Hello Mandarin Enthusiasts! 🌟
In the last episode of the Chinese Grammar Gems, we started to learn about the different ways to use 得 (de).
But today, I’d like to postpone a bit the usual exercise session to replace it with real-life Mandarin practice.
Because we learn Mandarin not just to be know-it-all scholars with encyclopaedic knowledge. But to be able to use it in real life.
As I’ve been a bit sick this weekend (hence the two days late Pearl of Mandarin Worksheet 😬), I’ve binge-watched “3 Body Problem”, or “3体” (sān tǐ) as it is called in Mandarin. This Netflix series is an adaptation of the world-renowned Chinese sci-fi novel 三体 (sān tǐ) by 刘慈欣 (Liú Cíxīn).
I really recommend it, not only because it’s a great sci-fi series (and book!), but also because there are quite lengthy Mandarin parts in the first two or three episodes. And you may catch more than you think!
So today, I’ll explain four Chinese messages appearing in the series. They contain some spoilers, so you may want to watch the first two episodes before continuing your read.
Otherwise, let’s go for explanation of real-life, not too complicated, passages in Mandarin!
The four passages we’ll cover today are messages exchanged between a 三体人 (sān tǐ rén) —an alien race— and a human character on Earth. I encourage you to read the messages in the images and try to understand them, before reading my explanations.
🌀 Message #1
不要回答 不要回答 不要回答
The sentence 不要回答 (bùyào huídá) is made of two words:
不要 (bùyào) - do not, don’t (see CGG #1 to learn more about how to express prohibition in Mandarin)
回答 (huídá) - to reply
So this short paragraph simply translates to: “Do not reply. Do no reply. Do not reply.”
Let’s practice it with my audio recordings:
Hear how I say 不 with a second tone (bú) instead of a fourth tone (bù)? This is always the case when 不 is followed by a fourth-tone character, in this case 要 (yào). Let’s listen to it at a normal speed now:
As I explained in CGG #1, the alien could also have used 千万 (qiānwàn) or 万万 (wànwàn) to emphasize the prohibition, as a strong warning:
千万不要回答。万万不要回答。
qiānwàn bùyào huídá. wànwàn bùyào huídá.
Absolutely do not reply. Absolutely do not answer (even stronger warning).
🌀 Message #2
我是这个世界的一个和平主义者,我首先收到信息是你们文明的幸运。
Let’s start by a short vocabulary list of the words appearing in this sentence:
世界 (shì jiè) - world (here it means ‘planet’)
和平主义者 (hépíng zhǔyì zhě) - pacifist. This word is made of three parts:
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