Learn how to talk about lengths of time
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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 24. |
| Gimmy: A Cooking Class in Hong Kong. |
| David: Right. Gimmy just taken her knowledge of Cantonese cuisine and stuffed it into this dialogue. |
| Gimmy: With some good tips on it. |
| David: Yes. So we’re going to learn how to speak Cantonese and how to cook. Now, our dialogue takes place in the kitchen between a student and a teacher. |
| Gimmy: Right. And they’re speaking casual Cantonese as always. |
| David: Let’s listen. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| A: 條魚要蒸幾耐？(tiu4 jyu2 jiu3 zing1 gei2 noi6?) |
| B: 大概十分鐘。(daai6 koi3 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| A: 咁豬肉呢？(gam2 zyu1 juk6 ne1?) |
| B: 差唔多廿分鐘。(caa1 m4 do1 jaa6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: One more time, a bit slower. |
| A: 條魚要蒸幾耐？(tiu4 jyu2 jiu3 zing1 gei2 noi6?) |
| B: 大概十分鐘。(daai6 koi3 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| A: 咁豬肉呢？(gam2 zyu1 juk6 ne1?) |
| B: 差唔多廿分鐘。(caa1 m4 do1 jaa6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| A: 條魚要蒸幾耐？(tiu4 jyu2 jiu3 zing1 gei2 noi6?) |
| A: How long does it take to steam the fish? |
| B: 大概十分鐘。(daai6 koi3 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| B: About ten minutes. |
| A: 咁豬肉呢？(gam2 zyu1 juk6 ne1?) |
| A: How about the pork? |
| B: 差唔多廿分鐘。(caa1 m4 do1 jaa6 fan1 zung1.) |
| B: About twenty minutes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So that’s our cooking lesson for today. Pork takes longer to cook than fish most of the time. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: Unless the fish is really big. |
| David: Right. So our vocab today, we’re going to review some old food terms and add some new ones. Let’s start with our vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 大概 (daai6 koi3) [natural native speed] |
| David: Around. |
| Gimmy: 大概 (daai6 koi3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 大概 (daai6 koi3) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1) [natural native speed]. |
| David: More or less. |
| Gimmy: 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 魚 (jyu2) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Fish. |
| Gimmy: 魚 (jyu2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 魚 (jyu2) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 豬肉 (zyu1 juk6) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Pork. |
| Gimmy: 豬肉 (zyu1 juk6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 豬肉 (zyu1 juk6) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 蒸 (zing1) [natural native speed]. |
| David: To steam. |
| Gimmy: 蒸 (zing1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 蒸 (zing1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 分鐘 (fan1 zung1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Minutes. |
| Gimmy: 分鐘 (fan1 zung1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 分鐘 (fan1 zung1) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 鐘（頭）(zung1 (tau4)) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Hours. |
| Gimmy: 鐘（頭）(zung1 (tau4)) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 鐘（頭）(zung1 (tau4)) [natural native speed]. |
| Gimmy: 廿 (jaa6) [natural native speed]. |
| David: Twenty. |
| Gimmy: 廿 (jaa6) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 廿 (jaa6) [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: So there’s plenty of new stuff here today. The most important thing though for anyone in Hong Kong… |
| Gimmy: …is the food. |
| David: Right. In an earlier lesson, we taught you how to say “beef.” |
| Gimmy: 牛肉. (ngau4 juk6.) |
| David: “Beef.” |
| Gimmy: 牛肉. (ngau4 juk6.) |
| David: Chicken. |
| Gimmy: 雞肉. (gai1 juk6.) |
| David: Chicken. |
| Gimmy: 雞肉. (gai1 juk6.) |
| David: And lamb. |
| Gimmy: 羊肉. (joeng4 juk6.) |
| David: Lamb. |
| Gimmy: 羊肉. (joeng4 juk6.) |
| David: So you could go to a restaurant and say, “I want the beef and the chicken.” |
| Gimmy: 我想要牛肉, 仲有雞肉. (ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 ngau4 juk6, zung6 jau5 gai1 juk6.) |
| David: Or “I want the chicken and the lamb.” |
| Gimmy: 我想要雞肉, 仲有羊肉. (ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 gai1 juk6, zung6 jau5 joeng4 juk6.) |
| David: Today, we had two more kinds of meats. First, fish. |
| Gimmy: 魚. (jyu2.) |
| David: Fish. |
| Gimmy: 魚. (jyu2.) |
| David: Second, pork. |
| Gimmy: 豬肉. (zyu1 juk6.) |
| David: Pork. |
| Gimmy: 豬肉. (zyu1 juk6.) |
| David: Fish and pork. |
| Gimmy: 魚, 仲有豬肉. (jyu2, zung6 jau5 zyu1 juk6.) |
| David: “I’ll have the fish and the pork.” |
| Gimmy: 我要魚, 仲要豬肉. (ngo5 jiu3 jyu2, zung6 jiu3 zyu1 juk6.) |
