Learn about omission
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to cantoneseclass101.com. I am David. |
| Nicole: 大家好，我係Nicole。(daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6 Nicole.) |
| David: And we are here today with upper beginner, season 1, Lesson 22. A Trip To The Hong Kong Cinema. |
| Nicole: 關於香港電影嘅。(gwaan1 jyu1 hoeng1 gong2 din6 jing2 ge3.) |
| David: Right. So first you eat the noodles and then you come and you go and see a movie. It’s the Hong Kong date experience. |
| Nicole: 冇錯。(mou5 co3.) |
| David: Right. Okay so our dialogue today, it’s in casual Cantonese as always. Where does it take place? |
| Nicole: 喺戲院入便。(hai2 hei3 jyun2 jap6 bin6.) |
| David: It takes place at a movie theater. We have two people who are choosing what movie they are going to watch. |
| Nicole: 冇錯，排緊隊，準備買飛。(mou5 co3, paai4 gan2 deoi6, zeon2 bei6 maai5 fei1.) |
| David: Right. So let’s go to the dialogue now. |
| Nicole: 好！聽下呢個對話吖。(hou2! teng1 haa5 ni1 go3 deoi3 waa6 aa1.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:你鍾意睇咩電影？ (nei5 zung1 ji3 tai2 me1 din6 jing2? ) |
| B:我想睇愛情片。 (ngo5 soeng2 tai2 oi3 cing4 pin2. ) |
| A:愛情片要等到三點。(oi3 cing4 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2. ) |
| B:咁睇動作片啦。 (gam2 tai2 dung6 zok3 pin2 laa1.) |
| A:動作片要等到四點。(dung6 zok3 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 sei3 dim2. ) |
| B:咁而家有咩可以睇呀？ (gam2 ji4 gaa1 jau5 me1 ho2 ji5 tai2 aa3? ) |
| A:而家可以睇鬼片。(ji4 gaa1 ho2 ji5 tai2 gwai2 pin2.) |
| David: Once more, a bit more slowly. |
| A:你鍾意睇咩電影？ (nei5 zung1 ji3 tai2 me1 din6 jing2? ) |
| B:我想睇愛情片。 (ngo5 soeng2 tai2 oi3 cing4 pin2. ) |
| A:愛情片要等到三點。(oi3 cing4 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2. ) |
| B:咁睇動作片啦。 (gam2 tai2 dung6 zok3 pin2 laa1.) |
| A:動作片要等到四點。 (dung6 zok3 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 sei3 dim2. ) |
| B:咁而家有咩可以睇呀？ (gam2 ji4 gaa1 jau5 me1 ho2 ji5 tai2 aa3? ) |
| A:而家可以睇鬼片。(ji4 gaa1 ho2 ji5 tai2 gwai2 pin2.) |
| David: And now, with the English translation. |
| A:你鍾意睇咩電影？ (nei5 zung1 ji3 tai2 me1 din6 jing2? ) |
| A: What kind of movie would you like to see? |
| B:我想睇愛情片。 (ngo5 soeng2 tai2 oi3 cing4 pin2. ) |
| B: I would like to see a romance. |
| A:愛情片要等到三點。 (oi3 cing4 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2. ) |
| A: If we see a romance, we'll have to wait until three o'clock. |
| B:咁睇動作片啦。 (gam2 tai2 dung6 zok3 pin2 laa1.) |
| B: Then let's see an action movie. |
| A:動作片要等到四點。 (dung6 zok3 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 sei3 dim2. ) |
| A: If we see an action movie, we'll have to wait until four o'clock. |
| B:咁而家有咩可以睇呀？ (gam2 ji4 gaa1 jau5 me1 ho2 ji5 tai2 aa3? ) |
| B: Then what's available now? |
| A:而家可以睇鬼片。(ji4 gaa1 ho2 ji5 tai2 gwai2 pin2.) |
| A: A horror film. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Nicole, do you know anyone who likes watching horror movies? |
| Nicole: 有個女仔話佢鍾意睇鬼片。(jau5 go3 neoi5 zai2 waa6 keoi5 zung1 ji3 tai2 gwai2 pin2.) |
| David: There are some people in Hong Kong. There is an entire industry making ghost movies too. |
| Nicole: Yeah. 鬼片行業。(gwai2 pin2 hong4 jip6.) |
| David: Anyway, our vocab today is all about cinema. We’ve got some words that are going to be useful when you are asking what’s on in the theaters as well as deciding what kind of movie you want to see. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 電影 (din6 jing2) |
| David: Movie. |
| Nicole: 電影 (din6 jing2) [slow] 電影 (din6 jing2) [normal speed]。放映 (fong3 jing2) |
| David: To show. |
