Learn how to make comparisons
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: 大家好, 我係 Gimmy。(daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6 Gimmy.) |
| David: And we’re here today with Beginner Season 1, Lesson 20. |
| Gimmy: Comparing in Cantonese. |
| David: Right. Our dialogue today takes place in a store and it’s between a customer and a sales person. |
| Gimmy: They’re trying to find out which one’s better, which one’s more expensive, cheaper. |
| David: Yes, or the customers, at least. The sales person has another agenda. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So this is standard Cantonese, the way it’s spoken in Hong Kong. Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 買呢個呀。(maai5 ni1 go3 aa3.) |
| 我想要嗰個。(ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 go2 go3.) |
| 呢個好過嗰個喎。(ni1 go3 hou2 gwo3 go2 go3 wo3.) |
| 呢個都貴過嗰個。(ni1 go3 dou1 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 買呢個呀。(maai5 ni1 go3 aa3.) |
| 我想要嗰個。(ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 go2 go3.) |
| 呢個好過嗰個喎。(ni1 go3 hou2 gwo3 go2 go3 wo3.) |
| 呢個都貴過嗰個。(ni1 go3 dou1 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 買呢個呀。(maai5 ni1 go3 aa3.) |
| A: Buy this one. |
| 我想要嗰個。(ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 go2 go3.) |
| B: I want that one. |
| 呢個好過嗰個喎。(ni1 go3 hou2 gwo3 go2 go3 wo3.) |
| A: This one is better than that one. |
| 呢個都貴過嗰個。(ni1 go3 dou1 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| B: This one is also more expensive (than that one). |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: And Gimmy, you are having trouble with that last line. |
| Gimmy: Yeah. It sounds more like those… |
| David: It’s like a tongue twister, huh? |
| Gimmy: It does. |
| David: Can we hear it again |
| Gimmy: Sure! 呢個都貴過嗰個. (ni1 go3 dou1 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: It’s the ending. Gimmy tripped up twice when we were recording this, so… |
| Gimmy: And same as the voice actors. |
| David: It’s not that tough but it is a bit tricky on the tongue. |
| Gimmy: Yup. |
| David: Anyway, our vocab section today is mainly review. |
| Gimmy: But all of the stuff is really useful. |
| David: Right. So let’s get to it. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 呢個 (ni1 go3) [natural native speed]. |
| David: This one. |
| Gimmy: 呢個 (ni1 go3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 呢個 (ni1 go3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 嗰個 (go2 go3) [natural native speed] |
| David: That one. |
| Gimmy: 嗰個 (go2 go3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 嗰個 (go2 go3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 買 (maai5) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To buy. |
| Gimmy: 買 (maai5) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 買 (maai5) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 賣 (maai6) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To sell. |
| Gimmy: 賣 (maai6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 賣 (maai6) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 貴 (gwai3) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Expensive. |
| Gimmy: 貴 (gwai3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 貴 (gwai3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 平 (peng4) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Cheap. |
| Gimmy: 平 (peng4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 平 (peng4) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 過 (gwo3) |
| David: More than. |
| Gimmy: 過 (gwo3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 過 (gwo3) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let’s take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. As we said a bit earlier, today our vocab section is a review of some really common words. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Our first two words are… |
| Gimmy: 呢個. (ni1 go3.) |
| David: “This one.” |
| Gimmy: 呢個. (ni1 go3.) |
| David: And |
| Gimmy: 嗰個. (go2 go3.) |
| David: “That one.” |
| Gimmy: 嗰個. (go2 go3.) |
| David: And we see this used in comparisons. And in our dialogue, we see these used in comparisons for the first time. |
| Gimmy: Right. Imagine 我鍾意呢個, 我唔鍾意嗰個. (ngo5 zung1 ji3 ni1 go3 , ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 go2 go3.) |