| David: Right. We’re going to get the times in our grammar section. Before we touch on that though, we also have two new ways of saying “about.” |
| Gimmy: 大概. (daai6 koi3.) |
| David: Which means “approximately.” |
| Gimmy: 大概. (daai6 koi3.) |
| David: “Approximately 20 minutes.” |
| Gimmy: 大概二十分鐘. (daai6 koi3 ji6 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: Or “approximately an hour.” |
| Gimmy: 大概一個鐘. (daai6 koi3 jat1 go3 zung1.) |
| David: We also have the phrase “more or less.” |
| Gimmy: 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1). |
| David: Which in this context, means exactly the same thing. |
| Gimmy: 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1). 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1). |
| David: It’s a bit more casual. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: And it’s a bit more flexible, too. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: Thus, if someone asks you a question and you want to answer “well, you know, that’ about right”, you can just answer… |
| Gimmy: 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1). |
| David: So two ways to say “approximately” or “about.” |
| Gimmy: 大概 (daai6 koi3) and 差唔多 (caa1 m4 do1). |
| David: In our grammar section, we’re going to a bit more detail about times. |
Lesson focus |
| David: Okay, Gimmy, what are we going to learn today? |
| Gimmy: We’re learning how to talk about times. |
| David: And specifically how to talk about a length of time. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: In our dialogue, the teacher and the student were talking about how long it takes to steam foods. When asked about fish, the teacher said… |
| Gimmy: 大概十分鐘. (daai6 koi3 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: “About 10 minutes.” |
| Gimmy: 大概十分鐘. (daai6 koi3 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: “About 10 minutes.” Let’s just take a look at how we said “ten minutes.” |
| Gimmy: 十分鐘. (sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: Let’s break that down. |
| Gimmy: 十. (sap6.) |
| David: The number 10. |
| Gimmy: 十. (sap6.) |
| David: The number 10. |
| Gimmy: 十(sap6). 分鐘 (fan1 zung1). |
| David: The length of time. In this case, “minutes.” |
| Gimmy: 分鐘. (fan1 zung1.) |
| David: Now, with most numbers, you’re just going to put the number in front of minutes. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: For instance, 15 minutes. |
| Gimmy: 十五分鐘. (sap6 ng5 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: Fifteen minutes. |
| Gimmy: 十五分鐘. (sap6 ng5 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: How about 20 minutes? |
| Gimmy: 二十分鐘. (ji6 sap6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: Twenty minutes. |
| Gimmy: 二十分鐘. (ji6 sap6 fan1 zung1.) But we also heard this in the dialogue, 廿分鐘. (jaa6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: “A shortcut.” |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Twenty minutes. |
| Gimmy: 廿分鐘. (jaa6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: There’s another shortcut. If we want to say “half an hour.” |
| Gimmy: 半個鐘. (bun3 go3 zung1.) |
| David: “Half an hour.” |
| Gimmy: 半個鐘. (bun3 go3 zung1.) |
| David: So using this, we can really make almost any combination of times. For instance, an hour. |
| Gimmy: 一個鐘. (jat1 go3 zung1.) |
| David: “Two hours.” |
| Gimmy: 兩個鐘. (loeng5 go3 zung1.) |
| David: “Two hours and 20 minutes.” |
| Gimmy: 兩個鐘二十分鐘, or 兩個鐘廿分鐘 (loeng5 go3 zung1 ji6 sap6 fan1 zung1, or loeng5 go3 zung1 jaa6 fan1 zung1). |
| David: “Three hours and 20 minutes.” |
| Gimmy: 三個鐘廿分鐘. (saam1 go3 zung1 jaa6 fan1 zung1.) |
| David: How about “an hour and a half?” |
| Gimmy: 一個半鐘. (jat1 go3 bun3 zung1.) |
| David: An hour and a half. |
| Gimmy: 一個半鐘. (jat1 go3 bun3 zung1.) |
| David: So talking about length of times in Cantonese is really easy. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: We just put the number of minutes…. |
| Gimmy: In front of the “hours” or “minutes”. |
| David: Right. Now, this can be a bit tricky if you communicate with audio. So if you’re having trouble following along with us, we really recommend you checkout the premium PDF for this lesson. |
| Gimmy: We’ve written down the rules and examples all in the grammar sections. |
Outro |
| David: Right. So if you have any questions, you can consult that and it will help clear this up. That being said though, that’s all the time we have today. I’m David. |
| Gimmy: 我係 (ngo5 hai6) Gimmy. |
| David: Thanks a lot for listening and we’ll see you on the site. |
| Gimmy: 下次見. (haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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