Lesson 122 That Little Bird Sees A Slice of Bread.

M: Dàjiāhǎo. Huānyíng shōutīng Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ManLi.

S: Wǒ shì Stuart. Now for chapter 2 of our heart stopping story. Listen out for ‘bread', and the measure word for it, pay attention to the Chinese word for ‘must', and repeat everything.

M: That little bird sees a slice of bread, 那只小鸟看到了一块面包nà zhī xiǎoniǎo kàndàole yí kuài miànbāo. It thinks, that bread must be good to eat, 它想，那块面包一定很好吃. Tāxiǎng, nàkuài miànbāo yídìng hěnhěochī.

S: That cat sees the bird. It thinks, that little bird must be good to eat. 那只猫看到了小鸟. 它想, 那只小鸟一定很好吃. Nà zhī māo kàn dào le xiǎo niǎo. Tā xiǎng, nà zhī xiǎo niǎo yídìng hěnhǎochī. S: Will the cat eat the bird? Find out in chapter 3, next lesson. Now for the new stuff. ManLi said –

M: 那只小鸟看到了一块面包kàndàole, saw, yí kuài miànbāo, 一块, YI KUAI, yíkuài, ‘a piece' or ‘a slice'. And 面包MIAN BAO miànbāo, is ‘bread' , miànbāo. A slice of bread, yí kuài miànbāo.

S: So try to say, I want to eat a slice of bread. Hěn hǎo. 我想吃一块面包wǒxiǎng chī yí kuài miànbāo.

M: Back to our little bird, xiǎoniǎo. Our xiǎoniǎo thought, 那块面包一定很好吃。Yídìng, expressing certainty, here means ‘must, must be'.

S: And hǎochī, literally, ‘good eat', and it means ‘good to eat', ‘tasty' hǎochī, hǎochī.

M: The hǎo in front of a verb is very common. Another example is 好听 hǎo tīng ‘sounds good' we use it when talking about music, for example, 那很好听 that sounds very good. nà hěnhěotīng

S: And好看 hǎo kàn. Guess what it means? Duìle. Good to look at, hǎo kàn, hǎo kàn. So say, he/or she is good looking. Méi cuò. 他好看 tāhǎo kàn.

S: Now say, ManLi is not good looking. Quickly, before she cuts me off. Right, 曼丽不好看 Mànlì bù hǎo kàn.

M: Stuart!

S: I'm joking! 我开玩笑！

S: Mànlì hǎo kàn.

M: Again! Mànlì hěn hǎo kàn.

M: You're forgiven.

S: What a relief! And we just have time to hear chapter 2 again.

M: nà zhī xiǎoniǎo kàn dào le yíkuài miànbāo. Tāxiǎng, nà miànbāo yídìng hěnhǎochī.

S: nà zhī māo kàn dào le xiǎoniǎo. Tāxiǎng, nàzhī xiǎoniǎo yídìng hěnhǎo chī.

M: But, time to xià kè. A tasty bird, a hungry cat, and what about the dogs? What will happen? Find out next lesson. Zàijiàn.

S: Zàijiàn.