Sports and leisure in Chinese - Lesson 18

1. Vocabulary

Verbs

	Word	Pinyin	Translation
1	觉得	juéde	to think
2	累	lèi	to be tired; tiring; to strain
3	打	dǎ	to play (a hand game); to beat; to hit
4	踢	tī	to play (a feet game); to kick
5	听	tīng	to listen; to hear
6	游泳	yóuyǒng	to swim; to practice swimming
7	跑步	pǎobù	to run; to practice jogging
8	散步	sànbù	to walk; to go for a walk
9	跳舞	tiàowǔ	to danse

Others

	Word	Pinyin	Translation
1	爱好	àihào	hobby; pastime
2	最	zuì	the most
3	特别	tèbié	particularly
4	常常	chángchang	often, frequently
5	差不多	chàbuduō	almost
6	周	zhōu	week
7	运动	yùndòng	sport
8	篮球	lánqiú	basketball
9	音乐	yīnyuè	music
10	足球	zúqiú	football; soccer
11	比赛	bǐsài	match; competition
12	有的	yǒude	some
13	迷	mí	fan
14	也不是	yěbùshì	not necessarily

2. Grammar

A. "Being a fan of " with 迷 ‹ mí ›

In Chinese, 迷 ‹ mí › is placed just after the noun. This suffix is equivalent to "-phile" in English.

• 我 是 篮球迷。 ‹ Wǒ shì lánqiú mí. ›
  I'm a basketball fan.
• 我 是 电影迷。 ‹ Wǒ shì diànyǐng mí. ›
  I am a cinephile.

B. "To be doing (something)" with 呢 ‹ ne ›

In a previous lesson, we saw that 在 ‹ zài › can be used in a Chinese sentence to indicate an ongoing action.

呢 ‹ ne ›, which is placed at the end of a sentence unlike 在 ‹ zài ›, can have the same use . The words 在 ‹ zài › and 呢 ‹ ne › can be used individually or together in the same sentence.

• 他 在 踢足球 呢。 ‹ Tā zài tī zúqiú ne. ›
  He is playing football.
• 大卫 在 爬山。 ‹ Dàwèi zài páshān. ›
  David is hiking.
• 王丽 游泳 呢。 ‹ Wáng Lì yóuyǒng ne. ›
  Wang Li is swimming.

The negative form of this kind of sentence uses没 ‹ méi › and leave out 呢 ‹ ne › systematically.

• 大卫 没在 看书， 他 看电影 呢。 ‹ Dàwèi méi zài kànshū, tā kàn diànyǐng ne. ›
  David is not reading, he is watching a movie.
• 她 没 游泳。 ‹ Tā méi yóuyǒng. ›
  She is not swimming.

To give a negative answer to a question implying an ongoing action we can simply answer with "没有 ‹ méi yǒu ›".

• Q: 她 在游泳吗？ ‹ Tā zài yóuyǒng ma? ›
  Q: Is she swimming?
  A: 没有。她 在 爬山 呢。 ‹ Méi yǒu. Tā zài páshān ne. ›
  A: No. She is hiking.

Lastly, the phrases indicating an action "in progress" with 在 ‹ zài › et 呢 ‹ ne › can take place in the present but also in the past and the future when the moment is precisely indicated.

• 他 昨天下午三点 在 看电影。 ‹ Tā zuótiān xiàwǔ sān diǎn zài kàn diànyǐng. ›
  Yesterday at three in the afternoon, he was watching a movie.
• 我 明天中午十一点半 吃饭 呢。 ‹ Wǒ míngtiān zhōngwǔ shíyī diǎn bàn chīfàn ne. ›
  Tomorrow at half past eleven, I'll be eating.

C. The structure "每...都 ‹ měi...dōu ›" to express "all"

When using the pronoun 每 ‹ měi › in a Chinese sentence, we almost always use the adverb 都 ‹ dōu ›.

• 我 每 天 都 上课。 ‹ Wǒ měitiān dōu shàngkè. ›
  Everyday I go to class.
• 他们 每 个 周 都 爬山。 ‹ Tāmen měi gè zhōu dōu páshān. ›
  Every week, they hike.

