, good luck! |
| Nicole: 黑色 (hak1 sik1). |
| David: “Black”. |
| Nicole: 藍色 (laam4 sik1). |
| David: “Blue”. |
| Nicole: 黃色 (wong4 sik1). |
| David: “Yellow”. |
| Nicole: 白色 (baak6 sik1). |
| David: “White”. |
| Nicole: 綠色 (luk6 sik1). |
| David: “Green”. |
| Nicole: 橙色 (caang2 sik1). |
| David: That’s a trick question. What’s that one, Nicole? |
| Nicole: “Orange”. |
| David: One more time, “orange”. |
| Nicole: 橙色 (caang2 sik1). It actually has the word “orange (the fruit)” in it, so 橙 (caang2) means “orange (the fruit)”. |
| David: And “orange juice” is... |
| Nicole: 橙汁 (caang2 zap1). |
| David: So those are the colors, we hope you did really well. Because we’re gonna play the game again in reverse. I’m gonna say the English words, try to say the Cantonese before Nicole does. “Black”... |
| Nicole: 黑色 (hak1 sik1). |
| David: “Blue”... |
| Nicole: 藍色 (laam4 sik1). |
| David: “Red”... |
| Nicole: 紅色 (hung4 sik1). |
| David: “Green”... |
| Nicole: 綠色 (luk6 sik1). |
| David: “Yellow”... |
| Nicole: 黃色 (wong4 sik1). |
| David: “White”... |
| Nicole: 白色 (baak6 sik1). |
| David: Great! That’s our vocab sessions for today. Let’s go to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: Our grammar point today is about a very simple sentence pattern. We can use to ask “which of something is good.” |
| Nicole: In the lesson, we hear 邊隻顏色好呢？(bin1 zek3 ngaan4 sik1 hou2 ne1?) |
| David: “Which color is good?” |
| Nicole: 邊隻顏色好呢？(bin1 zek3 ngaan4 sik1 hou2 ne1?) |
| David: You can use this without talking about color, for instance... |
| Nicole: 邊件衫好？(bin1 gin6 saam1 hou2?) |
| David: “Which piece of clothing is good?” |
| Nicole: 邊件衫好？(bin1 gin6 saam1 hou2?) |
| David: If you’re at a bar, you may ask “which kind of beer is good?” |
| Nicole: 邊隻啤酒好？(bin1 zek3 be1 zau2 hou2?) |
| David: “Which kind of beer is good?” |
| Nicole: 邊隻啤酒好？(bin1 zek3 be1 zau2 hou2?) |
| David: So the pattern here is really easy, we have 邊 (bin1), and then the measure word 隻(zek3), and then the noun 啤酒 (be1 zau2), and then 好 (hou2), which means “good”. |
| Nicole: 邊隻啤酒好？(bin1 zek3 be1 zau2 hou2?) |
| David: “Which kind of beer is good?” Or as in the dialogue |
| Nicole: 邊隻顏色好？(bin1 zek3 ngaan4 sik1 hou2?) |
| David: “Which color is good?” |
| Nicole: You’ll find that we use the same measure word here: 隻(zek3), so it can be the measure word for color, and it can be the measure word for “kind”, like “which kind of beer”. |
| David: It’s a very simple pattern, you’re gonna use it again and again. |
| Nicole: And sometimes when you’re asking question like this, you don’t have to say the noun if there is context. So we can just say “which one is good?” 邊隻好？(bin1 zek3 hou2?) |
| David: “Which one is good?” |
| Nicole: Or 邊個好？(bin1 go3 hou2?) |
| David: “Which type is good?” And in that case the measure word is what we use to signal the existence of an noun. |
| Nicole: That’s right. We’re learning a very useful word here: 邊 (bin1) it can mean “which”, that we just learned, and it also means “where”, so when you want to ask where someplace is, you can use 邊 (bin1), like “where is it?” |
| David: For instance, “where is it?” |
| Nicole: 喺邊？ (hai2 bin1?) |
| David: “Where are you?” |
| Nicole: 你喺邊？ (nei5 hai2 bin1?) |
| David: So one more time, the word for “which”... |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1) |
| David: and “where”... |
| Nicole: 邊 (bin1)... |
| David: are the same. |
| Nicole: And high flat tone, as you’ve already notice. |
Outro |
| David: So that’s our lesson for today, we hope you enjoy it. Thanks a lot for listening, and we’ll see you at CantoneseClass101.com. |
| Nicole: Bye! |
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