Beginning to Read Mandarin Chinese

Home , Ou (surname), Xie (surname 解), Ye (surname)

Pronunciation tips for the Chinese Romanized alphabet (hanyu pin yin)

Simple Vowels a like the “a” in father or ah ha! e like the “e” in the (the American English “schwa” not “ee” as before a vowel) i like the “ee” in see (except after z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, or r when it’s like the “i” in “shirt”) u like the “oo” in tooth (except after j, q, and x and when “u” is pronounced like the French “u” or the German “ü”) o like the “o” in toe

Double and Triple Vowel Pronunciation Tips ai like the “i” in tie – or like Taiwan ao like the “ou” in ouch – or like Taos ei like the “ay” in pay or the “ei” in eight ou like the “ow” in show or the “ou” in dough ua like the “wa” in wall or water uo like the “wo” in wore or the “wa” in war ian like the “ye” in yen uai like the “wi” in wife or twice

Consonants Different from English c like the “ts” in bats q like the “ch” in inch (tongue is r between the “s” in measure and the “dr” in drum x like the “sh” in shell (tongue closer to teeth than in English) z like the “ds” in lids zh like the “j” in jeans

The Four Tones

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. Every Chinese character is a syllable with a fixed tone. However, there are more than 50,000 Chinese characters, but only 430 different sounds. Therefore, a lot of characters share the same sounds. There are 4 basic tones in Mandarin Chinese. Each one is indicated by a tone mark, and the tone marks are placed over the vowels.

― wēn (warm) The first tone is high, flat, song-like, “la” ˊ wén (language) The second tone is rising, questioning, like a surprised “What?” ˇ wĕn (kiss) The third tone is low and drawling, first falling then rising, like an indecisive “Well…” ˋ wèn (ask) The fourth tone is sharp and falling, like the command “No!”

If the tone is wrong, the meaning will be totally different. For example, “Wŏ yào wèn nĭ” means “I want to ask you.” “Wŏ yào wĕn nĭ” means “I want to kiss you.”

Beginning Chinese Useful Phrases nǐ hǎo hello nín hǎo hello (with respect) nǐ hǎo ma? How are you? bù hǎo not good mǎ mǎ hǔ hu so so hǎo good hěn hǎo very good fēi cháng hǎo extremely good xiè xie thanks bú xiè you’re welcome duì dù qǐ I’m sorry méi guān xi that’s alright duì correct bú duì incorrect qǐng wèn, zěn me qù...? May I please ask you how to go to…? nǐ jiào shén me míng zi? What’s your name? wǒ jiào... My name is… zhè shì shén me? What’s this? zhè ge duō shǎo qián? How much does this cost? tài guì le! It’s too expensive! wǒ tīng bù dǒng I don’t understand. wǒ bù zhī dào I don’t know. wǒ bú huì shuō zhōng wén I don’t speak Chinese. wǒ huì shuō yì diǎn zhōng wén I speak a little Chinese. qǐng màn màn shuō Please speak slowly. zài jiàn! goodbye

Words Used in Questions and Answers

… ma? yes/no question 吗？ shì/shì de yes 是/是的 bú shì no 不是 shéi? who? 谁？ shén me? what? 什么？ (zài) nǎr/(zài) nǎ li? where? （在）那儿/（在）哪里？ wèi shén me? why? 为什么？ yīn wèi… because… 因为… shén me shí hòu? when? 什么时候？ zĕn me? how? 怎么？ jĭ/duō shǎo? how many/how much? 几/多少？ jĭ diǎn? what time? 几点？ Duō shǎo qián? How much does it cost? 多少钱？ … kuài qián …dollars … 块钱 nǎ? which? 哪？

Numbers in Chinese

líng 0 零 yī 1 一 èr 2 二 sān 3 三 sì 4 四 wŭ 5 五 liù 6 六 qī 7 七 bā 8 八 jiŭ 9 九 shí 10 十 shí yī 11 十一 shí èr 12 十二 shí sān 13 十三 shí sì 14 十四 shí wŭ 15 十五 shí liù 16 十六 shí qī 17 十七 shí bā 18 十八 shí jiŭ 19 十九 èr shí 20 二十

èr shí yī 21 二十一 èr shí èr 22 二十二 sān shí 30 三十 sì shí 40 四十 wŭ shí 50 五十 liù shí 60 六十 qī shí 70 七十 bā shí 80 八十 jiŭ shí 90 九十 yì bǎi 100 一百 yì bǎi ling yī 101 一百零一 yì qiān 1,000 一千 yí wàn 10,000 一万

Beginning Chinese Useful Phrases

zǎo shàng hǎo xiè xiè 早上好谢谢 Good morning. Thanks.

xià wǔ hǎo nǐ ne 下午好你呢? Good afternoon. And you?

wǎn shàng hǎo nǐ qù nǎ r nǐ qù nǎ lǐ 晚上好你去哪儿?/你去哪? Good evening. Where going?

wǒ qù nǐ hǎo 你好我去… Hello. I’m going to…

qǐng wèn zěn me qù nín hǎo 您好请问, 怎么去…? Hello (with respect) May I please ask how to go to…?

nǐ jiào shén me míng zi nǐ hǎo ma 你好吗? 你叫什么名字? How are you? What’s your name?

wǒ jiào wǒ hěn hǎo 我很好我叫… I’m fine. My name is…

zhè shì shén me mǎ mǎ hǔ hǔ 马马虎虎这是什么? So so. What is this?

bù kè qì zhè gè duō shǎo qián 不客气这个多少钱 ? You’re welcome. How much is this? zài jiàn tài guì le 再见太贵了 Goodbye. It’s too expensive. duì wǒ tīng bù dǒng 对我听不懂 correct I don’t understand. bú duì wǒ bù zhī dào 不对我不知道 incorrect I don’t know. qǐng màn màn shuō duì bù qǐ 请慢慢说对不起 Please speak slowly. I’m sorry. wǒ bú huì shuō zhōng wén 我不会说中文 méi guān xì I don’t speak Chinese. 没关系 It’s okay. wǒ huì shuō yì diǎn diǎn zhōng wén 我会说一点点中文 xiè xiè nǐ I speak little bit Chinese. 谢谢你 Thank you .

Online resources to get started: http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/pinyin1.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/ http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/ http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese