Hover a line for its pinyin and translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Su Xiaoyu invites Alex and Yang Fan to a film at the weekend.
没关系 answers an apology — “never mind”. 不客气 answers thanks. English lets “that's all right” do both jobs, which is exactly why the two get swapped. Here Yang Fan is half-apologising for being late, so 没关系 is the right reply. The days of the week are simply numbered. 星期 plus one to six gives Monday to Saturday, so 星期四 is literally “week-four”, Thursday. Sunday breaks the pattern and is 星期天 or 星期日 — never 星期七. Counting from Monday also means the numbers are one ahead of where an English speaker expects them. 家 has turned up twice now with different jobs: the noun “home” in lesson 4, and here a measure word for businesses — 一家饭馆, 一家公司. Same character, unrelated use.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. 星期几 — the days are numbered
星期一 through 星期六 are Monday to Saturday, built from the numbers, with 星期天 for Sunday. To ask which day, put 几 exactly where the number would sit: 今天星期几？ — the question word stays in place, as it did with 哪儿. Note there is no 是 needed: 今天星期四 is a complete sentence.
2. 吧 — turning a statement into a suggestion
Adding 吧 to the end of a sentence softens it from a statement into a proposal, an invitation or a gentle assumption. 一起去 is “go together”; 一起去吧 is “shall we go together?”. It is the difference between telling someone the plan and offering them one, and it costs a single syllable.
3. 想 — wanting to do something
想 before a verb means “want to”, and it is softer than the 要 you used to order coffee. 我想去 floats an idea; 我要去 announces a decision. With a friend, 想 is almost always the right level — 要 can sound like you have already made up everyone's mind.
4. 有空 and 能 — free versus able
有空 is about the diary: you have time. 能 is about whether you can manage it at all — a prior commitment, a rule, a broken leg. They are separate questions, and both answers can be true at once: 我有空，可是我不能去. English blurs them into a single “can”, so it is worth keeping them apart deliberately from the start.
A. Fill in the Blank · 填空
Fill in the blank with a word from this lesson's vocabulary.
- 1.你这周吗？free, have time
- 2.我去看电影。want to
- 3.一起去？(suggestion particle)
- 4.车站有饭馆。nearby
B. Multiple Choice · 选择
Choose the best answer.
- 1.How do you ask what day it is?
- 2.Which is correct?
- 3.Which day is 星期四?
- 4.Yang Fan apologises for being late. What does Su Xiaoyu say?
C. Rearrange the Sentence · 排序
Rearrange the words into a correct sentence, adding the punctuation shown in parentheses.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · 判断
Based on the dialogue, mark each sentence T (true) or F (false).
- 1.Alex is free on Thursday.
- 2.The film starts at six.
- 3.Yang Fan will arrive a little late.
- 4.There is a quiet restaurant near the station.
E. Matching · 连线
Match each line on the left with the best response on the right.
F. Translation · 翻译
Translate items 1–2 into Chinese, and items 3–4 into English.
- 1.Are you free this week?
- 2.Let's have dinner together.
- 3.我想星期六去看电影。
- 4.我能去，不过我晚一点儿到。
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Holidays, and working the weekend
Chinese public holidays cluster into long blocks rather than single days. 春节 and the October National Day each generate a 黄金周, a golden week, when much of the country travels at once in the largest annual movement of people on earth. The catch is 调休: to bridge a holiday out to a full week, a neighboring Saturday or Sunday is designated a working day, announced by the government each year. So 这周有空吗 can have a surprising answer near a holiday, and a Sunday on the calendar is not automatically free.