Foreign Language

Lesson 1

Basics of Chinese Language

Basics of Chinese Language

0 There are two main Chinese languages, Mandarin and Cantonese.

0 With more than 1.1 billion speakers, Mandarin is the most common language in the world.
Cantonese has around 55 million speakers. Both languages are written using the same characters,
but very different when spoken aloud.

Chinese Characters

0 There are two sets of characters (also known as hànzì, or 汉字) used for written Chinese. They
are known as simplified characters and traditional characters. The pronunciation of words is
the same regardless of which set of characters is used.

0 Simplified characters are easier and faster to read & write. They are the result of an effort by the
Chinese government to improve literacy in China. Simplified and traditional characters are
usually very similar. For many words, simplified and traditional characters are actually the same.

-Example

Simplified Characters Traditional Characters

谢谢 謝謝

Pinyin

0 Unlike letters of the alphabet in English, Chinese characters generally don't convey how they
should sound when spoken. For that, there is the Romanised pronunciation system known
as Pinyin. Aside from representing the way Mandarin is pronounced, Pinyin is also the main way
of typing Chinese.

0 When represented by Pinyin, each sound in the Chinese language is made up of three
parts: initials, finals, and tones. Initials are the first part of a Chinese sound, and finals are the
end part of a sound. Tone marks are drawn above letters when words are written with Pinyin.
-Example

Initial Final Tone Pinyin

zh ong 1 zhōng

The Five Tones

Tone
1 2 3 4 5
Mark
ˉ ˊ ˇ ˋ N/A

Pitch
Flat Rising Low Falling Neutral
Sample
("ma") mā má mǎ mà ma
Sample
("shi") shī shí shǐ shì shi

Chinese Alphabets

0 Initials

0 b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh ch sh z c s

y w (adopted letters)

0 Finals

0 a o e ie ai ei ao ou an en ang eng er i u ü
Basic Chinese Vocabulary

0 Listed below are some of the first basic words. Also note the similarities and
differences between the simplified and traditional characters.

-Examples

Simplified Traditional
Pinyin Meaning
Characters Characters

你好 你好 nǐ hǎo Hello

再见 再見 zài jiàn Goodbye

谢谢 謝謝 xiè xie Thanks

You're
bù yòng xiè
不用谢 不用謝 welcome

日 日 rì Day

月 月 yuè Month

年 年 nián Year