Learn about sentence repetition
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hello and welcome to the Lower Beginner series at CantoneseClass101.com. This is Season 1, Lesson 22, Losing Your Phone in Hong Kong. I’m Eric. |
| Teddy: 哈囉, 大家好！我係 (haa1 lo3, daai6 gaa1 hou2！ngo5 hai6) Teddy! |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn about repetition in Cantonese. |
| Teddy: The conversation takes place on the street. |
| Eric: It’s between two friends, Jane and Wendy. |
| Teddy: And as usual, the speakers will be speaking casual Cantonese. |
| Eric: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jane: 哎呀，我個電話唔見咗！(aai1 jaa3, ngo5 go3 din6 waa2 m4 gin3 zo2!) |
| Wendy: 吓？咁點算？(haa5? gam2 dim2 syun3?) |
| Jane: 返轉頭搵下啦。(faan1 zyun3 tau4 wan2 haa5 laa1.) |
| Wendy: 快啲！快啲！(faai3 di1! faai3 di1!) |
| Eric: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jane 哎呀，我個電話唔見咗！(aai1 jaa3, ngo5 go3 din6 waa2 m4 gin3 zo2!) |
| Wendy 吓？咁點算？(haa5? gam2 dim2 syun3?) |
| Jane 返轉頭搵下啦。(faan1 zyun3 tau4 wan2 haa5 laa1.) |
| Wendy 快啲！快啲！(faai3 di1! faai3 di1!) |
| Eric: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jane 哎呀，我個電話唔見咗！(aai1 jaa3, ngo5 go3 din6 waa2 m4 gin3 zo2!) |
| Eric: Oh, no! My phone is missing! |
| Wendy 吓？咁點算？(haa5? gam2 dim2 syun3?) |
| Eric: Oh? What should we do? |
| Jane 返轉頭搵下啦。(faan1 zyun3 tau4 wan2 haa5 laa1.) |
| Eric: Let's go back and look for it. |
| Wendy 快啲！快啲！(faai3 di1! faai3 di1!) |
| Eric: Quickly, quickly! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: You know, I have a friend who loses her mobile phone almost every month! |
| Teddy: Wow, it’ll get very expensive if she has to buy a new phone every month. Has she thought of getting a secondhand one in Mongkok? |
| Eric: No, she wants to be up with the trends and buy the latest model. |
| Teddy: I see. My friend told me that he would only buy the newest model so that he wouldn’t have to pay more to exchange it for a more updated phone the next time. |
| Eric: Well, I have been using my mobile phone for four years, and so far it seems to run well. |
| Teddy: That’s not the reason most people change their phones, though. Some people store more and more data on their phones, so they require a higher capacity and faster processors. |
| Eric: It’s really hard to stay current with the new trends in mobile phones. There are new models almost every two months! |
| Teddy: For some people, that’s the fun part. It’s the new fashion. Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| 哎呀 (aai1 jaa3) [natural native speed] |
| Oh, no! |
| 哎呀 (aai1 jaa3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 哎呀 (aai1 jaa3) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 電話 (din6 waa2) [natural native speed] |
| telephone |
| 電話 (din6 waa2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 電話 (din6 waa2) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 唔見咗 (m4 gin3 zo2) [natural native speed] |
| missing, gone |
| 唔見咗 (m4 gin3 zo2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 唔見咗 (m4 gin3 zo2) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 點算 (dim2 syun3) [natural native speed] |
| what should we do, how do we cope |
| 點算 (dim2 syun3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 點算 (dim2 syun3) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 返 (faan1) [natural native speed] |
| to return |
| 返 (faan1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 返 (faan1) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 轉頭 (zyun3 tau4) [natural native speed] |
| to turn back (literally "turn head"), later |
| 轉頭 (zyun3 tau4) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 轉頭 (zyun3 tau4) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 搵 (wan2) [natural native speed] |
| to look for |
| 搵 (wan2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 搵 (wan2) [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| 快啲 (faai3 di1) [natural native speed] |
| quicker, promptly |
| 快啲 (faai3 di1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 快啲 (faai3 di1) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What are we starting with? |
| Teddy: 點算. (dim2 syun3.) |
| Eric: What does each word mean? |
| Teddy: Literally, 點 (dim2) means "how," and 算 (syun3) means "calculate." The two words together imply the question, "What to do?" Or, "How to solve the problem?" |
| Eric: So can we leave out the subject "we" in "What should we do?" Can we just ask, "What to do?" |
| Teddy: Yes. 點算 (dim2 syun3) implies 我點算 (ngo5 dim2 syun3), meaning "What should I do?" Or, 我哋點算 (ngo5 dei6 dim2 syun3), meaning "What should we do?" |
