Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin Julian K Wheatley MIT Unit 7 M n zh o s n qi n sh u y Pride incurs loss humility attracts benefit Traditional saying in Classical Chinese Contents 7 1 Verb Combos 1 7 2 Connecting sentences 7 3 Speaking languages 7 4 Dialogue language abilities 7 5 Dialogue tea and coffee 7 6 Along or with others conveyances 7 7 C i ADV not until 7 8 Duration 7 9 More le patterns 7 10 Weather 7 11 Dialogue Talking about the weather 7 12 Coverbs 2 g n and du 7 13 Narrative A letter home 7 14 Highlights 7 15 Rhymes and rhythms Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 Exercise 4 Exercise 5 Exercise 6 Exercise 7 Exercise 8 Exercise 9 7 1 Verb Combos 1 In Chinese verbs often come in pairs with the second verb completing or otherwise elaborating the meaning of the first Since such pairs are going to be a subject of prominence we give them the catchy label of verb combos The second verb of the pair we will call by its traditional label of a verb complement One particularly productive category of verb combos involves an action and a result t ngd ng listen comprehend understand something heard k nji n lookperceive see zu w n do complete finish doing ch b o eat full eat one s fill k ncu look mistake misread d s hit die beat to death Such pairings often produce a cascade of relatable meanings many of them expressed as independent verbs in English Here for example are combinations based on k n see k nd o to manage to see k ncu to mistake something seen k nji n see k nd ng understand visually k ngu n be used to seeing k nw n finish reading etc Objects appearing with verb combos are often placed first D li k y jing xu w n le We ve already finished studying lesson 6 Action result verb combos have an important feature one which has already been encountered in earlier units With the insertion of de positive or bu negative they can be turned into potential verb combos cf 5 8 2b which convey the possibility or impossibility of the result 1 Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin R y n t ngded ng ma W t ngbud ng Julian K Wheatley MIT Do you understand Japanese No I don t You may wonder what the potential combo adds beyond the verb n ng be able which is already available And in fact n ng may appear redundantly with potential verb combos N ng t ngded ng ma N ng t ngd ng y di nr But while n ng is common with single verbs b n ng q the potential pattern is preferred for verb combos A few dozen verbs are particularly common as second members of verb combos and some of these are very versatile able to follow large numbers of verbs W n for example with the general meaning of finish combines with most action verbs to mean finish V ing zu w n xi w n shu w n d w n ch w n k ow n b nw n t ngw n etc Since verb combos are a large topic they will be introduced incrementally In this unit we will introduce some phase complements such as w n finish and some directional complements such as j nlai come in here 7 1 1 Imminence First a short digression to take up the expression of imminence that will prove useful as a response to verb combos with w n finish In China when a train approaches a station that it is going to stop at you will often hear the staff shout out the name of the place followed by ku i y o d o le quick will arrive LE Sh ji zhu ng ku i y o d o le Almost at Shijiazhuang in Hebei The combination of ku i or ku i y o with a final le conveys the notion of about to soon Ku i xi k le Ku i y o sh ngxu le T ku i s nsh su le Ku i s n di n le Class is almost done School is about to begin She s almost 30 It s almost 3 o clock 7 1 2 Phase complements The following examples contain verb combos in the potential form only when they are particularly apt The topic of potential verb combos will be taken up again in the next unit a W n as noted above may combine with most activity verbs to mean finish doing J nti n de b o y jing k nw n le ma K nw n le Have you finished today s paper Yes I have G ngk y jing zu w n le m iyou H i z i zu ne Have you finished your hwk I m still doing it N men k ow n le m iyou Ku i k ow n le Are you done with the exam Almost 2 Learning Chinese A Foundation Course in Mandarin Julian K Wheatley MIT Shu w n le m iyou H i m i ne h i y u y j hu Has he finished talking Not yet one more sentence D w n le ma M iyou h i m i shu w n Are you done with the phone Not yet I m still talking b D o with verbs that involve locomotion introduces a destination b nd o move to z ud o walk to k id o drive to cf 5 9 5 But with other verbs d o has the meaning of succeed in manage to Xi zi w y jing m id o le Y o du shao qi n I ve already purchased the shoes How much were they N y o w zu de w y d ng hu zu d o N sh ng c y shi zh me shu K shi zh i c y d ng zu ded o What you want me to do I can certainly manage to do You said that last time But this time I ll do if for sure Zu ti n m i k nd o t T sh bu shi y jing z u le I didn t see her yesterday Is it the case that she s left already Zh od o le m iyou H i z i zh o ne Did you find it I m still looking Shu d o zu d o No sooner said than done c Zh o The root meaning of zh o is touch reach As a verb complement it has a meaning very similar to that of d o ie succeed in manage to and in fact with many verbs d o often substitutes for it Examples H zh o zh ozh o zh od o le ma Zh ozh o zh od o le Xi ti n xi d Did you manage to find your passport …