|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:02 pm
 I've been posting lessons for (Mandarin) Chinese in the Lessons subforum for several months now, and I've received a lot of compliments for them, so I'll just be reposting those here for convenience. Besides, I'm far too lazy to write new ones anyway. talk2hand
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:05 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:06 pm
Overview of Writing System/Phonology
For more detailed information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_written_language
Chinese, as you probably know, is written in characters. Each character represents one spoken syllable, as well as a meaning. In addition to standing on their own a lot of the time (for example, 花 huā, flower; 人 rén, person; 好 hǎo, good), characters can be combined to form words to explain more complex concepts: the Chinese word for "computer," 电脑 diànnǎo, is made up of the words 电 diàn, meaning "electric," and 脑 nǎo, meaning "brain".
Radicals are the smaller elements that make up a character. It's helpful to be familiar with them because they often give you hints as to what a character means and/or how to pronounce it. I'm not going to belabor the point by listing out a lot of them at this point, but if you're curious about radicals, there's a good wikipedia article on them that you can read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_character)
As I introduce new vocabulary throughout the lessons, I'll point out important radicals to know in the characters.
Pinyin is a system of romanization (that is, writing out in the Latin alphabet like English) for Chinese. It is very useful for people learning Chinese, as it tells you exactly how to pronounce each character.
Here is a character and its pronunciation in pinyin:
马 (horse)
mǎ
You'll notice that the pinyin contains three components: m is the initial, a is the final, and the mark above the a is the tone. The initial is just the first sound in a syllable, generally a consonant. Sometimes there is no initial, just a final and a tone (ex. 安 ān, quiet/peaceful). The final is everything following the consonant. A final always contains a vowel, and sometimes there is an "n" or an "ng" following the vowel, forming finals like an, en, ang, ong, etc. The tone has to do with the pitch of your voice when you say the syllable. We'll get more in depth with tones later.
Tones are also often written out as a number (1, 2, 3 or 4) written after the syllable. For example, the word for horse above is pronounced with the third tone, so for convenience the pinyin can be written ma3 instead of mǎ.
As a mini-exercise, take a look at the pinyin for all of the characters that I've introduced so far and for each one, identify the initial and the final.
ex. 狗 gǒu (dog)
initial: g
final: ou
Identify the initial and final:
花 huā (flower)
人 rén (person)
好 hǎo (good)
电 diàn (electricity)
脑 nǎo (brain)
安 ān (quiet, peaceful)
If you want, you can post your answers here or PM them to me and I'll correct them (or probably just say "those are all correct!" because this is easy stuff).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:07 pm
Simple finalsThe pronunciation of pinyin gets complicated, so let's just ease into it by taking a look at the basic vowel sounds. There are six of them: a o e i u ü(click each one to hear the sound) a is pronounced much like the a in "father" o is not "oh" as one might expect, but rather a sound not found in English; I can't properly describe it in words, but it is a sound made in the back of the mouth, and with rounded lips like you're about to make a "w" sound; basically, listen to the sound sample and try to imitate it e is another vowel sound not found in English... it's somewhere between the vowel sounds in the words "could" and "but"; when pronouncing it, try to keep your lips in a more flattened shape instead of a rounded one i is pronounced like the i in "machine" u is like the vowel sound in "moon," except make sure you round your lips when you say it, almost to the point that it sounds like "oh" instead of "oo" ü is a sound not found in English, but it is found in languages like French and German... to get the sound, round your lips like you're about to say "oo," but with your lips still rounded say "ee" instead Practice these vowel sounds, but also keep in mind they are not always pronounced in the way I just presented them. A few vowels, especially i, may have a variety of different pronunciations depending on what consonant comes before them. We'll get into all that later. For now, here are some words you can practice saying that do have those six vowel sounds. You don't have to worry about the tones just yet, just try to pronounce the syllable first and then listen to the sample, paying attention to the vowel to see if you pronounced it correctly. 你 nǐ (you) 八 bā (eight) 车 chē (car) 末 mò (end) 路 lù (road) 女 nǚ (woman)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:08 pm
InitialsHere are the initials: b p m f
d t n l
g k h
j q x
zh ch sh r
z c s
