Welcome to our first Chinese Story-time! Here we will read a Chinese story and translate it. The story is broken up into 5 paragraphs so we are going to split this up into 5 parts to avoid making the post too long.
I found this story here if you’d like to find other’s like it.
The Story
三只小熊的故事
海边的大森林里住着熊妈妈一家人。
她妈妈有三个孩子。
老大叫听话，老实本分；老二叫机灵，很爱动脑筋；老三是个女孩，叫美美，长得十分漂亮。
有一天，熊妈妈把三个孩子叫到跟前，给了每人100元钱，叫她们离开家去独立生活，看谁能过上富足的日子。
过了一年，熊妈妈重新看到了三个孩子，得知它们过着不同的生活。
Translation Break Down
The general structure of the translation breakdown will be:
Original Text
Pinyin
English Translation
Word-by-word translation
Explanation
三只小熊的故事
Sān zhī xiǎoxióng de gùshì
The story of the 3 little bears
三 (3), 只 (measure word), 小 (little/small), 熊 (bear), 的 (of), 故事 (story)
– The 只 here is a “measure word”. It is classifying the thing that is being counted or measured. In English, for example, if we say “I have 3 cups”, cups would be a measure word. 只 is the measure word that is used for most animals. If an animal is being counted or measured, then 只 should be present. (“5 dogs” would be “5只狗)
– 的 signifies possession. More on that can be found in the introduction to Chinese post here.
海边的大森林里住着熊妈妈一家人。
Hǎibiān de dà sēnlín lǐ zhùzhe xióng māmā yījiā rén.
In the big forest next to the sea, there lives a mother bear’s family.
海 (sea), 边 (next to), 的 (of), 大 (big), 森林 (forest), 里 (in/inside), 住着 (live)
熊 (bear), 妈妈 (mother/mama), 一 (1), 家人 (family)
– 边 means “next to” and it is usually placed after the place it is modifying. So 海边 becomes “side of the sea” or “next to the sea” or “seaside”.
– 的 here is modifying 海边 so the proceeding noun becomes “the ____ by the sea.”
– Note that the placement of 边 and 的 can change the sentence’s meaning drastically. For example 右边的森林 means “forest on/to the right” and 森林的右侧 means “the right side of the forest”.
– 里 means inside of. It is placed after the place or thing it is modifying. For example 海 里 means “in the sea”.
妈妈一家人 doesn’t make sense to me. It translates to “mother family”. I feel like it’s missing a 的 which would make it “a mother’s family”.
她妈妈有三个孩子
Tā māmā yǒusān gè háizi
Her mom has 3 children.
她 (she), 妈妈 (mom), 有 (to have), 三 (3), 个 (measure word), 孩子 (children/kids)
– Our first experience with 她 (pronounced tā). This is the pronoun for “she”. The male pronoun, “he”, has the same pronunciation in Chinese ( tā ) but is written differently (他).
– The 的 here is implied. Sometimes 的 can be omitted in Chinese if the possession is obvious
老大叫听话，老实本分；老二叫机灵，很爱动脑筋；老三是个女孩，叫美美，长得十分漂亮。
Lǎodà jiào tīnghuà, lǎoshí běn fēn; lǎo èr jiào jīling, hěn ài dòng nǎojīn; lǎo sān shìgè nǚhái, jiào měiměi, zhǎng dé shífēn piàoliang.
The biggest bear is obedient and honest; the second bear is clever, he loves intelligence; the third bear is a daughter called Meimei, who is extremely beautiful.
老 (old/aged), 大 (big), 叫 (to be called), 听话 (obedient), 老实 (honest), 本分 (duty), 二 (2), 机灵 (clever), 很 (very), 爱 (love), 脑 (brain), 筋 (muscle), 三 (3), 是 (to be), 个 (measure word), 女孩 (girl), 美美 (name), 长 (to look), 得 (modifier), 十分 (absolutely/extremely), 漂亮 (pretty/beautiful)
– 老大 can be confusing because it can mean “boss”. I took it to mean the oldest though.
