Lesson 1 – Greetings

Welcome To Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin is the official language of China, and Taiwan. Although there are many dialects, every Chinese person you meet will speak and understand Mandarin. It is officially classified as a “difficult” language, but in some ways it is easier than English.

The lack of irregular verbs, lack of verb endings and the presence of consistent pronouns are among the reasons why it could be considered easier. In Mandarin, once you learn a word, its yours.

Mandarin is written in Chinese characters, which are not phonetic. In order to learn the language we will use pinyin, a phonetic representation. Each Chinese character is pronounced as a single syllable and represented phonetically as a pinyin syllable. The table below uses an example to illustrate this relationship.

Pinyin	Chinese	English	Audio
Ní hǎo	你好	Hello

The main goal of the first ten lessons is learn pronunciation. Using a phonetic representation, instead of characters, makes this easier to achieve. In addition to pronunciation, learning pinyin has other benefits as well: such as Looking up words in a dictionary and typing Chinese characters on a keyboard or mobile phone

Tones

Tone Chart

Mandarin has only 409 distinct syllables. Compared to more than 5000 English syllables, this is a small number. Once you master these 409 sounds, you can pronounce any word in Mandarin.

Mandarin is a tonal language, where “tone” is actually a change in pitch that occurs during the pronunciation of a syllable. Tone marks are placed above the vowels as guide to pronunciation. The table below illustrates how tones change the meaning of words that sound like “ma”.

Tones are not optional. If you use the wrong tone, you said the wrong word. Missing the tone generally confuses your listener. So, unless you have a musician’s ear, it is a good idea to memorize the tone when you learn a word.

Some words will take a different tone depending on the tone of the word that follows. This is called tone change, or “spoken tone”. There are just three types of tone change, which will be explained later. Standard text books do not show spoken tone. However this courseware does, in order to make the expected pronunciation more clear.

	Number	Mark	Pitch	Meaning	Hanzi
1st	ma1	mā	high level	Mother	妈
2nd	ma2	má	rising	Numb	麻
3rd	ma3	mǎ	falling then rising	Horse	马
4th	ma4	mà	falling	Scold	骂
Neutral	ma	ma	unstressed	Question	吗

4 tones: mā má mǎ mà
Mother scolds a horse: māma mà mǎ
Click on bolded pinyin in the chart to hear the differences.

How are you?

Note: In the first column of the table below 王 (Wáng) and 张 (Zhāng) are common family names in China.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Ní hǎo ma?	你好吗？	How are you?
张	Wǒ hén hǎo.	我很好。	I am fine (very good).

Are you busy?

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Nǐ máng ma?	你忙吗？	Are you busy?
张	Wǒ bù máng, nǐ ne?	我不忙,你呢？	I’m not busy, how about you?
王	Wó yě bù máng.	我也不忙。	I am also not busy.

Good Morning!

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Zǎoshang hǎo！	早上好！	Good morning！
张	Zǎo！	早！	Morning！
王	Nǐ máng ma?	你忙吗？	Are you busy?
张	Wó hěn máng, nǐ ne?	我很忙,你呢？	I am very busy, and you?
王	Wǒ yé hěn máng.	我也很忙。	I am also very busy.
张	Zàijiàn.	再见。	Bye.
王	Zàijiàn.	再见。	Bye.

Vocabulary

	Pinyin	English	Notes
你	nǐ	you	Pronoun, second person singular.
好	hǎo	good	Adjective, generally indicating a positive quality.
你好	ní hǎo	hello	A greeting, not a question.
我	wǒ	I or me	Pronoun, first person singular. Note: wǒ can be used as a subject (“I”) or an object (“me”).
很	hěn	very	Adverb of degree
吗	ma		Particle, used to request confirmation. Similar to a rising tone in English.
呢	ne	what about ..?	Particle, used to request more information.
也	yě	also	Adverb, expressing similarity
忙	máng	busy	Adjective
不	bù	not	Adverb of negation
早上	zǎoshang	morning	Noun, early in the day
晚上	wǎnshang	evening	Noun, late in the day
再见	zàijiàn	good bye	Expression, taken separately the characters mean “again” “meet”.

Tone Change

When two 3rd tone syllables occur in sequence, the first syllable is usually pronounced with a 2nd tone. This makes the sentence easier to say. For example “nǐ hǎo” (the written form) is normally pronounced “ní hǎo” (the spoken form). Unfortunately, all books published with pinyin use the written form and let you figure out how to say it. In contrast, this courseware will display the spoken form at all times, so you don’t have to guess about the pronunciation.

Grammar Patterns

Grammar is the patterns of a language. Although every pattern has exceptions, recognizing the language patterns improves our feel for the language.

Sentences

All the sentences in this lesson describe conditions: good, bad, busy, not busy. It is interesting to note that they do not contain any form of the verb “is”. Mandarin does have a verb that is similar to “is”, which we will learn in the 3rd lesson. The table below illustrates the structure of sentences that express conditions.

subject	adjective phrase	meaning
Wǒ	hén hǎo.	I am very good
Nǐ	bù máng	You are not busy

Particles

Particles, like ma and ne in Chinese, are structural words. They are used to indicate the purpose of a sentence (such as question or statement) without effecting the content.

When ma occurs at the end of a sentence it is asking for confirmation. For example “Nǐ máng” is the statement “You are busy”, while “Nǐ máng ma?” asks for confirmation of that statement.
When ne occurs at the end of a sentence it indicates a more open ended question. For example “nǐ ne?” means “what about you?” and “wǒ ne” means “what about me?”.

Seeking Confirmation

We learned two sentences that seek confirmation in this lesson: “Nǐ máng ma?” and “Ní hǎo ma?”. All confirmation questions have the same structure: a statement, followed by “ma”. This is much easier than English, where we change the order of subject and verb.

Statement	“?”	Answer
Wǒ máng	ma?	Máng
Ní hǎo	ma?	Hén hǎo
Nǐ máng	ma?	Máng

Confirming the question also differs from English. Chinese does not have a simple “yes” and “no”;. Instead, the Chinese speaker uses the verb or adverb of the sentence in its positive or negative form.

Here are some examples of answers to “Nǐ máng ma?”.

Wó hěn máng. – affirmative response
Bù máng. – affirmative response
Wǒ máng. – omitting any adverbs
Máng. – brief and succinct

After answering you can use “Nǐ ne?” to return the question. And, if the second answer is consistent with the first you can add yě to the response

Wǒ yé hěn máng.
Yé hěn máng.
Wó yě máng.

Statement	“?”	Answer
Wó hěn máng,	nǐ ne?	Wǒ yé hěn máng
Bù máng,	nǐ ne?	Wó yě bù máng
Máng,	nǐ ne?	Wó yě máng

Greetings

Just as in English, a response to a greeting is usually the same as the greeting.

