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LESSON NOTES

3-Minute Chinese S1 #17


Why?

CONTENTS
2 Simplified Chinese
2 Traditional Chinese
2 Pinyin
2 English
3 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
4 Grammar
5 Cultural Insight

# 17
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SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

1. 你为什么迟到?

2. 我没赶上火车。

3. 你为什么那么早走?

4. 为了赶火车。

TRADITIONAL CHINESE

1. 你為甚麼遲到?

2. 我沒趕上火車。

3. 你為甚麼那麼早走?

4. 為了趕火車。

PINYIN

1. nǐ wèishénme chídào ?

2. Wǒ méi gǎnshàng huǒchē .

3. nǐ wèishénme nàme zǎo zǒu ?

4. wèile gǎn huǒchē .

ENGLISH
CONT'D OVER

CHI NES ECLAS S 101.COM 3-MI NUT E CHI NES E S 1 #17 - WHY? 2
1. Why are you late?

2. I missed the train.

3. Why do you leave so early?

4. Not to miss the train.

VOCABULARY

S implifie d Tr aditional Pinyin English C lass

赶 gǎn catch up verb

为了 wèile for preposition

走 zǒu to leave verb

为什么 wèishénme why pronoun

迟到 chídào be late verb

没 没 méi not (have) adverb

你 你 nǐ you pronoun

我 我 wǒ I pronoun

赶上 gǎnshàng catch up verb

火车 huǒchē train noun

那么 nàme so adverb

早 早 zǎo early adjective

SAMPLE SENTENCES

CHI NES ECLAS S 101.COM 3-MI NUT E CHI NES E S 1 #17 - WHY? 3
是你吗? 我叫王林。
Shì nǐ ma? Wǒ jiào Wáng Lín.

Is it you? I am called Wang Lin.

你吃早饭了吗?
nǐ chī zǎo fàn le ma ?

Have you eaten breakfast?

GRAMMAR

In this lesson you will learn how to ask and answer why.

Register Chinese Romanization English

你为什么迟 nǐ wèishénme Why are you


Phrase 1 formal 到? chídào ? late?

Word 1 你 nǐ you

Word 2 为什么 wèishénme why

Word 3 迟到 chídào be late

Wǒ méi
我没赶上火 gǎ nshàng I missed the
Phrase 2 formal
车。 huǒchē . train.

Word 1 我 wǒ I

Word 2 没 méi not

Word 3 赶上 gǎnshàng catch up

Word 4 火车 huǒchē train

CHI NES ECLAS S 101.COM 3-MI NUT E CHI NES E S 1 #17 - WHY? 4
nǐ wèishénme Why do you
Phrase 3 你为什么那 nàme zǎ o leave so
formal
么早走 ? zǒu ? early?

Word 1 你 nǐ you

Word 2 为什么 wèishénme why

Word 3 那么 nàme so

Word 4 早 zǎo early

Word 5 走 zǒu to leave

为了赶火 wèile gǎ n Not to miss


Phrase 4 formal 车。 huǒchē . the train.

Word 1 为了 wèile for

Word 2 赶 gǎn catch up

Word 3 火车 huǒchē train

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Because we’ve learned how to say both “why” and “not” in Chinese, you might think you know
how to say “Why not?” as well, right? Well, technically it can be Wèishénme bù? But that’s
actually not natural Chinese. Although it makes sense, people don’t usually say it, and will
say something different depending on the situation. So just remember to be careful about
using it!

CHI NES ECLAS S 101.COM 3-MI NUT E CHI NES E S 1 #17 - WHY? 5

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