CLO_036: Are you wearing new clothes today?
Listen to this lesson, to learn what the following means:
Numbers
Ti2mu4 shi4 “Ni3 jin1tian1 chuan1de yi1fu2 shi4 xin1de ma?”
Dialogue:
A: Ni3 jin1tian1 chuan1de yi1fu2 shi4 xin1de ma?
B: Dui4 a. Wo3de wai4tao4 shi4 xin1de ke3shi4 wo3de ku4zi shi4 jiu4de.
Tones
Tímù shì “Nǐ jīntiān chuānde yīfú shì xīnde ma?”
Dialogue:
A: Nǐ jīntiān chuānde yīfú shì xīnde ma?
B: Duì a. Wǒde wàitào shì xīnde kěshì wǒde kùzi shì jiùde.
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PDF Notes: 
November 24th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Hi Adam,
I may not have the right to comment as I am not a paid-up subscriber nor do I think I shall ever be able to become one. As a meber of a religious body, I have neither bank account nor credit card. I have offered my services free for life as a teacher in a Hong Kong school. But maybe you may allow me one comment just this one time only.
In pronouncing “jiu” of “jiu de” (L.36), I feel that the Chinese speaker is using the 4th falling tone and not the 3rd tone as you pointed out. 舊 “Jiu” (4th tone) means old and is an adj, while 久 “jiu” (3rd tone) means long time and is an adverd.
There may be differences between the Taiwan form of Guoyu and the mainland form of Mandarin Chinese. So I may stand corrected as I am only a learner of Mandarin Chinese. I am more familiar with Cantonese.
Regards and apologies.
A. B.
November 24th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Hello Anthony,
Thank you for your feedback. You are right, there was a mistake in the original lesson. This has since been corrected - so please download the new version. Thanks again for pointing this out to us.
The comments are open to everyone, so we certainly encourage you to use them as often as you would like.
-Adam
November 25th, 2006 at 9:35 am
It seems that you guys are copying ChinesePod in so many ways. Everything you do is taken from them, it seems. Since there’s more than enough material over there, why should we come here to learn?
November 25th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Hello Piers.
We are both teaching the same language, so there are bound to be some similarities. We’ve tried to differentiate ourselves though by using a structured and progressive approach with more focus on pronunciation and repetition and review of older material. The tools on the site are also quite different. Different people have different learning styles, so we recommend you go with the approach that works best for you. We will continue to innovate and evolve based on the feedback of our listeners.
Thanks for your comment!
-Adam
November 25th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
“We’ve tried to differentiate ourselves though by using a structured and progressive approach with more focus on pronunciation and repetition and review of older material.”
I think we’ve already seen this somewhere….you can’t deny that you copied this idea from somewhere (or somebody) else as well.
Why don’t you just come up with something unique?? Why copy other people? Just think about it.
November 25th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate us. For those interested in more information about our teaching methods, I recommend you visit: http://www.chineselearnonline.com/about/teaching-philosophy/. The system we employ is a combination of teaching methods and styles out there, so there will be similarities from one system to another. I encourage you to take a look at our FAQ and Testimonials section to see why we chose to do things this way, and what people like about us respectively.
November 26th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Better yet, not to steal others ideas, but come up with something which is truly yours! I think it’s not fair.
November 26th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Xiao Li, I’m sorry that you feel this way. I admire your passion! If you listen to the different podcasts though, and research the tools on the website, I’m sure you’ll find that the styles and resources available are quite different. It is all based on what users ask for. Each teacher has their own unique slant and the benefit goes to the user who gets to choose which style works best for them. Thanks for listening!
December 4th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Haveing listened to all of these podcasts and most of the podcasts at Chinesepod in my time I have to point out that it is quite clear that no-body is copying anybody in this case.
The approach taken by both sites is clearly different.
Or perhaps the first person who ever decided to teach Mandarin (in any format) owns the intellectual rights to the idea of errrr uuumm teaching Mandarin fullstop…. ever … for eternity … etc.
