7.11: Courses and classes

Subjects of study

Subjects of study – courses – frequently end in xué ‘study; learning’ (cf. xuésheng); however, when a subject consists of two or more syllables, the xué is optional. Here are some examples:

shùxué	(numbers-study)	mathematics
lìshǐ<xué>		history
wùlǐ<xué>	(things-principles)	physics
jīngjì<xué>		economics
wénxué	(language-study)	literature
gōngchéng<xué>		engineering
guǎnlǐxué		management

Tǐyù ‘physical education’, however, is more ‘sports’ than a subject of study, so it does not usually occur with xué.

Talking about classes

a) Classes, courses, sessions:

Many words function as both nouns and measure words. Kè, for example, as a noun means ‘subject; course’, but as an M, it means ‘lesson’. M’s only appear after numbers (or demonstratives), and are optionally followed by nouns: yí ge <xuésheng>; zhèi ge rén, yí kuài <qián>. But where there is no number (or demonstrative), there will be no measure words:

Jīntiān méiyou kè.	[I] don’t have class today.
Kè hěn nán.	The course/class is tough.
Méiyou píjiǔ le.	[We]’re out of beer!

Nouns may be counted with different measures, each conveying slightly different nuances. Kè, as a noun meaning ‘subject’ or ‘class’, for example, can be counted with the M mén (whose root-meaning is ‘door’) when the sense is ‘a course’; with jié (root-meaning ‘segment’) or táng (root-meaning ‘hall’), when the meaning is ‘a class session’.

word	kè	táng	jié	mén	bān
as NOUN	subject	hall	segment	door	session; class
as M.	lesson	class	class	course/subj	[flight etc.]

 

M: mén	Zhèi ge xuéqī, nĭ yǒu jǐ mén kè?	How many courses do you have this term?
N: kè	Wŏ yǒu sì mén kè.	I have four.
N: kè	Jīntiān hái yǒu biéde kè ma?	Do [you] have other classes today?
M: táng	Hái yǒu liǎng táng.	I still have two more.
M: jié	Jīntiān yǒu jǐ jié?	How many [classes] today?
N:  kè	Jīntiān méiyou kè.	I don’t have any classes today.
M: jié	Nà, míngtiān ne, míngtiān yǒu jǐ jié?	Well, what about tomorrow, how many [classes] tomorrow?
	Míngtiān zhǐ yǒu yì jié: shùxué.	Tomorrow, I just have one –  mathematics.
N: kè	Jīntiān yŏu kè, kĕshi míngtiān méiyŏu!	There’s class today, but not tomorrow.
M: kè	Zhè shì dì-yī kè.	This is the first lesson.
M: kè	Yígòng yŏu sānshí kè.	There are 30 lessons altogether.

Besides the noun kè ‘class’, the noun bān, whose root meaning is ‘shift’ or ‘session’ (cf. shàngbān ‘go to work’), is also relevant to the subject of taking classes. Large sessions (or ‘lectures’) are dàbān; small sessions (or ‘sections’) are xiǎobān. These are counted with the general-M, gè:

Yígòng yŏu wŭ ge bān,	[There are] five sessions altogether,
liăng ge dàbān, sān ge xiǎobān.	2 lectures and 3 sections.

Like kè, bān can also be a M, but not for classes or the like. Bān is common as a M for trips of regularly scheduled transport, such as busses and airplanes: Xīngqīyī-sānwǔ yǒu yì bān. ‘There’s a flight/bus/train on MWF.’

b) ‘Taking’ classes

In the examples under a), ‘taking a class’ was construed as ‘having a class’: yǒu wǔ mén kè. However, you should be aware that just as English allows the option of saying ‘how many courses do you have’ and ‘how many are you taking’, so Chinese offers options with shàng ‘(attend) take’; and [particularly in Taiwan] xiū ‘(cultivate) take’, along with yǒu ‘have’:

Nĭ zhèi ge xuéqī shàng / yǒu / xiū jǐ mén kè?	How many courses are you taking this semester?
Wŏ shàng / yǒu / xiū wŭ mén.	I’m taking 5.

Moveable adverbs (dāngrán; yídìng)

a) Dāngrán ‘of course’

Dāngrán, like yígòng, is classed as a moveable adverb, because some of the positional requirements of typical adverbs (such as the requirement of a following verb) are relaxed:

Lǐbàiwǔ yǒu kè ma?	Are there classes on Friday?
Dāngrán, mĕitiān dōu yǒu kè.	Of course, there are classes everyday.
Yǒu zuòyè ma?	Any homework?
Dāngrán yǒu zuòyè, mĕitiān dōu yǒu zuòyè.	Of course there’s homework, there’s homework everyday!

b) Yídìng ‘for certain; for sure’

Xīngqīliù yídìng méi kè ma?	Is [it] certain that there’s no class on Sat.?
Xīngqīliù, xīngqītiān yídìng méiyou kè.	For certain there are no classes on Saturday and Sunday.

Yídìng is especially common in the negative, bù yídìng ‘not necessarily’, when it often stands alone. Frequently, bù yídìng can be followed by a comment beginning with yǒude ‘some’, literally ‘there are some of them [which]’:

Kǎoshì dōu hěn nán ma?	Are the tests all difficult?
Bù yídìng. Yǒude hěn nán,  yǒude bù nán!	Not necessarily. Some are difficult, some aren’t.
Xuésheng yídìng hěn lèi ma?	Are students necessarily always tired?
Bù, lǎoshī hěn lèi, xuéshēng bù yídìng.	No, teachers are tired, students aren’t necessarily.

Exercise 9.

Express the following:

1. In all, you’re taking 5 courses this semester, and they’re all hard.

2. In Beijing, November isn’t necessarily cold but July is certainly hot.

3. You have lots of classes on Tuesday and Thursday, but only one on Wednesday.

4. The lecture has 120 students, but the sections only have 12.

5. The mathematics teacher isn’t too strict, but the tests are hard.

6. You don’t have any more classes today.

7. You were nervous yesterday, but you’re okay today.

8. The physics teacher’s very strict, so I’m nervous in class.

Question words as indefinites

Question words in Chinese have two faces: they can function in questions (corresponding to the wh-words of English – ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, etc.), and they can function as indefinites (corresponding to ‘anyone’, ‘anything’, ‘anywhere’, etc.) So shénme, in addition to its interrogative use, can also mean ‘anything’ in a non-interrogative context. The sense is often ‘anything in particular’:

Méi shénme wèntí.	[I] don’t have any questions [in particular].
Méi shénme gōngkè.	[We] don’t have any homework [in particular].
Xièxie nǐ lái jiē wǒ.	Thanks for coming to pick me up.
Méi shénme. Hěn jìn!	[It]’s nothing – it’s close by.
Duìbuqǐ, nǐ xìng shénme, wǒ wàng le.	Sorry, what was your name – I’ve forgotten.
Méi shénme. Wǒ xìng Zōu.	That’s all right. My surname’s Zou (sic!)

Many more examples of question-words used as indefinites will be encountered in later units.