Lesson 121 The Station Is Opposite the Railway Sta

M: Dàjiā hǎo. Huānyíng nǐmen dào Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ManLi.

S: Wǒ shì Stuart. Before learning to say ‘tree', ‘cat' and ‘dog', we'll warm up by saying, the shop is opposite the友谊商店yǎuyì　shāngdiàn　Friendship Store.

M: 商店在友谊商店对面. Again, on your own this time. Hěn hǎo. Shāngdiàn zài yǒuyì shāngdiàn duìmiàn.

S: Now say, on your own, then with ManLi, The subway station – dìtiězhàn is opposite the railway station - huǒchēzhàn.

M: Fēicháng hǎo. 地铁站在火车站的对面。dìtiězhàn zài huǒchēzhàn de duìmiàn.

S: Now for a biology生物学shēng wù xué lesson. Listen, tīng, and repeat, chóngfù, this tale of suspense, chapter one.

M: On the tree – listen out for the word for ‘tree' - is a little bird. 树上有一只小鸟shùshàng yǒu yìzhī xiǎoniǎo.

S: On the table there is a cat桌子上有一只猫. Zhuōzi shàng yǒu yì zhī māo.

M: Under the chair there are two dogs. 椅子下面有两只大狗. yǐzi xià miàn yǒu liǎng zhī dà gǒu.

S: How exciting! Now the new stuff. 树上. 树SHU shù, means ‘tree'. By the way, the measure word for ‘tree' is棵KE kē. So how do we say, ‘three trees'?

M: Duì le. 三棵树sān kē shù. Ten trees. Too easy! 十棵树shí kē shù.

S: The simplest way to say ‘in, or on a tree' is shu4 shang, literally ‘tree on'. Same with ‘on the table', simply桌子上zhuōzi shàng.

M: We have to use the appropriate measure word when referring to a specific tree, or table, or whatever. For example, ‘that tree' 那棵树nèi kē shù, or ‘this tree', 这棵树zhèi kē shù, or to a definite number of trees, as when we said, shí kē shù.

S: By the way, nèi kē shù, nà kē shù, nèi or nē, mean exactly the same thing, namely, ‘that'. Nèi is the commonest. So, nà gè rén, ‘that man', or nèi gè rén, yí yàng, the same.

M: It's the same with ‘this', you can say zhè, for ‘this' something or other, or, more commonly, zhèi.

S: So say ‘this table' using zhè and then zhèi, and remember the measure word for zhuōzi is张ZHANG zhāng. Hěn hǎo. zhè zhāng zhuōzi. Zhèi zhāng zhuōzi.

M: Back to our suspense story. Now, what is一只鸟NIAO niǎo. Duìle, a bird, niǎo. Notice the measure word只ZHI zhī. It's used as the measure word for quite a few types of animal and bird. Now say, Over there is one bird. Méicuò. 那边有一只鸟nèibiān, or nàbiān, yǒu yìzhī niǎo.

S: And一只猫is a cat, māo MAO māo.

M: And a dog is一只狗GOU gǒu.Now say ‘there is one cat'. Duìle. 有一只猫yǒu yìzhī māo.

S: And, ‘there are two dogs'. Hěn hǎo. 有两只狗yǒu liǒngzhī gǒu.

M: 一只小鸟，一只猫，和两只大狗. What a mixture!

S: What will happen? Find out in Chapter 2, next lesson. Zàijiàn.