Greeting	Response
Zǎo	Zǎo
Ní hǎo.	Ní hǎo.
Zǎoshang hǎo.	Zǎoshang hǎo.
Wǎnshang hǎo.	Wǎnshang hǎo.
Zàijiàn.	Zàijiàn.

Resources

There are two types of flashcards to choose from. Each type has two sides. Both types will provide valuable practice opportunities.

Pinyin to English Flashcards will display the pinyin first and give you the opportunity to remember the English meaning.
Chinese to English Flashcards will display a Chinese character first. When the character is displayed you will hear the word pronounced. Don’t worry about reading the character, your job is to listen to the word and remember the pinyin and tone mark.

Also check out …

See this page for Sentence Practice

See this website more general pinyin practice

Lesson 2 – Teacher and Students

Mr Wang (王) approaches a group of college students visiting a local museum.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Nǐ shì lǎoshī ma？	你是老师吗？	Are you the teacher?
李	Bú shì。Wǒ bú shì lǎoshī。Wǒ shì xuésheng。	不是，我不是老师。我是学生。	No. I am not the teacher. I am a student.
王	Shéi shì lǎoshī？	谁是老师？	Who is the teacher?
李	Tā shì lǎoshī。Tā shì Zhāng lǎoshī。	她是老师，她是张老师。	She is the teacher. She is teacher Zhang.
王	Tā shì Yīngguó rén ma？	她是英国人吗？	Is she British?
李	Bú shì，tā shì Měiguó rén.	不是，她是美国人。	No, she is American.
王	Tāmen shì Zhāng lǎoshī de xuésheng ma？	他们是张老师的学生吗？	Are they teacher Zhang’s students?
李	Shì。	是。	Yes.
王	Qǐng wèn, tāmen shì nǎguó rén？	请问，他们是哪国人？	What nationality are they?
李	Tāmen dōu shì Zhōngguó rén。	他们都是中国人。	They are all Chinese.

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Vocabulary

	Chinese	English	Notes
是	shì	am/is	Verb “to be”, but never used with adjectives
老师	lǎoshī	teacher	Noun or title depending on context
学生	xuésheng	student	Noun
国	guó	country	Noun, often used as part of a country name
美国	Měiguó	America	Proper noun
英国	Yīngguó	England	Proper noun
中国	Zhōngguó	China	Proper noun
哪	nǎ	which	Interrogative pronoun (question word)， for example nǎguó means “which country”
人	rén	people	Noun, meaning people
们	men	plural	Suffix, indicating more than one, for example wǒmen (we/us) and lǎoshīmen (teacher)
的	de	who	particle, indicating a relationship between two nouns
谁	shéi	who	Interrogative pronoun, seeking the identity of someone
都	dōu	all	adverb, this word must precede a verb
他，她	tā	him/her/she/he/it	Pronoun, third person singular
请问	qǐngwèn	May I ask ..	Expression used to preface a question

Pinyin and Pronunciation

Each lesson will cover about 40 pinyin in a chart similar to the one below. Pinyin are composed of two parts: “initials” and “finals”. Initials are all consonants and the finals are vowels or vowel-like

initials: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, k, g, h, zh, ch, sh, j, q, x, z, c, s, r
finals: a, e, i, o, u, ü, n, ng, (and 29 other combinations of these 8)

These initials and finals combine to form 402 pinyin syllables. Which is very small number compared to over 5,000 in English. Not all pinyin syllables have initials. Here are some examples of initial and final combinations:

Pinyin	Initial	Final	Chinese	English
wo	(none)	o	我	me
ni	n	i	你	you
hao	h	ao	好	good

In the pinyin chart below you can see how each pinyin syllable is composed of an initial part (in the top row) and a final part (in the left column).

Click on the pinyin syllable to hear its pronunciation.

finals: initials		b	p	m	f	d	t	n	l	g	k	h	sounds like
a	a	ba	pa	ma	fa	da	ta	na	la	ga	ka	ha	la
o	wo	bo	po	mo	fo								whoa
e	e			me		de	te	ne	le	ge	ke	he	mud
i	yi	bi	pi	mi		di	ti	ni	li				need
u	wu	bu	pu	mu	fu	du	tu	nu	lu	gu	ku	hu	food
ü	yu							nü	lü				few

Notes

The first column contains a list of finals, the first row contains the initials. Together these two parts combine to make a single pinyin sound.
The second column contains pinyin which have no initial. Some of these syllables start with a “w” or “y” to make them easier to read, but it does not indicate a change in pronunciation. For example “yi” is pronounced “ee” not “yee”, the “y” is just decoration.
To hear the difference between ü and u, try saying phew and foo.
To pronounce ü, try saying “ee” and then protrude your lips. In other words, your tongue teeth and throat are in the same position when you pronounce “ee” and “ew”, only your lip position differs.

Pinyin Practice:

Listen, and circle the correct choice

1	ba – bo, me – mi, ta – tu, fa – fo
2	he – ke, nu – nü, ga – ka, ku – hu

Listen, and add the tone marks

1	mang, lei, hao, lao shi, xue sheng
2	Ying guo, Mei guo, Zhong guo, na guo
3	Zhong guo ren, ta men, wo men, ni men

Grammar Patterns

The verb “shì”

This verb is similar to the English verb “to be”, with two notable differences

It is regular. No matter how it is used, it is aways “shì”. Chinese has no irregular verbs.
It is never used with adjectives.

For example, “Tā máng” expresses “He is busy” without using shì, or any other verb.

Shì is not used with adjectives but it is used with nouns.

Tā shì Yīngguó rén
Wǒ shì lǎoshī

Basic sentence pattern

The basic sentence structure in Chinese is subject – verb – object. Chinese does use the subject – object – verb pattern found in Japanese and German, but it will not be introduces until the level 3 series.

subject	verb	object
Wǒ	shì	Měiguó rén.
Tā	xìng	Lǐ.
Nǐ	jiào	shénme míngzi?

This sentence structure is also used when asking questions. For example, to solicit confirmation of a statement, the statement is simply followed by a ma. This is a lot easier than the English pattern of inverting the subject and verb.

statement	ma
Nǐ shì Měiguó rén	ma?
Tā xìng Lǐ	ma?