A lot of them are pronounced pretty much as in English, these being the exceptions: h tends to be pronounced with a little aspiration, like Spanish "j" or German "ch" j, q and x are all pronounced at the front of the mouth, with the corners of your mouth pulled back a little; roughly speaking, j is a light "j" sound, q is a light "ch" (q is kind of like j, but pronounced with more aspiration/force), and x is a light "sh" zh, ch and sh are different sounds from j, q, and x! This is important: when pronouncing these sounds, make sure that you curl your tongue upward so that it's almost touching the roof of your mouth; the result is that zh, ch and sh are the "farther back in the mouth" corresponding sounds to j, q and x, which are produced in the front of the mouth, closer to the teeth r is pronounced in the same manner as the other three sounds in its row (zh, ch and sh): you basically curl your tongue upwards in your mouth and make an "r" sound as in English with your tongue in that position z is a lot like English z, only with more of a "d" sound preceding it, like "dz" c is NOT pronounced like in English; it is pronounced like the "ts" sound at the end of the word "cats," only it appears at the beginning of syllables instead of at the end ----- Now, here's where it gets a little tricky: Remember in the last post, when I said the vowel sounds sometimes change, depending on what consonant they come after? This mostly applies to the vowel i (it also applies to a lesser extent to a and u/ü, but we'll get to that later), which, depending on what initial it follows, can have any one of three distinct sounds: after b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, j, q, x: the "default" "ee" sound (as in mach ine) that I introduced in the last post after zh, ch, sh, r: since these initial sounds are pronounced with the tongue curled upward in the mouth, when they are followed by "i" it kind of adds an "r" sound to the vowel, producing a sound very similar to that in the word "s ure" after z, c, s: this is a sound not found in English that I find it difficult to describe, so listen to the sound sample (cí) below to hear it and try to imitate the sound you hear; it is pronounced with the corners of the mouth pulled back and the teeth together; it should should roughly like a cross between the vowels in the English words "with" and "put" To help demonstrate the difference between these three different "i" sounds, here is an example of each: 七 qī (seven) 室 shì (room) 词 cí (word)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:09 pm
Compound finalsSo far you've learned all of the six simple finals: a, o, e, i, u and ü. There are also many "compound finals," which consist of the combination of two or three vowel sounds, sometimes with the addition of -n or -ng on the end. ----- Here are all of the compound finals (and there are a lot of them, so take your time), presented in parts: ai ei
ao ouThe first two, ai and ei are the sounds "a" and "e," respectively, followed by the sound "i," resulting in sounds similar to those in the English words in "eye" and "day". The final ao isn't exactly found in English, but it consists of the sounds "a" and "o" after each other, and sounds vaguely like the vowel sound in the word "how," only pronounced more in the back of the mouth. The final ou sounds very similar to the English word "oh". ----- Putting an i- at the beginning of the final gives us these finals, which all sound like they start with a "y" (and in fact, they are often spelled that way, which we'll get to in the next post): ia ie iao iuy + a = ia ("yah") y + e ("eh") = ie ("yeh") y + ao = iaoy + (o)u = iu (similar to "yo") ----- Similarly, adding a u- to the beginning of the final has the effect of inserting a "w" sound between the initial and the final: ua uo uai uiw + a = ua ("wah") w + o = uow + ai = uai ("why") w + ei = ui (note: sounds like "way," not "wee") A few finals can also be formed with ü-: üeü + e ("eh") = üe (this is a hard sound to get used to for an English speaker... just listen to the recording and do your best to imitate it) ----- Adding a final -n or -ng (as in thi ng, not as in fi nger; in other words, don't pronounce the g!) sound gives us these finals: an en ang eng onga ("ah") + n = ane + n = ena + ng = ang ("ahng") e + ng = engo ("oh") + ng = ong ("ohng") ian in iang ing iongy + a (pronounced like "eh" for some reason!) + n = iany + i + n = iny + a ("ah") + ng = iangy + i + ng = ingy + o ("oh") + ng = ionguan un uang uengw + a ("ah") + n = uanw + e + n = unw + a ("ah") + ng = uangw + e + ng = uengüan ünü + a (again, inexplicably pronounced like "eh") + n = üanü + i + n = ün----- And last but not least, there's the ever-popular: erwhich is pretty much just the vowel "e" with an "r" on the end. ----- Okay, you made it! By combining the initials and finals you just learned, you should now be able to pronounce every possible syllable of Chinese. surprised To practice, try pronouncing these words; again, don't worry about the tone, we'll get to that soon! For each one, just try pronouncing it first, and then listen to the recording and compare. 多 duō (many) 当 dāng (to serve as) 肉 ròu (meat) 忘 wàng (to forget) 中 zhōng (middle) 教 jiāo (to teach) 点 diǎn (point, dot) 家 jiā (family, home) 想 xiǎng (to think) 听 tīng (to listen) 快 kuài (fast) 话 huà (speech) 证 zhèng (certificate, proof) 晚 wǎn (late, evening) 文 wén (language, culture) 员 yuán (employee) 酒 jiǔ (liquor)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:10 pm
Spelling rulesAdmittedly, the spelling rules for pinyin go a little more in-depth then this, but I have kind of covered a few of them in the way I presented the finals (for example, u + e + n = un is kind of a spelling rule in itself), so there's less to worry about. Most importantly, when the letters j, q, x and y are followed by the vowel ü, the umlaut is removed, but the syllable is pronounced as if the umlaut is still there. So when you see syllables like qu, yue and xun, remember that the u's are really pronounced like ü's. Very important! To summarize: j + ü = ju / j + ü + n = jun / j + ü + e = jueq + ü = qu / q + ü + n = qun / q + ü + e = quex + ü = xu / x + ü + n = xun / x + ü + e = xuey + ü = yu / y + ü + n = yun / y + ü + e = yueGot it? Good. The only other thing is that when you have a final that starts with an i, u, or ü and no initial, those letters are replaced with y's and w's. Observe: (final ---> spelling when not preceded by an initial) i ---> yiia ---> yaiao ---> yaoie ---> yeiu ---> youian ---> yanin ---> yiniang ---> yanging ---> yingiong ---> yongu ---> wuua ---> wauo ---> wouai ---> waiui ---> weiuan ---> wanun ---> wenuang ---> wangueng ---> wengü ---> yu (note the lack of an umlaut!) üe ---> yue (ditto) üan ---> yuan (and again) ün ---> yun (you get the picture) And that about does it for pronunciation, except for the tones, which I'll get to next! For now, here are some more words with the syllables I just used: 桔 jú (tangerine) 约 yuē (to arrange) 晚 wǎn (late, evening) 文 wén (language, culture) 忘 wàng (to forget) 员 yuán (employee) 眼 yǎn (eye) 五 wǔ (five)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:11 pm
Tones(gotta love 'em!) As you probably know, Chinese is a tonal language. This means that the pitch or "tone" of your voice is an important part of the pronunciation. In fact, in Chinese, it's so important to pronounce your tones correctly, that if you accidentally say a word with the wrong tone, it completely changes the meaning of the word. This can lead to comical misunderstandings, such as the classic: 请问。。。 qǐng wèn (lit. "please ask") If I may ask... 请吻。 qǐng wěn (lit. "please kiss") Please kiss me. So, obviously, it's crucial to get your tones right! In Mandarin there are five tones, referred to as first, second, third, fourth, and neutral. first tone: 妈 mā (mother) second tone: 麻 má (hemp) third tone: 马 mǎ (horse) fourth tone: 骂 mà (to scold) neutral tone: 吗 ma (question particle) To hear the difference between the tones, go to this site: http://www.lostlaowai.com/lang/tones.shtmland click the button in the first diagram. Also, feel free to read the rest of the page for a better explanation of tones than I could give. For practice with tones, you can use this site: http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htmAnd for additional practice, try going back through the words I've introduced so far for teaching pronunciation and try pronouncing them with the correct tones, and then listen to the file and see if you did it right. Pay special attention to the difference between second and third tones, as they are usually the most difficult to distinguish for people learning Chinese.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:12 pm
Numbers 1-10Alright, here's a good, easy thing to start with: the numbers! 1 - 一 yī2 - 二 èr3 - 三 sān4 - 四 sì5 - 五 wǔ6 - 六 liù7 - 七 qī8 - 八 bā9 - 九 jiǔ10 - 十 shíAnd for the curious, zero is 零 líng. We'll go into some higher numbers in Lesson 3 (from 11 all the way through 9999!), but just as a sneak preview, here's 11 through 20, which are easy: 11 - 十一 shíyī12 - 十二 shíèr13 - 十三 shísān14 - 十四 shísì15 - 十五 shíwǔ16 - 十六 shíliù17 - 十七 shíqī18 - 十八 shíbā19 - 十九 shíjiǔ20 - 二十 èrshíAs you can see, 11-19 are just 十 plus the numbers 1 through 9, and 20 is 二 (2) and 十 (10). You can probably guess how to do 30 through 99 now, but we'll get to it in Lesson 3. Chinese namesA lot of people learning Chinese like to give themselves Chinese names to go by when speaking Chinese, so I'll tell you about how names work in Chinese, in case you're interested. Whereas in English (as well as in most other Western languages), the order of someone's full name goes (first name) (last name), in Chinese it's the reverse. The surname/family name comes first, and then is followed by the given name. So, to use the name of a well-known Chinese person, Mao Zedong, as an example, 毛泽东Máo Zédōng 毛 (Máo) was actually his family name (i.e. what we would call our "last name" in English), and 泽东 (Zédōng) the name he was given by his parents (i.e. his "first" name). If you're interested in coming up with a Chinese name for yourself, this website is pretty useful for ideas. Feel free to do it several times and mix and match the characters until you end up with a name you like. Here's my Chinese name: 晏达文Yàn Dáwén 晏 (Yàn) corresponds to my last name, Yarwood, and 达文 (Dáwén) corresponds to my first name, Dave/David. Chinese people generally refer to each other by either their full names (i.e. 晏达文), or by just the family name with some title affixed before or after it. For example, people will usually address me by my full name, or in any of the following ways using only my family name 晏: 小晏 (Xiǎo Yàn) -- literally "Little Yan" -- this is what someone roughly my age (I'm 20, by the way) or older would call me 老晏 (Lǎo Yàn) -- literally "Old Yan" -- basically the opposite, this is how people younger than me would address me 晏先生 (Yàn Xiānshēng) -- this is the Chinese equivalent of "Mr. Yan," basically just a polite way of addressing men that you know already, or that you have just met 晏老师 (Yàn Lǎoshī) -- "Teacher Yan" -- this, of course, is how students address their teachers There are also equivalents of Miss and Mrs.: 王小姐 (Wáng Xiǎojie) -- Miss Wang 王太太 (Wáng Tàitai) -- Mrs. Wang ( 太太 means "wife") There are also a variety of other titles that are often used, such as 医生 (Yīshēng, "doctor"), used to address one's doctor. More on Chinese titles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_titlesIntroducing yourselfvocabulary: 我 (wǒ) -- I, me 你 (nǐ) -- you 您 (nín) -- you (polite) 们 (men) -- plural marker (explained below) 好 (hǎo) -- good 请问 (qǐng wèn) -- If I may ask... 