Lesson 099 Taking Photos

M: Dàjiā hǎo. Huānyíng nǐmen dào Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ML.
S: Wǒ shì Stuart. Remember? 记得吗? jìde ma? Wǒmen zài Yíhéyuán.

M. We want to take a photo. 我们想照张相 wǒmen xiǒng zhàozhāngxiàng.

S. 我们在哪儿照相? wǒmen zài nǎr zhàoxiàng.

M. Here's good. 这里好 zhèlǐ hǎo.

S. But there's better. 但是，那边更好 dàn shì, nàbian gèng hǎo.

M. I feel that here's better. 我觉得这里更好 Wǒ juéde zhèlǐ gèng hǎo.

S. I reckon there's better than here. 我认为，那边比这里好 wǒ rènwéi, nà biān bǐ zhèlǐ hǎo.

M. But the best place is over there. 但是，最好的地方是那边 dànshì, zuìhǎo de dìfang shì nàbian.

S. 对了，那边是最好的地方 nàbian shì zuì hǎo de dìfang.

M. Have you noticed that this time we used ‘照张相' instead of ‘拍个照' in the dialogue? They both mean ‘taking a picture'. Here ‘zhāng' and ‘gè' are both measure words.

S: And we can omit them, and simply say ‘zhàoxiàng' or ‘pāizhào'.

M: And there's just a few things we didn't explain last lesson.

S. Like, 我认为，那边比这里好

M. Wǒ rènwéi 认为 REN WEI rènwéi, 4th tone 2nd tone, means, ‘reckon' or ‘consider', ren4wei2.

S. So now say, ‘ I reckon here's good'. Hěn hǎo. Wǒ rènwéi zhèlǐ hǎo. Wǒ rènwéi zhèlǐ hǎo.

M. And, ‘I reckon there's better'. Méi cuò. Wǒ rènwéi nàbian gèng hǎo, Wǒ rènwéi nàbian gèng hǎo.

S. Now remember, ‘place' is dìfang, and one way to say ‘but' is dànshì. So how do we say, ‘But I reckon the best place is there'? Hěn hǎo. Dàn shì, wǒ rènwéi zuì hǎo de dìfang shì naàbian. Dàn shì, wǒ rènwéi zuì hǎo de dìfang shì nàbian.

M. So, we'll take photos over there. 所以， 我们要在那边照相 suǒyǐ, wǒmen yàozài nàbian zhàoxiàng.

M. Hey, Look. There's Mary and Zhāng Jiànguó. 嘿，你看，玛丽和张建国在那边.

S. 玛丽，建国， 你们好. Mǎlì, Jiànguó, nǐmen hǎo!
MARY, ZJG. Stuart, Man Li, nǐmen hǎo!

M. 玛丽，建国，我们想照相 mǎlì, jiànguó, wǒmen xiǎng zhàoxiàng.

S. Dear listeners, now try to pick out the word for ‘camera'.
MARY. That's great! My camera is really good. 我的照相机很好 wǒ de zhàoxiàngjī hěn hǎo.

S. And now pick out the word for ‘even' or ‘more'.

M. But my camera is even better. 但是，我的照相机更好 dàn shì, wǒ de zhàoxiàngjī gèng hǎo.
ZJG. But my camera is the best. 不过，我的相机是最好的 búguò, wǒ de xiàngjī shì zuì hǎo de.

M. Tiān ā! Seems we have a small argument over who has the best camera. No problem. It's not for real. We just want you to learn this very useful word 更 gèng, which turns an adjective like ‘good' into ‘even better', gèng GENG gèng. gèng hǎo, even better, gèng hǎo. Or an adverb like ‘fast', kuài, into ‘even faster' gèng kuài, gèng kuài.

S. And of course you've picked out the word for ‘camera', which is ‘zhàoxiàngjī', ‘zhàoxiàngjī'. Or sometimes we shorten it into ‘xiàngjī', ‘xiàngjī'.

M: Ok, time's up, so we'll revise things next lesson. Xiàn zài, wǒmen xià kè. Zài jiàn