Pulling a Car

About

Max was still not clear on exactly how his Volvo had ended up stuck in this patch of loose sand somewhere

off-road in Utah, and Robert was not being exactly forthcoming about the details. The last thing he could

remember was dozing off somewhere by Shiprock, only to be jolted awake by a sort of sliding brake that

left them stranded on the side of this dirt road with two wheels spinning in the sand, no cellular signal and

not another car in sight. This was a problem they would have to solve themselves.

Are you an Absolute Beginner to the Chinese language? If so, our Chinese lesson for today is designed

with you in mind. In it, we cover a series of high-frequency phrases you'll hear mainlanders use when

they're trying to avoid responsibility or work, and practice expanding it into a more general question asking

whether something is possible.

Sentences

不行啊。

bù xíng a 。

It doesn't work.

它太重了。

tā tài zhòng le 。

It's too heavy.

那...我们怎么办?

nà ... wǒmen zěnme bàn ?

Then... what should we do?

没办法,再来一次。

méi bànfǎ , zài lái yī cì 。

No solution, let's try again.

好,一,二,三。加油,加油,加油...好,成功啦

!

hǎo , yī , èr , sān 。 jiāyóu , jiāyóu , jiāyóu . . . hǎo ,

chénggōng la !

Okay, one, two, three... Come on, come on, come on... Good, we succeed!

乙: 好,干得好。

Vocabulary

不

bù

not

adverb

行

xíng

ok

adjective

太

tài

too

adverb

重

zhòng

heavy

adjective

加油

jiāyóu

(encouraging cheer)

phrase

成功

chénggōng

to succeed

verb

怎么办

zěnme bàn

what can be done

phrase

没办法

méi bànfǎ

to have no way

phrase

有办法

yǒu bànfǎ

to have a way

phrase

再来一次

zài lái yī cì

do it one more time

phrase

干得好

gàn de hǎo

good job

phrase

去

qù

to go

verb