贵 (guì) -- expensive, honorable 姓 (xìng) -- surname 叫 (jiào) -- to call, to be called 名字 (míngzì) -- name 什么 (shénme) -- what 呢 (ne) -- particle (explained below) To greet someone, you say 你好 ("hello"), to which the person also responds 你好. When addressing multiple people, you add 们 (men) to the pronoun, so to say "hello" to a group of people, you would say 你们好 (nǐmen hǎo), and they would respond with 你好. When meeting someone for the first time, the polite way to ask for his/her name is to say: 请问，您贵姓？Qǐng wèn, nín guì xìng? Literally, this means, "If I may ask, your honorable surname?" The custom in Chinese is to ask for the person's surname first, and then the person will generally respond with his/her full name, thusly: 我姓晏。 我叫晏达文。Wǒ xìng Yàn. Wǒ jiào Yàn Dáwén. "I am surnamed Yan. I am called Yan Dawen." Notice that here, 姓 is used as a verb, meaning "to have the surname..." Keep in mind that 姓 is used only for surnames, whereas 叫 is used for given name or full name. Also notice that in Chinese (as well as Japanese and other Asian languages), a little circle is used to represent the full stop, instead of the "." period we're used to. A more casual way to ask for someone's name, maybe for people you kind of know but don't know their names or something, is: 你叫什么名字？Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì? Literally, "You are called what name?" Which is often abbreviated to: 你叫什么？Nǐ jiào shénme? Literally, "You are called what?" The response, of course, is " 我叫..." and then your name. In casual conversation, if someone asks for your name and you reply, you can then say "and you?" to ask for the person's name without having to repeat the question "what is your name?" 你呢？Nǐ ne? 呢 is a particle that, in this case, basically means "and how about X?" with X being whatever comes before it. It can be used with practically anything: 我： 小姐， 你叫什么？ (Miss, what is your name?) 小李： 我叫李爱明(1)。 你呢？ (My name is Li Aiming. And you?) 我： 我叫晏达文。 (My name is Yan Dawen.) 小李： 你的爸爸(2)呢？ (And your father?) 我： 他(3)叫Ｊｉｍ。 (His name is Jim.) 小李： 你的妈妈(4)呢？ (And your mother?) 我： 她(3)叫Ｊｏａｎｎｅ。 (Her name is Joanne.) 小李： 你的狗(5)呢？ (And your dog?) 我： 它(3)叫Ｚａｃｋ。 (His name is Zack.) and so on. 1. Lǐ Àimíng
2. bàba (dad/father)
3. tā (him, her, it)
4. māma (mom/mother)
5. nǐ de gǒu (your dog)Alright, so that turned out to be a pretty exhaustive lesson! Here are some exercises for practice: Exercises1. Count to ten in Chinese! 2. Translate the following dialogue into Chinese: Xiao Wang: Hello! Xiao Li: Hello! If I may ask, what is your honorable surname? Xiao Wang: My surname is Wang. Xiao Li: What is your name? Xiao Wang: My name is Wang Baitiao ( 王白眺). What's yours? Xiao Li: My name is Li Aiming ( 李爱明). 3. 你叫什么名字？If you want, you can post your answers here or PM them to me and I'll correct them. Also, if you feel like recording yourself saying anything in Chinese, I'd be happy to critique your pronunciation! 再见！
－晏老师
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:14 pm
Here's Lesson 2!
Note: This is a lot of material, so take your time！ I wouldn't advise trying to get through this entire lesson in one sitting, unless you're incredibly bored or something.
Numbers 11-99
You may have already figured this out, but just in case you didn't, here are the numbers after 10; you'll probably need them for later in this lesson when you learn how to say how old you are!
Remember the numbers for one through ten?
一 yī, 二 èr, 三 sān, 四 sì, 五 wǔ, 六 liù, 七 qī, 八 bā, 九 jiǔ, 十 shí
To form the numbers 11 through 19, take ten (十) and add the numbers 1 through 9 to it:
十一 shíyī 11
十二 shíèr 12
十三 shísān 13
十四 shísì 14
十五 shíwǔ 15
十六 shíliù 16
十七 shíqī 17
十八 shíbā 18
十九 shíjiǔ 19
Twenty is 二十 èrshí, and 21-29 work the same way as 11-19:
二十一 èrshíyī 21
二十二 èrshíèr 22
二十三 èrshísān 23
二十四 èrshísì 24
etc.
Thirty is 三十 sānshí, and so on and so forth until you get to 九十九 (jiǔshíjiǔ) for 99.
Basic expressions
We've already learned one basic expression: 你好 (nǐ hǎo), which means hello.
At the end of the last lesson, I concluded with 再见 (zài jiàn), which literally means "again see" and is the word for "goodbye". You can also put times or dates before 见 when saying "goodbye," indicating when you expect to see the person next. We haven't gone over dates or days of the week yet, but just for example using this pattern:
明天见！ (míngtiān jiàn) -- See you tomorrow!
星期六见！ (xīngqīliù jiàn) -- See you on Saturday!
明年见！ (míngnián jiàn) -- See you next year!
etc.
Here are some more common expressions:
谢谢 (xièxie) -- thank you
Note: 谢谢 is mostly only used when you're thanking somebody for doing something or for helping you in some way. If somebody compliments you and you want to "thank" the person, instead of 谢谢 you should say:
哪里，哪里。 (nǎlǐ, nǎlǐ)
Literally this means "where, where," but the meaning is that of modestly denying the compliment, kind of like "you flatter me" or "you don't have to say that"; in Chinese it's better to say this than to say 谢谢, which would be more like agreeing with the compliment and saying "yeah, I know," which comes off as arrogant. An example of when to use 哪里，哪里:
周老师(1)： 晏达文，你说中文说得很好(2)。 (Yan Dawen, you speak Chinese very well.)
我： 哪里，哪里。 (You flatter me.)
1. Zhōu Lǎoshī, one of my Chinese professors
2. Yàn Dáwén, nǐ shuō Zhōngwén shuō de hěn hǎo.
So what do you say when somebody thanks you for something?
There are at least two ways of saying "you're welcome" in Chinese:
不谢。 (bú xiè)
Literally, "not thank," or in other words, "there's no need to thank me."
不客气。 (bú kèqi)
Literally, "not polite," as in "don't be so polite!"
One more:
对不起 (duìbuqǐ) -- sorry
This is roughly equivalent with English "sorry," and you can use it when you're apologizing for something, but you can also use it to politefully get someone's attention, as in "excuse me..."