| Nicole: 放映 (fong3 jing2) [slow] 放映 (fong3 jing2) [normal speed]。時間表 (si4 gaan3 biu2) |
| David: Schedule |
| Nicole: 時間表 (si4 gaan3 biu2) [slow] 時間表 (si4 gaan3 biu2) [normal speed]。愛情片 (ngoi3 cing4 pin2) |
| David: Romantic film. |
| Nicole: 愛情片 (ngoi3 cing4 pin2) [slow] 愛情片 (ngoi3 cing4 pin2) [normal speed]。警匪片 (ging2 fei2 pin2) |
| David: Cops and Robbers film. |
| Nicole: 警匪片 (ging2 fei2 pin2) [slow] 警匪片 (ging2 fei2 pin2) [normal speed]。恐怖片 (hung2 bou3 pin2) |
| David: Horror film. |
| Nicole: 恐怖片 (hung2 bou3 pin2) [slow] 恐怖片 (hung2 bou3 pin2) [normal speed]。動作片 (dung6 zok3 pin2) |
| David: Action film. |
| Nicole: 動作片 (dung6 zok3 pin2) [slow] 動作片 (dung6 zok3 pin2) [normal speed]。鬼片 (gwai2 pin2) |
| David: Ghost film. |
| Nicole: 鬼片 (gwai2 pin2) [slow] 鬼片 (gwai2 pin2) [normal speed]。 |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: So most of this vocab is pretty straightforward but Nicole, I’ve got a question for you. What is the difference between a horror film... |
| Nicole: 恐怖片，一定有鬼。但係鬼片唔一定恐怖。(hung2 bou3 pin2, jat1 ding6 jau5 gwai2. daan6 hai6 gwai2 pin2 m4 jat1 ding6 hung2 bou3.) |
| David: They are pretty much the same right. I mean I guess you could say ghost movies are a subset of horror films. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: But they are in entire industry in Hong Kong. |
| Nicole: That makes ghost movies. |
| David: Yes and so in Hong Kong, they are considered a different genre. |
| Nicole: I think so yeah. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: If you have to differentiate the two. |
| David: Right it’s like the Eskimos have 18 words for now in Hong Kong, we have… |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Anyway, yeah so ghost films, it’s sort of East Asian ghosts that are coming up and causing problems. |
| Nicole: I think Japanese filmmakers are really good at that. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Nicole: They can scare people to death. |
| David: The Ring is – it’s a ghost film. |
| Nicole: You have The Ring. |
| David: Yeah anyway, so it is different from a horror film. I think in the west, they are considered pretty much the same. |
| Nicole: 係呀，差唔多一樣。(hai6 aa3, caa1 m4 do1 jat1 joeng6.) |
| David: Yeah. The other really useful vocab here is of course we have movie |
| Nicole: 電影。(din6 jing2.) |
| David: As in the question, what time is the movie? |
| Nicole: 電影幾點開始？(din6 jing2 gei2 dim2 hoi1 ci2 ?) And there is another word for movie as well that is 戲 (hei3 ). So you can say 睇電影 (tai2 din6 jing2) or you can say 睇戲. (tai2 hei3.) |
| David: Right. You can check online for the schedule. |
| Nicole: 時間表。(si4 gaan3 biu2.) |
| David: Which is literally it’s the time list. |
| Nicole: 時間表。(si4 gaan3 biu2.) |
| David: Right and that will tell you when films are playing. |
| Nicole: 放映。(fong3 jing2.) |
| David: If you are looking online, the movie theaters have their schedules but often they will advertise them under what’s playing. So look for those characters on the websites and it will show you what’s in the theaters. Okay the rest of the vocab, it’s pretty straightforward because it’s names of genres. So you can go to the PDF, you can grab those. We want to move on to our grammar point now which is kind of tricky. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: To get started though, let’s take a look at these two lines from the dialogue. |
| Nicole: 愛情片要等到三點。 (ngoi3 cing4 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2.) |
| David: If we are going to see Romance, we have to wait until 3 o'clock and |