Possessive

The particle de can be used to indicate possessive. This particle de is equivalent to the apostrophe-s suffix in English.

tāmen de lǎoshī – Their teacher
lǎoshī de xuésheng – Teacher’s students

Answering Confirmation Questions

Providing confirmation in Chinese requires more attention than English, because the answer depends on the words in the question. Typically, the response is a positive or negative form of the verb or adjective. But “Shì”/”Shì de” and “Bú shì” can be used like the English “yes” and “no” respectively. There are no rules regarding this, but Chinese speakers tend to use the main verb or adjective when it obvious from structure of the question sentence.

sentence type	question	answer
sentence type	question	affirmative	negative
adjective	Nǐ máng ma?	Máng.	Bù máng
verb	Nǐ shì Zhōngguó rén ma?	Shì.	Bú shì
complex		Shì de.	Bú shì

Answering specific questions

Other questions, not ending with ma, will contain an interrogative pronoun, also known as a question word. This type of question requests specific information. Paying attention to the word order will improve your listening and speaking skills.

Note that the word order of the answer will be the same as the question. And the requested information will occupy the same position in the sentence as the question word. You can think of the interrogative pronoun as a place-holder for the answer (which is what pronouns do). Compare the questions and answers of the following 3 exchanges.

	Questions	Answers
1	Shéi shì lǎoshī?	Wǒ shì lǎoshī.
2	Tā xìng shénme?	Tā xìng Lǐ.
3	Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén?	Wǒ shì Yīngguó rén.

Listening for the sentence patterns will help you answer questions more easily.

Classroom activities


(张) Zhāng Mǐn	(李) Lǐ Mǎlì	(尚) Shàng Dàwei	(王) Wáng Mǎkè

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

This recording

omits two words from the dialogs transcript. See if you can pick them out. To download the recording right click here , and select “save as”.

Voice recording courtesy of Jo Ding, https://joding1212.blog.sohu.com

Lesson 3 – Introductions

Mr Wang (王) and Ms Zhang (张) have been working all morning for a neighborhood cleanup project.

Dialog

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
张	Ní hǎo!	你好!	Hello!
王	Ní hǎo!	你好!	Hello!
张	Nín guì xìng?	您贵姓？	What is your family name?
王	Wǒ xìng Wáng，nǐ ne?	我姓王，你呢？	My family name is Wang, and you?
张	A, ní hǎo Wáng xiānsheng ，wǒ xìng Zhāng.	阿，你好，王先生。我姓张。	Oh, hello Mr. Wang, I am named Zhang.
王	Ní hǎo Zhāng xiáojiě. Nǐ lèi ma?	你好，张小姐。你累吗？	Hello Ms. Zhang, are you tired?
张	Wǒ bú lèi ，nǐ ne?	我不累，你呢？	I am not tired, how about you?
王	Wó yě bú lèi.	我也不累。	I am also not tired.
张	Qǐng wèn, tā jiào shénme míngzi?	请问，她叫什么名字？	May I ask, what is her name?
王	Tā? Tā jiào Lǐ Měiměi.	她？她叫李美美。	Her? She is called Li Meimei.
张	Zàijiàn.	再见。	Bye.
王	Zàijiàn.	再见。	Bye.

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Chinese names

A Chinese name starts with family name, followed by given names. This is the opposite of English, so the terms “first name” and “last name” are not helpful when talking about Chinese people. Using the terms “family name” and “given name” will avoid confusion. Names with a title also follow a pattern that differs from English: the title follows the name.

Family name	Given name
Lǐ	Měiměi
Wáng	Mǎkè
Zhāng	Mǐn

Family name	Title
Lǐ	xiáojiě
Wáng	xiānsheng
Zhāng	lǎoshī

	Pinyin	English	Notes
他，她	tā	him/her/she/he/it	Pronoun, third person singular
累	lèi	tired	Adjective, “to be tired”
先生	xiānsheng	Mr.	Polite title for a man. Like all titles, it comes after the name.
小姐	xiáojiě	Ms.	Polite title for a woman.
姓	xìng	family name	Verb meaning to have a particular family name
贵姓	guì xìng	honorable family name	Only used when asking someones name
叫	jiào	called	Verb, meaning “to be called” or “to be named”
什么	shénme	what	Question word, equivalent to “what”
名字	míngzì	name	Noun, could mean full name, family name or given name
问	wèn	ask	Verb, meaning “to ask”
请问	qǐng wèn	May I ask ..	Expression used to preface a question
王	Wáng	Wong	Family name
李	Lǐ	Lee	Family name

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials: finals:	a	o	e	i	u	ü	English approx	Pronunciation Group
	a	wo	e	yi	wu	yu
z	za		ze	zi	zu		clods	Dental (z,c,s)
c	ca		ce	ci	cu		cats
s	sa		se	si	su		sip
zh	zha		zhe	zhi	zhu		germ	Retroflex (zh,ch,sh,r)
ch	cha		che	chi	chu		churn
sh	sha		she	shi	shu		sure
r			re	ri	ru		car
j	jia		jie	ji		ju	jeep	Palatal (j,q,x)
q	qia		qie	qi		qu	cheap
x	xia		xie	xi		xu	sheep
Audio

Notes:

Yu, ju, qu, xu are all pronounced with the ü sound, but the dots are omitted for convenience.
To learn more about pronouncing these initials see pronunciation tips
Pinyin sounds with the same final generally rhyme, but “i” is a notable exception.
- For zi, ci, si the “i” is a lightly voiced “i” as in “hit”.
- For zhi, chi, shi and ri the “i” is pronounced like “rrr”
- Fort ji, qi, and xi the “i” is pronounced like “eee”

Listening Exercises

Listen and add the correct tone marks

1	nin gui xing, xiao jie, xian sheng
2	qing wen, ming zi, jiao shen me
3	Zhang, Wang, Shang, Li

Listen and circle the one you hear

1	ji – zhi, chi – qi, chu – qu, xu – shu,
2	ce – ci, shi – si, zhu – ju, shi – she,
3	zhi – chi, re – ri, zhe – zhi, qia – cha

Grammar Patterns

Asking Questions

When initiating a conversation with a question, the phrase “Qǐng wèn” is very helpful. The meaning of this phrase is “may I ask ..”. It lets the listener know that you are going to ask a question in Mandarin, which may be unexpected.

Qǐng means something similar to “please” and used to invite someone to do something
wèn is the verb “to ask”. For example “nǐ wèn tā” means “you ask him”.

Asking someone’s name

Not all sentences follow a grammatical pattern. “Nín guì xìng?” is one example. Grammatically speaking, this is not really a question. But it is the appropriate way to inquire about someone’s family name. Literally it means “Your honorable family name”.

A somewhat less polite, but more grammatical, way of asking is “nǐ xìng shénme”. The meaning is “What is your family name”.

nǐ – you
xìng – family name (used as a verb)
shénme – what

Another common way to inquire about someone’s name is to ask “nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?”.

jiào – is called
shénme – what
míngzi – name

The meaning is: “what do you prefer to be called”. This question can be answered with a family name or a given name or both depending on the preference of the one being asked. Chinese use given names only with close friends, so in a work situation the answer to this question might be “Lǐ Měiměi” or just “Lǐ”, but it is not likely to be “Měiměi”.