– We originally saw 叫 as a way of introducing yourself but it is used here to signify that other people call say that about him. This makes the descriptions that come after 叫 stronger and more solidified.
– 老二 literally means “aged second” so I took it to mean the second child.
– 很爱动脑筋 – the second child is the one who loves intelligence here. It is implied
– 脑筋 literally translates to “brain muscle”.
– 老三 follows the “aged” pattern to mean the “third child”
– 美美 ‘s name is comprised of two 美’s, which means beautiful. Seems fitting for an extremely pretty bear.
– 十分 is a modifier to 漂亮 to really show that she is extremely beautiful.
有一天，熊妈妈把三个孩子叫到跟前，给了每人100元钱，叫她们离开家去独立生活，看谁能过上富足的日子。
Yǒu yītiān, xióng māmā bǎ sān gè háizi jiào dào gēnqián, gěile měi rén 100 yuán qián, jiào tāmen líkāi jiā qù dúlì shēnghuó, kàn shéi néngguò shàng fùzú de rìzi.
One day, Mother Bear called her three children to the front, gave them 100 yuan each, told them to leave home and live independently so she could see which of her children could live a prosperous life.
有一天 (one day), 熊 (bear), 妈妈 (mom), 把 (to), 三 (3), 个 (measure word), 孩子 (child), 叫 (called), 到 (to), 跟前 (front), 给 (give), 每人 (each person), 元钱 (Chinese money), 她们 (they/them), 离开 (leave), 家 (home), 去 (go), 独立 (independent) 生活 (live), 看 (see), 谁 (who), 能 过 (can/be able to), 上富足 (rich/prosperous), 的 (of), 日子 (day)
– 把 is a special word in Chinese. It it there to give more significance to the object. For example, “the boys made that robot” and “that robot was made by the boys”. The second sentence puts of emphasis on the object (the robot). 把 is used the same way. The sentence structure changes with 把 though. Instead of SVO , it is SbOV with the b being 把.
– The 了 in 给了 is used to express completion, effectively making the 给 past tense. 了 has many other uses so expect it a lot in the future.
– 元 is the currency of mainland China and the conversion rate (at the time of this writing) is about 7.14 元 per U.S. dollar. This means that the mother bear gave each of her children the equivalent of about 14 U.S. dollars (quite the allowance).
– The fact that the author used 她们 here means that all of the children are female. 她们 can only be used if everyone in the group being referred to is female. 他 们 is used for everything else (all male group or a mixed group). This is interesting because it means that every character in this story so far is female.
过了一年，熊妈妈重新看到了三个孩子，得知它们过着不同的生活。
Guòle yī nián, xióng māmā chóngxīn kàn dàole sān gè háizi, dé zhī tāmenguòzhe bùtóng de shēnghuó.
A year passed and the mother bear visited the children and learned that they did not lead the same lives.
过了 (after), 一 (1), 年 (year), 熊 (bear), 妈妈 (mom), 重新 (again), 看到了 (saw), 三 (3), 个 (measure word), 孩子 (children), 得知 (learn), 它们 (tamen), 过着 (live) 不 (negating word), 同 (same), 的 (of), 生活 (life)
– The author switched to 它们 here which is a version of “they” reserved for animals (regardless of the animal’s gender).
– This is our first experience with the word 不 . 不 is a word that negates the word proceeding it. Here the proceeding word is 同 (same). This makes 不同 mean “not same”. So 不同的生活 means “not same lives” or “different lives”.
So there we have the first paragraph of our 5 paragraph short story. It’s interesting how much the story changed! You can see how different cultures place importance on different things, like how important finances is to the Chinese (they specifically said that the bears were given 100元) Let me know if I missed anything, misinterpreted something, left out an explanation of grammar, or if you have any questions. See you tomorrow!
Language Learning With Chris 