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Making Excuses

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Brief Lesson Summaries
A brief introduction of the lesson will always tell you what this lesson is about and what language level is the intended target. If you're interested in the subject, but might not be able to understand it in full, fear not; we have transcripts of lesson dialogues vocabulary so you can follow along.
IN THIS LESSON
ID: 3054 Intermediate
  This lesson is about not turning up to an appointment on time. The friend wants to know what reason he had for not showing up, and questions his excuses. We look in depth at two similar words for reason: 原因 yuányīn and 理由 lǐyóu.
Awesome Materials
Our lessons contain natural communication in Chinese in video and audio format. We have have lessons focused on video or a podcast format and our lessons have transcripts of Lesson Dialogues, Important Vocabulary, Expanded Materials for a deep dive into the lesson topic and Exercises focused on testing your retention.
Detailed Vocabulary
Each lesson has it's unique vocabulary and will provide you with definitions and recordings so you can practice the pronunciation. You will also be able to grasp the core material of a lesson at a glance. Here we're showing you the Simplified Chinese version.
SIMPLIFIED PINYIN ENGLISH  
约好 yuē hǎo to make an appointment
原因 yuányīn cause
huí to reply
理由 lǐyóu reason
李强,我们前天不是约好七点在车站见面,你为什么没来?
Lǐqiáng ,wǒmen qiántiān bùshì yuē hǎo qī diǎn zài chēzhàn jiànmiàn ,nǐ wèishénme méilái ?
Li Qiang, didn't we agree to meet at the train station at seven the day before yesterday? Why didn't you turn up?
对不起对不起!我那是有原因的。
duìbuqǐ duìbuqǐ !wǒ nà shì yǒu yuányīn de 。
Sorry! Sorry! There was a reason I didn't turn up.
你知道我等你等了一个小时?打你手机也不回,你说说你有什么理由!
nǐ zhīdào wǒ děng nǐ děng le yī gè xiǎoshí ?dǎ nǐ shǒujī yě bù huí ,nǐ shuō shuō nǐ yǒu shénme lǐyóu !
Do you know I waited for you for an hour? And you didn't even pick up when I called your cell phone. What reason could you have had!
我真的不是故意的,前天中午我忽然觉得不舒服,下午请假回家休息。
wǒ zhēnde bùshì gùyì de ,qiántiān zhōngwǔ wǒ hūrán juéde bù shūfu ,xiàwǔ qǐngjià huíjiā xiūxi 。
I really didn't mean to. At noon on the day before yesterday I suddenly felt unwell, so I had to ask for time of work to go home and rest.
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