Lesson 159 How Many Children Do You Have?

M: Péngyǒumen. Nǐmen hǎo! Wǒ shì ML.

S: Wǒ shì Stuart. ML, jīn tiān wǒmen xué shénme?

M: How about family members, and we can practice asking the age of grandma, the kids, etc etc.

S: Hǎo zhúyì. All very useful. Fancy not being able to say, "my fifth male cousin on my stepmother's side"!

M: Actually, as we mentioned in previous lessons, relations are identified in great detail in Chinese, so there are dozens of different words for relations. In English, if you want to describe a relationship, like uncle, for example, in more detail, you have to say ‘my father's younger brother', wheras in Chinese there are different words for all the different kinds of brother, sister, uncle, aunt, or whatever.

S: It's very complicated. We'll just learn the more common terms.

S: ML and I will now become different people. And we'll nose into each other's personal affairs. Mrs. Deng, are you married? 邓女士，您结婚了吗 Dèng Nǚshì, nín jiéhūn le ma?

M: Shìde.

S: Have any children? 有没有孩子? Yǒu méi yǒu háizi?

M: I have three children, one son, two daughters. 我有三个孩子，一个儿子，两个女儿 wǒ yǒu sān ge háizi, yí ge érzi, liǎng ge nǚér.

S: How old are they? 他们几岁了？ tāmen jǐ suìle?

M: My son is six, 儿子六岁 érzi lìu suì. The elder daughter is ten, the younger is eight 大女儿十岁, 小女儿八岁 dà nǚ’ér shí suì, xiǎo nǚ’ér bā suì.

S: Now I know, Mrs. Deng has one boy, and two girls. 现在我知道，邓女士有一个男孩儿，两个女孩儿。Dèng nǚshì yǒu yí ge nánháir, liǎng ge nǚháir.

S: Hǎo, let's look at what we said. I said 邓女士，您结婚了吗 jiéhūn le ma? Are you married? Jiéhūn JIE HUN remember, is ‘marry' jiéhūn.

M: Shìde. Wǒ jiéhūnle.

S: 您有没有孩子? Do you have children? 孩子 HAI ZI háizi, ‘child' or ‘children'.

M: So everybody say, This child. Hěn hǎo. 这个孩子 zhèi ge háizi.

S: Now say, Those two children. Méi cuò. 那两个孩子 nèi liǎng ge háizi.

M: And if we want to speak to some kids, we say, Children 孩子们 háizi men.

S: And, Mrs. Deng told me –

M: 我有三个孩子，一个儿子，两个女儿 wǒ yǒu sān ge háizi, yí ge érzi, liǎng ge nǚ’ér.

S: Yí ge érzi 儿子 ER ZI érzi, is ‘son', érzi.

M: And 女儿 NV ER nǚ’ér, is ‘daughter' nǚ’ér. Remember how to say ‘girlfriend'? Duì le, nǚpéngyǒu, nǚpéngyǒu. Well, it's the same nǚ, meaning female. So say, I have two daughters. Méi cuò. 我有两个女儿 wǒ yǒu liǎng ge nǚ’ér.

S: Now say, He has one son, one daughter.

M: Hěn hǎo. 他有一个儿子，一个女儿 tā yǒu yí ge érzi, yí ge nǚ’ér.

S: Now say, See you next lesson. Duì le. Xià jié kè zàijiàn!

M: Zàijiàn!