Lesson 147 By the Way…

M: Dàjiāhǎo! Huānyíng shōutīng xiànzài xuéhànyǔ, wǒshì ML.

S: Dàjiāhǎo! Wǒshì Stuart. Lesson 147 today.

M: In this lesson I'll see what gift Stuart gave me for my birthday. And of course, we'll learn a few new things.

S: ML, I hope you like the gift. Xīwàng nǐ xǐhuān zhège lǐwù.

M: Let me see… A radio! 一个收音机！Thank you, Stuart!

S: You are welcome! Haha! Now she has to listen to all my programs everyday! Oh, ML, I must go now. Wǒ děi zǒule. 我得走了。

M: OK. By the way, how long will your uncle and aunt stay? 顺便问一下，你的姑父和姑妈要呆多久？Shùnbiàn wènyíxià, nǐde gūfu he gūmā yào dāi duōjǐu?

S: Two months. 两个月。

M: Now the new stuff. Stuart said –

S: I hope you like the gift. Xīwàng nǐ xǐhuān zhège lǐwù.

M: Lǐwù, we've learnt, means gift; and xīwàng means to hope. So xīwàng nǐ xǐhuān zhège lǐwù, literally, hope you like this gift, almost the same as we put it in English. Now repeat the sentence with me, xīwàng nǐ xǐhuān zhège lǐwù. Xīwàng nǐ xǐhuān zhège lǐwù.

S: And how do we say ‘radio' in Chinese? Duìle, shōuyīnjī, radio, shōuyīnjī. Out of interest, shōu means ‘to receive', yīn means sound, and jī means machine. Put them together and we get a ‘sound-receiving machine', a shōuyīnjī.

M: And did you hear the measure word for ‘收音机'? Yes, it's gè. So we say yígè shōuyīnjī, one radio, liǎnggè shōuyīnjī, two radios, etc.

M: Now listen to this carefully, very useful sentence. 顺便问一下，你的姑父和姑妈要呆多久？

S: Shùnbiàn wènyíxià, by the way, shùnbiàn wènyíxià. This phrase is widely used in daily life. So you must bear it in your mind. Now repeat it again with ML.

M: Shùnbiàn wènyíxià, shùnbiàn wènyíxià. 顺便问一下，你的姑父和姑妈要呆多久？

S: Hear the word ‘dāi'? It can be a verb. And in colloquial Chinese, it means to stay. But be careful, when you use it as an adjective, it means dull or idiotic.

M: And ‘duōjǐu', DUO JIU, duōjǐu, first tone third tone, is ‘how long'. The duō is the same duō as in duōshǎo, how many or how much, duōshǎo. And the ‘jǐu' alone means a long period. So duōjǐu together mean ‘how long'. 你的姑父和姑妈要呆多久？Literally, your uncle and aunt will stay how long? How long will your uncle and aunt stay?

S: Liǎngge yuè. Two months. Liǎngge yuè.

M: Notice the measure word for yuè is ‘gè'. When we talk about the number of months, we simply put the number, the measure word, and ‘yuè' together. For example, three months is ‘sānge yuè', sānge yuè.

S: So, to end our lesson today, how do we say twelve months？

M: Duìle, shí’èrge yuè, shíèrge yuè.

S: Next lesson, we'll review the stuff we learnt this week, plus a few new things. So see you then!

M: Bye bye.