NUMBERS in MANDARIN

The number beside the mandarin word represents the tone. Therefore yi1 is actually yī

一 yi1 one, 1

二 er4 two, 2

三 san1 three, 3

四 si4 four, 4

五 wu3 five, 5

六 liu4 six, 6

七 qi1 seven, 7

八 ba1 eight, 8

九 jiu3 nine, 9

十 shi2 ten, 10

十一 shi2 yi1 eleven, 11

十二 shi2 er4 twelve, 12

十三 shi2 san1 thirteen, 13

........

二十 er4 shi2 twenty, 20

百 bai3 hundred, 100

二百 er4 bai3 two hundred, 200

三百 san1 bai3 three hundred, 300

五百 wu3 bai3 five hundred, 500

Greetings

 

We have already learned about "ni hao" - Hello.Following are the other common greeting that can be used in Mandarin. 

Good Morning

zǎo  ān 早 安

zǎo shàng hǎo - 早上好

Zǎo means “morning.”

The Chinese character zǎo 早 is a composite of two characters - 日 (meaning sun) and 十. The character 十 is an old form of jiǎ 甲, which means “first” or “armor.” A literal interpretation of the character zǎo 早, therefore, is “first sun.”

The second character - ān - 安 means "peace", so the literal translation of zǎo ān - 早安 is "morning peace".

zǎo shàng - 早上 together means  "early morning"

hǎo - 好 means "good".  So the literal translation of zǎo shàng hǎo - 早上好 is "early morning good". 

Good Night

wǎn ān 晚安

Wǎn means "late" and together  wǎn ān means " late peace" which is used for "good night"

Good Afternoon and Good evening

                                  Zhong wu hao    中午好

                                  Xia wu hao     下午 好

Appropriate Timings

These greetings should be said at the appropriate time of the day. 

 

Other greetings: 

Good Bye

Zài jiàn  再见

" Zài " means " again" and "jiàn" means "to see" . The literal meaning for " zài jiàn" means "see you again" but it can be used as good bye .

See you tomorrow

                                   Ming tian jian 田明见

Mingtian means " tomorrow"

Thanks

                                    XieXie  謝謝, 

You are welcome

                                      bù kè qi  不客氣

"bù kè qi "literally means "Don't be polite" in Mandarin. The Chinese have the tendency to negate a polite action/comment from another, rather than acknowledge it

He , She and It

The same word Ta in the flat tone is used for He , She and It. But the written form is different for all the three.

English	Chinese Word	Chinese Character
He	Ta	他
She	Ta	她
It	Ta	它
They	Ta men	他 们

Please follow the video to understand the stroke order for Ta in different contexts.

You & I

The most important words in any language are "you " and "I "

Stroke order:
Please follow the video for the stroke orders of ni, wo and nimen and women.

The first Word

In software whenever we learn a new coding language , the first program that we write is always the "Hello World".  Why should Chinese be any different? :)

Hello -  Ni hao  你好 !

你	nǐ	(pro)	You
好	hǎo	(adj)	good, well
你好！	nǐhǎo!		Hello, How are you?

Chinese character

The Chinese characters are the written symbols of the Chinese language. Usually one character stands for one syllable and it is composed of several basic strokes.

All characters should be written as to fit into equal sized squares no matter the number of strokes. The characters should be written the proper stroke order and the structure should be compact and well balanced.



Stroke order for Ni Hao

Tones in chinese

Beijing dialect has 4 basic tones, usually called 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th tone. When a syllable is pronounced in different tones , it has different meaning.

1st Tone -  neutral tone is pronounced with no fluctuation in the pitch

2nd Tone - High tone is pronounced with high pitch . It goes from low to high.

3rd Tone - It a wave. High-low-high

4th Tone - Falling Tone. High- low

 Please see the picture below to understand the tones.  

When a syllable contains only a single vowel, the tone graph is placed above it. If the vowel is " i " , we remove the dot over " i " and place the tone graph above it. 

If the final is a compound vowel we place the tone graph above the main element.

Please hear the audio file for better understanding.

Changes in 3rd tone

When a 3rd tone is followed by any other tone except another 3rd tone, it changes into a rising tone and a 3rd tone .

When a 3rd tone is followed by any other tone except 3rd tone , it changes into a falling tone and a 3rd tone.

Lets get started...

The first thing that we learn in a language are alphabets and the pronunciation of each alphabet.

Well.. theres news.. there are no alphabets as such in Chinese by combining which you can make a word.

A syllable in Chinese is generally made up of an initial and a final . Initial is the consonant part and the final is the rest of the part of the syllable.

There are 21 initials and 38 finals in Chinese.

Ex: in the word "mang", "m" is the  initial and "ang" is the final.

Download the Table of the Speech -Beijing Dialect . The pronunciation is in Hindi so it becomes easy to speak.

To pronounce a syllable check the pronunciation of the initial and the final. For example. the first word in the table is written as "ba" but it is pronounced as "pa". The initial "b" is pronounced as " प " and "a" is pronounced as "आ". Together"ba" is pronounced as " पा"
Similarly , "d" is pronounced as "त" So "dian" is pronounced as "तियन" - combination of "त" and "इयन"

Please practice this table evryday , so that you become familiar with teh pronunciation.

Why Mandarin? 

Few days back when i was retrospecting and i decide that I need a different challenge that would excite me . I decided to learn a foreign language .. just like that.

I then faced the biggest question?  Should I go for a European language or Asian.

These are the reasons why I chose Mandarin.
1. Mandarin is more widely spoken language that any other European Language. Learn to speak Mandarin and you can speak with millions of people around the world.
2. Verbal Mandarin is easier than it is thought.
3. China is the future now. Business people who speak Mandarin have a huge advantage in tapping into the Chinese market