| Eric: Are there other phrases we have learned that are related to these words? |
| Teddy: Yes, do you remember earlier in this series when we reviewed the interrogative words "how” and "why?" |
| Eric: Yes, we did that in Lesson 1. |
| Teddy: "How" is 點. (dim2.) "Why" is 點解. (dim2 gaai2.) |
| Eric: Yes. These are all question words. |
| Teddy: 點? (dim2 ?) |
| Eric: "How?" |
| Teddy: 點解? (dim2 gaai2 ?) |
| Eric: "Why?" |
| Teddy: Very good! We can also say 點做? (dim2 zou6?) That means, "How to do…[something]?" 點做? (dim2 zou6 ?) |
| Eric: So it’s similar to the phrase we’re learning in this lesson. |
| Teddy: Yes. 點做 (dim2 zou6) and 點算 (dim2 syun3) are very similar. In Wendy and Jane’s case, they can ask, 點做. (dim2 zou6.) However, 點做 (dim2 zou6) implies a particular action, such as, 點做歌星? (dim2 zou6 go1 sing1 ?) Meaning, "How to be a singer?" And, 點做蛋糕? (dim2 zou6 daan6 gou1?) Meaning, "How to make a cake?" |
| Eric: And our phrase in this lesson is different? |
| Teddy: Yes, 點算 (dim2 syun3) is used when you’re in a problem solving situation and need to ask, "Oh, what can we do?" Or, "How do we solve this problem?" |
| Eric: Would you repeat this phrase? |
| Teddy: 點算? (dim2 syun3 ?) [pause] 點算? (dim2 syun3 ?) |
| Eric: Good. What’s the next phrase we’ll look at? |
| Teddy: 快啲. (faai3 di1.) |
| Eric: What does this mean? |
| Teddy: 快 (faai3) means "fast." When we add a 啲 (di1) after the word, it means “faster.” |
| Eric: So can we say that by adding this suffix to an adjective, it lets us express a higher degree of that adjective? |
| Teddy: Yes. For example, when we add 啲 (di1) to 好 (hou2), or "good," 好啲 (hou2 di1) becomes "better." When we add it to 大 (daai6), or "big," 大啲 (daai6 di1) becomes "bigger." |
| Eric: And here we’re talking about speed, faster or quicker. |
| Teddy: Yes. 快 (faai3). 快啲 (faai3 di1). |
| Eric: How about telling people to go more slowly, or slower? |
| Teddy: The opposite of fast 快 (faai3) is slow 慢 (maan6), so "slower" is 慢啲 (maan6 di1). |
| Eric: Okay, let’s go over them. "Faster!" |
| Teddy: 快啲! (faai3 di1 !) |
| Eric: "Slower!" |
| Teddy: 慢啲! (maan6 di1 !) |
| Eric: Once more - "Faster!" |
| Teddy: 快啲! (faai3 di1 !) |
| Eric: "Slower!" |
| Teddy: 慢啲! (maan6 di1 !) |
| Eric: Great! Thank you very much. Let’s quickly go to the grammar point. |
| Teddy: Ok, 快啲! 快啲! (faai3 di1 ! faai3 di1 !) |
| Eric: (laughs) Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: Ok, I noticed that you said that two times— faster, faster. |
| Teddy: Yes. This is what we want to explain in the grammar point in this lesson. |
| Eric: When you repeat a sentence, what does that mean? |
| Teddy: It emphasizes the request or the statement. |
| Eric: We do the same in English. For example, we’ll say, "Don’t! Don’t!" Or, "Stop! Stop!" |
| Teddy: Yes. 快啲! 快啲! (faai3 di1 ! faai3 di1 !) means "Hurry up! Hurry up!" |
| Eric: There’s an urgent feeling to this. It attracts the listener to the key issue, and it can also express an alert or emergency. |
| Teddy: Since Cantonese is a tonal language, sometimes we cannot express urgency simply with the tones we speak. So we use repetition to emphasize importance. |
| Eric: Can you please give us an example? |
| Teddy: 點算? (dim2 syun3 ?) [normal] 點算呀? (dim2 syun3 aa3?) [stronger] |
| Eric: Yes, when we have no idea what to do! You can imagine someone pulling out his or her hair as they speak. |
| Teddy: Yes. We can repeat all kinds of phrases to show the urgency of the situation. |
| Eric: Can you give us some words that we have learned in this series and repeat them? |
| Teddy: Okay, let’s try 邊度. (bin1 dou6.) |
| Eric: I remember we learned this phrase in Lesson 14. It means "where." |
| Teddy: 邊度? 邊度? (bin1 dou6 ? bin1 dou6 ?) |
| Eric: "Where? Where?" You could say this if someone else saw a celebrity on the street and you want to find out where that celebrity is. |
| Teddy: 嗰度! 嗰度呀! (go2 dou6 ! go2 dou6 aa3!) |
| Eric: "There! There!" Notice the "aah" at the end? This final particle adds a hint of confirmation in the sentence. As if saying, "It’s there! Can’t you see it?" |
| Teddy: Exactly! And now, if I want to leave work and start happy hour soon, I’d be saying this to you 快啲! 快啲! (faai3 di1 ! faai3 di1 !) |
| Eric: "Faster! Faster!" Well, listeners, that’s my cue. Please check out the lesson notes for more examples. |
Outro |
| Teddy: ...and we’ll see you in the next lesson. 拜拜！(baai1 baai3 ！) |
| Eric: Cheers everyone! |
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