Talking about yourself
vocabulary:
是 (shì) -- to be
说 (shuō) -- to speak
做 (zuò) -- to do
不 (bù) -- no, not
也 (yě) -- also
和 (hé) -- and
还是 (háishi) -- or
国 (guó) -- country, nation
人 (rén) -- person
语言 (yǔyán) -- language
哪 (nǎ) -- which
吗 (ma) -- question particle
今年 (jīnnián) -- this year
年 (nián) -- year
多 (duō) -- many, a lot
大 (dà) -- big
岁 (suì) -- year(s) of age
professions:
老师 (lǎoshī) -- teacher
学生 (xuéshēng) -- student
医生 (yīshēng) -- doctor
护士 (hùshi) -- nurse
律师 (lǜshī) -- lawyer
木匠 (mùjiàng) -- carpenter
厨师 (chúshī) -- cook
服务员 (fúwùyuán) -- waiter/waitress
科学家 (kēxuéjiā) -- scientist
巡警 (xúnjǐng) / 警察 (jǐngchá) -- police officer
消防队员 (xiāofángduìyuán) -- firefighter
countries:
中国 (Zhōngguó) -- China
美国 (Měiguó) -- United States
英国 (Yīngguó) -- England
加拿大 (Jiānádà) -- Canada
澳洲 (Àozhōu) -- Australia
苏格兰 (Sūgélán) -- Scotland
爱尔兰 (Àiěrlán) -- Ireland
日本 (Rìběn) -- Japan
韩国 (Hánguó) -- Korea
越南 (Yuènán) -- Vietnam
西班牙 (Xībānyá) -- Spain
墨西哥 (Mòxīgē) -- Mexico
意大利 (Yìdàlì) -- Italy
法国 (Fǎguó) -- France
德国 (Déguó) -- Germany
俄国 (Èguó) -- Russia
瑞典 (Ruìdiǎn) -- Sweden
挪威 (Nuówēi) -- Norway
丹麦 (Dānmài) -- Denmark
芬兰 (Fēnlán) -- Finland
瑞士 (Ruìshì) -- Switzerland
荷兰 (Hélán) -- Holland/the Netherlands
(these are just off the top of my head...
let me know if you want to know any others!)
languages:
中文 (Zhōngwén) -- Chinese
英文 (Yīngwén) -- English
日文 (Rìwén) -- Japanese
西班牙文 (Xībānyáwén) -- Spanish
意大利文 (Yìdàlìwén) -- Italian
法文 (Fǎwén) -- French
德文 (Déwén) -- German
俄文 (Èwén) -- Russian
瑞典文 (Ruìdiǎnwén) -- Swedish
拉丁文 (Làdīngwén) -- Latin
世界文 (Shìjièwén) -- Esperanto
(again, let me know if you want to know others that I left out!)
This is a lot of vocabulary, but that's only because there are a lot of countries and possible professions that a person can have!
This lesson will teach you how to ask about and answer to questions about your 1) age, 2) nationality, 3) occupation, and 4) what languages you speak.
Age
To ask someone how old he/she is:
你今年多大？
Nǐ jīnnián duō dà?
Literally, "You this-year many big?" or in other words, "how old are you?"
The response is:
我 (number) 岁。
Wǒ (number) suì.
For example, 我二十岁。 = I'm 20 years old.
Note that the usual word for "year" in Chinese, 年 (nián), is not used here (and if it was, it would be wrong!), but rather the word 岁 (suì), which refers specifically to years of age, or "years old".
Nationality
你是哪国人？
Nǐ shì nǎguórén?
"You are what-country-person?", or "What country are you from?"
国 means "country". When you add the word 人 ("person") to it, it means a person from that country. So, given that the United States is 美国 (Měiguó), how would you say that you're an American?
我是美国人。
Wǒ shì Měiguórén.
And now a bit of grammar:
The particle 吗 (ma) takes any statement and turns it into a yes/no question. For example, let's look at the sentence
你是法国人。
Nǐ shì Fǎguórén.
"You are French."
Add 吗 to the end and it becomes a question:
你是法国人吗？
Nǐ shì Fǎguórén ma?
"Are you French?"
This has two possible answers, obviously:
是。 我是法国人。
Shì. Wǒ shì Fǎguórén.
(Yes. I am French.)
or
不。 我不是法国人。
Bù. Wǒ bú shì Fǎguórén.
(No. I am not French.)
In Chinese, there isn't a word that specifically means "yes" as there is in other languages. Generally the way to answer a yes/no question with "yes" is to repeat the verb. In this case (你是法国人吗？) the verb is 是, so to answer simply "yes," you may say "是。".
"No," on the other hand, is always 不 (bù), which means "no" or "not". Notice, however, that the tone changes from fourth (bù) to second (bú) whenever 不 is followed by another word that is fourth tone. This is a phenomenon that mostly only occurs with the words 不 and 一 (which we'll get to in later lessons).
There are a few other ways of asking yes/no questions. To avoid giving you an information overload, I'll save the rest for later, but here is one of them:
你是不是法国人？
Nǐ shì bú shì Fǎguórén?
This pattern is easy enough to understand. You can think of it as "You are or are not French?" etc.
Profession:
This works just like nationality, using the verb 是, to be.
我是学生。
Wǒ shì xuéshēng.
I am a student.
However, when asking what someone's profession is, you use the verb 做 (zuò), "to do":
你做什么？
Nǐ zuò shénme?
What do you do?
As in English, you can combine profession and nationality into one statement, like so:
我是美国学生。
Wǒ shì Měiguó xuéshēng.
I am an American student.
她是中国老师。
Tā shì Zhōngguó lǎoshī.
She is a Chinese teacher. (as in, she is Chinese and a teacher)
他是俄国医生。
Tā shì Èguó yīshēng.
He is a Russian doctor.
