Today, you are going to have a buggy lesson 🙂 This lesson is based on a Chinese children’s song called 蝴蝶 húdié Butterfly. Consider different ability and different levels of readers, I arrange this lesson by these following sections: Chinese text with audio, song, Chinese text with pinyin and audio, annotated Chinese text with pinyin, Chinese text with pinyin and English translation, vocabulary, grammar, common insect names in Mandarin Chinese, homework questions with new lesson and old lesson connection . After learning this lesson, you will not only learn a Chinese lesson with useful vocabulary, phrase, grammar, and many insect names, but also learn a very popular Chinese children’s song. You won’t able to learn this lesson in one day or two days, I suggest you spend one week to master it. It means you have to listen to the recording daily, write vocabulary daily, review it daily, and at the end of the week, you will be able to experience your flying progress!
Section 1: Chinese text with audio
蝴蝶 húdié Butterfly
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to22.mp3|titles=listen to]
蝴蝶蝴蝶
生得真美丽
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to23.mp3|titles=listen to]
头戴着金丝
身穿花花衣
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to24.mp3|titles=listen to]
你爱花儿
花也爱你
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to25.mp3|titles=listen to]
你会跳舞
她有甜蜜
Section 2: Listen to butterfly song.
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to-butterfly-song.mp3|titles=listen to butterfly song]
Section 3: Chinese text with pinyin and audio
蝴蝶
húdié
Butterfly
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to22.mp3|titles=listen to]
蝴蝶, 蝴蝶
húdié, húdié
生得真美丽
shēng de Zhēn měilí
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to23.mp3|titles=listen to]
头戴着金丝
tóu Dài zhe Jīn Sī
身穿花花衣
shēn chuān huāhuā yī
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to24.mp3|titles=listen to]
你愛花儿
nǐ ài huā ér
花也愛你
huā yě ài nǐ
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to25.mp3|titles=listen to]
你会跳舞
huì tiàowǔ
她有甜蜜
tā yǒu tiánmì
Section 4: Annotated Chinese text with pinyin:
蝴蝶[hú dié, noun, butterfly] 蝴蝶[hú dié, noun, butterfly] 生[shēng, verb, to be born ] 得[dé, structural particle to connect the verb and the compliment phrase which modifies the verb ] 真[zhēn, adverb, really] 美丽[美 měi, adjective, beautiful; 丽lí, adjective, beautiful, 美丽 phrase of same meaning, also means beautiful]
头[tóu, noun, head] 戴[dài, verb, to put on or wear] 着[zhāo, aspect particle indicating action in progress ] 金[jīn, adjective, golden] 丝[sī, noun, thread]
身[shēn, noun, body] 穿[chuān, verb, wear] 花花[huāhuā, originally means noun, flower or adjective, colorful; reduplication of huā — 花花 means colorful ] 衣[yī, noun, clothes ]
你[nǐ, pronoun, you] 愛[ài, verb, love] 花[huā, noun, flowers or a flower] 儿 [ér, suffix, some people use it habitually, itself has no meaning]
花[huā, noun, flower] 也[yě, adverb, also] 愛[ài, verb love] 你[nǐ, pronoun, you]
你[nǐ, pronoun, you] 会[huì, modal auxiliary, can or be able to] 跳舞[tiào wǔ, verb phrase, dance] 她[tā, pronoun, she] 有[yǒu, verb has or have] 甜蜜[tián adjective, sweet; mì noun, nectar]
Section 5: Chinese text, pinyin, and English translation
蝴蝶
húdié
Butterfly
蝴蝶, 蝴蝶
húdié, húdié
Butterfly, butterfly
生得真美丽
shēng de Zhēn měiì
You were born so beautifully
头戴着金丝
tóu dài zhe Jīn Sī
Head wears golden thread
身穿花花衣
shēn chuān huāhuā yī
Body wears colorful clothes
你愛花儿
nǐ ài huā ér
You love the flower
花也愛你
huā yě ài nǐ
The flower also loves you
你会跳舞
huì tiàowǔ
You can dance
她有甜蜜
tā yǒu tiánmì
She has sweet nectar
Translated by Shu
Section 6: Vocabulary
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to28.mp3|titles=listen to]
1 蝴蝶, húdié, butterfly. This radical 虫 (chóng ) means insect; worm; bug. In the rule of Chinese character formation, 蝴 belongs to the semantic, phonetic compound category, which means the 虫 (chóng ) radical denotes its meaning, while 胡 hú is the sound compound.
