Mandarin A1.1 Listening Practice: SVO Start
Listen to a A1 Mandarin dialogue about svo start, with audio, transcript, and grammar notes for language learning.
Podcast listening pages are in beta while chapter audio, transcripts, and discussion flows are still being completed.
Level
A1.1
Audio
1m 45s
Transcript
21 segments
A short Mandarin listening chapter with transcript.
A1: You learn to say who does or wants something without moving words around.
Read while you listen.
1. Teacher
Welcome to ChickyTutor. Today, we are practicing the basic sentence structure in Mandarin: Subject, Verb, Object. Let's listen to a simple conversation in a cafe.
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2. Native Speaker 1
wǒ yào shuǐ 。
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3. Native Speaker 2
nǐ yào chá 。
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4. Native Speaker 1
tā kàn shū 。
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5. Native Speaker 2
wǒmen chī fàn 。
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6. Native Speaker 1
wǒmen yào chá 。
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7. Teacher
Let's break down that first sentence: 'wǒ yào shuǐ'. This means 'I want water'. 'wǒ' is 'I', 'yào' is 'want', and 'shuǐ' is 'water'.
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8. Student
So the word order is exactly the same as in English?
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9. Teacher
Yes, exactly! Subject, verb, object. It is very straightforward.
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10. Teacher
Next, we heard: 'nǐ yào chá'. This means 'You want tea'. 'nǐ' is 'you', 'yào' is 'want', and 'chá' is 'tea'.
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11. Student
Does the verb 'yào' change form when we change the subject from 'I' to 'you'?
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12. Teacher
No, verbs in Mandarin never change their form. It is always just 'yào'.
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13. Teacher
The third sentence was: 'tā kàn shū'. This means 'She reads a book'. 'tā' is 'he' or 'she', 'kàn' is 'to read' or 'look at', and 'shū' is 'book'.
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14. Student
Is 'tā' the word for both 'he' and 'she' when speaking?
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15. Teacher
Yes, in spoken Mandarin, 'tā' represents both 'he' and 'she'.
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16. Teacher
Then we heard: 'wǒmen chī fàn'. This means 'We eat food'. 'wǒmen' is 'we', 'chī' is 'to eat', and 'fàn' is 'rice' or 'food'.
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17. Student
How do we make 'I' into 'we'?
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18. Teacher
We just add 'men' to the end of 'wǒ'. So 'wǒ' becomes 'wǒmen'.
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19. Teacher
Finally, we heard: 'wǒmen yào chá'. This means 'We want tea'.
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20. Student
So if I want to say 'We want tea, and she reads a book', can I just put those two sentences together?
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21. Teacher
Yes! You can say: 'wǒmen yào chá, tā kàn shū'. Keep practicing this simple pattern!
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