12 Responses to “CLO_149: Which Stop Should I Get Off At?”

1. Adam Says:
   October 1st, 2007 at 1:46 am

   This lesson has been updated since it’s original release, now teaching a new word “mài” (to sell). The updated version has a length of 8:56.

2. Luobot Says:
   October 18th, 2007 at 4:22 am

   Adam,

   Regarding the following sentence from this lesson:

   这台公车有到 Sogo 百货公司吗?
   Zhè tái gōngchē yǒu dào Sogo bǎihuò gōngsī ma?
   Does this bus go to the Sogo department store?

   Can you clarify the use of “有 / yǒu / to have” in the above sentence?
   - What function does 有 serve in the sentence?
   - How would it change the meaning of the sentence if you just left 有 out?
   - Could you alternatively say:
   这台公车到 Sogo 百货公司去吗?
   Zhè tái gōngchē dào Sogo bǎihuò gōngsī qù ma?

   Thanks!

3. Luobot Says:
   October 18th, 2007 at 5:06 am

   Sorry, Adam, I forgot to include my other question:

   To say: “(it) is not very far” I generally remember hearing:
   不是很远.
   bú shì hěn yuǎn.

   Here we have:
   没有很远.
   méiyǒu hěn yuǎn.

   Can you please explain the reason for the use of 没有很远 rather than 不是很远 ?

   Thanks again!

4. Adam Says:
   October 18th, 2007 at 11:16 pm

   Hi Luobot,

   Good questions. Both are style issues. By adding the yǒu, she is giving the listener an easy way to answer the question (yǒu / méiyǒu). An alternate way to ask would be to say:

   Zhè tái gōngchē shì dào Sogo bǎihuò gōngsī qù de ma? Here the answer could be shì / bú shì.

   Similarly, for the second question, “bú shì hěn yuǎn” is equivalent to “méiyǒu hěn yuǎn.” In both cases, the “shì” version is more technically correct, while the “yǒu” versions tend to be used in colloquial speech.

5. Luobot Says:
   October 19th, 2007 at 1:36 am

   So the purpose is to setup a yǒu / méiyǒu answer.
   That’s good to know.
   As the lady says: 非常谢谢你的帮忙!

6. licha Says:
   March 25th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

   hi, the ‘Shàngchē mǎi jiù kěyǐ le’ structure. what is the literal translation of ‘jiù kěyǐ le’
   can this be use in other contexts?

7. Luise Says:
   March 30th, 2008 at 1:29 am

   Hi Licha,

   The “jiù kěyǐ le” in this context literally means “just can.” So ‘Shàngchē mǎi jiù kěyǐ le’ basically means “You can just buy it on the bus.”

   It’s quite a common usage. For example if you are in a taxi and you reach where you want to stop you can say “Zhèlǐ jiù kěyǐ le” (You can just (stop) here).

   You might also hear “Jiù hǎo le” which has a similar usage and can be thought of as meaning “good enough.” For example if someone is pouring you a drink and you think they have poured enough you might say “Zhè yàng jiù hǎo le” (this way is enough).

   Or a more common example is when shopping and you place your items on the counter, the clerk might ask “Zhè yàng jiù hǎo le ma?” (is this everything?) to which you you would reply “Zhè yàng jiù hǎo le” (this is enough).

8. Edward Sanderson Says:
   June 25th, 2009 at 1:15 am

   For some reason, the flashcards for “shi”, “mai” and “zhan” are not working, all the options are greyed out

9. Edward Sanderson Says:
   June 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am

   OK, all working now, perhaps a bug at my end.

10. Adam Says:
    June 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am

    Hi Edward,

    Actually there was a problem on my end that I fixed. Thanks for pointing it out!

11. Thomas Wong Says:
    July 25th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    adam:

    noticed that the measure word for vehicle has been updated to “ban” from “tai.” is one of them more appropriate depending on region, e.g., for mainland versus Taiwan, etc?

12. Adam Says:
    July 27th, 2009 at 2:00 am

    Hi Thomas,

    Great question - actually the ban doesn’t refer to the actual bus per se, but more to the particular time of bus. So you can think of it as the speaker asking “Does this (time of) bus go to the Sogo department store?” You can also use it for trains and other scheduled transportation. If you wanted to talk about a particular vehicle rather than anything to do with its time, then of course you would use “tai”.

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