| David: Right. Imagine you’re choosing between the two. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: And can you say that one more time, you like this one but you don’t like that one. |
| Gimmy: 我鍾意呢個, 我唔鍾意嗰個. (ngo5 zung1 ji3 ni1 go3 , ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 go2 go3.) |
| David: Then you might say that this one is better than that one. |
| Gimmy: 呢個好過嗰個. (ni1 go3 hou2 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: What’s that word that means “more than”? |
| Gimmy: 過. (gwo3.) |
| David: As in “better than”. |
| Gimmy: 好過. (hou2 gwo3.) |
| David: “Better than”. |
| Gimmy: 好過. (hou2 gwo3.) |
| David: We also have two other adjectives in our vocab list today. The first is “expensive”. |
| Gimmy: 貴. (gwai3.) |
| David: “This one is more expensive than that one.” |
| Gimmy: 呢個貴過嗰個. (ni1 go3 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: “This one is more expensive than that one.” |
| Gimmy: 呢個貴過嗰個. (ni1 go3 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: And that’s why the customer didn’t want it. He wanted that one. |
| Gimmy: Yeah. |
| David: Right. We can turn that around with the adjective “cheap”. |
| Gimmy: 平. (peng4.) |
| David: And this is just cheap in terms of price. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: In English, cheap might be in poor quality or low quality. There’s not the same association in Cantonese. |
| Gimmy: We’re just comparing the price here. |
| David: Right. “That one is cheaper than this one.” |
| Gimmy: 嗰個平過呢個. (go2 go3 peng4 gwo3 ni1 go3.) |
| David: “That one is cheaper than this one.” |
| Gimmy: 嗰個平過呢個. (go2 go3 peng4 gwo3 ni1 go3.) |
| David: So as you can tell, our focus in this lesson is comparing things. In our grammar section, we’re going to take a closer look at what’s happening here. |
| David: It’s grammar time! |
Lesson focus |
| David: Gimmy, what are we focusing on today? |
| Gimmy: We’re teaching how to do comparisons in Cantonese. |
| David: Right. In our dialogue, we saw this in the following two sentences. |
| Gimmy: 呢個好過嗰個喎. (ni1 go3 hou2 gwo3 go2 go3 wo3.) |
| David: “This one is better than that one.” Also… |
| Gimmy: 呢個都貴過嗰個. (ni1 go3 dou1 gwai3 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: “This one is also more expensive than that one.” The grammar pattern we’re using to make comparisons is this… |
| Gimmy: It’s adjective plus 過. (gwo3.) |
| David: Right. So subject-adjective… |
| Gimmy: 過. (gwo3.) |
| David: “I’m taller than you.” |
| Gimmy: 我高過你. (ngo5 gou1 gwo3 nei5.) |
| David: “I’m taller than you.” |
| Gimmy: 我高過你. (ngo5 gou1 gwo3 nei5.) |
| David: “Peter is shorter than John.” |
| Gimmy: Peter 矮過 (aai2 gwo3) John. |
| David: “Peter is shorter than John.” |
| Gimmy: Peter 矮過 (aai2 gwo3) John. |
| David: So all we’re doing is adding a particle after the adjective. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: And it’s the order of the things compared that tells us which one is better. |
| Gimmy: So literally 好過…(hou2 gwo3...) |
| David: …means “to be better than.” |
| Gimmy: 好過. (hou2 gwo3.) |
| David: And… |
| Gimmy: 貴過. (gwai3 gwo3.) |
| David: Means “to be more expensive than.” For another example, consider the sentence “oranges are cheaper than apples.” |
| Gimmy: 橙平過蘋果. (caang2 peng4 gwo3 ping4 gwo2.) |
| David: “Oranges are cheaper than apples.” |
| Gimmy: 橙平過蘋果. (caang2 peng4 gwo3 ping4 gwo2.) |
| David: Now here’s a neat trick: you don’t need to specify either of the two objects. |
| Gimmy: Yes. You can just say one is better. |
| David: Right. You can only do this if it’s clear in context. Let’s say you’re watching a movie and you really like it. You might just say…. |
| Gimmy: 好睇過. (hou2 tai2 gwo3.) |
| David: “Better to see.” |
| Gimmy: 好睇過. (hou2 tai2 gwo3.) |
| David: So that’s our grammar point for today’s lesson, how to make simple comparisons. |
| Gimmy: 呢個好過嗰個. (ni1 go3 hou2 gwo3 go2 go3.) |
| David: Use an adjective and follow it by… |
| Gimmy: 過. (gwo3.) |
Outro |
| David: And with that, we’re out of time for our lesson today. So thanks for listening to this lesson. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Gimmy. |
| David: And if you have any questions, just let us know on the website. |
| Gimmy: And we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 下次見. (haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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