Learn how to ask "how many/how much" using the character 幾
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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 with Beginner Season 1, Lesson 4. |
| Gimmy: Running Late in Hong Kong. |
| David: Right. So if you scramble every morning to make to the office on time, this is the lesson for you, and Gimmy is smiling. She knows we're talking about her. |
| Gimmy: Really? |
| David: So anyway, we've got a dialogue. Casual Cantonese as always, between two friends who are scrambling to make it to work on time. |
| Gimmy: Let's get to the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 哎呀，就遲到喇。(aai1 jaa3, zau6 ci4 dou3 laa3.) |
| 而家幾點呀？(ji4 gaa1 gei2 dim2 aa3?) |
| 就快兩點喇。(zau6 faai3 loeng5 dim2 laa3.) |
| 咁就要快啲啦！(gam2 zau6 jiu3 faai3 di1 laa3!) |
| David: Once again, a bit slower. |
| 哎呀，就遲到喇。(aai1 jaa3, zau6 ci4 dou3 laa3.) |
| 而家幾點呀？(ji4 gaa1 gei2 dim2 aa3?) |
| 就快兩點喇。(zau6 faai3 loeng5 dim2 laa3.) |
| 咁就要快啲啦！(gam2 zau6 jiu3 faai3 di1 laa3!) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| 哎呀，就遲到喇。(aai1 jaa3, zau6 ci4 dou3 laa3.) |
| Ar, we are going to be late! |
| 而家幾點呀？(ji4 gaa1 gei2 dim2 aa3?) |
| What time is it? |
| 就快兩點喇。(zau6 faai3 loeng5 dim2 laa3.) |
| Almost two. |
| 咁就要快啲啦！(gam2 zau6 jiu3 faai3 di1 laa3!) |
| Then we have to hurry. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: This is what happens when you let people out of the office for lunch. |
| Gimmy: Well, in Hong Kong, you only got one hour lunch. |
| David: Right. So these people, if they show up at two, they're going to lose their job. They really do have to hurry. Anyway, our vocab today is about being late and being on time. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gimmy: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) [natural native speed] |
| David: To be late. |
| Gimmy: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 準時 (zeon2 si4) [natural native speed] |
| David. To be on time. |
| Gimmy: 準時 (zeon2 si4) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 準時 (zeon2 si4) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 而家 (ji4 gaa1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Now. |
| Gimmy: 而家 (ji4 gaa1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 而家 (ji4 gaa1) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 幾點 (gei2 dim2) [natural native speed] |
| David. What time. |
| Gimmy: 幾點 (gei2 dim2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 幾點 (gei2 dim2) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 就快 (zau6 faai3) [natural native speed] |
| David: Almost. |
| Gimmy: 就快 (zau6 faai3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 就快 (zau6 faai3) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 咁 (gam2) [natural native speed] |
| David: Well. |
| Gimmy: 咁 (gam2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 咁 (gam2) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 快啲 (faai3 di1) [natural native speed] |
| David: Quicker. |
| Gimmy: 快啲 (faai3 di1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 快啲 (faai3 di1) [natural native speed] |
| Gimmy: 兩點 (loeng5 dim2) [natural native speed] |
| David: Two o'clock. |
| Gimmy: 兩點 (loeng5 dim2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Gimmy: 兩點 (loeng5 dim2) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's take a closer look at some of these words and phrases. The first word to highlight is the word "to be late." |
| Gimmy: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) |
| David: To be late. |
| Gimmy: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) |
| David: It literally means "to arrive late." |
| Gimmy: Yes, and it's something that you don't want to do at work. |
| David: No, especially in Hong Kong. |
| Gimmy: For example, if you're meeting a friend and he's late again. |
| David: Yes. |
| Gimmy: You can say this 你又遲到。(nei5 jau6 ci4 dou3.) |
| David: You're late again. |
| Gimmy: 你又遲到。(nei5 jau6 ci4 dou3.) |
| David: "You again to be late." And people get angry at that, but they never get excited when you're there on time. |
| Gimmy: 準時 (zeon2 si4) |
| David: To be on time. |
| Gimmy: 準時 (zeon2 si4) |
| David: Right. So you never hear someone say, "You, you're on time again! It's great." |
| Gimmy: Yeah, they usually just say, "You better be on time" 你最好準時. (nei5 zeoi3 hou2 zeon2 si4.) |
| David: You better be on time. |
| Gimmy: 你最好準時. (nei5 zeoi3 hou2 zeon2 si4.) The next vocabulary that we want to look at is 就快.(zau6 faai3.) |
| David: Almost. |
| Gimmy: 就快 (zau6 faai3) |