| Nicole: 動作片要等到四點。(dung6 zok3 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 sei3 dim2.) |
| David: If we are going to see an action movie, we have to wait until 4. Now the interesting thing about these sentences is that when we are translating them into English, we have to add all of the stuff. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Like we have to add the subject and we have to add this conditional clause you know. If we are going to do this, then in that case. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: That’s all missing from Cantonese. |
| Nicole: If you think about it, it’s really common in Cantonese. We often omit the subject. |
| David: Yeah it’s included but it’s implied. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Right. Let’s listen to those sentences again. |
| Nicole: 愛情片要等到三點。 (ngoi3 cing4 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2.) |
| David: Love movie must wait until 3 o’clock. |
| Nicole: 動作片要等到四點。(dung6 zok3 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 sei3 dim2.) |
| David: Action film must wait until 4 o’clock. So a couple of things to note. The first is that a verb. |
| Nicole: 要 (jiu3) |
| David: It’s not serving as to want. It’s serving as must or needs. |
| Nicole: 要 (jiu3) |
| David: And it’s not the case that the action film or the romance is the subject. |
| Nicole: Right. |
| David: It’s saying if it is the case that we see an action film, then it is necessary that… |
| Nicole: Right. So in Cantonese, if you want to say the full version, it would be 如果想睇愛情片，我哋要等到三點。 (jyu4 gwo2 soeng2 tai2 ngoi3 cing4 pin2, ngo5 dei6 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2.) |
| David: However that’s too long and too confusing. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: So we are just going to shorten it down. |
| Nicole: 愛情片要等到三點。 (ngoi3 cing4 pin2 jiu3 dang2 dou3 saam1 dim2.) |
| David: And you can do this whenever you are picking choices. So you can say the name of your choice and then something that follows from that. For instance, if we are going to get take out, then I am going to call them now. |
| Nicole: 外賣要而家打電話 (ngoi6 maai6 jiu3 ji4 gaa1 daa2 din6 waa2), or we can say 食飯要而家出去。(sik6 faan6 jiu3 ji4 gaa1 ceot1 heoi3.) |
| David: If we are going to eat, we have to leave now. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: Yeah. So the thing to note with this construction is that the subject and you know, so much of this, it just dropped. |
| Nicole: How convenient. In Cantonese, if we are clear what the subjects are, we can just drop them. |
| David: Yeah and the fact that this is an if sentence. You know, if we are going to do this, we can do it now, you know, all of that is missing from this construction. It can be a bit tricky to spot if you think that the verb is to want. It’s not it’s to need. |
| Nicole: Yes. |
Outro |
| David: And with that, we are done our lesson for today. Before you go, as always, we want to remind you. If you don’t have an account, Nicole, how long does it take to sign up? |
| Nicole: No more than 7 seconds. |
| David: Yes we have even gotten it down to 3 with good network conditions. |
| Nicole: That’s right. |
| David: So you know, you are not wasting time. With that though, that’s all the time we have. From Hong Kong, I am David. |
| Nicole: 我係Nicole。(ngo5 hai6 Nicole.) |
| David: And we will see you on the site. |
| Nicole: Bye bye. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide