325 TV

Do you like to watch TV? Or has your TV already been replaced by your laptop or tablet? Josh Edbrooke from Transition talks with ShaoLan about TV and how much they do or don’t watch it. The Chinese word for TV includes the character for “electricity” and interestingly, the character for electricity in Chinese actually comes from the character for “lightning” because the Chinese recognized electricity in storms long before its “invention.” Of course, once you’ve mastered the word for “electricity” you can combine it with other characters to describe a whole range of different electrical products, not just your TV.

The way to say “to watch TV” in Chinese is 看電視/看电视. The first character 看 means “to watch” or “to see.” the second character 電/电 represents electricity and the third character 視/视 means “vision.” So, when you “watch the electric vision,” you are “watching TV.”

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TV
電視 / 电视
diàn shì
Electric, electricity
電 / 电
diàn
Vision, look at
視 / 视
shì
Watch TV
看電視 / 看电视
kàn diàn shì
Do you like watching TV?
你喜歡看電視嗎? / 你喜欢看电视吗?
nǐ xǐ huān kàn diàn shì ma
Turn on the television
開電視 / 开电视
kāi diàn shì
Turn the light on
開燈 / 开灯
kāi dēng
To drive
開車 / 开车
kāi chē
To fly an airplane
開飛機 / 开飞机
kāi fēi jī
To open the door
開門 / 开门
kāi mén
Turn off the television
關電視 / 关电视
guān diàn shì
To close the door
關門 / 关门
guān mén
To turn off the device, such as computer, phone etc
關機 / 关机
guān jī
To be on TV
上電視 / 上电视
shàng diàn shì
I am on TV.
我上電視了 / 我上电视了
wǒ shàng diàn shì le
To switch off
關掉 / 关掉
guān diào
To drop
diào
Digital TV
數位電視 / 数位电视
shù wèi diàn shì
Black-and-white television
黑白電視 / 黑白电视
hēi bái diàn shì
Black
hēi
White
bái
Color TV
彩色電視 / 彩色电视
cǎi sè diàn shì
Rainbow
cǎi
Color
High-definition
高畫質 / 高画质
gāo huà zhí
High, tall
gāo
Picture
畫 / 画
huà
Quality
質 / 质
zhí
HD TV
高畫質電視 / 高画质电视
gāo huà zhí diàn shì

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