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CLO_044: Do you have any pets at home?

Listen to this lesson, to learn what the following means:

Dialogue: Numbers
A: Ni3 jia1li3 you3 chong3wu4 ma?
B: You3. Wo3 jia1 you3 yi4zhi1 xiao3gou3 hai2you3 yi4zhi1 mao1.

dong4wu4

Dialogue: Tones
A: Nǐ jiālǐ yǒu chǒngwù ma?
B: Yǒu. Wǒ jiā yǒu yìzhī xiǎogǒu háiyǒu yìzhī māo.

dòngwù

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PDF Notes:

CLO_044 [8:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

2025

10 Responses to “CLO_044: Do you have any pets at home?”

chris(mandarin_student) Says:

Hi, keep up the good work!

Slightly off topic but we had a brief discussion about practice passages a couple of lessons ago. I like your one about the Ostrich and I see you apparently have a few more in your premium section.

My only comment about the Ostrich example is it would be a lot more helpful with the characters and English translation. I have found that memorising little passages like this is terrific, not only for pronounciation practice but also for memorising a little vocabulary. Also if you meet a Chinese speaker and have the chance to practice with them, then even if you are not yet good enough to have a proper conversation you can always try to tell them some of your rhymes and jokes.
The addition of the recorder is nice.

I am assuming the Ostrich example you give is as follows:
小鸵鸟脾气怪。
妹妹喊它它不睬。
脑袋钻沙对里。
嘴里喊我不在。

I may have made some mistakes (pinyin is a great tool but a little ambiguous in cases like this).

My rough understanding being:

Strange tempered little(baby) ostrich.
Little sister calls you, you ignore.
Head drills into sand.,
crying “I am not here”.

It will be a little while before I get to publish everything I want to and I have a feeling that my Skype partner actually wrote a couple of passages for me so I should get her permission first, I will send you an example through your contact form now though.
admin Says:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve added an English translation if you mouse-over the words.
http://www.chineselearnonline.com/tone-and-pinyin-practice.
I’ll work on the Chinese translation. I’m looking forward to seeing your other examples.

-Adam
parrot Says:

If that link doesn’t work, it’s because the dot at the end gets in the way, try this:

http://www.chineselearnonline.com/tone-and-pinyin-practice

Do Chinese people talk about their pets in the same way as talking about people? For example:
My parrot is 32 years old. She likes to drink tea. / Wo de ying wu san shi er sui. Ta xihuan he cha.
Do we always have to call all animals “it”, or anything like that? Is our relationship in the household sufficiently close that I can leave out the “de”?
admin Says:

Thanks for the link correction, parrot.

Animals have their own special pronoun tā. It’s the same pronunciation as the tā for he or she, but it has a different character when writing 它. As far as your relationship with your pet goes, that’s your personal choice. If you feel the relationship warrants it, you can leave out the de. For example, official government spokespeople in China will often refer to China as “Wǒ guó” (My country).

Hope that helps!
admin Says:

Ok Chris, your wish has been granted (it is the holiday season after all). Both English translation and Chinese characters have been added to the Tone and Pinyin practice ( http://www.chineselearnonline.com/tone-and-pinyin-practice ). Move your mouse over the text to see the English translation. If you scroll towards the bottom you’ll see links to Simplified and Chinese character versions. Those also use the mouse over effect to translate back to Pinyin. Try it out and let me know what you think!
Daniel Tynan Says:

Great idea to put the recording and playback device in the VOCAB section! I started using it and could hear for the first time how much I sometimes was off on my tones! I hope you continue to integrate that tool into the vobac section.
Daniel
Adam Says:

Glad you like it. I’m in the process of adding recording and playback to all older lessons. The word bank will soon be up to date for all lessons allowing you to search and see how how vocabulary and characters are intertwined between different lessons.
Kameier Says:

I love the idea of recording and play back, but I can’t get it to work. The graph appears of my recording, but no sound comes out when I replay it.
I realise its years and years since this program was made, but … is there still someone home?
Kameier Says:

I don’t think I’m getting things confused here, but looking at zhi1, measure word for animals. Is it the same a zhi1 meaning only? The pdf Comp_S.pdf is using a traditional character.
I feel like I’m in a time warp here. There are no comments for so many years.

Great course!
Luise (admin) Says:

Hi Kameier,

Unfortunately the latest version of Flash seems to have broken our recording app. Older versions of Flash should still run it. We’ll decide whether to keep it around or remove this functionality.

Regarding 只 character, yes it’s the same character (but different meaning) in simplified. In traditional however the measure word for animals uses a unique 隻 character.

Thanks for your comments by the way! We have been feeling lonely for all these years as well!