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Yajie: 早上好 everybody. Welcome to Chinese Studio. I'm Yajie.
Cam: Zao shang hao… it's time to perfect Chinese in only 5 minutes a day.
Yajie: Last time we talked about weather. Today we'll continue with the topic and learn an important word -- “比”.
Cam: Doesn't that mean pen?
Yajie: No no… listen carefully to Key Words of the Day!
***************Key words of the day
Today we’ll learn more expressions about weather. 比 means than,for example - 今天比昨天热。Today's hotter than yesterday. 热, hot. 冷, cold. 凉快, cool. All in today’s Chinese Studio.
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Yajie: 热, hot. R-e, the fourth tone.
Cam: 热 (rè).
Yajie: 比is similar to the English word “than”.
Cam: 比 (bǐ).
Yajie:今天比昨天热. Today is hotter than yesterday.
Cam: 今天比昨天热. (jīntiān bǐ zuótiān rè).
Yajie: 今天(jīntiān). Today.
Cam: 今天(jīntiān).
Yajie: 昨天 (zuótiān).
Cam: 昨天 (zuótiān).
Yajie: Tomorrow is 明天.
Cam: 明天(míngtiān). Sometimes at the end of our show, we'll say mingtian jian, which means see you tomorrow.
Yajie: Very good. So together yesterday, today and tomorrow is昨天 (zuótiān), 今天(jīntiān), 明天(míngtiān).
Cam: 昨天 (zuótiān), 今天(jīntiān), 明天(míngtiān).
Conversations (1)
Yajie: Cam, last time we learned how to say “today's high is 30 degrees” in Chinese. How about that?
Cam: It's 今天最高气温三十度。(jīntiān zuìgāo qìwèn sānshí dù.)
Yajie: Right. And if it was 28 degrees yesterday, which was a little bit lower than today, then you can use比 to make a sentence. The sentence could go like this: 今天比昨天热. (jīntiān bǐ zuótiān rè). Today is hotter than yesterday.
Cam: 今天比昨天热. (jīntiān bǐ zuótiān rè). By the way what's the opposite of 热(rè)?
Yajie: It’s 冷 (lěng), cold.
Cam: 冷 (lěng).
Yajie: 冷, l-ě-n-g, the third tone.
Cam: 冷 (lěng).
Yajie: There is a phrase -- 越来越, which means becoming more and more….For example,天儿越来越冷了.(Tianr yuelaiyue leng le), which means It's becoming colder and colder.
Yajie: And in winter the weather in the northern part of China is colder than that of the south.
Conversations (2)
Cam: Then how do you say it's cooler than yesterday?
Yajie: Good question. Cool in Chinese is 凉快.
Cam: 凉快(liángkuai). 凉快(liángkuai) is normally used to describe the weather in autumn, right?
Yajie: Right.You could say 这儿的秋天真凉快！It's cool here in autumn.
Cam: 这儿的秋天真凉快！(zhèr de qiūtiān zhēn liángkuai).
Conversations (3)
***************Key words reminder
Today we learned more expressions about weather. 今天比昨天热。Today's hotter than yesterday. 天儿越来越冷了. It's becoming colder and colder. 这儿的秋天真凉快！It's cool here in autumn.
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Yajie: It's considered that the cities of Nanjing, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Changsha in the south part of China are the four hottest cities. Chinese call them the hot stoves of China. In August the high temperature could rise to 43 degrees!
Cam: Wow! That is hot! So the best time to visit China is in spring and autumn.
Yajie: Exactly! Ok, that's all for this edition of Chinese Studio. Our question of the day is: In Chinese, how do you say “Today's hotter than yesterday”? Please tell us in an email. You may win a CRI prize.
Cam: You can send us your answers to [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Or you can visit us on our website at en.chinabroadcast.cn. Click “Learn Chinese”.
Yajie: Well, class is over. 再见!
Cam: 再见!