Here's another kind of question that you can ask using the word 还是 (háishi), which means "or":
你是美国人还是英国人？
Nǐ shì Měiguórén háishi Yīngguórén?
Are you American or English?
You can use the word 也 (yě), which means "also," in situations such as this one:
1： 你是老师还是学生？ (Are you a teacher or a student?)
2： 我是学生。 你呢？ (I'm a student. And you?)
1： 我也是学生。 (I'm also a student.)
Keep in mind that 也 can only come before the verb! In other words, in Chinese you must say "I also am a student." You can't say "I am also a student" or "I am a student also". 也 must come directly before the verb.
Languages:
你说什么语言？
Nǐ shuō shénme yǔyán?
What language(s) do you speak?
我说英文。
Wǒ shuō Yīngwén.
I speak English.
Simple enough, unless you speak more than one language!
What's that, you say? You do speak more than one language!?
Well, then, here's what you can say if you speak two languages, let's say French and Japanese:
我说法文和日文。
Wǒ shuō Fǎwén hé Rìwén.
I speak French and Japanese.
The word 和 (hé) means "and," and is used to connect two nouns.
Add any more languages and you'll need to throw in some commas to separate them, just like in English and other languages. Chinese actually has its own special comma used for the purposes of listing things， and it looks like this:
我说拉丁文、俄文和德文。
Wǒ shuō Làdīngwén, Èwén hé Déwén.
I speak Latin, Russian and German.
Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to type the "listing comma" with my Chinese layout (I had to switch over to Japanese to type it!), so expect me to use the familiar "，" comma in its place from now on.
OKAY. DONE!
That is a ton of stuff, and I applaud you for (supposedly) reading through all of it.
Here are some exercises, so you can practice everything you've just learned.
Exercises
1. What are the following numbers in Chinese?
a. 14
b. 95
c. 36
d. 50
e. 43
2. 你今年多大？
3. 你做什么？
4. 你是老师还是学生？
5. 你是中国人吗？
6. Translate the following dialogue into English:
我： Jean， 你是不是法国人？
Jean： 不是。 我是加拿大人。
我： 你说法文吗？
Jean： 不， 我说英文。 你呢？
我： 我说英文，西班牙文和中文。
7. Translate the following sentences into Chinese:
a. How old are you?
b. I'm 17 years old.
c. You flatter me!
d. What country are you from?
e. I'm Korean.
f. Are you Spanish or Italian?
g. I am a Japanese police officer.
h. You are a German student.
i. I am not French.
j. Yes, I am American. And you?
k. I am also American.
l. I speak Japanese, Chinese and English.
m. What languages do you speak?
'Til next time,
再见！
-晏达文
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:16 pm
And here's lesson 3!
他/她/它
I kind of glossed over these earlier without explaining in detail, but here are three more pronouns in addition to the three we have learned so far (我 wǒ -- I, 你 nǐ -- you, and 您 nín -- you (polite)) :
他 (tā) -- he, him
她 (tā) -- she, her
它 (tā) -- it
The third character, 它, is commonly used with animals, pets, etc., even in cases where we might use "he" or "she" in English.
Notice that all three are pronounced the same, and are thus indistinguishable in conversation, however the characters are different, and so they are distinguished between in the written language.
You might also notice that the character for "she," 她, is similar to the character for "he," 他. The part on the right that looks like this, 也, being in both characters, shows that they are related. The character for "she," 她, contains 女 the radical that means "woman," on the left, whereas the character for "he," 他, has 人 rén, the "person" radical on the left, although it looks a bit different in radical form.
Family/的/measure words
vocabulary:
家 (jiā) -- family
有 (yǒu) -- to have
还 (hái) -- still, in addition
两 (liǎng) -- two, a couple
个 (gè) -- measure word (explained below)
的 (de) -- possessive particle (explained below)
几 (jǐ) -- inquisitive numerical placeholder (explained below)
没 (méi) -- negative marker (explained below)
family members:
妈妈 (māma) -- mom
爸爸 (bàba) -- dad
哥哥 (gēge) -- older brother
弟弟 (dìdi) -- younger brother
姐姐 (jiějie) -- older sister
妹妹 (mèimei) -- younger sister
pets:
狗 (gǒu) -- dog
猫 (māo) -- cat
鱼 (yú) -- fish
马 (mǎ) -- horse
的
的 (de) is a particle used to express possession. Its use is similar to the possessive " 's " in English.
For example,
我的妈妈 wǒ de māma
= "my mom"
你的老师 nǐ de lǎoshī
= "your teacher"
他的姐姐 tā de jiějie
= "his older sister"
etc.
As an exception, 的 can optionally be left out with some things, such as family members.
我妈妈 wǒ māma = "my mom"
你妹妹 nǐ mèimei = "your little sister"
她爸爸妈妈 tā bàba māma = "her mom and dad"
Now...
Measure words
I'm not gonna lie, this is probably one of the most confusing parts about learning Chinese.
Unlike in English and many other languages, where there is a single word that means "a" when you're talking about one of something (i.e. "a dog"), Chinese has an entire grammatical class of words that describe the quantitative state of things. These are called measure words.
For a start, here's an easy one:
个 (gè)
This is the simplest of measure words. It is used to count things in concrete units, and it's commonly used with people. For example,
一个人
yí gè rén
means "a person".
Notice that the pattern is Number + Measure Word + Noun. This is a very important pattern, and having it firmly implanted in your head is quite helpful in understanding Chinese grammar.
Extending the pattern further, how would you say "eight people"?
Substitute eight for one, and you will of course get:
八个人
bā gè rén
"eight people".