Use ma for confirmation

You may have noticed that some questions end with ma and others do not. There are two types of questions: confirmation and specific request. Never use ma for a specific request. Always use ma for confirmation. Examples:

Confirmation: “Tā xìng Lǐ ma?”
Specific request: “Tā xìng shénme?”

Some sentences have no verbs

Unlike English, Mandarin has some sentences with no verbs. If the sentence describes a condition and contains only a subject and adjective there will be no “to be” verb connecting them. The examples below illustrates this pattern.

Subject	Adverb	Adjective
Wǒ	bù	lèi
Nǐ	hěn	máng

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice.

Lesson 4 – Family Members

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

Dialog

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
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

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
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

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Vocabulary

	Pinyin	English	Notes
家	jiā	home, family	Noun, indicating home or family, depending on context.
有	yǒu	to have	Verb, indicating possession, real or abstract
没	méi	not	Adverb of negation, used to negate yǒu.
没有	méiyǒu	Verb, to not have
几	jǐ	how many	Interrogative pronoun, 12 or less.
个	gè		Classifier for people, and other things.
两	liǎng	a couple	Number 2 used only with classifiers (“èr” is almost never used with classifiers.)
爸爸	bàba	dad	Noun
妈妈	māma	mom	Noun
哥哥	gēge	older brother	Noun
弟弟	dìdi	younger brother	Noun
姐姐	jiějie	older sister	Noun
妹妹	mèimei	younger sister	Noun
和	hé	and	Conjunction, used only with lists of things.

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials: finals:	b	p	m	f	d	t	n	l	g	k	h	Hint
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.

number	classifier	noun
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.

Type	Description	Examples	1	2	3
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

Click on the player to start the audio.
Lesson

(right click Download , select “save as”)

Lesson 5 – Ordering drinks

Mr Wang (王) takes drink orders from Ms Zhang (张) and her friends.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Nǐmen hē shénme？	你们喝什么？	What do you want to drink? (“want” is implied)
张	Wǒmen yào liǎng píng píjiǔ.	我们要两瓶啤酒。	We want two bottles of beer.
王	Hǎo de, qíng děng yí xià	好的，请等一下。	Okay, wait just a bit.
张	Hǎo de. Xièxie	好的，谢谢。	Sure. Thanks.

Mr Wang now takes orders from Ms Zhang and her friends.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Qǐng wèn, (nǐ) hē diǎn shénme?	请问, 你喝点什么？	May I ask, do you want to drink a little something?
张	Yì bēi chá.	一杯茶。	A cup of tea
王	Nǐ yào lǜ chá, háishì hóng chá?	你要绿茶, 还是红茶？	Do you want green tea or red tea?
张	Lǜ chá.	绿茶。	Green tea.
F1	Wó yě yào lǜ chá.	我也要绿茶。	I also want green tea.
F2	Wǒ hē yì bēi kāfēi.	我喝一杯咖啡。	I’ll drink a cup of coffee.
F3	Yì píng kělè hé yì bēi shuǐ。	一瓶可乐和一杯水。	One bottle of Cola and a glass of water.

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Beijing Accent

Note that diǎn in the dialog is pronounced diǎr. The “n” sound is replaced by the “r” sound. The “r” sound has its origin in the Beijing dialect. In the Beijing dialect many words end with this “r” sound, and some of them are now used around the country. Diǎr and nǎr are widely used in textbooks and other learning materials. The pinyin can be written as diǎr or diǎnr.

Vocabulary

	Pinyin	English	Notes
喝	hē	to drink	Verb
啤酒	píjiǔ	beer	Noun
咖啡	kāfēi	coffee	Noun
茶	chá	tea	Noun, the drink that put China on the map.
水	shuǐ	water	Noun
可乐	kělè	Coke	Noun
杯	bēi	cup	Measure word for things which come in cups. Examples: yì bēi chá, liǎng bēi kāfēi
瓶	píng	bottle	Measure word for things that come in bottles. Examples: yì píng píjiǔ, liǎng píng kělè
等	děng	to wait	Verb
一下	yí xià	just a little	Expression, used to soften the verb examples: děng yí xià, hē yí xià,
还是	háishì	or	Interrogative pronoun, used when offering a choice between two alternatives.
点	diǎn	a little	Particle, used to soften a sentence, no real meaning.
绿	lǜ	green	Adjective, the color green.
红	hóng	red	Adjective, the color red.
谢谢	xièxie	thank-you	Expression of gratitude.
要	yào	want	verb

Pinyin Practice

In this lesson we look at the nasal finals.

finals: initials		b	p	m	f	d	t	n	l	g	k	h
an	an	ban	pan	man	fan	dan	tan	nan	lan	gan	kan	han
en	en	ben	pen	men	fen			nen		gen	ken	hen
ang	ang	bang	pang	mang	fang	dang	tang	nang	lang	gang	kang	hang
eng	eng	beng	peng	meng	feng	deng	teng	neng	leng	geng	keng	heng
in	yin	bin	pin	min				nin	lin

Listen, and circle the correct choice

1) ban – ben, en – yin, pang – peng, fan – fang
2) dang – deng, tan – tang, tao – tou, min – men
3) shi – xi, zhe – ji, zha – za, se – ce
4) gang – geng, kang – hang, lei – lai, nen – nin

Listen, and add the tone marks

1) yi bei cha, liang ping pijiu, kele,
2) haishi, shui, kafei, he, lü, hong
3) zhong guo, mei guo, ying guo
4) deng yi xia, qing wen, dian

Tone Change Rules:

As if learning a tonal language wasn’t hard enough, the Chinese also employ “tone change” to some syllables. This is because strictly pronouncing all the tones would be too sing-songy and tiring. These rules are linguistically referred to as “tone sandhi”. To learn more, follow this link. Pinyin is usually printed with “dictionary tone”. This textbook might be the only one ever printed with “spoken tone” (ie, with tone change applied) .

Third tone syllables (like hǎo) are pronounced with a different pitch change depending on the tone of the following syllable. Basically, the rule is: if there are 2 or more third tones in a row, the first is pronounced like a second tone. We have already seen this with nǐhǎo which is pronounced Níhǎo

You may wonder what happens if there multiple third tones in a row: Wǒ yě hěn hǎo. Basically the pronunciation is up to the speaker. It could pronounced: Wó yé hén hǎo. In other words, all the third tones change to second except the last one. Or it could be pronounced wó yě hén hǎo. Either way is fine.

By the way, most of the time, the 3rd tone syllables only go low. Actually, the only time it goes back up is at punctuation points.

The case of 一 (yī) : When 一 (yī) occurs in a number (any type of number, nominal or ordinal) it is pronounced first tone. If it occurs outside of a number, it follows the same rules as 不 (bù).

The case of 不 (bù): When combined with other syllables yī and bù will change tone. They change to 2nd (yí, bú) when followed by a 4th tone and 4th (yì, bù) when followed by any other tone.

Alone	Before 1st tone	Before 2nd tone	Before 3rd tone	Before 4th tone	Examples
yī	yì	yì	yì	yí	yì bēi, yì píng, yì wǎn, yí xià
bù	bù	bù	bù	bú	bù hē, bù máng, bù hǎo, bú yào

Good news: these are the only two syllable/words in Mandarin that do not follow the normal rules.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

Use the audio lesson to practice your pinyin. Click on the player to start the audio, then listen to the dialog and try to understand as much as possible without looking at the pinyin. Once you understand the words, then try to write the pinyin including tone marks.

First Audio by Danie Wu(right click here , select “save as”)

These next recordings are recorded a natural speed so they are a bit more challenging.

Second Audio by Zhang Min (right click here , select “save as”)

And her brother (right click here , select “save as”)

Lesson 6 – Pens and Paper

Ms Shang (尚) walks into a stationary store and is greeted by Mr Wang (王).

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Huān yíng, huān yíng! Nǐ yào shénme?	欢迎，欢迎。你要什么？	Welcome, what do you want?
尚	Wǒ yào yì zhī bǐ, liáng běn shū,	我要一支笔，两本书，	I want a pen, a couple books,
尚	hé sān zhāng zhǐ.	和三张纸。	and three sheets of paper.
王	Duì bu qǐ, wǒmen méiyǒu zhǐ.	对不起，我们没有纸。	Sorry, we don’t have paper.
尚	Shū hé bǐ ne?	书和笔呢？	How about books and pens?
王	Yǒu.	有。	Yes.
尚	Zhè shì shénme? (pointing near)	这是什么？	What is this?
王	Nà shì bǐ.	那是笔。	That is a pen.
尚	Nà shì shénme? (pointing far)	那是什么？	What is that?
王	Zhè shì shū.	这是书。	This is a book.
尚	Wǒ yào nà běn Yīngwén shū.	我要那本英文书。	I want that English book.
尚	Nà běn Zhōngwén shū, hé zhè zhī bǐ .	那本中文书，和这支笔。	That Chinese book and this pen.
王	Hǎo.	好。	Okay.

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Vocabulary

	Chinese	English	Notes
要	yào	to want	Verb
笔	bǐ	pen	Noun
支	zhī		Classifier for pens, brushes, etc. Example: yì zhī bǐ
纸	zhǐ	paper	Noun
张	zhāng		Classifier for paper, tables and other flat things: sān zhāng zhǐ
书	shū	book	Noun
本	běn		Classifier for books. Example: liǎng běn shū
这	zhè	this	Singular demonstrative pronoun, refers to a something close to the speaker.
那	nà	that	Singular demonstrative pronoun, refers to a something away from the speaker.
英文	Yīngwén	English	Noun，the English language.
中文	Zhōngwén	Chinese	Noun, the Chinese language.
欢迎	huānyíng	welcome	Greeting, often heard when a customer enters a retail store.
对不起	duì bu qǐ	sorry	Expression, used for “sorry” or “excuse me”
给	gěi	to give	Verb

Pinyin and Pronunciation

finals: initials		z	c	s	zh	ch	sh	r	j	q	x
ai	ai	zai	cai	sai	zhai	chai	shai
ao	ao	zao	cao	sao	zhao	chao	shao		jiao	qiao	xiao
ei	ei	zei			zhei		shei
ou	ou	zou	cou	sou	zhou	chou	shou	rou	jiu	qiu	xiu
wo	wo	zuo	cuo	suo	zhuo	chuo	shuo	ruo

Notice the similarity between the pairs: zhao-jiao, chao-qiao, shao-xiao. These pairs sound remarkably similar to anyone who grew up speaking English. There two key differences: tongue position and the “i” medial. To see how the tongue position for zh, ch and sh differs from q, s and x, please review the pinyin and pronunciation chart in lesson 3. Also listen to how the “i” in jiao, qiao, and xiao indicates the “ee” sound in the middle of the syllable. These two clues should help you distinguish the sounds.

Listen and circle the correct choice

	(Use 1st recording as a self test)
1	zai-cai, zao-cao, zai-zhei, zou-zuo
2	chai-shai, sao-shao, zhou-zhuo, zuo-cuo
3	chao-chou, shou-shuo, shao-shou
4	zhao-jiao, chao-qiao, shao-xiao, shou-xiu

Listen and add the correct tone marks

1	yi zhi bi, liang zhang zhi, san ben shu
2	yao, zhe, na, mang, lei, mei guo
3	Beijing, Shanghai, Yingwen, Zhongwen

Grammar Patterns

Singular or plural

Chinese nouns do not have a singular or plural form. So when a Chinese noun has no quantifier it can refer to one or many things, depending on context. In the dialog when the shopkeeper says “Zhè shì shū”, it is unclear if he is referring to one or many books. But if he says “Zhè shì liǎng běn shū” it is clear that he is referring to two books.

More about classifiers

Classifiers are required for quantifying nouns, among other things. They are called classifiers because they indicate that the noun that follows belongs to a certain class of things. For example zhāng is a classifier associated with flat things things, such as papers, beds and tables.

Number	Classifier	Noun	English
yì	běn	shū	one book
liǎng	zhī	bǐ	two pens
sān	zhāng	zhǐ	three pieces of paper

Demonstrative Pronouns

Classifiers are also needed with demonstrative pronouns (such as “this” and “that”). For example, “nà yì běn shū” means “that book”. When the quantifier is one, you may omit yì. For example, “nà běn shū” also means “that book”

pronoun	Number	Classifier	Noun	English
nà	(yì)	běn	shū	that book
zhè	liǎng	zhī	bǐ	these two pens
nà	sān	zhāng	zhǐ	those three sheets of paper

Example sentences:

Nà liǎng běn shū shì Yīngwén de – means “Those two books are English ones”.
Zhè yì běn shū shì Zhōngwén de – means “This book is a Chinese one”.

Note: here, the “de” in “Yīngwén de” makes a noun out the the adjective “Yīngwén”.

If an adjective is used to describe the noun it will follow the classifier

pronoun	Number	Classifier	Adjective	Noun	English
nà	(yì)	běn	Zhōngwén	shū	that Chinese book
zhè	liǎng	zhī	Měiguó de	bǐ	these two American pens
nà	sān	zhāng	hóng (red)	zhǐ	those three red sheets of paper

Example sentences:

Nà liǎng běn Yīngwén shū shì wǒ de – means “Those two English books are mine”.
Zhè yì běn Zhōngwén shū shì nǐ de – means “This Chinese book is yours”.

Note: here, “de” indicates possessive. “wǒ de” means “mine”.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

(right click here , select “save as”)

(right click here , select “save as”)
Voice recording courtesy of Wen Lingling

Lesson 7 – Ordering Food

Mr Zhang (张) and his friend peng (朋) would like to order some food.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
张	Wǒ hé wǒ de péngyou xiǎng chī wǔ fàn.	我和我的朋友想吃午饭。	Me and my friend would like to eat lunch.
王	Nǐmen xiǎng chī shénme?	你们想吃什么？	What would like to eat?
朋	Nǐmen zhèlǐ yǒu shénme?	你们这里有什么？	What do you have?
王	Wǒmen yǒu miàntiáo，jiǎozi，hé báifàn。	我们有面条，饺子，和白饭。	We have noodles, dumplings and white rice.
张	Ní yǒu qīngcài ma?	你有青菜吗？	Do you have vegetable dishes?
王	Yǒu.	有。	Have.
张	Wó xiǎng chī yì wǎn báifàn hé qīngcài.	我想吃一碗白饭和青菜	I would like to eat a bowl of rice and some green vegetables.
朋	Wó xiǎng yào yí fèn jiǎozi.	我想要一份饺子。	I would like a helping of dumplings.
王	Hǎo de, qíng děng yí xià.	好的，请等一下。	Okay, wait a bit.
张	Xiè xie。	谢谢。	Thanks.

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Vocabulary

Pinyin	Chinese	English
chī	吃	to eat	Verb
zhèlǐ	这里	here	Pronoun, meaning at this location
miàntiáo	面条	noodles	Noun
báifàn	白饭	white rice	Noun
wǎn	碗	bowl	Measure word for bowls of food
jiǎozi	饺子	dumplings
fèn	份	serving	Measure word for a portion of food
qīngcài	青菜	green vegetables
xiǎng	想	would like	Modal Verb, indicating a desire for the verb which follows to occur.
péngyou	朋友	friend	Noun
wǔfàn	午饭	lunch	Noun. compare with zǎofàn (breakfast) and wǎnfàn (dinner)

Pinyin and Pronunciation

		z	c	s	zh	ch	sh	r	j	q	x
an	an	zan	can	san	zhan	chan	shan	ran	jian	qian	xian
en	en	zen	cen	sen	zhen	chen	shen	ren
ang	ang	zang	cang	sang	zhang	chang	shang	rang	jiang	qiang	xiang
eng	eng	zeng	ceng	seng	zheng	cheng	sheng	reng
in	yin								jin	qin	xin

Listen and circle the one you hear

1) zan – zen, zang – zeng, zen – cen, can – cen,
2) sang – san, zen – san, zhen – jian, jin – qin,
3) ren – rang, jian – xian, zhen – chen, ceng – cang,
4) chang – cheng, shan – sheng, zhe – she, sha – cha,

Listen and add the correct tone marks

1) xiang chi, shen me, zhe li, qing cai
2) mian tiao, jiao zi, bai fan, deng yi xia
3) zao fan, wan fan, wu fan, mei you, peng you

Grammar Patterns

Modal verbs

Instead of representing an action or a state, modal verbs represent modalities, such as wanting or preferring. A modal sentence describes the relationship between the subject and the main verb. This table contains some examples from English

subject	modal verb	verb phrase
I	would like	to eat.
John	wants	to drink a beer.

Modal sentences in Chinese have a similar structure.

subject	modal verb	verb phrase
Wǒ	xiǎng	chī yí fèn jiǎozi
Nǐ péngyou	yào	hē píjiǔ
Wǒmen	xiǎng	yào yí wǎn miàntiáo

The object of a modal verb is the subsequent verb. “yào” can be used as both a modal verb and a main verb, but “xiǎng” can only be used as a modal verb. For example: “wǒ yào hē píjiǔ” and “wǒ yào píjiǔ” are okay. However, although you can “xiǎng” drinking, you can not “xiǎng” beer.

Note, it may seem a little strange to say “xiǎng yào”, which literally this means “I would like to want”. But actually “yào” is just a place holder for an implied verb (like hē or chī). If you think about it, the English sentence: “I would like a beer” is also assuming an implied verb. The real meaning is “I would like to order a beer”.

Please note that when confirming question with a modal verb, use modal verb as the answer, not the main verb. For example:

Question	Answer
Ní xiǎng chī jiǎozi ma?	Xiǎng.
Nǐ péngyou yào hē píjiǔ ma?	Tā bú yào.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

Click on the player to hear the dialog.

(to download right click here , select “save as”)

Voice recording courtesy of Jo Ding, https://joding1212.blog.sohu.com

Lesson 8 – Going Places

Ms Wáng (王) and Ms Lǐ (李) are arranging a lunch meeting over the phone.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
李	Níhǎo，nǐ máng ma?	你好，你忙吗？	Hi, are you busy?
王	Bù máng, nǐ ne?	不忙，你呢？	Not at all. And you?
李	Wó yě bù máng. Wǒmen qù chī fàn ba.	我也不忙，我们去吃饭吧。	I’m also not busy. Let’s go eat.
王	Hǎo. Qù nálǐ?	好，去哪里?	Okay. Where to?
李	Wǒ zài bàngōngshì. Nǐ kéyǐ lái zhèlǐ ma?	我在办公室，你可以来这里吗？	I am at the office. Can you come here?
王	Wǒ zài xuéxiào. Qù shāngdiàn jiàn, hǎo bù hǎo?	我在学校，去商店见,好不好？	I am at school. Can we meet at the store?
李	Hǎo.	好.	Okay.
张	Zàijiàn!	再见！	Bye!

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Vocabulary

Pinyin	Chinese	English
nálǐ	哪里	where	Interrogative pronoun used to ask about location.
nàlǐ	那里	there	Pronoun, located away from the speaker. Compare to zhèlǐ (here)
qù	去	go	Verb indicating motion in the direction away from the speaker.
lái	来	come	Verb indicating motion in the direction towards the speaker.
zài	在	at	Verb, meaning “located at”
ba	吧		Particle, turns the sentence into a suggestion.
xuéxiào	学校	school	Noun, any type school
bàngōngshì	办公室	office	Noun, any type office
shāngdiàn	商店	store	Noun, any type of store
fàndiàn	饭店	restaurant	Noun, any type of restaurant
duì	对	correct	Adjective, indicating the state or condtion of being correct.
jiàn	见	meet	Verb, to meet someone casually
kéyǐ	可以	can	Modal verb, indicates permission or ability

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials: finals:		b	p	m	d	t	n	l	j	q	x
i	yi	bi	pi	mi	di	ti	ni	li	ji	qi	xi
ia	ya							lia	jia	qia	xia
ie	ye	bie	pie	mie	die	tie	nie	lie	jie	qie	xie
iao	yao	biao	piao	miao	diao	tiao	niao	liao	jiao	qiao	xiao
iou	you			miu	diu		niu	liu	jiu	qiu	xiu

This group is a subset of the “i” medials (the ones with the “i” sound in the middle). Except for the first column and the first row, each word from this set consists of three parts. For example “bie” is composed of:

initial: “b”
medial: “i”
final: “e”

These words almost sound like they have two syllables “bie” = bee-eh, but the two syllables merge into a single sound.

Please note the last row. The combination of “iou” is an example of an inconsistency in the pinyin “spelling” system.

In the first column, “you”, the “y” simply replaces the “i” in “iou”. But in the others, the “o” has been dropped, leaving “iu”.
Unfortunately, by dropping the “o”, an important visual clue for pronunciation is lost.
Due to regional dialects, “iu” is pronounced differently in different parts of China. In particular, “liu” is sometimes pronounce lee-ew, even though the standard pronunciation is lee-oh.

Listening Practice

	Circle the one you hear	Add the correct tone marks
1	bie – bei, die – dei, yi – ye, yao – you,	xuexiao, bangongshi, shangdian,
2	yi – ya, ji – jia, bi – bie, qi – qia,	nali, zheli, nali,
3	niao – niu, liao – liu, jiao – jiu, jiao – qiao,	bi, mian tiao, pi jiu
4	xia – xie, qi – qie, qia – qiao, tie – tiao,	qu, lai, zai, dui, keyi, qing wen

Grammar patterns

Verb-not-verb pattern

The verb-not-verb pattern is used to ask a question. If a verb-not-verb pattern appears in a sentence, there will be no “ma” at the end of the sentence. There are a number of variations on this pattern, involving adjectives, modal verbs and action verbs.

verb type	subject	verb-not-verb	object	alternate verbs
adjective	tāmen	máng bù máng		lèi bú lèi, hǎo bù hǎo
action verb	lǎoshī	qù bú qù	xuéxiào	lái bù lái, zài bú zài
modal verb	Wáng xiānsheng	yào bú yào	hē jiǔ	xiǎng bù xiǎng

Note that when using the verb-not-verb pattern with yǒu, you must use méi.

nǐ yǒu méi yǒu dìdi?

It is also used with duì and hǎo when seeking confirmation on a statement

statement	verb-not-verb
shū zài zhèli	duì bú duì
wǒmen qù shāngdiàn	hǎo bù hǎo

Multi-verb Sentences

A Chinese sentence may have more than one verb phrase and no connecting word is required. However, any verb phrase indicating time, manner or location should come before an action phrase. Here are some examples.

Subject	Modal verb	Location phrase	Action phrase	(Question)
Nǐmen	xiǎng	lái wǒ jiā	jiàn péngyou	ma?
Wǒmen	yào	qù fàndiàn	chī fàn	hǎo bù hǎo?
Tāmen	bù kéyǐ	zài bàngōngshì	hē píjiǔ.

Practice

Multi-verb sentences have the form: [subject][modal verb][action phrase]

[subject] can be a pronoun, type of person, or name
[modal verb] can be xiǎng, yào, or kěyǐ
can use qù, lái, or zài
[action phrase] can use jiàn, chī, or hē

Using vocabulary from this lesson, write 3 mult-verb sentences using “ba” to indicate a suggestion, 3 in the form of a question using “ma” and, finally, 3 in the form of a question using verb-not-verb. Please bring your sentences to the next class and share.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

Click on the player to hear the dialog.

(to download right click here , select “save as”)

Lesson 9 – Going Tonight

Mr Wang (王) and Ms Shang (尚) are co-workers and happen to meet in the hallway.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
尚	Ní hǎo, Wáng xiānshēng. Nǐ míngtiān qù nálǐ?	你好，王先生。你明天去哪里？	Hello Mr Wang. Where are you going tomorrow?
王	Qù shànghǎi.	去上海。	To Shanghai.
尚	Shénme shíhou qù? Shàngwǔ háishì xiàwǔ?	什么时候去？上午还是下午？	When (do you) go? Morning or afternoon?
王	Wǒ xiàwǔ qù.	我下午去.	I’m going in the afternoon
尚	Jīntiān wǎnshang nǐ máng ma?	今天晚上你忙吗？	This evening are you busy?
王	Wǒ bù máng .	我不忙。	I am not busy.
尚	Wǎnshang nǐ gēn wǒ qù chīfàn, hǎo ma?	晚上你跟我去吃饭，好吗？	Tonight, how about having dinner with me?
王	Hǎo a!	好啊！	Okay!
尚	Nà, wǒmen jīntiān wǎnshang jiàn.	那，我们今天晚上见。	In that case, see you tonight.
王	Hǎo de, wǎnshang jiàn.	好的，晚上见。	Okay, see you tonight.

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

	jīntiān	míngtiān
zǎoshang	7:00	7:00
zǎoshang	8:00	8:00
shàngwǔ	9:00	9:00
	10:00	10:00
	11:00	11:00
zhōngwǔ	12:00	12:00
xiàwǔ	1:00	1:00
	2:00	2:00
	3:00	3:00
	4:00	4:00
wǎnshang	5:00	5:00
	6:00 Gēn péngyou chīfàn	6:00
	6:00	6:00

Vocabulary

Pinyin	Chinese	English
míngtiān	明天	tomorrow	noun
jīntiān	今天	today	noun
zuótiān	昨天	yesterday	noun
shénme shíhòu	什么时候	when	Interrogative pronoun. Literally “what time”, because shíhòu means time.
shàngwǔ	上午	late morning	noun
xiàwǔ	下午	afternoon	noun
zhōngwǔ	中午	noon	noun
nà	那	then	conjunction, “in that case”
gēn	跟	with	preposition
xiànzài	现在	now	The present moment

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials: finals:	b	p	m	d	t	n	l	j	q	x
in	bin	pin	min			nin	lin	jin	qin	xin
ian	bian	pian	mian	dian	tian	nian	lian	jian	qian	xian
ing	bing	ping	ming	ding	ting	ning	ling	jing	qing	xing
iang						niang	liang	jiang	qiang	xiang

Listen and circle the one you hear

1) yin – yan, ban – bian, bin – bing, ying – yang,
2) pin – pen, pian – pan, mian – mang, jin – jian,
3) xing – xiang, qiang – chang, xing – xin, jiao – qiao,
4) xia – xie, qi – qie, qia – qiao, tie – tiao,

Listen and add the correct tone marks

1) jin tian, ming tian, shang wu
2) gen wo yi qi, ting yin yue
3) shen me shi hou, jintian xia wu
4) wan shang jian, Shang hai

Grammar Patterns

Time when

When expressing the time at which an action will take place, the time information must precede the verb. Consider these two examples, which demonstrate that the time information may come before or after the subject, as long as it precedes the verb.

