Lesson 155 What Color Are Apples?

M: Péngyǒumen hǎo! Huānyíng shōutīng xiànzài xuéhànyǔ, wǒshì ML.

S: Dàjiāhǎo! Wǒshì Stuart. Today we'll learn something more about fruit, plus a few other things.

M: Stuart, apples are what color? Píngguǒ shì shénme yánsède? 苹果是什么颜色的？

S: It's red. Píngguǒ shì hóngsède.

M: 橙子是什么颜色的？

S: It's orange. Chéngsède.

M: What about bananas? 香蕉呢？Xiāngjiāone?

S: Yellow. Huángsède. 黄色的。

M: What color are kiwi fruit? 猕猴桃是什么颜色的？míhóutáo shì shénme yánsède?

S: Green. Lǜde.

M: And grapes? 葡萄呢？

S: Purple. 紫的。Zǐde.

M: Great!

M: Now let's look at the new stuff. I asked, ‘Píngguǒ shì shénme yánsède?' Literally, apples are what color? 苹果是什么颜色的？

S: Yánsè, YAN SE, second tone fourth tone, 颜色，color. I answered, 苹果是红色的. The apple is red. Píngguǒ shì hóngsède.

M: Hóng, HONG, second tone, 红，means red. And ‘sè' alone also means color, just the same as ‘yánsè'. 苹果是红色的. 苹果是红颜色的. Yíyàng.

S: Or you can simply answer, hóngde. Red. 红的, which is the shortest form. Hóngde, hóngsède, hóng yánsède, all are ok.

M: Something是什么颜色的？What is the color of something? Besides color, similarly we can ask, ‘苹果是什么味道的？' What is the taste of apple? Wèidào, taste, 味道。

S: I could answer, píngguǒ shì tiánde. The apple is sweet. 苹果是甜的。

M: Good.

M: Now let's go back to our text. Then I asked Stuart, 橙子是什么颜色的？What color are oranges? Chéngzi shì shénme yánsède?

S: Orange. Chéngsède. Chéngsède.

M: Now listen carefully. If ‘形状'，xíngzhuàng, XING ZHUANG, second tone fourth tone, 形状means shape, what does the following sentence mean? "橙子是什么形状的？" Chéngzi shì shénme xíngzhuàngde?

S: Duìle, it means ‘what is the shape of the orange? Shape, xíngzhuàng。

M: It's round. 橙子是圆的。Chéngzi shì yuánde. Yuán, YUAN, second tone, 圆，round.

S: So, if ‘square' in Chinese is fāng, FANG, first tone, 方，how do we say, ‘this table is square' in Chinese? Remember, ‘table' is zhuōzi.

M: 非常好！这张桌子是方的。Zhèizhāng zhuōzi shì fāngde.

S: We've still got several colors left. Let's look at them now.

M: They are yellow, green, and purple. 黄色，绿色，和紫色。Yellow is ‘huángsè', 黄，HUANG, second tone. And green is ‘lǜ', LV, 绿，fourth tone.

S: zǐ, purple, 紫，ZI, third tone, zǐ.

M: And with that we come to the end of this lesson. We'll see you next time.

S: Zàijiàn!