Cam:你好，我是Cam. Hello, I’m Cam. Welcome to join us on Chinese Studio.
Yajie: 欢迎收听《欢乐汉语》。大家好,  I’m Yajie. Time now to perfect Chinese your way, in only 5 minutes a day. Cam, ni zen me le?
Cam:  What does that mean?
Yajie:  It means, what’s wrong with you?
Cam:  Why… does my hair look different?  Do I smell?
Yajie:  yi diar… a little… let’s check key words of the day.

Key Words of the Day
怎么了？ What’s wrong with something or somebody. Headache, 头疼; a little, 有点儿; hurt from a fall, 摔伤; All in today’s Chinese Studio on China Radio International. 

Yajie: 怎么了 means ‘What happened..’, ‘What’s wrong with..’. 怎么 means ‘how’, and了 is a particle word in a light tone. 怎么了.
Cam: If we want to ask ‘What’s wrong with you?’, we just need to put YOU, 你，in front of怎么了. So it becomes你怎么了? What’s wrong with you? Oh, Yajie, you don’t look good? 你怎么了？
Yajie: My old problem, I have a headache. 我头疼。头, means head. 疼. It means pain, ache. 头疼 is headache. It also means to have a headache. 我头疼。I have a headache.
Cam: Is it serious?
Yajie: No, just a little bit, 有点儿.
Cam: 有点儿, a little bit. Is it有点 (yo dian) attached with儿(er)?
Yajie: You’re right. 儿(er ) doesn’t change the meaning of the phrase. 有点 is not typical Chinese. It should be有点儿. 我有点儿头疼。I have a little bit of a headache.
Cam: So Yajie, since 你有点儿头疼, (ni yo dian’er tou teng) why not have a short break for some conversations？
Yajie: Good times.  Xie xie.
 
Conversation 1:

Cam: So how do you ask what’s wrong with him then? Right, 他怎么了？(ta zen me le)
Yajie: 他摔伤了。He hurt himself in a fall. 摔, to fall. sh-u-ai, flat first tone, 摔. 伤, to hurt.  摔伤, to hurt upon a fall.
Cam: 他怎么了？(ta zen me le) What’s wrong with him? He hurt himself in a fall. 他摔伤了. (ta shuai shang le)  In this case, 他 in the reply can be omitted. So the answer can be shortened to just : 摔伤了.

Conversation 2:

Yajie: We’d better send him to the hospital. 快去医院。Remember, we learned 医院, hospital, last week. 去医院。Go to the hospital. 快，hurry.  快去医院。Go to the hospital right now.
Cam: wher is the hospital? This is also what we learned last week. Hope you didn’t forget it. 医院在哪儿？
Yajie: 在前面。It’s ahead.  在前面.

Conversation 3:

Cam: Just now, we learned how to ask about what’s wrong with sb. or sth. in Chinese. There is a handy pattern: ‘Somebody or something + 怎么了’ . For instance, 你怎么了？他怎么了？Now let’s have some drills to replac the subject.
Yajie: 那儿怎么了？What’s wrong there? 左边怎么了？What’s wrong on the left?
Cam: Yajie zen me le? What’s wrong with Yajie? 
Yajie: Oh, I have a headache. 我头疼。You remind me of the pain again.
Cam: You’d better take some medicine after the show. But before we sign off, let’s review the key words of the day.

Key Words Reminder
怎么了？ What’s wrong with you? 你怎么了？What’s up with him? 他怎么了？
Headache, 头疼; a little, 有点儿; hurt from a fall, 摔伤;