MANDARIN 1

Dialogue 2
Greetings
Wènhòu
问候
TAN POH EE
tanpe@utem.edu.my
Today, we are going to learn some basic greeting
in Mandarin.
At the end of the lesson, students should be
able to:
1. practise how to greet properly
2. response to the greeting correctly
3. identify how to address family members
 nǐhǎo
你好
 Literally means ‘you good’ and use to say hello in
Mandarin.
 A most common form of greeting in Chinese.
 It can be used at any time of the day when you meet
people for the first time or for people you already know.
 The response to this greeting form is also ‘你好 nǐ hǎo’
Dialogue 1
Wáng Mínghuá Chén xiǎojie nín hǎo
王 明华 : 陈小姐，您好。
Wang Ming Hua Hello, Miss Chen.

Chén Měilì Wáng xiānsheng nínhǎo

陈 美丽 : 王 先生，您好。
Chen Mei Li Hello, Mr. Wang.

 When addressing an older or greeting someone formally,

we use ‘nín’ in place of ‘nǐ’
 In Mandarin, a family name or surname such as Chén （陈）
and Wáng （王） precedes a title or form of address.
 Sentence Meaning
nǐmen hǎo
你们好。
Hello, everyone.
dàjiā hǎo
大家好。

 ‘nín’ and ‘nǐ’ can be replaced with nǐmen (你们) when

we greet a group of people.
 nǐ hǎo ma
你 好 吗？
 This sentence is translated as ‘How are you’ which
literally means ‘you good?’
 This is also a common greeting.
 ma（吗） is a question particle. Adding the particle
‘ma’ to the end of a sentence makes a statement into a
question.
 wǒ hěn hǎo
我很好。
A common response to nǐ hǎo ma(你好吗？)is wǒ hěn
hǎo(我很好。)which means ‘I’m fine’.
In Mandarin, ‘to be’ verb such as 'am', 'is', 'are' etc. are
not used with adjective.
It is wrong to response as ‘wǒ hǎo’ without ‘hěn’.
We can also say…
nín hǎo ma
您好吗？
nǐmen hǎo ma
你们好吗？
tā hǎo ma tā hǎo ma
他好吗？她好吗？
tāmen hǎo ma tāmen hǎo ma
他们好吗？她们好吗？
Dialogue 2
Sūfēiyà Wáng Qiáng hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn nǐhǎo ma
苏菲亚 : 王 强， 好久不见，你好吗？
Sofia I haven’t seen you for a long time.
How’re you, Wang Qiang?

Wáng Qiáng wǒ hěn hǎo xièxie nǐ ne

王 强 ： 我 很 好，谢谢，你呢？
Wang Qiang I’m fine, thank you. What about you?

Sūfēiyà wǒ yě hěn hǎo

苏菲亚 : 我也很好。
Sofia I’m fine too.
Wáng Qiáng nǐ de bàba māma hǎo ma
王 强 : 你的爸爸、妈妈 好吗？
Wang Qiang How’re your parents?

Sūfēiyà tāmen dōu hěn hǎo xièxie

苏菲亚 : 他们 都 很好，谢谢！
Sofia They’re fine, thank you!
Vocabulary for today
No. Words/Phrases Phonetics Meaning
1. 你好 nǐhǎo Hello
2. 吗 ma Question particle
3. 呢 ne Question particle
4. 好久不见 hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn Haven't seen you for a long
time

5. 谢谢 xièxie Thank you

6. 爸爸 bàba Father
7. 妈妈 māma Mother
8 都 dōu All
Basic Family Member
yéye nǎinai
爷爷 Grandfather 奶奶 Grandmother
wàigōng wàipó
外公 Grandfather 外婆 Grandmother
(mother’s side) (mother’s side)
fùqīn bàba mǔqīn māma
父亲 / 爸爸 Father 母亲/妈妈 Mother
gēge jiějie
哥哥 Elder brother 姐姐 Elder sister
dìdi mèimei
弟弟 Younger brother 妹妹 Younger sister
Thank you
xièxie
谢谢