Weixin’s Mandarin Chinese Lesson Notes

生词

喜欢 – xǐhuān – like (~ something; ~ to do)
美丽 – měilì – beautiful
漂亮 – piàoliang – pretty
帅 – shuài – handsome (informal. used on men only)
可爱 – kě’ài – cute, lovely
好看 – hǎokàn – good-looking
好听 – hǎotīng – sounds good (music, voice, etc)
好吃 – hǎochī – tasty
蛋糕 – dǎngāo – cake
巧克力 – qiǎokelì – chocolate
苹果 – píngguǒ – apple
南瓜 – nǎnguā – pumpkin
烤 – kