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Hi, I'm Fame Ketover of Lenguin.com and this is Mandarin Chinese.
Now Mr. King is asking about the Li family.
Listen.
Lǐ Xiānsheng, Lǐ Tàitai yǒu jǐge háizi?
Tāmen yǒu sānge háizi.
The conversation continues.
Listen.
Are they boys or girls?
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
They are all girls.
Tāmen dōu *** nǚháizi.
Tāmen dōu *** nǚháizi.
In Chinese you can make an "or" question, asking which of two possible alternatives is true, by simply putting them together in one sentence with a pause between them.
Listen to the "or" question again.
Are they boys or girls?
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
Here's the word for "all" or "all of".
dōu
dōu
dōu
Word for the word the sentence
"Tāmen dōu *** nǚháizi."
is "they all are girls".
The conversation continues.
How about Mr. and Mrs. Hu? How many children do they have?
Hú Xiānsheng, Hú Tàitai ne? Tāmen yǒu jǐge háizi?
Hú Xiānsheng, Hú Tàitai ne? Tāmen yǒu jǐge háizi?
They have two children.
Tāmen yǒu liǎngge háizi.
Tāmen yǒu liǎngge háizi.
Are they boys or girls?
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
Both of them are girls.
Dōu *** nǚháizi.
Dōu *** nǚháizi.
In this exchange, the adverb
"dōu"
corresponds to the English word "both" rather than "all".
Here's the exchange live.
Hú Xiānsheng, Hú Tàitai ne? Tāmen yǒu jǐge háizi?
Tāmen yǒu liǎngge háizi.
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
Dōu *** nǚháizi.
In the sentence
"Dōu *** nǚháizi."
the pronoun
"tāmen"
has been dropped.
That's the usual pattern.
Earlier, Mr. King said that all his children were in China.
Now listen to what he might have said to describe a slightly different situation.
Are all your children here?
Nǐmen háizi dōu zài zhèli ma?
Nǐmen háizi dōu zài zhèli ma?
No. Two are here, and one is still in America.
Bù, liǎngge zài zhèli, yíge hái zài Měiguó.
Bù, liǎngge zài zhèli, yíge hái zài Měiguó.
Here's the adverb "still".
hái
hái
hái
Now listen to the exchange live.
Nǐmen háizi dōu zài zhèli ma?
Bù, liǎngge zài zhèli, yíge hái zài Měiguó.
Suppose Miss Gao hadn't known whether or not Mr. King was married.
It's sometimes considered rude in China to ask someone directly if he's married.
Instead, Miss Gao could've found out indirectly by asking about who's in his family.
Listen to the question Miss Gao would use.
What people are there in your family?
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
In this question, the word "family" would normally be taken to mean just those relatives living in the same household with you.
Here's the expression for "in your family"?
Nǐ jiāli
Nǐ jiāli
Nǐ jiāli
"jiāli"
itself can be broken down into two parts,
"jiā"
which you'll remember means "home", and
"lǐ"
which means "in".
Literally the phrase
"Nǐ jiāli"
means "in your home".
In this question it's extended to mean the people in your family.
Now here's the word for "there is" or "there are".
yǒu
yǒu
yǒu
That should sound familiar.
In the sentence
"Nǐ yǒu háizi ma?"
("Do you have any children?")
we translated
"yǒu"
as "to have".
But in a sentence
"Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?"
there's no subject for "to have" so the word
"yǒu"
is translated with the expression "to have" which doesn't need a subject.
Phrase by phrase, the question is literally "in your family there are what people?".
Now here's the question with Mr. King's answer.
What people are there in your family?
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
There's my wife and three children.
Yǒu wǒ tàitai gēn sānge háizi.
Yǒu wǒ tàitai gēn sānge háizi.
You could also translate the answer just by listing the family members with no verb, translating
"Yǒu wǒ tàitai gēn sānge háizi."
as "My wife and three children."
Here's the word for "and".
gēn
gēn
gēn
As you've seen, Chinese often doesn't have a word for "and" where we would expect it.
When the items being joined make a neat parallel pair they are usually just put next to each other.
But when the items are not parallel, Chinese does use a word for "and".
Here for instance, the word for "children" has a number in front of it while the word for "wife" follows a possessive pronoun.
Here's the exchange again, live.
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
Yǒu wǒ tàitai gēn sānge háizi.
Now listen as Mr. King asks about Miss Gao's family.
What people are there in your family?
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
Just my father and mother.
Jiù yǒu wǒ fùqin, mǔqin.
Jiù yǒu wǒ fùqin, mǔqin.
Here's the word for "just" or "only".
jiù
jiù
jiù
Here's the word for "father".
fùqin
fùqin
fùqin
And here's the word for "mother".
mǔqin
mǔqin
mǔqin
Here's the exchange live.
Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?
Jiù yǒu wǒ fùqin, mǔqin.
A married person with no children would answer the question
"Nǐ jiāli yǒu shénme rén?"
like this:
There's just me and my wife.
Jiù yǒu wǒ gēn wǒ tàitai.
There's just me and my husband.
Jiù yǒu wǒ gēn wǒ xiānsheng.
Here's a live conversation for review.
Nǐ yǒu háizi ma?
Yǒu, wǒ yǒu.
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
Dōu *** nánháizi, méiyou nǚháizi.
Tāmen dōu zài zhèli ma?
Liǎngge zài zhèli, liǎngge hái zài Měiguó.
Try translating it.
Nǐ yǒu háizi ma?
Do you have any children?
Yǒu, wǒ yǒu.
Yes, I have.
*** nánháizi, *** nǚháizi?
Are they boys or girls?
Dōu *** nánháizi, méiyou nǚháizi.
They're all boys, we don't have any girls.
Tāmen dōu zài zhèli ma?
Are they all here?
Liǎngge zài zhèli, liǎngge hái zài Měiguó.
Two are here, and two are still in America.
Hao, women xià kè ba.
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