Wǒ míngtiān qù xuéxiào
Jīntiān wǒ hěn lèi

Time words may follow a modal verb, but they must precede the main verb. The choice of order depends on emphasis. Just like in English, to emphasize something, it is placed earlier in the sentence

	Time
	Míngtiān	wó xiǎng chī jiǎozi.	(emphasis on time)
Wǒ	míngtiān	xiǎng chī jiǎozi.	(emphasis on who)
Wǒ xiǎng	míngtiān	chī jiǎozi.	(emphasis on preference)

Word order

When describing a point in time, the more general time words must precede the more specific words. For example “this morning” is jīntiān zǎoshang – and not the other way around, because “today” is more general than “morning”.

Examples

Jīntiān xiàwǔ wǒ qù xué xiào.
Nǐ míngtiān wǎnshang xiǎng chī jiǎozi.
Tā yào zuótiān zǎoshang qù Shanghai.

Chinese uses this logical approach, of word order determined by general before specific, for more than just describing time. For example, t is also used for describing dates and locations. This is a very satisfying pattern of expression and will not take you long to get used to.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

(to download right click here , select “save as”)

Second voice recording courtesy of Cecilia Shang

Lesson 10 – Time for Dinner

Mr Wang (王) and Ms Zhang (张) are arranging a dinner date.

	Pinyin	Chinese	English
王	Nǐ jīntiān wǎnshang gàn shénme ?	你今天晚上干什么？	What are you doing this evening?
尚	Jīntiān shì xīngqī jǐ?	今天是星期几？	Today is what day of the week?
王	Xīngqīwǔ.	星期五。	Friday.
尚	Wǒ méishì.	我没事。	I’m not doing anything.
王	Wǒmen yìqǐ qù chī wǎnfàn， hǎo bu hǎo?	我们一起去吃晚饭，好不好？	Let’s have dinner together, okay?
尚	Hǎo, jí diǎn zhōng?	好，几点钟？	Sure, what time?
王	Wǎnshang qī diǎn bàn.	晚上七点半。	7:30PM
尚	Wǒmen qù nálǐ ?	我们去哪里？	Where will we go?
王	Qù Běijīng fàndiàn ba.	去北京饭店吧。	To the Beijing Restaurant.
尚	Běijīng Fàndiàn yóu kǎoyā ma?	北京饭店有烤鸭吗？	Does Beijing Restaurant have roast duck?
王	Yǒu, tāmen de kǎoyā hén hǎochī.	有, 他们的烤鸭很好吃。	Yes, their roast duck is very delicious.
尚	Wǒmen zǎo yìdiǎn qù ba.	我们早一点去吧。	Let’s go a little earlier, okay?
王	Hǎo ba, liù diǎn yíkè ba.	好吧, 6点一刻吧。	Okay 6:15?

Improve your pronunciation! After listening to the audio, try recording your own voice. Click here to repeat the last audio played

Vocabulary

Pinyin	Chinese	Engish
gàn shénme	干什么	what are you doing?	Interogative Pronoun
xīngqī	星期	week	Noun, for example, “one week” is yì gè xīngqī.
xīngqīwǔ	星期五	Friday	Noun, 5th day of the week. Note: each day of the week follows this format. Except Sunday which is xīngqī tian
xīngqī jǐ	星期几	which day	Interogatvie pronoun, meaning “which day of the week”. Previously we learned that jǐ means how many. This usage is similar, but different
shì	事	matter, affair	Noun, something that requires someones attention
diǎn	点	hour o’clock	Noun, like tiān this word acts as its own measure word for hours.
diǎnzhōng	点钟	hour o’clock	Noun, note: diǎn and diǎnzhōng can be used interchangably in this context.
bàn	半	half	Number
kǎoyā	烤鸭	roast duck	Noun
fàndiàn	饭店	restaurant	Noun
hǎochī	好吃	delicious	Adjective
yíkè	一刻	one quarter hour
Hǎo ba	好吧	Okay	Expression of agreement

Pinyin and Pronunciation

initials: finals:	u	ua	uo	uai	uei	uan	un	uang	ung
	wu	wa	wo	wai	wei	wan	wen	wang	weng
zh	zhu	zhua	zhuo	zhuai	zhui	zhuan	zhun	zhuang	zhong
ch	chu		chuo		chui	chuan	chun	chuang	chong
sh	shu	shua	shuo	shuai	shui	shuan	shun	shuang
r	ru		ruo		rui	ruan	run		rong
z	zu		zuo		zui	zuan	zun		zong
c	cu		cuo		cui	cuan	cun		cong
s	su		suo		sui	suan	sun		song

Note

The “ui” combination is pronounced like the english word “way”. This combination should be spelled “uei”, but the designers of pinyin decided to leave out the “e” for your convenience.

Listen and circle the one you hear

cu – su, ru – rui, zhua – shua, zun – cun,
zhou – zhuo, cuo – zuo, shu – shuo, shuai – zhuai
shou – xiu, xue – shui, zuo – zou, rong – rang
chun – shun, wai – wei, ruan – run, su – sui

Listen and add the correct tone marks

gan shenme, xingqi, shi
dian zhong, liang dian ban, kao ya
fandian, haochi, yi ke
deng yi xia, mi fan, qing shao deng

Grammar Patterns

Zǎo yìdiǎn

This means “a little earlier”. The pattern is “yìdiǎn”. When yìdiǎn follows an adjective it indicated more. For example hǎo yìdiǎn, would mean “a little better”. [note: yìdiǎnr is the Beijing way to pronounce yìdiǎn]

Xīngqī jǐ

This means “which day of the week”. Previously we learned that jǐ means how many, but in this case it is asking for which number week day. jǐ is also used to ask about the time: jǐ diǎn (what time is it?)

Méishì

This expression is a short for méi yǒu shì, or “don’t have anything in particular to do”. To say the opposite you may use “wǒ yǒu shì”.

Homework

Check this link for Sentence Practice

Audio

(to download right click here , select “save as”)
Voice recording courtesy of Cecilia Shang, Effective Chinese Lead Teacher