The four seasons
HSK 3 Unit 7: Travel and seasons · Lesson 4 of 5 · About 20 minutes
Preview version — Chinese review in progress.
Your mission: By the end of this lesson, you can describe the four seasons and the weather in your city, compare temperatures, and say which season you like best.
Audio preview uses your device’s Chinese voice. It is not a recording.
Warm-up: do you remember?
Two quick questions from earlier lessons. Recalling before you learn makes the new material stick.
Meaning
What does 免费 mean?
That is 热水 (rèshuǐ).
That is 紧张 (jǐnzhāng).
Show the answer
Answer: C, free (of charge).
免费 (miǎnfèi) means free (of charge).
Characters
Which word means “to check in (luggage)”?
加油 (jiāyóu) means come on, keep going.
任务 (rènwu) means task, assignment.
Show the answer
Answer: C, 托运.
“to check in (luggage)” is 托运 (tuōyùn).
Listening
From an earlier unit. Listen. What does the word mean?
Cannot listen? Read it instead
翻译 fānyì
That would be 招聘 (zhāopìn).
That would be 取消 (qǔxiāo).
Show the answer
Answer: A, to translate, translator.
You heard 翻译 (fānyì): to translate, translator.
New words
Seasons and temperatures
The seasons are 春天, 夏天, 秋天 and 冬天. Temperatures are a number + 度 (dù), degrees Celsius.
北京冬天很冷，常常刮风。
Běijīng dōngtiān hěn lěng, chángcháng guāfēng.
Winters in Beijing are cold and often windy.
今天三十五度！
Jīntiān sānshíwǔ dù!
It's thirty-five degrees today!
你最喜欢哪个季节？
Nǐ zuì xǐhuan nǎge jìjié?
Which season do you like best?
For below zero, say 零下: 零下十度, minus ten.
冬天的温度常常在零下。
Dōngtiān de wēndù chángcháng zài língxià.
In winter the temperature is often below zero.
Characters
Open a character to see how it is written, stroke by stroke, with its meanings and words.
Which season is best?
Lin Yue and Liu Fang compare their home cities.
Listen first
Play the whole conversation and answer the questions before you open the transcript.
Listening
Listen first. What are summers like in Liu Fang's city?
Show the answer
Answer: C, very hot, around 37–38 degrees.
夏天很热，常常三十七八度.
Listening
Which season does Lin Yue like best?
Show the answer
Answer: B, autumn.
秋天.
Show the transcript
林月
刘芳，你的城市一年有四个季节吗？
Liu Fang, does your city have four seasons?
刘芳
有，可是春天和秋天很短。夏天很热，常常三十七八度。
Yes, but spring and autumn are short. Summer is hot, often thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees.
林月
我的城市冬天比你们那儿冷多了，零下二十度！
Winter in my city is much colder than yours: minus twenty!
刘芳
太冷了！你最喜欢哪个季节？
That's freezing! Which season do you like best?
林月
秋天。秋天不冷也不热，不刮风，风景也最漂亮。
Autumn. It's not cold or hot, it's not windy, and the scenery is the most beautiful.
Speak: listen, record, compare
Listen to each model, record yourself, then play both and compare: the rhythm, the tones, the vowels. No automatic score: your ear is the judge.
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Recording is not available in this browser. Listen, then repeat aloud and compare by ear.
有，可是春天和秋天很短。夏天很热，常常三十七八度。
Yǒu, kěshì chūntiān hé qiūtiān hěn duǎn. Xiàtiān hěn rè, chángcháng sānshíqībā dù.
Yes, but spring and autumn are short. Summer is hot, often thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees.
我的城市冬天比你们那儿冷多了，零下二十度！
Wǒ de chéngshì dōngtiān bǐ nǐmen nàr lěng duō le, língxià èrshí dù!
Winter in my city is much colder than yours: minus twenty!
秋天。秋天不冷也不热，不刮风，风景也最漂亮。
Qiūtiān. Qiūtiān bù lěng yě bú rè, bù guāfēng, fēngjǐng yě zuì piàoliang.
Autumn. It's not cold or hot, it's not windy, and the scenery is the most beautiful.
Practice
Meaning
What does 季节 mean?
That is 价格 (jiàgé).
That is 要 (yào).
Show the answer
Answer: B, season.
季节 (jìjié) means season.
Characters
Which word means “spring”?
热水 (rèshuǐ) means hot water.
温度 (wēndù) means temperature.
Show the answer
Answer: C, 春天.
“spring” is 春天 (chūntiān).
Pinyin
How do you read 夏天 (summer)?
Show the answer
Answer: C, xiàtiān.
夏天 is read xiàtiān. Check the tone mark on every syllable.
Listening
Listen. What does the word mean?
Cannot listen? Read it instead
秋天 qiūtiān
That would be 身体 (shēntǐ).
That would be 大家 (dàjiā).
Show the answer
Answer: B, autumn.
You heard 秋天 (qiūtiān): autumn.
Pinyin
Type the pinyin of 冬天 (winter). Tone marks or tone numbers are welcome.
Show the answer
Answer: dōngtiān
冬天 is dōngtiān in pinyin.
Grammar
Which sentence means Winter here is much colder than there?
Show the answer
Answer: C, 这儿的冬天比那儿冷多了。.
这儿的冬天比那儿冷多了。 比 + adjective + 多了.
Listening
Listen. What is the temperature?
Cannot listen? Read it instead
明天零下五度。 Míngtiān língxià wǔ dù.
Show the answer
Answer: A, minus five degrees.
零下五度: minus five.
In context
You want to know someone's favourite season. What do you ask?
Show the answer
Answer: A, 你最喜欢哪个季节？.
你最喜欢哪个季节？: 你最喜欢哪个季节: which season do you like best?
Your turn
Type the Chinese for autumn
Show the answer
Answer: 秋天
秋天: autumn.
Your seasons
Describe the seasons where you live out loud, in five sentences.
- Say what each season is like, with a temperature.
- Compare two seasons with 比.
- Say which season you like best and why.
Sentence frames
我们那儿＿＿天很＿＿，常常＿＿度。
Wǒmen nàr ＿＿ tiān hěn ＿＿, chángcháng ＿＿ dù.
Where I live, ... is very ..., often ... degrees.
我最喜欢＿＿，因为＿＿。
Wǒ zuì xǐhuan ＿＿, yīnwèi ＿＿.
I like ... best, because ...
Record your attempt (three and a half minutes at most) and listen back:
Review and finish
Can you do this? If a line feels shaky, go back to that part before you move on.
- I can name the seasons and say temperatures.
- I can compare seasons and say which I like best.
Review works best spaced out: answer these exercises again tomorrow, then after a few days. Your progress is saved in this browser.
Completing records that you finished the lesson. Mastery is separate: it grows as reviews bring the exercises back and you answer them correctly.