2 美丽 měi lí beautiful or pretty. 美 měi, adjective, beautiful; 丽lí, adjective, beautiful, 美丽 adjective phrase, also means beautiful.
3 戴 dài, verb, means to put on or to wear. For example to wear gloves, to wear hats to wear a ring, we said 戴手套，戴帽子，戴戒子 （dài shǒutào , dài màozi , dài jièzi ）。
4 跳舞 tiàowǔ means dance. tiào originally is a verb means jump and wǔ is a noun means dance; together 跳舞 tiàowǔ means dance, or dance a dance.
5 她 tā female third person pronoun, she. Male third person pronoun is 他 tā.
Section 7: Grammar
1 The usage of particle 得 de
In this lesson we learn 生得真美丽 shēng de Zhēn měiì You were born so beautifully.
De is a structural particle used after a verb and before the complement word or phrase which gives more information about the verb.
生 verb 得 structural particle 真美丽 complement phrase.
If we want to make the sentence look more complete, then we need to add subject at the beginning.
她 subject 生 verb 得 structural particle 真美丽 complement phrase.
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to29.mp3|titles=listen to]
她生得真美丽
tā shēng de Zhēn měilí
She was born really beautiful.
Other sentences with same structure:
他跳得很高。
tā tiào de hěn gāo .
He jumps very high.
老师教得很好
lǎoshī jiāo děi hěn hǎo。
Teacher teaches very well.
朋友帮得很多。
péngyou bāng de hěn duō .
Friends help a lot.
2 modal auxiliary 会 huì
Huì expresses ability to do something.
In this lesson, we learned:
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to30.mp3|titles=listen to]
你会跳舞
huì tiàowǔ
You can dance.
Other sentences of the same usage, such as
我会做中国菜。
Wǒ huì zuò Zhōngguó cài .
I can cook Chinese dishes.
他会弹钢琴。
Tā huì tán gāngqín .
He can play piano.
妹妹会跳舞。
Mèimei huì tiàowǔ .
Younger sister can dance.
Section 8: Common Chinese names of insects:
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to27.mp3|titles=listen to]
Insects in Chinese, we call them 昆虫 (Kūnchóng). The following are some common Chinese names for these cute bugs. As in mentioned in vocabulary section, the radical 虫 (chóng) stands for bugs. So, if you pay close attention, you will find 虫 is the radical for all of them:) OK, let’s have this bug name lesson now.
1 bee 蜜蜂
2 grasshopper 蚱蜢
3 cricket 蟋蟀
4 beetle 甲虫 jiǎchóng
5 cicada 蝉 chán
6 termite 白蚁 báiyǐ
7 dragonfly 蜻蜓 qīngtíng
8 ant 蚂蚁 mǎyǐ
9 firefly 萤火虫 yínghuǒchóng
10 moth 蛾 é
11 fly 苍蝇 cāngying
12 praying mantis 螳螂 táng láng
Section 9: Homework:
1 Write vocabulary words daily five times each.
2 Make two sentences for each grammar usage.
3 Ask your friend: What bug you like? Do conversation such as:
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/listen-to31.mp3|titles=listen to]
A 我喜欢蜜蜂，你呢？
Wǒ xǐhuān mìfēng , nǐ ne ?
I like bees. How about you?
B 我不喜欢蜜蜂， 我喜欢萤火虫。
Wǒ bù xǐhuān mìfēng , Wǒ xǐhuān yínghuǒchóng .
I don’t like bees; I like fireflies.
A 你喜欢大萤火虫， 还是小萤火虫。
nǐ xǐhuān dà yínghuǒchóng , háishì xiǎo yínghuǒchóng .
You like big fireflies or small fireflies?
B 我喜欢大萤火虫。大萤火虫好看。你呢？
Wǒ xǐhuān dà yínghuǒchóng . dà yínghuǒchóng hǎokàn . nǐ ne ?
I like big fireflies. Big fireflies are good looking. How about you?
A 我喜欢小蜜蜂， 小蜜蜂很美丽。
Wǒ xǐhuān Xiǎo Mìfēng， xiǎo mìfēng hěn měilí .
I like little bees. Little bees are beautiful.
Owl City – Fireflies (lyrics)
蝴蝶 by 陶喆 David Tao 歌詞