34 Responses to “CLO_004: I can speak a little Chinese”

1. Javier Says:
   October 26th, 2006 at 3:41 am

   Very good lesson. I’m spaniard but that’s no a problem to learn chinese with this podcast.
   Good job!

2. Daniel Tynan Says:
   January 13th, 2007 at 12:10 am

   Since “Ni-de” and “Wo-de” are possessive. Does “Shuo-de” follow the same principle?

3. admin Says:
   January 13th, 2007 at 1:05 am

   It’s used in a similar manner. In the example “Nǐ Zhōngwén shuōde hěn hǎo” the “de” particle is used to indicate that the “hěn hǎo” is referring to your “shuō” ability.

4. Jonathan Says:
   January 26th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

   Nice article! This is similar to some lessons I bought, but I felt insecure in my pronounciation because I couldn’t see the words. Seeing the pronounciation guide was very helpful!

   By the way, WordPress? Two thumbs up for that.

   ~Jonathan

5. rixx Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

   Hi there, very cool teaching site.
   But is the second tone from “Duìbúqǐ” a falling or a rising one?
   Here it is a rising one, Adam says it’s a falling one.

6. Adam Says:
   March 19th, 2007 at 8:06 pm

   Very observant of you! Being in the middle (and usually said quite quickly) it’s hard to decipher. In usage it actually ends up being a neutral tone - I’ve edited the notes to reflect that. Thanks for pointing it out!

7. Kevin Morgan Says:
   May 12th, 2007 at 11:28 am

   In Lesson 4 the vocabulary initially shows hui4 as 回 meaning ‘return’ whereas it’s use in that lesson is as 会 meaning ‘to be able’.
   Also in the sentence ‘wo zhongwen shuode hen hao’ you say that only the last ‘de’ is used when it’s repeated. The ‘de’ that’s left out of wode is 的, whereas the ‘de’ you have shown in shuode is 得. This last ‘de’… do you mean 得 or 的 or are they both correct? I’m confused… and I signed up less than 30 mins ago!
   Also, when I click Control+ or Control++ (it’s not clear if you mean ‘Control’&’+’ or ‘Control’&’++’… anyway, neither works… nor does changing the font size using the browser View-TextSize (but the browser View-TextSize controls works on all other sites. The Chinese characters are too small for me to see well.
   Hope you can help.

   You site looks good - that’s why I signed up - but we’re off to a less than auspicious start.

8. Adam Says:
   May 12th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

   Hi Kevin,
   The 回 should be a 会. It’s been fixed now. 的 and 得 are pronounced the same but the latter is usually reserved for action verbs. On my browser (IE and Firefox), if you hold the Control key down and keep pressing the + key, the fonts increase in size. If you hold down Control and press the minus key, the size decreases each time you press it. If you’re using a different browser, please let me know and I’ll try and find a solution.
   Regards,
   -Adam

9. parrot Says:
   May 18th, 2007 at 1:04 am

   Kevin, maybe you’re using a Mac? In that case, don’t use the control key. Try holding down the key which has the apple picture and the flowery symbol on it, while you hit either + or _

10. Christopher Angell Says:
    August 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm

    This one of your students in Nanjing, having fun learning the language. As an English speaker, I find my toughest challenge is speaking at a “normal” rate of speed while still getting the tones correct. When I hear Chinese people speak normally, they almost sound as though they are “skipping” some tones, especially in the middle of a word… am I imagining this?

    I also have a question about a small item in Lesson 4, and depending on whether I am correct or not, a small suggestion. In Lesson 4, when discussing the use of the possessive particle “de,” you point out that when a sentence includes two or more pronouns in a row, you only use it in the last one. In the example given, “Ni Zhongwen shuo de hen hao,” it is translated literally as “You Chinese speak’s very good.” I only see one pronoun in this sentence, “you” at the beginning. Is the other one implied, as in “You Chinese you speak very good” or “You Chinese it speaks very good?” Forgive my literal look at this, but my mother was an English grammar teacher so you can only imagine what my home life was like!

