Download
Mr Wang (王) in interested in buying some office supplies, Mr Li (李) is happy to help

Dialog

Grammar Points

More about numbers

When to use “liǎng” in numbers ..

• Use “liǎng” instead of “èr” when expressing the quantity 2.
• Use “èr” in the tens place and ones place in numbers larger than 2, for example 22 = “èr shí èr”
• Use “liǎng” in the hundreds and thousands place, for example 2222 = “liǎng qiān liǎng bǎi èr shí èr”
• Please note that “èr bǎi” is preferred in some regions of China.

When to use “líng”

• Use “líng” when a zero occurs between 2 numbers. Example: 202 is “liǎng bǎi líng èr“.
• Use only one “líng” for adjacent zeros. Example: 2002 is “liǎng qiān líng èr”.

When to omit the final “shí”

• The final “shí” may be dropped if the number ends with zero.

Example: 130 can be expressed as “yì bǎi sān”.

In English we use dollars and cents for quantifying money. But Chinese uses “máo”, in a similar way to express tens. For example:

• .50 = wǔ máo
• .55 = wǔ máo wǔ fēn

Since qián is a noun it may be omitted if it is obvious from the context. So both of the following are suitable as an answer to “How much is it?”:

• shí kuài qián = shí kuài = 10 dollars
• wǔ máo qián = wǔ máo = 50 cents

When expressing fractions of a dollar, you may use to use “máo” and “fēn”. For example.

• yì fēn = 1 cent
• yì máo = 10 cents
• yì máo 5 fēn = 15 cents

It might be helpful to think of “máo” as replacing “shí” when expressing fractions of a dollar.

The trailing denomination can be omitted if it is clear from context.

• yí kuài yì [máo] = 1 dollar 10 cents
• yì máo 5 [fēn] = 15 cents

Use of “líng” depends on context.

• Don’t start a number with “líng”. Example: 0.05 is just “wǔ fēn”.
• Only use between two numbers. Example: 1.05 is “yì kuài líng wǔ fēn”.

Most things in China cost more than 100RMB. here are some examples of amounts over 100

• yì bǎi kuài (100 dollars)
• yì bǎi bā shí kuài (180 dollars)
• yì bǎi bā shí wu kuài (185 dollars)
• liǎng bǎi èr shí èr kuài (222 dollars)

In this conversation a mother and her daughter are shopping for clothes (mp3)

Grammar patterns

When to use “de” with adjectives

Adjectives are used to qualify nouns, that is to say, they add information about the noun. In Chinese, like English, the adjective precedes the noun in word order. Adjectives are often linked to a noun using the structural partical “de”, but it is not always required. Here are a couple of examples

The rule is simple. If the adjective has two or more syllables then use “de” otherwise you can omit it.

Note that “lǜ chá” is not actually green colored tea, and “hēi kāfēi” means coffee with nothing extra. So in these two cases, adding “sè de” would change the meaning.

Hóng is in Xi’an and Yuè is in Beijing. They are comparing the weather.(mp3)

Grammar Patterns

Asking about the weather

Just as in English, the Chinese ask about the weather using open-ended sentences like “How’s the weather”. In Chinese it is a good idea to provide an editorial assessment first, like “good” or “bad” and then follow up with additional commentary. The first lines two lines of this dialog are good examples. The subject of the question can be a location, a time, or both

• Běijīng de tiānqì zěnmeyàng? – How is Beijing’s weather?
• Jīntiān de tiānqì zěnmeyàng? – How is Todays’s weather?
• Míngtiān Xī’ān de tiānqì zěnmeyàng? – How will tomorrow’s weather in Xian be?

The answer can be any expression satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Here are a few simple ones

• Bù hǎo, xià yǔ. – Bad, it is raining.
• Hén hǎo, qíng tiān. – Good, it is sunny

Verbs with obligatory objects

Chinese has many types of verbs. Lots of verbs come in sets. One such type is sometimes call verb-object verbs because the verb requires an object. Here are a few examples.

• xiàyǔ (raining)
• guāfēng (windy)
• chīfàn (eating)

Expressing sameness

To say that two things are the same you join them with “hé” or “gěn” and follow them with “yīyáng”

Expressing consistent characteristics

If you want to say that something has two characteristics that are both positive or both negative then you can use the “Yòu … yòu …” pattern.

Wang Xing (王星) and Mǎkè (马克) are having a chat. ( Download )

This dialog is a good model for learning new words from your Chinese friends. It helps to ask questions to be sure you are hearing the tone and pronunciation correctly.

Grammar Patterns

Doubling up on verbs

When a verb is repeated in a sentence (such as Qǐng gěi wǒ kàn kàn) it indicates that the action is expected to have a short duration. For example kàn kàn could be translated as “a little look”. It can be separated by an optional yī (一) as in “kàn yī kàn” but the meaning is still the same. The pattern “verb yí xià” also has the same meaning. The following table show all three forms for two different verbs.

Please note, the form in the first column is most common

Ordinals

Ordinals are words that express the sequential order of things, like “first”, “second”, “third” and so forth. Note that the first 3 English ordinals bear no relationship to the words: one, two and three. Chinese is a bit clearer because the ordinal is formed by simply prefacing a number with “dì”

By the way, did you notice that two of the words in this table have no classifier. There are very few words like “tiān” and “shēng”, but these words are actually considered to be classifiers where noun is always omitted. This is like, when you say “yì kuài” or “yi kuài qián”, but “yì kuài” is preferred if the context is clear.

Learning New Words

When you hear a new word it is a good idea to learn as much as you can about the word. For example: how to pronounce it, how to write it and how to use it. In this way you will be able to retain it and use it later. If you use chinese to request this information, you have more chance to practice the language and it will make the request clearer.

Asking about the parts of a word

Many Chinese words are often composed of two parts, so it helps to be able to ask about each part separately. For example, to find out more about “shǒu” part of “shǒujī” you can express this with the phrase:

• “shǒujī “de “shǒu”.

This means “the shǒu in shǒujī”.

Using this grammar pattern you can ask a question about one part of the word. For example …

• “shǒujī” de “shǒu” shì dì sān shēng ma? (Is the shǒu in shǒujī 3rd tone?)
• “shǒujī” de “shǒu” gěn yòushǒu de shǒu yíyàng ma? (Is the shǒu in shǒujī the same as shǒu in yòushǒu?

This type of inquiry is similar to an English learner asking if “examination” is based on the word “examine”

Knowing and understanding

These two Chinese verbs (zhīdào and míngbai) align well with the English equivalents “know” and “understand”. Chinese has many words for knowing and understanding, but the two listed below are widely used.

• zhīdào (知道) has to do with knowing facts
• míngbai (明白) has to do with understanding or comprehension.

One way to see how these two verbs are used is to imagine you are listening to someone speak Chinese. You will be expected to give the speaker feedback from time to time to confirm that you are listening and comprehending. Here are some responses you might make.

• “Míngbai” – I understand what you said.
• “Bu míngbai” – I don’t understand what you said.
• “Zhīdào” – I understand, and I already knew it.
• “Zhīdào le” – I understand, and but I did not know it before.

Wáng Xīng (王星) is catching up with Mǎkè (马克 about the details of his trip to Shanghai Download

Grammar Patterns

Aspect -vs- Tense

Chinese is different from English when it comes to expressing when things occurred. Where as in English we can put any action into one of three tenses (past, present and future), Chinese uses temporal aspect to distinguish time.

One example of a temporal aspect is an action has been completed. An another example is an action that is still happening. Both languages express the same range of meaning with regard to action, but they go about it in slightly different ways.

In Chinese the verbs are combined with words such as “le”, “méi”, and “guò” to provide time related information. These words are call “aspect markers”, because the indicate temporal aspects. This chapter addresses the simplest grammar patterns for discussing things that have already occurred.

Talking about something that occurred, using 了(le)

If you want to indicate that you have completed some action you can use the suffix “le”. In this case the “le” usually follows the verb directly, the sentence final “le” usually indicates a change of state. However, when asking a question, the “le” occurs directly before “ma”.

• Wǒ qù le Shànghǎi. – I went to Shanghai.
• Tā chī le huǒguò. – He ate hot pot.
• Nǐ mǎi yīfù le ma? – Did you buy clothes?

Talking about things that didn’t happen, using 没(méi)

Using “méi” you can talk about what has not happened. Please note that “le” is never combined with “méi” .

• Wǒ méi qù Shànghǎi. – I did not go to Shanghai.
• Tā méi chī huǒguò. – He did not eat hot pot.
• Nǐ méi mǎi yīfù ma? – You didn’t buy clothes? (rhetorical

You can also use “méi” when describing experiences that have not happened.

• Wǒ méi qù guò Shànghǎi. – I have not been to Shanghai.
• Tā méi chī guò huǒguò. – He has not eaten hot pot.
• Nǐ méi mǎi guò yīfù. – You have not bought clothes.

Mǎkè 马克 introduces Wang Xing 王星 to his girlfriend.