The Road Trip

Elementary: The Road Trip

Remember the epic road trips of your youth? Our lesson today goes out to every eight year old who has ever had to sit still in the backseat for eight hours trapped between two quarreling siblings while the family enjoyed a nice drive into the countryside.

If you're a premium subscriber, please note that we've enabled our Speaking Practice recording service for this lesson. Click through to our text page to find our toll-free telephone number. Call us and enter your dedicated PIN number when prompted. Then tell us all about the worst vacation you've ever had. Or just practice reading us the dialogue and vocabulary for this lesson. Our teachers will review your recording and give you personal feedback on your pronunciation by email in a day or two.

gregory

said on

December 6, 2009

Thank you for the feature above... Where can i locate my PIN #? Thanks again.

trevelyan

said on

December 7, 2009

@gregory - click through to the "text" on the menu above. The direct link for this lesson is:

http://popupchinese.com/lessons/elementary/the-road-trip/text

jyh

said on

December 13, 2009

This lesson was fun and fairly easy. I have a couple of questions on the 才examples Brendan and Echo went over at the end of the lesson:

1. On the "work" example, it sounds as if Echo changes the end particle to 呀: 我們還有多久才能做完呀. Is this just because it sounds better there?

2. Would all these sentence have a very different meaning (or even be incorrect) without the 能 in there? I sort of see its purpose in the 到 and 吃飯 examples, but not really in the 做完 one.

orbital

said on

December 14, 2009

@jyh - I believe it either adds the sound of resignation ("Sweet heavens, how long until..."), or is a sign you're talking to someone from Shanghai. They add it all the time to perfectly normal sentences there. Not sure about the answer to question two.

Good lesson by the way guys. Been busy with work lately so have a bunch piled up on my iPhone. Will slowly churn through them....

jyh

said on

December 14, 2009

@orbital - My guess was that the "ya" sound was easier or sounding better than "a" coming after "wan," but resignation seems like a likely explanation. I spent 4-5 days in Shanghai this summer but did not get the "ya" experience. But then this was in my 泡泡中文以前 days and, fresh out my Pimsleur CDs series, I was missing quite a lot. That, and also the fact that most of the Chinese people I met and talked to in Shanghai claimed to be tourists from Northern China. The next time I am there I will be ready to fully appreciate the Shanghai "ya" :-)

Echo

said on

December 14, 2009

@jyh,

Q1-- Exactly like what you said, Chinese people always change the sound of interjections, especially for those are put at the end of a sentence in order to make it sound more comfortable.

Q2-- When the 才 sentence is talking about something not happen yet, like the possibilities or someone's abilities, we usually put 能 there. If it is talking about something that have happened, like 你怎么才来啊？(How could you just arrive?), we don't use 能.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

jyh

said on

December 14, 2009

@Echo - Thank you for the precision. I'll need a bit of time to let that simmer. I am still at the level where I need to translate, so I don't see it yet as "才 with things that have not happened yet" vs. "才 with things that have happened" but as "才 meaning 'until'" vs. "才 meaning 'just'". I know that it's not correct, but I am working on it.

Just to make sure about the meaning: 你怎么才来啊？ is the kind of thing you tell Brendan when he arrives late, right?

Echo

said on

December 14, 2009

@jyh,

I think you can remember 才 that way. It's very difficult to translate 才 directly into English sometimes, because most of the time it only expresses a kind of intonation. When you have seen enough 才 sentences, you will get the intonation accurately.

Yes, 你怎么才来啊 is a high frequency sentence in our office :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

sebds70

said on

December 10, 2010

Hi guys. Does the 啊 at the end of 才能...啊 sentences always have to be there? Or is it kind of cute/girly Chinese? I've been stung talking Chinese like a girl so many times and am getting wary!

Thanks

Seb

orbital

said on

December 11, 2010

Hey Seb,

It never *needs* to be there, but both men and women will use it. I think you probably want to be avoiding 呀 more than 啊. They say that a lot in Shanghai and even down here in Shenzhen.

MAC.JAMIE

said on

October 19, 2013

This actor has a great crazy and reckless spolit youth voice.

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