Lesson 6: Discussing Likes and Dislikes

Before continuing, make sure to review and practice the previous week's lesson here.

We all have something that we just love to do. Personally, I love nothing more than relaxing on the couch with a good book, going to the movies, or if the weather is nice, spending a day outdoors and going for a hike in the mountains. But I don't love everything. I'm not particularly fond of waiting in lines(kinda ironic, as I live in Taiwan) and I'm not the biggest fan of traffic jams, but then, who is? In today's lesson, you are going to be learning how to talk about your likes and dislikes in Mandarin Chinese.

Expressing likes: In Mandarin, we say "我喜歡…", which means "I like…", we can use this as a general phrase to talk about things we like, or we can use it to form more specific sentences. For example, I can say 我喜歡蘋果 I like apples, or I could be more specific and tell you that 我喜歡吃蘋果 I like to eat apples. So let's take a look at the following sentences, and repeat along with me to check your pronunciation.

1. I like to play basketball.
我喜歡打籃球。
wŏ xĭ huān dă lán qiú.

2. I like to watch movies.
我喜歡看電影。
wŏ xĭ huān kàn diàn yĭng .

3. I like to go hiking.
我喜歡爬山。
wŏ xĭ huān pá shān.

4. I like reading novels.
我喜歡看小說。
wŏ xĭ huān kàn xiăo shuō.

5. I like listening to music.
我喜歡聽音樂。
wŏ xĭ huān tīng yīn yuè.

Watch the attached video file and practice repeating each phrase until you feel confident enough to move on to the next part.

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Expressing dislikes: Okay, so now you have the basics down, let's talk about dislikes. To make a negative statement in Mandarin Chinese, we usually add a 不 in front of the firs verb in a statement. This is not always the case, the negative form of the word "to have" 有, is 沒有. Note that a 沒 has been added in front of 有, not a 不, so saying 不有 would be incorrect. Just as when we were talking about likes, we can express dislikes in a general or more specific manner. So let's take our earlier example with the apples, 我喜歡吃蘋果, we can make this into a negative statement by adding a 不 before 喜歡, to indicate that we "don't like…" and it would look like his 我不喜歡吃蘋果, I don't like to eat apples. So let's take a closer look at how this is applied.

1. I don't like waking up early.
我不喜歡早起床。
wŏ bù xĭ huān zăo qĭ chuáng .

2. I don't like rainy weather.
我不喜歡下雨天。
wŏ bù xĭ huān xià yŭ tiān.

3. I don't like scary movies.
我不喜歡恐怖片。
wŏ bù xĭ huān kŏng bù piàn.

4. I don't like traffic jams.
我不喜歡塞車。
wŏ bù xĭ huān sāi chē .

5. I don't like to wait in lines.
我不喜歡派對。
wŏ bù xĭ huān pài duì.

Watch  the attached video file and practice repeating each phrase until you feel confident enough to move on to the next part.

Note, when answering a question, answers are are often cut short, as the topic of the sentence is understood. So, going back to our apple analogy, if someone asks you 你喜歡吃蘋果嗎？It's acceptable to answer 我喜歡吃 or 我不喜歡吃, or just simply say 喜歡(吃) or 不喜歡(吃), rather than a full statement 我喜歡吃蘋果 or 我不喜歡吃蘋果. Don't worry about remembering all of that now, the important point is that you realize Mandarin is a flexible language.

Dialogue: Read and listen to the following dialogue, then answer the questions below.

A: Sara! Where are going?
莎拉！ 你去哪裡？
shā lā ！nĭ qù nă lĭ ？

B: Oh, hi Thom! You scared me!
喔，你好湯拇 ！你嚇我一跳！
ō, nĭ hăo tāng mŭ ！nĭ xià wŏ yī tiào ！

A: Sorry! I just saw you walking and wanted to see what you were doing.
對不起！ 我剛看到你走路，想要知道你在幹嘛。
duì bù qĭ ！wŏ gāng kàn dào nĭ zŏu lù, xiăng yào zhī dào nĭ zài gàn ma.

B: It's okay, I'm fine! I'm going hiking with some friends.
沒關係，我沒事！ 我要跟一些朋友一起去爬山。
méi guān xì, wŏ méi shì ！wŏ yào gēn yī xiē péng yŏu yī qĭ qù pá shān.

A: I can't stand hiking, it's exhausting!
我受不了爬山，太累了！
wŏ shòu bù liǎo pá shān, tài lèi le！

B: I like it a lot! I think it's really fun!
我很喜歡！ 我覺得很好玩！
wŏ hĕn xĭ huān ！wŏ jué de hĕn hăo wán ！

A: I like swimming! It feels great on a hot day like this!
我喜歡游泳！ 天氣像今天怎麼熱，就很舒服！
wŏ xĭ huān yóu yŏng ！tiān qì xiàng jīn tiān zĕn me rè, jiù hĕn shū fú ！

B: I like swimming a lot too!
我也很喜歡游泳！
wŏ yĕ hĕn xĭ huān yóu yŏng ！

A: Then let's go swimming together next weekend.
那麼，我們下個周末一起去游泳吧。
nà me, wŏ men xià gè zhōu mò yī qĭ qù yóu yŏng ba.

B: Only if you come hiking with us today!
今天跟我們一起來，我才跟你去啊！
jīn tiān gēn wŏ men yī qĭ lái, wŏ cái gēn nĭ qù a ！

A: Okay okay, it's a deal!
好了好了，我同意了！
hăo le hăo le, wŏ tóng yì le ！

Notes: In Chinese, nouns have a special measure word. The most common one is 個, when in doubt just say 個 and you'll probably be right! I'll be introducing more of these to you in later lessons. Also, the character 了 is used to show a change of state or that something has taken place, such as past action. There are other ways to speak about the past in Chinese, and other ways to use 了, so more on this in the future. 吧 is usually used to indicate a suggestion.

Comprehension Questions: I'm not going to give you an English translation for the following questions, I want to see how much you can intuitively figure out from what we have already learned. Take a minute to email me you answers and I will let you know how you did! Consider it "homework".

1. 誰被嚇到了？
shéi bèi xià dào le？

2. 湯拇喜歡爬山嗎？

tāng mŭ xĭ huān pá shān ma？

3. 誰喜歡游泳？
shéi xĭ huān yóu yŏng？

4. 他們要一起去幹嘛？
tā men yào yī qĭ qù gàn ma？

5. 湯拇同意了嗎？
tāng mŭ  tóng yì le ma？

Essential Vocabulary: Here's a list of some of the most useful phrases that we learned in this lesson. Practice them and record yourself and compare your pronunciation to mine.

1. 你嚇我一跳= you scared me
2. 剛= just
3. 看到= see
4. 走路= walk
5. 知道= know
6. 在幹嘛= doing(what?)
7. 我沒事= I'm fine
8. 一些= a few
9. 朋友= friend(s)
10. 我受不了= I can't stand…
11. 太累了= tiring
12. 覺得= think
13. 游泳= swimming
14. 天氣= weather
15. 像= to be like (something)
16. 今天= today
17. 熱= hot
18. 就= in that case/then
19. 很= very
20. 舒服= comfortable
21. 我們= we/us
22. 下個周末= next weekend
23. 同意= agree