The important thing is that you do not leave out the measure word! 一人， 八人, etc., while making more intuitive sense to speakers of English, couldn't be more wrong in Chinese.
To further confuse you, the number 2 (二 èr) follows a special rule when used to quantify something. When you want to say that there are two of something, you cannot say 二个(noun). What you must say instead is 两个(noun). 两 (liǎng) is a "special form" of the number 2 that is always used in front of measure words instead of 二. You can think of it as meaning "a couple of (noun)".
I'll hold off on giving you more measure words for now, as they can easily get confusing, but for now, here are two more that you will need for this lesson:
条 (tiáo) -- used for long, strip-like objects
匹 (pǐ) -- used for horses and other mounts
As unusual as it may seem, 条 tiáo is the measure word used for dogs, cats, and fish. This is because these animals are long and strip-like in shape.
So, to review the three measure words we know so far:
一个人 yí gè rén = a person
一条狗 yì tiáo gǒu = a dog
一条猫 yì tiáo māo = a cat
一条鱼 yì tiáo yú = a fish
一匹马 yì pǐ mǎ = a horse
(at the risk of introducing a further complication, note the change of tone for 一... this is particular to the words 一 yī and 不 bù, both of which change to second (rising) tone (yí / bú) before words that have the fourth (falling) tone and the first of which (yī) changes to fourth tone (yì) before words that have the first, second or third tones; the tone of 一 mostly only changes before measure words)
Okay!
Now that you know the measure word for people (个 gè), you can list and count your family members!
You'll need the verb "to have," which is 有 yǒu.
Here's an example:
我的家有五个人。 我有爸爸，妈妈，和两个弟弟。
Wǒ de jiā yǒu wǔ gè rén. Wǒ yǒu bàba, māma, hé liǎng ge dìdi.
There are five people in my family (My family has five people). I have a father, a mother, and two younger brothers.
还有一条狗。
Háiyǒu yì tiáo gǒu.
I also have a dog (There is also a dog).
The first sentence is an answer to the question:
你的家有几个人？
Nǐ de jiā yǒu jǐ gè rén?
How many people are there in your family?
(lit. "Your family has how many people?)
Note the use of 几 here. 几 (jǐ) is a word that stands in the place where a number would go (i.e. in front of a measure word, as in this example), and it means "how many". So here, 几个人 means "how many people," and substituting in a number for 几 answers the question of how many: 一个人，两个人，三个人, and so on.
The verb 有, to have, is special because it is a little different from other verbs in the negative. With most verbs, if you want to make them negative, you stick 不 (bù) in front of them, like so:
是 (shì, is) --> 不是 (bú shì, is not)
做 (zuò, do) --> 不做 (bú zuò, does not do)
唱 (chàng, sings) --> 不唱 (bú chàng, does not sing)
etc.
有 is the only exception to this pattern. To make it negative, instead of putting 不 in front of it, you put 没 (méi) in front of it:
有 (yǒu, has) --> 没有 (méiyǒu, does not have)
For example,
我没有哥哥。 = I don't have an older brother.
(Wǒ méiyǒu gēge.)
Similar to the alternative yes/no sentence pattern 是不是 with 是, you can ask whether or not someone has something using 有没有. So a question like, "do you have a cat?" can be expressed as either:
你有猫吗？
Nǐ yǒu māo ma?
or
你有没有猫？
Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu māo?
The answer to such a question is either 有。 ("have") for "yes" or 没有。 ("not have") for "no".
Exercises
1. 你的家有几个人？ (list them)
2. 你有妹妹吗？
3. 你有没有狗？
4. Translate the following phrases/sentences into Chinese:
a. a person
b. three dogs
c. two cats
d. seven fish
e. thirteen horses
f. seventy-two dogs
g. How many dogs do you have?
h. My teacher has three fish.
i. There are five people in my family. I have a dad, a mom, a younger brother and an older sister. We also have a cat.
下次见 ('til next time)，
-晏老师
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:21 pm
Lesson 4
Vocabulary
星期 xīngqī -- week
日 rì -- sun / day
天 tiān -- day
今天 jīntiān -- today
昨天 zuǒtiān -- yesterday
明天 míngtiān -- tomorrow
月 yuè -- moon / month
号 hào -- number (i.e. date)
生日 shēngrì -- birthday
现在 xiànzài -- now
点（钟） diǎn(zhōng) -- "o'clock" / hour
分（钟） fēn(zhōng) -- minutes
半 bàn -- half
刻 kè -- quarter
times of day:
早上 zǎoshàng
上午 shàngwǔ
中午 zhōngwǔ
下午 xiàwǔ
晚上 wǎnshàng
半夜 bànyè
Days of the week
The days of the week in Chinese from Monday to Saturday are called (basically*) "day 1" (Monday) through "day 6" (Saturday), and Sunday is "day-sun" (星期日) or "day-day" (星期天).
(*星期 actually means "week," not "day," but nevermind that xp )
Monday = 星期一 xīngqīyī
Tuesday = 星期二 xīngqī'èr
Wednesday = 星期三 xīngqīsān
Thursday = 星期四 xīngqīsì
Friday = 星期五 xīngqīwǔ
Saturday = 星期六 xīngqīliù
Sunday = 星期日/星期天 xīngqīrì / xīngqītiān
(Note: Sunday is NOT 日天 (literally, "sun day")!)
This is the way you ask someone what day it is (today):
今天是星期几？
Jīntiān shì xīngqījǐ?
"What day of the week is today?"
You'll recall that 几 jǐ is a question word meaning "how many" -- so what this question is asking is essentially "Today is the how-many-eth day?"
