Mandarin lesson – How to say “The company paid a dividend of USD $ 0.5 per share: 该公司每股配发美元半块钱的股息。Gai1 gong1 si1 mei3 gu3 pei4 fa1 mei3 yuan2 ban4 kuai4 qian2 de5 gu3 li4. Gai1 (该 pronoun, that) gong1 si1 (公司 noun, company) mei3 (每 pronoun, each) gu3 (股 noun, share) pei4 fa1 (配发 verb, pay or distribute) mei3 yuan2 (美元 noun, USA dollar) ban4 (半 half) kuai4 (块 measure word for money) qian2 (钱 noun, money) de5 (的particle to connect the attribute and the noun it modifies) gu3 li4 (股利noun, literally it means interest of share; dividend).
Let’s learn this important word 该 gai1. Gai1 has several meanings.
First, it can be used as an auxiliary verb (zhu4 dong4 ci2, 助动词) — should.
For example, 你 该 说 中文。
ni3 gai1 shuo1 zhong1 wen2.
you should say Chinese.
When it is used as the meaning — should—, we can also used the auxiliary verb phrase 应该 ying1 gai1，which means should too. So, the above sentence can be said as:
你 ＊＊应 该＊＊ 说 中文。
ni3 ying1 gai1 shuo1 zhong1 wen2.
you should say Chinese.
Second, gai1 can be used as an adverb which means — to be somebody’s turn to do something.
For example,
该 你 唱歌 了。
gai1 ni2 chang4 ge1 le5.
It’s your turn to sing.
It can also be used as an adverb means probably.
For example, when you have no watch or clock to check and you are guessing the time, then you can say:
该 一 点 了吧。
gai1 yi1 dian3 le5 ba5.
Probably, it’s one clock.
or you can add 是 shi4 after 该 gai1 and said 该是 gai1 shi4 (probably is)。
该 是 一 点 了吧。
gai1 shi4 yi1 dian3 le5 ba5.
Probably, it’s one clock
Last usage is gai1 as pronoun, just like what it is used in today’s main sentence. It refers to the particular person or thing that the context is mentioning about.
There were a lot of people feasted their Christmas and New Year away with a lot of gourmet food and endless snacks. So, for them, you can remind them:
你该减肥了。
ni3 kai1 jian3 fei2 le5.
You should lose fat!
The tone sounds mean, not so polite. How we could say to make it more friendly? The first thing is: don’t say **you**!!! Change you to **we**. The second thing is don’t say lose fat, use 做运动 (zuo4 yun4 dong4, doing exercise) instead. The third thing is to use ba5 the particle at the end to soften the tone.
So the appropriate and more polite sentence would be like:
Wo3 men1 gai1 zuo4 yun4 dong4 le5 ba5.
我们该做运动了吧。
Should we do exercise?
From 你该减肥了。 ni3 kai1 jian3 fei2 le5. You should lose fat!
to
我们该做运动了吧。Wo3 men1 gai1 zuo4 yun4 dong4 le5 ba5. Should we do exercise?
===== Sounds not so bluntly and pleasant to the ears?
Since we are talking about money today, let’s watch an interesting video about 有钱子女在中国的特权？Rich students are privileged in China
Also watch a workout cartoon with the FM doom song