    Anyway, if I am correct in thinking that the second pronoun is implied, for me at least, it would be helpful if that second pronoun were used in the translation… it would make it easier for me to understand the use of “de” with the last pronoun, even if the pronoun is implied and not actually spelled out in the sentence in Chinese.

    I’m thoroughly enjoying my CLO lessons!

11. Adam Says:
    August 22nd, 2007 at 11:47 pm

    Hi Chris,

    As you get to later lessons, you will start to see the use of videos for most of the dialogues. The idea is that after thoroughly breaking down the lesson into the individual lines and mastering them, you should be able to hear what the conversation would sound like in normal speed in the context of where it might be used. Hopefully that will get you used to the quicker speed. The tones are still there but at this quicker rate, they are very slight so it takes a more experienced ear to hear them. I’m hoping that this course can provide you with that necessary experience by providing both slow and quick (normal) versions of all dialogues.

    In regards to your grammar question, the usage of only one de in that question is a style issue. It would be equally correct to say “Nide Zhongwen shuo de hen hao.” As for the de particle here, I’m not sure if any additional pronouns are being implied here. It is just connecting the “hen hao” with the “shuo.” Here is the breakdown.

    “Nide Zhongwen” = “Your Chinese”
    “Nide Zhongwen shuo de” = “Your Chinese speaking (is)” Here, the de particle suggests you are going to say something about the speaking.
    “Nide Zhongwen shuo de hen hao” = “You speak Chinese very well.”
    “Nide Zhongwen shuo de hen hao, keshi xie de bu hao” = “You speak Chinese very well, but (your) writing isn’t very good.”

    Hope that helps!

12. Spencer Says:
    September 17th, 2007 at 5:52 pm

    Ni hao Admin,

    i would just like to thankyou for these poscasts. it now means i can learn chinese where ever i am now. i have been looking for a website like this for a very long time.

    xiexie.

    R. Spencer

13. David Says:
    September 24th, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    Hi Adam et al,

    Thank you so much for the podcasts. I spent about a month learning to pronounce properly all the Mandarin sounds that are not present in English (namely the consonants represented by the pīnyīn sh, ch, zh, r, x, q, and j), but my vocabulary was extremely limited (and appeared to remain that way for some time) until I came upon this web site yesterday. Now I’ve listened to the first four podcasts and learned the vocabulary in them, and I must say “wow.” This course is so thoughtfully put together, and embedding the pīnyīn transliteration in the mp3 files makes it so easy to follow along with the lessons on my iPod.

    謝謝你們 (對馬？),
    David

14. 陈晓 진효 Says:
    October 31st, 2007 at 2:01 am

    大家好！我是中国人，学韩语3年了，我正在寻找学中文的韩国朋友，我们可以互相交流
    안녕하세요! 나는 중국사람입니다. 한국말을 3년 동안 배워었어요. 중국어를 배우하고 있는 한국친구를 사귀고 싶어요

15. Becki Says:
    November 8th, 2007 at 11:10 am

    Ni hao,

    The previous post mentions Mandarin sounds that are not present in English, and I have noticed some of these in the podcasts. Do you know of anywhere that we can look/hear of the correct pronounciation of these consonants?

    Xiexie!

    Becki

16. Adam Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 11:18 pm

    Hi Becki,

    Others have also asked for us to create a chart of all the Pinyin sounds, so that is certainly something we could come up with at some point. For now, the best way to learn the sounds and the corresponding Pinyin (which is how I learned) is to follow along with the Pinyin transcripts while listening to new lessons. Once you have had enough exposure, you should be able to pronounce new words even before you hear them.

    Having different speakers in the lessons also gets you exposed to alternate ways to pronounce certain syllables allowing you to figure out the range of what are acceptable alternatives and what aren’t.

17. Lorenzo Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 8:16 am

    dajia hao, sorry im going back to the same questions, the 说得 can’t be write 说的 ?? or have different meaning?

