Mastering The Basic Chinese

Mastering the Basics

1. Practice using the four Mandarin tones. Mandarin Chinese is a tonal

language, which means that different tones can change the meaning of a word,
even if the pronunciation and spelling are otherwise the same. It is essential to
learn the different tones if you wish to speak Mandarin Chinese correctly.
Mandarin Chinese has four main tones, as follows:
 The first tone is a high, flat tone. Your voice stays flat, with no rise or dip in the way it
sounds. Using the word "ma" as an example, the first tone is indicated using the symbol
above the letter a: "mā".
 The second tone is a rising tone. Your voice rises from a low to middle pitch, as if you
were asking someone to repeat something by saying "huh?" or "what?" The second
tone is indicated using the symbol "má".
 The third tone is a dipping tone.The pitch goes from middle to low to high, like when
you say the letter "B". When two third tone syllables are near each other, the second
one retains its third tone sound while the first takes the sound of the second tone. The
third tone is indicated using the symbol "mǎ".
 The fourth tone is a lowering tone. The pitch goes rapidly from high to low, as if giving
a command e.g. stop! Or as if you're reading a book and have come across something
new and interesting and are saying "huh". The fourth tone is indicated using the symbol
"mà".
 Easy enough? If not, don't fret. It's definitely recommended to hear the tones
demonstrated by a native speaker, since it's hard to get an idea of what they sound like
purely through text.

2. Memorize simple vocabulary. No matter what language you're learning, the

more words you have at your disposal, the sooner you will become fluent.
Therefore, the next thing to do is to memorize some useful Chinese vocabulary.
 Some good vocabulary lists to start with includes: times of day (morning: zǎo shàng,
afternoon: xià wǔ, evening: wǎn shàng) body parts (head: tóu, feet: jiǎo, hands: shǒu)
food (beef: niú ròu, chicken: jī, egg: jī dàn, noodles: miàn tiáo) along with colors, days,
months, transport words, weather, etc.
 When you hear a word in English, think about how you would say it in Mandarin. If you
don't know what it is, jot it down and look it up later. It's handy to keep a little notebook
on you for this purpose. Attach little Chinese labels (with the character, the pinyin and
the pronunciation) to items around your house, such as the mirror, the coffee table and
the sugar bowl. You'll see the words so often that you'll learn them without realizing it!
 Although having a wide vocabulary is good, remember that in Mandarin, accuracy is
more important. It's no good learning a word if you can't pronounce it properly, using the
correct tone, as different pronunciations could have entirely different meanings. For
example, using the wrong tone (using mā instead of má) could be the difference
between saying "I want cake" and "I want coke" - two completely different meanings.
3. Learn how to count. Luckily, the Mandarin numerical system is fairly

straightforward and logical, and once you have learned the first ten numbers you
will be able to count to 99.
 Below you will find the numbers one to ten, written in simplified Chinese characters,
followed by the Hanyu pinyin translation and the correct pronunciation. Make sure to
practice saying each number using the correct tone.
 One: written as (一) or yī, pronounced [eee]
 Two: written as (二) or èr, pronounced [arr]
 Three: written as (三) or sān, pronounced [saan]
 Four: written as (四) or sì, pronounced [ssuh]
 Five: written as (五) or wǔ, pronounced [woo]
 Six: written as (六) or liù, pronounced [lee-yoe]
 Seven: written as (七) or qī, pronounced [chi]
 Eight: written as (八) or bā, pronounced [baa]
 Nine: written as (九) or jiǔ, pronounced [jee-yo]
 Ten: written as (十) or shí, pronounced [sh]
 Once you have mastered numbers one to ten, you can continue counting in double
digits by saying the number in the tens' position, then the word shi, followed by the
number in the one's position. For example:
 The number 48 is written as sì shí bā, literally meaning "four tens plus eight". The
number 30 is written as sān shí, literally meaning "three tens". The number 19 is written
as yī shí jiǔ, literally meaning "one ten plus nine" (however in most Mandarin dialects
the initial yī is omitted from numbers in the teens, as it is deemed unnecessary)
 The word for hundred in Mandarin is (百) or baǐ, so 100 is written as yī baǐ, 200
hundred is written as èr baǐ, 300 is written as sān baǐ, etc.
4. Learn some basic conversational phrases. Once you have a basic grasp of
vocabulary and pronunciation, you can move on to learning basic conversational
phrases which are used in everyday Chinese speech.
 Hello = nǐhǎo, pronounced [nee how]
 What is your surname (family name)? = nín guì xìng, pronounced [neen gway shing]
 What's your name? = nǐ jiào shén me míng zì[1]
 Yes = shì, pronounced [sh]
 No = bú shì, pronounced [boo sh]
 Thank you = xiè xiè, pronounced [shie shie]
 You're welcome = bú yòng xiè, pronounced [boo yong shee-e]
 Excuse me = duì bu qǐ, pronounced [dway boo chee]
 I don't understand = wǒ bù dǒng, pronounced [wuo boo downg]
 Goodbye = zài jiàn, pronounced [zay jee-en]
Advancing Your Language Skills
1.Study basic grammar. There is a common misconception that grammar does not
exist in the Chinese language, but this is not true. Chinese grammar rules do exist, they
are just very different to those in European or other language systems. Unlike these
languages, Chinese is a very analytic language which is both good news and bad news
for language learners.
 For instance, in Chinese there are no complicated rules about conjugations, agreement,
gender, plural nouns or tense. Most words consist of single syllables which are then
combined to make compound words. This makes sentence construction fairly
straightforward.
 However, Chinese has its own set of grammar rules which do not have an equivalent in
English, or other European languages. For example, Chinese uses grammatical
features such as classifiers, topic-prominence and preference for aspect. As these
features are not used in English, they can be quite difficult for learners to grasp.
 However, despite the differences, Chinese does use the same word order as English,
i.e. subject - verb - object, making it easier to translate word for word. For example, the
English phrase "he likes cats" is translated directly as "tā (he) xǐ huan (likes) māo (cats).
2.Learn how to use Pinyin. Pinyin is a system used for writing Mandarin Chinese
using the Roman alphabet. Hanyu pinyin is the most common form of such
Romanization, and is used in many textbooks and teaching materials.
 Pinyin allows students of Mandarin to focus on their pronunciation, while also enabling
them to read and write, without needing to learn complex Chinese characters. Although
Pinyin uses the Roman alphabet, the pronunciation of its letters is often not intuitive to
English speakers, which is why it must be studied carefully before it can be used.
 For example, the letter "c" in Pinyin is pronounced like the "ts" in the word "bits", the
letter "e" is pronounced like the "er" in the word "hers" and the letter "q" is pronounced
like the "ch" in the word "cheap". Due to these differences, it is essential that you learn
the correct Pinyin pronunciations before using it as a guide.
 Although learning Pinyin pronunciations may seem like a pain, it can be extremely
beneficial to your language learning and is still significantly easier than learning to
recognize traditional Chinese characters.

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What are the four main tones in Mandarin Chinese and how are they indicated?

What are some basic steps for learning numbers in Mandarin Chinese?

Mastering the Basics

1. Practice using the four Mandarin tones. Mandarin Chinese is a tonal

2. Memorize simple vocabulary. No matter what language you're learning, the

3. Learn how to count. Luckily, the Mandarin numerical system is fairly

Advancing Your Language Skills

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