D. The superlative 最 ‹ zuì › "the most"

Chinese superlatives like 最 ‹ zuì › are placed before an adjective or sometimes a verb.

• 我 最 喜欢 听 音乐。 ‹ Wǒ zuì xǐhuan tīng yīnyuè. ›
  What I like the most is listening to music.
• 我的朋友 最 好。 ‹ Wǒde péngyǒu zuì hǎo. ›
  My friends are the best.

E. Adverb 特别 ‹ tèbié › "particularly"

Used as an adverbe, 特别 ‹ tèbié › is placed before the verb in a Chinese sentence. It can also be placed before an adjective.

• 我 特别 喜欢 看电影。 ‹ Wǒ tèbié xǐhuan kàn diànyǐng. ›
  I particularly like watching movies.
• 特别 好。 ‹ Tèbié hǎo. ›
  Particularly well.

3. Dialogues

Dialogue N° 1

- 大卫，你的爱好是什么？ ‹ Dàwèi, nǐde àihào shì shénme? ›
- 我喜欢上网，喜欢看电影。特别喜欢爬山。 ‹ Wǒ xǐhuan shàngwǎng, xǐhuan kàn diànyǐng. Tèbié xǐhuan páshān. ›
- 你常常爬山吗？ ‹ Nǐ chángcháng páshān ma? ›
- 差不多每个周末都爬山。 你呢？你的爱好是什么？ ‹ Chàbùduō měi gè zhōumò dōu páshān. Nǐ ne? Nǐde àihào shì shénme? ›
- 我觉得爬山太累。我不喜欢运动。我特别喜欢看书。 ‹ Wǒ juédé páshān tài lèi. Wǒ bù xǐhuan yùndòng. Wǒ tèbié xǐhuan kànshū. ›

Translation :

- David, what are your hobbies?
- I like to surf the Internet and watch movies. I especially like mountain hiking.
- Do you often hike (in the mountains)?
- Just about every week. And you, what are your hobbies?
- I think hiking is too tiring. I do not like sports. I mostly like to read.

Dialogue N° 2

- 你最喜欢做什么？ ‹ Nǐ zuì xǐhuan zuò shénme? ›
- 我是篮球迷。我喜欢打篮球。 你呢？ 你的爱好是什么？ ‹ Wǒ shì lánqiú mí. Wǒ xǐhuan dǎ lánqiú. Nǐ ne? Nǐde àihào shì shénme? ›
- 我最喜欢听音乐和游泳。 ‹ Wǒ zuì xǐhuan tīng yīnyuè hé yóuyǒng. ›
- 你的朋友都喜欢游泳吧？ ‹ Nǐde péngyǒu dōu xǐhuan yóuyǒng ba? ›
- 也不是。有的喜欢跑步，有的喜欢散步， 有的喜欢跳舞。 ‹ Yěbùshì. Yǒude xǐhuan pǎobù, yǒude xǐhuan sànbù, yǒude xǐhuan tiàowǔ. ›
- 你喜欢篮球比赛吗？ ‹ Nǐ xǐhuan lánqiú bǐsài ma? ›
- 不喜欢。看，大卫在踢足球呢。 他跟朋友比赛呢。 ‹ Bù xǐhuan. Kàn, Dàwèi zài tī zúqiú ne. Tā gēn péngyǒu bǐsài ne. ›

Translation :

- What do you like to do most?
- I'm a basketball fan; I like to play basketball. And you? What are your hobbies?
- I especially like listening to music and swim.
- All your friends like swimming, right?
- Not necessarily. Some like to run, others like walking and others dancing.
- Do you like to watch basketball games?
- No ... Look, David is playing football; he is having a game with friends!

4. Exercise

 Answer in Chinese the following questions as precisely as possible:

1. 你每个星期天八点在做什么？ ‹ Nǐ měi gè xīngqítiān bā diǎn zài zuò shénme? ›
2. 你喜欢看足球比赛吗？ ‹ Nǐ xǐhuan kàn zúqiú bǐsài ma? ›
3. 你的爱好是什么？ ‹ Nǐde àihào shì shénme? ›