You can answer the question by simply substituting:
今天是星期三。
Jīntiān shì xīngqīsān.
"Today is Wednesday."
Dates
Months in Chinese are very easy compared to in other languages. All twelve months are just the number of the month and then the word 月 yuè, which means month (literally, it actually means "moon").
January = １月 yīyuè
February = ２月 èryuè
March = ３月 sānyuè
April = ４月 sìyuè
May = ５月 wǔyuè
June = ６月 liùyuè
July = ７月 qīyuè
August = ８月 bāyuè
September = ９月 jiǔyuè
October = １０月 shíyuè
November = １１月 shíyīyuè
December = １２月 shí'èryuè
The date (number) can then be added after the month, with 日 rì or 号 hào after it.
ex. March 4th = ３月４号 or ３月４日
Asking what day it is:
今天是几月几号？
Jīntiān shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào?
Today is what month what day? (i.e. What is today's date?)
今天是３月２５号。
Jīntiān shì sānyuè èrshíwǔ hào.
Today is March 25th.
You can also use the same patterns to ask or say what days, for example, yesterday, tomorrow, and someone's birthday (birthday = 生日 shēngrì) are.
明天是几月几号？
Míngtiān shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào?
What day is tomorrow?
今天是３月２４号。
Zuǒtiān shì sānyuè èrshísì hào.
Yesterday was March 24th.
你的生日是几月几号？
Nǐ de shēngrì shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào?
What's your birthday?
One more thing: if you want to say what date and day (i.e. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...) it is, you put the date first, unlike in English, where you could say the day first. For example, Sunday, March 25th would be ３月２５日，星期天.
Time
The hours 1:00 through 12:00 in Chinese are 一点钟 (yī diǎnzhōng) through 十二点 (shí'èr diǎnzhōng), often abbreviated 一点 (yī diǎn), 两点 (liǎng diǎn), 三点 (sān diǎn), etc.
Take notice of the fact that 2:00 is not "二点" but 两点 (liǎng diǎn). You may recall from a previous lesson that 两 is a special number word that means "a couple" and stands in place of two when used in front of a measure word (for example, you can't say "two dogs" -- 二只狗 -- you're supposed to say "a couple dogs" -- 两只狗. In this case, 只 zhǐ is the measure word). I can't properly explain why 两 liǎng is used in this case instead of 二 èr, but just remember that 2:00 is 两点 liǎng diǎn, NOT 二点 "èr diǎn."
Asking what time it is:
现在几点钟？
Xiànzài jǐ diǎnzhōng?
Now is what hour? (What time is it?)
三点。
Sān diǎn.
Three o'clock.
Now to add minutes, you simply stick them on the end with 分钟 fēnzhōng (or just 分 fēn).
现在三点十九分。
Xiànzài sān diǎn shíjiǔ fēn.
At the moment it is three nineteen (3:19).
There are colloquial ways of expressing :15 (a quarter past), :30 (half past) and :45 (a quarter 'til, but expressed in Chinese as "three quarters"):
四点半 sì diǎn bàn = 4:30
十一点一刻 shíyī diǎn yí kè = 11:15 (eleven + one quarter)
两点三刻 liǎng diǎn sān kè = 2:45 (two + three quarters)
Number 100 to 9999
This isn't really relevant to date and time, as you should already know the numbers up to 99 and you only need 1-59 for date/time, but it's still good to know how to count higher than that!
One hundred is 一百 (yī bǎi).
And then from there you can just add on any of the numbers 1-99 that you've learned already for 101 (一百一) through 199 (一百九十九).
200 is 两百, 300 is 三百, etc., all the way up to 九百 (900). So 999 is 九百九十九 -- nine-hundreds-nine-tens-nine.
One thousand is 一千 yī qiān. It works the same way as hundreds:
一千 = 1000
两千 = 2000
三千 = 3000
...
九千 = 9000
So using 十, 百, and 千, you can count all the way up to 9999!
Exercises
1. 今天是星期几？
2. 今天是几月几号？
3. 你的生日是几月几号？
4. 现在几点钟？
Translate:
5. April 11th
6. Tuesday, November 3rd
7. Sunday, July 27th
8. Saturday, December 1st
9. What's today's date?
10. Today is August 19th.
11. My birthday is January 31st.
12. What time is it?
13. It is 4:45.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:22 pm
For additional reference:
Using units of time as nouns:
Most units of time can be used as quantifiable nouns (ex. "a month," "several weeks," "five years," "three and a half minutes," etc.) by using the measure word 个 gè.
Vocabulary:
分钟 (fēnzhōng) -- minute
小时 (xiǎoshí) / 钟头 (zhōngtǒu) -- hour
天 (tiān) -- day
星期 (xīngqī) -- week
月 (yuè) -- month
年 (nián) -- year
The units in red are special words that function as measure words themselves, and so are used right after the number quantifying them -- they don't require a measure word.
ex.
十五分钟 = 15 minutes
两年 = two years
三十天 = 30 days
The rest use the measure word 个:
ex.
三个小时 = three hours
一个星期 = a week
两个月 = a couple months
You can also use the following less specific expressions in the place of the number:
几 (jǐ) -- several
好几 (hǎo jǐ) -- many
ex.
几个月 = several months
好几天 = many days
几年 = several years
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:25 pm
And that's all I've posted so far!
I may be posting one or two more lessons this month if I ever get some free time.
Feel free to ask questions, post exercises, etc. either here or in the thread in the Lessons subforum, and I'll try to answer. 3nodding
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:12 pm
Great, that you for the lessons, I hope that you do more. I voted for Chinese in the polls.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
