Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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要 + Verb — Said Out Loud, Already Decided
助动词「要」— 说出口就是定了
要 + verb means decided. Ask with 要……吗 or 要不要; answer 要吃 / 不吃 / 不想吃 — and save 不要吃 for other people's chopsticks.
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Memory hook
要+V.+O.吗？ = 要不要+V.+O.？
At the cafeteria window
Straight from the deck: the questions, and the answers they got. Listen for the temperature of each no — the firm 不吃, the soft 不想.
Tap any line to hear it
Memory hook
Three noes: 不吃 · 不想吃 · 不要吃
Yes and no, at the right temperature答应和拒绝，温度要对
No pressure — just making it stick.
你要喝热水吗？——我____，谢谢。
Nǐ yào hē rèshuǐ ma? — Wǒ ____, xièxie.
Do you want hot water? — No, thanks.
你要不要吃猪脑？——____！我害怕。
Nǐ yào bu yào chī zhūnǎo? — ____! Wǒ hàipà.
Would you try pig brain? — No! It scares me.
You do want one. Which reply says yes?
你周末要出去玩儿吗？——我____，我想在家休息。
Nǐ zhōumò yào chūqù wánr ma? — Wǒ ____, wǒ xiǎng zài jiā xiūxi.
Going out this weekend? — I don't feel like it, I want to rest at home.
You'd rather not. Decline politely.
Your turn — say it
我要吃西红柿炒蛋。
I'll have the tomato and egg.
Your turn — say it
你周末要做什么？
What are you doing this weekend?
This lesson's characters
Three from the table of offers and refusals: the drink, the reason, the rest.
alcohol, liquor
会two ideas joined
酉 is a drawing of a wine jar — narrow neck, swelling belly — and in the oldest writing it meant the wine itself. Then the calendar borrowed the jar for one of its year-signs, so the drink took three drops of water to say 'the liquid one': 酒. You met it in this lesson three times over: 啤酒, where 啤 was hired purely for the sound of 'beer'; 白酒, 'white alcohol', the fierce clear one; and 酒吧, where 吧 spells the sound of English 'bar'.
sweet
会two ideas joined
甘 is a mouth with a short stroke resting inside it: something held on the tongue and not swallowed, because it tastes too good. That alone is the old character for sweet. 甜 doubles down by adding 舌, the tongue itself. So when the cake is refused with 太甜了, the sentence contains a tongue and a mouth savouring the very thing being turned down.
breath; to rest
会two ideas joined
自 began as a drawing of a nose — which is why a Chinese speaker saying 'me' points at the nose, not the chest. Set it over 心, the heart, and you get 息: breath, the air travelling between nose and heart. 休 you already know from foundations — a person leaning on a tree. 休息, then, is the complete picture of a rest: lean on the tree, and just breathe.
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- Decide dinner before dinner decides you: say 我要吃…… out loud, once, like it is settled — because with 要, it is.
- Rehearse the three noes over an imaginary plate of chicken feet: 不吃 closes the door, 不想吃 leaves it ajar, 不要吃 only when the chopsticks are someone else's.
- Tomorrow, morning to night: 你明天要做什么？ Walk the whole day — 早上……中午……晚上…… — one decided 要 at a time.