Also it is rather foolish to accuse anybody of copying in this particular case as the observant among us will note that both sites release their free material under a Creative Commons Attribution license (which means that you can quite legally even resell their material unchanged as long as you attribute them). So even if they were copying which they are not it is fine.
In fact it should be noted that Chinesepod have actually been ‘copied’ in their approach in other languages and appeared to have been pleased about it.
The web is a biiiig place, Mandarin is a biiiiig language and there are and have been countless podcasts teaching all sorts of subjects for quite some while.
June 3rd, 2007 at 4:21 pm
These ending particles always confuse me. The ‘a’ in Dui a–is that used anywhere else? Also, I’ve been watching Hana Kimi, and they always say 耶 at the end of their sentences. Well, not always, but a lot. What exactly does this mean? I tried looking it up but couldn’t find anything regarding it’s use as a particle.
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Hi Steven,
“Dui a” seems to be the most common use I’ve seen. “Dui” on its own is more abrupt whereas “Dui a” has more feeling. So in the dialogue above, the “Dui a” can be translated as “That’s right - thanks for noticing!” The best way to absorb the many nuances is to look at more examples. If you switch to the Chinese character version and then click on the “a” character, it will list all the instances that this character has shown up in the course so far, which would answer your questions about its other usages. Hope that helps!
July 21st, 2008 at 10:15 am
I think this site is great!! I thank you all so much, i can listen to the free lessons with out getting loads of hounding emails (like on Chinese pod who after trying to unsubscribe from are now on my spam list). I’ve tried many learning tools for Chinese (Chinese pod, Linguaphone, Pimsler, before you know it) I have learnt more from this web site than anywhere. Everything is in short lessons so it’s easy to do one a day. Thanks Keep it Up!! Don’t listen to mean grumpy people.
November 28th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I speak a little Mandarin and I chanced upon your site today.
Like you have explained, “There is bound to be similarities between different sites that teach Languages. I have also seen Chinese pod and they too have copied from other books. However, you are very different from Chinesepod in that you repeat learnt words and teach new words as you go just like the Mirror series used by Yale. Chinesepod on the other hand introduces words at random.
Keep up your good work. This is far better than Chinesepod.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:36 am
I wouldn t worry so much about who is copying what!!!
Spend your time learning more.
Thank you Adam and all your team for being such a great teachers! You are doing a very good job!
Regards from Barcelona.
Sandra
July 18th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
>Heidi: Nǐ jīntiān chuānde yīfú shì xīnde ma?
>Ray: Duì a. Wǒde wàitào shì xīnde kěshì wǒde kù zi shì jiùde.
It’s actually the other way around. Ray reads the first line and Heidi the second!
January 31st, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Hello!
First, I really appreciate the lessons from this website. I think the concept of progressive course in Chinese is perfect.
Now I have a big problem with “的”. I don’t know why “的” is placed after the verb “传” and some adjective like “新”.
In fact, what is the grammatical function of “的” in the sentence: “Nǐ jīntiān chuānde yīfú shì xīnde ma?”
Thanks Professor for this lesson and for the all before!
Best regards
Hadrien
January 31st, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Hi Hadrien,
Yes, the 的 concept does take some getting used to. But it’ll all make sense once you have enough practice with it! With nouns, it is used to specify possession (Nǐ / Nǐde). With verbs, it is used to form adjectives and adverbs. Here are some examples:
Nǐ chuān yīfú: You are wearing clothes.
Nǐ chuānde yīfú: The clothes you are wearing.
Dìdi hěn gāoxìng: My brother is very happy.
Hěn gāoxìng de dìdi: My very happy brother.
Let me know if that helps!
February 1st, 2011 at 7:49 am
Hi Adam,
Thanks for giving me examples of sentences with “的”. I think I begin to understand the concept.
Then, if I say for example:” 法国有有名的红葡萄酒”. It is grammatically correct in this case because “的” explains that the adjective “well-known” refers to ” French wine”. It’s obvious
February 8th, 2011 at 2:23 am
Hi Hadrien,
That’s right!