Basic Mandarin

When people tell me that they have been to China the biggest problem they found while there was not being able to communicate.  If you are away from the larger cities on the east coast it becomes more and more difficult to find someone that can speak English.  I would recommend to anyone that wants to visit China to learn some basic Mandarin.  I've lived here for five years and being able to communicate has made my life so much easier!

People often have the misconception that Mandarin is incredibly difficult and takes too long to learn.  If your aim is to simply be able to speak it, it really isn't as hard as you probably think.  I've found a lot of guides on the internet that over complicate learning Chninese so I have started my own guide within my blog.   I'm not a linguist and my Chinese isn't perfect either, although I have studied it for nearly three years and I am currently studying for a degree in Chinese language.

Pronunciation

When converted into the Roman alphabet a system called pinyin is used.  Although some Chinese characters do have phonetic elements, if you are starting from the very beginning you will not be able to recognise them so learning pinyin is essential.  The following link is excellent for becoming familiar with pinyin.

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php

You should particularly look out for the difference between the pinyin x and sh.  When you first start out they sound the same but there is a difference.  

The pinyin c is difficult at the beginning and needs practice!  It sounds like "tz" beginning with a t sound and transforming to a hard s.

Tones

Chinese is a tonal language and if your mother tongue is a European language it can be difficult to differentiate between the tones.  This is one part of the language that takes a lot of practice but also patience.  If you persevere you will be able to hear the differences and also be able to use the tones yourself.  A tone alters the meaning of a syllable, in Chinese there are 4 different tones.

1st Tone:  The first tone is at a high pitch.  The symbol used is above the a in mā.  It is high and long and relative to your normal voice level.  This is probably the easiest tone to get right.

2nd tone: The second tone starts off low and rises.  In English we used this when asking questions.  For example say "really" and then repeat it with a question mark at the end, "really?".  The way in which you say it changes.  The symbol used for the 2nd tone is above the a in má.

3rd tone:  The third tone starts off high drops to a low pitch and then rises back up.  In English this is rarely used although it is similar to a child asking "why?" when complaining.  The symbol used is the one above the a in mǎ.

4th tone:  The fourth tone starts of high and drops to a low pitch.  We usually use it in English when we are commanding someone to do something.  Say "no" and then repeat it with an exclamation mark "no!".  Notice the difference and how the pitch changes.  This is one of the harder tones to get to grips with.  Non native speakers often confuse it with the 2nd tone even if they think they are saying it right.  The symbol used is above the a in mà.

There is also a fifth tone.  When a syllable has no tone mark above it, it should be pronounced softly without adding any significant tone.  This is more difficult to master and only comes with practice.

You can listen to all of the above tones in the link I provided above.  Simply click on a pinyin letter and you can listen to how it sounds in all of the different tones.  It takes some people longer to grasp the tones so don't be put off if you can't immediately hear the difference!

The significance of tones

The tones change the meaning of a word or syllable in Chinese.  The most used example is "ma".

mā - 妈 using the first tone the meaning is mother. (There are other meanings too although there is no need to worry about that at the moment)

má - 麻 using the second tone it means hemp

mǎ - 马 using the third tone it means horse

mà - 骂 using the fourth tone it means to curse.

Look for ma in the table in the link above and listen to each one a few times, try to imitate the speaker.  If you can get the tones right early on it will make learning Chinese a lot quicker and may also save you from embarrassing situations!  The word for pillow is zhěntou, the word for a syringe needle is zhēntóu.  Going to a supermarket and asking for a syringe needle may cause you problems!

Chinese grammar is very simple when you first start off.  Word order usually follows that of English.  Verbs do not change in Chinese, they always stay the same.  If you wish to express something in the past, present or future there are words that are added although I will discuss this in a later post.

Basic vocabulary 

Each sound has its own individual character.  For example in nǐhǎo, nǐ is 你 and hǎo is 好

nǐhǎo - hello  (When there are two third tones in a row, the first one becomes a second tone although the pinyin will not change.  It should be pronounced níhǎo)

你好

nǐ - you

你

wǒ - I

我 

hǎo - good

好 

hěn - very

很

xièxie - thank you

谢谢

jiào - called; named

叫

shénme - what

什么

míngzi - name

名字

jīntiān - today

今天

hěn - very

很

zěnmeyàng - how about?; how are...?

怎么样？

rènshi - to know

认识

gāoxìng - happy
高兴

nǐ ne? - and you?

你呢？

Conversation

nǐhǎo (hello)

你好

nǐhǎo, nǐ jiào shénme míngzi? (Hi, what is your name?)

你好，你叫什么名字？

wǒ jiào Sean,  nǐ ne?  (I'm Sean, and you?)

我叫 Sean，你呢？

wǒ jiào Bob, hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ!  (My name is Bob, good to meet you!)

我叫 Bob, 很高兴认识你！

nǐ jīntiān zěnmeyàng?  (How are you today?)

你今天怎么样？

wǒ hěn hǎo, xièxie!  (I'm very good, thank you!) 

我很好，谢谢！

zàijiàn! (Goodbye)

再见！

zàijiàn! (Goodbye)

再见！

Exercises 

Add the pinyin tone marks to the following words:

ni
wo
jiao
shenme
jintian
zenmeyang
xiexie
mingzi
ni ne?
nihao
hao
gaoxing

Write the pinyin for the following charcters:
你
我
叫
什么？
怎么样？
再见
很
高兴
认识
你好
今天
好

Use pinyin, or characters if you really want to, to make three sentences from the above words.