Mr Wang (王) asks Ms Zhang (张) about her family.

Dialog

PinyinChineseEnglish
王 Nǐ jiā yóu jǐ gè rén？ 你家有几个人？ How many people in your family?
张 Wǒ jiā yǒu liù gè rén，bàba，māma，gēge，dìdi，liǎng gè jiějie hé wǒ。 我家有六个人，爸爸，妈妈，哥哥，弟弟，两个姐姐和我。 My family has 6 people, dad, mom, big brother,little brother, two big sisters and me
王 Ní yǒu mèimei ma？ 你有妹妹吗？ Do you have a little sister?
张 Méiyǒu。 没有。 No.

Numbers

123456789101112
Pinyin yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qī bā jiǔ shí shí yī shí èr
Chinese 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 十一 十二
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Vocabulary

PinyinEnglishNotes
家jiāhome, familyNoun, indicating home or family, depending on context.
有yǒuto haveVerb, indicating possession, real or abstract
没méinotAdverb of negation, used to negate yǒu.
没有méiyǒuVerb, to not have
几jǐhow manyInterrogative pronoun, 12 or less.
个gèClassifier for people, and other things.
两liǎnga coupleNumber 2 used only with classifiers (“èr” is almost never used with classifiers.)
爸爸bàbadadNoun
妈妈māmamomNoun
哥哥gēgeolder brotherNoun
弟弟dìdiyounger brotherNoun
姐姐jiějieolder sisterNoun
妹妹mèimeiyounger sisterNoun
和héandConjunction, used only with lists of things.

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials:
finals:		bpmfdtnlgkhHint 
ai bai pai mai   dai tai nai lai gai kai hai sky
ao bao pao mao   dao tao nao lao gao kao hao cow
ei bei pei mei fei dei   nei lei gei kei hei weigh
ou bou pou mou fou dou tou nou lou gou kou hou dough
uo bo po mo fo duo tuo nuo luo guo kuo huo whoa

Notes

  • All of the pinyin words in the last row rhyme with “wo”. It would be nice if Hanyu pinyin used a consistent representation for similar sounds, but it doesn’t.
  • If you find the difference between “ou” and “uo” difficult, try thinking of the “u” as if it were a “w”. So “uo” sound like “wo” and “ou” sounds like “ow” (as in “low” or “owe”).
  • “er” is a final which has no initial. One example is èr (two). The pronunciation sounds the same as the letter “R” in English.

Listen, and circle the correct choice

  • 1) ba – bai, tao – tei, po – pou, dei – de
  • 2) gao – kao, lou – luo, tao – tou, ou – wo
  • 3) shi – xi, zhe – ji, zha – za, se – ce
  • 4) chi – qi, huo – hou, lei – lai, zha – jia

Listen, and add the tone marks

  • 1) ni， jia， you， ji ，ge， ren
  • 2) yi，er，san，si，wu，liu，qi，ba，jiu，shi
  • 3) baba，mama，gege，dìdi，liang， jiejie， he
  • 4) meimei, mei you, lao shi, xue sheng

Grammar Patterns

Classifiers

A classifier is a word that is used when we quantify a noun. For example: in “ten head of cattle”, “head” is a classifier. Unlike English, where classifiers are seldom used, in Chinese all nouns must be proceeded by a classifier when quantified. We will learn “gè” first. This is the most common classifier, and it can be used whenever we are unsure of the correct one. Being able to use “gè” as a default is convenient because Chinese has hundreds of classifies and each noun only has one or two classifiers that it can be quantified with.

numberclassifiernoun
liù gè rén

Two words for “two”: liǎng and èr

Use liǎng when talking about how many, use èr for counting and labeling. The table below shows how they relate to the concepts we learned (and immediately forgot) in grade school.

TypeDescriptionExamples123
 Cardinal  Quantifier, how many   two dollars, two horses, etc yī liǎng sān
 Ordinal  Order of occurrence  first, second, third, forth dì yī dì èr dì sān
 Nominal  Used as a label  phone number, address, date yī èr sān

Negating yǒu

méi negates yǒu and bù negates all other verbs and adjectives. méi is not used with and other verbs and bù is never used with yǒu. (later we will learn that méi is also used to negate past tense verbs, but for now, we can assume that méi is only used with yǒu).

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

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Lesson

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