18. Adam Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 4:31 am

    Hi Lorenzo,

    The meaning and pronunciation is the same but 的 is normally used (in written form) after nouns, while 得 is used after verbs. There are some cases where it would be written as 说的, which would give the sentence a slightly different meaning. You can see more discussion about this in the lesson 64 comments:

    http://www.chineselearnonline.com/2007/02/12/clo_064-i-still-have-a-lot-more-to-study/

19. Gordi Says:
    July 1st, 2008 at 11:52 pm

    I am starting to learn how to write Chinese, but which is best to learn, the simplified or traditional characters?

20. Adam Says:
    July 2nd, 2008 at 12:03 am

    Hi Gordi,

    Ah yes, the age old debate - simplified or traditional? This article I wrote may give you some insight:

    http://www.chineselearnonline.com/learning-insights/2007/10/02/simplified-versus-traditional/

21. Luís Romão Says:
    December 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Duìbu;qǐ has a semicolon in it. I suppose that’s a typo…?

22. Luise (admin) Says:
    December 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 pm

    Hi Luis, it’s been fixed now - thanks!

23. Cindy Kaup Says:
    June 29th, 2010 at 8:24 am

    In the PDFs, can you just create a pdf with ONLY simplified or tradional and omit the English all together?

24. Cindy Kaup Says:
    June 29th, 2010 at 8:30 am

    Nevermind about my earlier post, I find it in the Vocabulary section. Wonderful. Thanks.

25. Luís Romão Says:
    August 2nd, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    There seems to be a problem with the Typing Test in this lesson. Some exercises require you to write the sentences in traditional characters or else it will be considered incorrect, even if you chose the “Simplified Script” option.

26. Luís Romão Says:
    August 2nd, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    Also, the Fill in the blanks exercise uses words that haven’t been taught yet, such as 住 在 or 看。 Is this normal?

27. Luise (admin) Says:
    August 3rd, 2010 at 3:52 am

    Thanks Luís. The Fill in the blanks has been fixed. We’re looking into the Typing Test issue.

28. Luise (admin) Says:
    August 3rd, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    Hi Luís, I believe the typing test issue has now been fixed. Let us know if you find any other issues.

29. Michael S. Says:
    September 9th, 2010 at 6:03 am

    Hi There,

    This is the lesson where I stopped this morning, for the first time I would have hopped that the traffic jam had lasted a little longuer As a total newbie in chines I hope this will help me to get some basic knowledge, the content of your podcast gives me great hope.

    Thanx for the great work

30. Richard Says:
    September 12th, 2010 at 8:49 am

    There’s a discrepancy at the end of this lesson between what is spoken and what is written here. “Nǐ Zhōngwén shuōde hěn hǎo” is actually spoken as “Nǐde Zhōngwén etc.” and the same with “Wǒ Zhōngwén shuōde bù hǎo” which is spoken as “Wǒde Zhōngwén shuōde etc.” I’m assuming that the spoken version is the correct one, and the possessive particle -de is with both the pronoun and the verb?

31. Luise (admin) Says:
    September 15th, 2010 at 9:56 pm

    Hi Richard,

    We have fixed the text now to match the audio. Both versions are correct though - you can say it with or without the de.

32. safia Says:
    December 30th, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    i realy like this site, i’m algerian and it’s not easy to find a teacher of chinese here, this website is very helpful! thanks a lot!

33. CLO User Says:
    May 15th, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    This site is fantastic!! It took me awhile to decide which way to go - but I’m definitely glad I chose CLO! Thank you!

    A question - I had a conversation with a native speaker here and he indicated that the verb shuō is very casual and in more formal situations I should use jiang. Wasn’t sure of the difference and wondered what exactly constituted a formal situation? (Is it like Fǎwén when we use the “vous”?)

    Xiexie!
    Stef

34. Luise (admin) Says:
    June 7th, 2011 at 2:25 am

    Hello CLO User,

    Sorry I didn’t see this comment for so long. There is no particular rule for using shuō and jiang - it depends on the region you are in. Here in Taiwan, we actually use jiang more often than shuō, but both are quite common. The best approach would be to ask native speakers around you what they use, then follow their system to be best understood.

    Good luck in your learning!

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