CLO_038: Can you lend me some money?
Listen to this lesson, to learn what the following means:
Dialogue: Numbers
A: Ni3 ke3yi3 jie4 gei3 wo3 yi1xie1 qian2 ma?
B: Wo3 xian4zai4 zhi3 sheng4 xia4 shi2 kuai4 qian2.
A: Wo3 ye3 mei2you3 dai4 hen3 duo1 qian2.
Dialogue: Tones
A: Nǐ kěyǐ jiè gěi wǒ yīxiē qián ma?
B: Wǒ xiànzài zhǐ shèng xià shí kuài qián.
A: Wǒ yě méiyǒu dài hěn duō qián.
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great site for learning
Would you also use mei ban fa (there’s nothing we can do / there’s no solution) in mathematics or physics when the method gives no way that a problem or equation can be solved? I’m thinking of something like division by zero. Or is mei ban fa a phrase specific to general conversation situations only?
Parrot, Mei banfa isn’t used for math situations. There is a different term used for Math: Wú jiě (無解) which translates as “lack of explanation.”
Adam, you’re pronunciation of 多 (duō) is not very clear. You say, “dou” instead of “duo.”
This website is really helpful, I just wanted to point out that little problem. Thanks for all the help though!
Thanks Katie - we’re in the process of rerecording older lessons over the next few months, so we can fix this plus any other mistakes you may find, so keep sending us such comments!
Hi Adam,
I think there might be a mistake in the first example of the sentence builder but I could be wrong:
I would like to buy a book, can you lend me some money?
wo xiangyào mai shu ni keyi jiè wo yixie qián ma
Shouldn’t there be a “yi ben” between “mai” and “shu” for the measure word of book? Also, how come you do not include the word “gei” between “jie” and “wo” like in the dialogue?
Same thing in the next sentence builder. How come you do not put “gei” between “jie” and “ni” in the following example?
ta zhi shèngxià yi bai kuài keyi jiè ni
Thanks!
Hann
Hi Hann,
I’ve purposely tried to use different ways of saying the same thing in the sentence builder to get you used to alternate forms, so I’m glad you’re asking these questions!
In the first example:
Wo xiangyào mai shu.
The speaker has chosen not to specify how many books he wants - so this would be equivalent to saying “I want to buy some books” or even “I want to buy a book”. If he wants to be more specific he can specify how many using the “ben” measure word.
For the second part of the sentence:
Ni keyi jiè wo yixie qián ma?
The gei can be included or left out, depending on how clear the context is. For example in the sentence “Wo mai gei ta le” (I sold it to him), if we were to remove the gei, it would become “Wo mai ta le” (I sold him) which has a different meaning. In that case the gei is absolutely required.
In this case though “Ni keyi jie wo yixie qian ma” and “Ta zhi shengxia yi bai kuai keyi jie ni” there is no alternate meaning implied, so the gei is optional.
Hope that helps!
Adam,
Bi: is written “Wǒ zhǐ yǒu shèng xià shí kuài qián”, but the dialog is “Wǒ xiànzài zhǐ shèng xià shí kuài qián” I noticed that you left out yǒu from the dialoge. Is yǒu mandatory after zhǐ or is it just a variation of this conversation.
Thanks,
A Bu
Hi A Bu,
Thanks for pointing that out. You are correct - they are both variations of the same thing.
(Sorry for missing this comment earlier!)