| David: Almost. Now, this isn't adverb. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: So we're going to put it in front of verbs. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So you can be almost late. |
| Gimmy: 就快遲到. (zau6 faai3 ci4 dou3.) |
| David: But you can't be almost on time. |
| Gimmy: No, we don't say that. |
| David: Yeah, because it really means something is happening soon. |
| Gimmy: Yes. If you're on time, there's no almost. |
| David: Yes, you're already on time. |
| Gimmy: Yeah. But you can say it's almost time to go. For example, "It's time to get off work" 就快放工. (zau6 faai3 fong3 gung1.) |
| David: It's almost time to leave work. |
| Gimmy: 就快放工. (zau6 faai3 fong3 gung1.) |
| David: And you can be specific with hours too. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: So you can say "It's almost two o'clock." |
| Gimmy: Yes. 就快兩點 (zau6 faai3 loeng5 dim2). |
| David: It's almost four o'clock. |
| Gimmy: 就快四點. (zau6 faai3 sei3 dim2.) |
| David: It's almost eight o'clock. I'm really hungry. |
| Gimmy: 就快八點，我好肚餓. (zau6 faai3 baat3 dim2, ngo5 hou2 tou5 ngo6.) |
| David: Right. So, very versatile. You can throw this into conversations right away. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So three key words to remember. |
| Gimmy: 遲到. (ci4 dou3.) |
| David: To be late. |
| Gimmy: 準時. (zeon2 si4.) |
| David: To be on time. |
| Gimmy: 就快. (zau6 faai3.) |
| David: Almost. And with that, it's time for our grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
| David: So, Gimmy, what's our grammar point for today? |
| Gimmy: Today we're going to learn how to say how. |
| David: Right, with the question word… |
| Gimmy: 幾. (gei2) |
| David: How. |
| Gimmy: 幾. (gei2) |
| David: In the dialogue, we see this in the following question. |
| Gimmy: 而家幾點呀？ (ji4 gaa1 gei2 dim2 aa3?) |
| David: What time is it now? |
| Gimmy: 而家幾點呀？(ji4 gaa1 gei2 dim2 aa3?) |
| David: What time is it now? |
| Gimmy: Right. You don’t really have to throw in the word "now." You can just ask 幾點呀？(gei2 dim2 aa3?) |
| David: Which literally means "How many o'clocks?" |
| Gimmy: Right. But then in Cantonese… |
| David: How many hours? |
| Gimmy: 幾點? (gei2 dim2?) |
| David: Right. So this is a simple question, but it's like a lot of other questions in Cantonese that use the word "how." |
| Gimmy: Yes. For example, if you want to ask "How old a person is?" |
| David: Right. |
| Gimmy: 幾歲. (gei2 seoi3.) |
| David: How many years. |
| Gimmy: 幾歲. (gei2 seoi3.) |
| David: "How old are you?" Right. So if you see a family with a baby, you might want to ask the parents, "How old is your child?" |
| Gimmy: 你個細路幾歲？ (nei5 go3 sai3 lou6 gei2 seoi3?) |
| David: How old is your child? |
| Gimmy: 你個細路幾歲？ (nei5 go3 sai3 lou6 gei2 seoi3?) |
| David: Or if a friend is having a birthday party, you might want to say "Happy birthday. How old are you?" |
| Gimmy: 生日快樂！你幾歲啊？(saang1 jat6 faai3 lok6! nei5 gei2 seoi3 aa3?) |
| David: Happy birthday. How old are you? |
| Gimmy: 生日快樂！你幾歲啊？(saang1 jat6 faai3 lok6! nei5 gei2 seoi3 aa3?) |
| David: So the way we're making these questions is to use the question particle… |
| Gimmy: 幾. (gei2) |
| David: And follow this by either a noun or an adjective. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: In our first two examples, we followed it by a noun. |
| Gimmy: 幾點. (gei2 dim2.) |
| David: How, hours. Or… |
| Gimmy: 幾歲. (gei2 seoi3.) |
| David: How, age. How, years. |
| Gimmy: Right. |
| David: We can do this with adjectives too though. |
| Gimmy: Absolutely. I'm going to give you an example. Say, you want to ask how tall someone is. |
| David: Right. Then you would ask… |
| Gimmy: 你幾高呀？(nei5 gei2 gou1 aa3?) |
| David: How tall are you? |
| Gimmy: 你幾高呀？(nei5 gei2 gou1 aa3?) |
| David: Right. How tall are you? |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: So either an adjective or a noun following. |
| Gimmy: 幾 (gei2) |
| David: As with our examples… |
| Gimmy: 幾點, 幾歲, 幾高. (gei2 dim2 , gei2 seoi3 , gei2 gou1.) |
Outro |
| David: And with that, we've reached the end of our podcast today. Before we leave you, we want to remind you, if you have any questions or comments… |
| Gimmy: Visit our website at CantoneseClass101.com. |
| David: Right. And you can leave your question on this lesson itself, and we'll get back to you within the day. |
| Gimmy: Yes. |
| David: Okay? With that, thanks for listening, I'm David. |
| Gimmy: I'm Gimmy. |
| David: And we'll see you on the site. |
| Gimmy: 下次見. (haa6 ci3 gin3.) |
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