Transportation in Chinese - Lesson 16

Contents of this lesson

1. Vocabulary

2. Grammar

3. Dialogues

4. Exercises

1. Vocabulary

Verbs

Others

You will find more transportation vocabulary in our online Chinese picture book

2. Grammar

A. Multiple verbs sentences (2)

In the previous lesson, we saw that with the verbs 去 ‹ qù ›, 来 ‹ lái › et 回 ‹ huí › placed first in a multiple verbs sentence, the second verb convey the purpose.

In this lesson, we will form sentences where the first verb is indicates the direction to the way forward. The sentence structure remains the same as the one we have already studied:

• 咱们 坐 船 去 吧。 ‹ Zánmen zuò chuán qù ba. ›
  Let's go by boat.
• 我 骑 自行车 来 学校。 ‹ Wǒ qí zìxíngchē lái xuéxiào. ›
  I go to school by bicycle.
• 我 每天 走路 回 家。 ‹ Wǒ měitiān zǒulù huí jiā. ›
  I return home everyday by walk.

The negative form of this kind of sentence is achieved with the first verb and not the following verbs:

• 我 不 去 银行 取钱。 ‹ Wǒ bù qù yínháng qǔ qián. ›
  I don't go to the bank to withdraw money.
  
• 你妈妈 不 打的 去。 ‹ Nǐ māmā bù dǎ di qù. ›
  and not 你妈妈打的不去。

B. Questions with 怎么 ‹ zěnme ›

In Chinese,怎么 ‹ zěnme › can be used to say "how?" or "why?" and is placed after the subject. Here is the structure of an interrogative sentence using this particle:

• 咱们 怎么 去？ ‹ Zánmen zěnme qù? ›
  How are we going there?
• 你妈妈 怎么 打的 去 上班？ ‹ Nǐ māmā zěnme dǎdi qù shàngbān? ›
  Why does your mother take a taxi to go to work?

C. Use of the pronoun 每 ‹ měi › "all"

The pronoun 每 ‹ měi ›is placed before a classifier -often omitted - followed by the noun.

• 我 每 天 骑 自行车。 ‹ Wǒ měi tiān qí zìxíngchē. ›
  Every day I ride my bike.

3. Dialogues

Dialogue N° 1

- 明天是周末。咱们一起去北京玩儿吧。 ‹ Míngtiān shì zhōumò. Zánmen yīqǐ qù Běijīng wánr ba. ›
- 太好了！咱们怎么去？坐飞机还是坐火车？ ‹ Tài hǎo le! Zánmen zěnme qù? Zuò fēijī háishì zuò huǒchē? ›
- 坐飞机太贵了。坐火车去，怎么样？ ‹ Zuò fēijī tài guì le. Zuò huǒchē qù, zěnme yàng? ›
- 行。 咱们一起去买火车票吧。明天几点出发？ ‹ Xíng. Zánmen yīqǐ qù mǎi huǒchē piào ba. Míngtiān jǐ diǎn chūfā? ›
- 早上6点，行吗？ ‹ zǎoshang 6 diǎn, xíng ma? ›
- 没问题。 ‹ Méiwèntí. ›
- 我明天来你家找你。明天见！ ‹ Wǒ míngtiān lái nǐ jiā zhǎo nǐ. Míngtiān jiàn! ›
- 明天见！ ‹ Míngtiān jiàn! ›

Translation :

- Weekend starts tomorrow. What if we go to Beijing to have some good time?
- Great! How will we go? By plane or train?
- By plane it is too expensive. Let's go by train ... What do you think?
- Okay. Let's go to buy the train tickets together. Tomorrow at what time do we leave?
- 6 am, is it okay?
- No problem.
- I'll pick you home tomorrow. See you tomorrow!
- See you tomorrow!

Dialogue N° 2

- 大卫，你每天怎么来学校？ ‹ Dàwèi, nǐ měitiān zěnme lái xuéxiào? ›
- 我每天骑自行车来学校。你呢？ ‹ Wǒ měitiān qí zìxíngchē lái xuéxiào. Nǐ ne? ›
- 我没有自行车。我每天上午坐公共汽车来学校。 ‹ Wǒ méiyǒu zìxíngchē. Wǒ měitiān shàngwǔ zuò gōnggòngqìchē lái xuéxiào. ›
每天下午走路回家。 ‹ Měitiān xiàwǔ zǒulù huí jiā. ›
- 王丽，你爸爸妈妈不开车吗？ ‹ Wáng Lì, nǐ bàba māma bù kāichē ma? ›
- 我们没有车。爸爸每天坐地铁去上班。 ‹ Wǒmen méiyǒu chē. Bàba měitiān zuò dìtiě qù shàngbān. ›
妈妈每天坐出租车去上班。 ‹ Māma měitiān zuò chūzū chē qù shàngbān. ›
- 你妈妈怎么打的去上班？ ‹ Nǐ māma zěnme dǎdi qù shàngbān? ›
- 她工作的地方没有地铁，也没有公共汽车。 ‹ Tā gōngzuò de dìfāng méi yǒu dìtiě, yě méi yǒu gōnggòngqìchē. ›

Translation :

- David, how do you come to school every day?
- I come every day by bicycle. And you?
- I do not have a bike. I take the bus every day to come. In the afternoon, I go home by walk.
- Wang Li, don't your parents drive?
- We do not have a car. My dad takes the subway every day to go to work. My mom takes a taxi to go to work.
- Why does your mom take a taxi to get to work?
- There is no subway where she works.

4. Exercises

A. Substitution exercise

Create sentences having verbs series with the verbs and objects proposed below:

B. Answer the questions

Answer the following questions in Chinese, according to the previous dialogues:

- 大卫每天怎么去学校？ ‹ Dàwèi měitiān zěnme qù xuéxiào? ›
- 王丽爸爸妈妈怎么不开车？ ‹ Wáng Lì bàba māma zěnme bù kāichē? ›
- 你每天怎么去上课/上班？怎么回家呢？ ‹ Nǐ měitiān zěnme qù shàngkè/shàngbān? Zěnme huí jiā ne? ›