Lesson 171 The more expensive, the better.

M: Peng2you3men, ni3men hao3! Huan1ying2 shou1ting1 Xian4zai4 Xue2 Han4yu3. Wo3 shi4 ML.

S: Wo3 shi4 Stuart. Remember what we learnt last lesson? In brief. A ‘present' is 礼物li3wu4. Put mei2 you3 at the end of a sentence to make a question. As in, ‘ML, 你买了礼物没有 ni3 mai3le li3wu4 mei2 you3?

M: And how do we say ‘birthday'? Dui4 le, 生日 sheng1ri4.

S: And I bet you remember 快乐, meaning ‘happy', kuai4le4.

M: So how to say, Wish you happy birthday? Hen3 hao3, 祝你生日快乐 zhu4 ni3 sheng1ri4 kuai4le.

S: Now say, The bigger, the better.

M: Dui4 le. 越大越好 yue4 da4 yue4 hao3.

S: And, The more expensive, the better.

M: Good. 越贵越好 yue4 gui4 yue4 hao3.

S: Today we'll learn to ask when someone was born.

M: Listen carefully for how we say ‘born'. A clue, it's two characters, and the second one is 生, the same sheng1 as in birthday, sheng1ri4.

S: ML will ask Mrs. Ma when she was born. The Chinese word order is, you are what time born.

M: 马女士，你是什么时候出生的 ni3 shi4 shen2me shi2hou4 chu1sheng1 de?

S: Hear how we say born? Dui4 le. 出生 CHU SHENG chu1sheng1, ‘to be born' chu1sheng1. The little de after chu1sheng1 makes the chu1sheng1 refer to the subject. But don't
worry about it, just use it when we do, and your subconscious will soon understand it. Now ML asks Mrs. Ma her birth date again.

M: 马女士，你是什么时候出生的 ni3 shi4 shen2me shi2hou4 chu1sheng1 de?

Ms. Ma: I was born on March 14th, 1948. 我是一九四八年三月十四号出生的 wo3 shi3 yi1 jiu3 si4 jiu3 nian2 chu1sheng1 de.

M: In Chinese word order, I was in 1948，March 14th, born. The Chinese always follow the year-month-date order.

S: And she belongs to the Year of Rat. 她属老鼠。

M: Ta1 shu3 lao3shu3. The first shu3, SHU shu3, means ‘belong to'. So, ta1 shu3 lao3 shu3, she belongs to the rat.

S: A horse, ma3, belonging to a rat!

M: And, did you hear how Ms. Ma said 1948? We simply say the four numbers, followed by nian2.

S: Then the month, yue4, then the date, hao4.

M: So everybody say, 2002, January 3. Hen3 hao3. 二零零二年一月三号 er4 ling2 ling2 er2 nian2 yi1 yue4 san1 hao4.

S: Now say, June 21st, 1985. Fei1chang2 hao3. 一九八五年六月二十一号 yi1 jiu3 ba1 wu3 nian2 liu4 yue4 er4 shi2 yi1 hao4.

M: Now everybody say, in Chinese of course, I was born on – and use your own date of birth.

S: Cheng2gong1 le ma? Succeeded? Sure you did.

S: And now for a quick finish.

M: 他是一九四九年出生的 ta1 shi4 yi1 jiu3 si4 jiu3 nian2 chu1 sheng1 de.

S: 啊，他属牛。Ta1 shu3 niu2.

M: He's an ox person. Ok, That's all for today. Zai4 jian4.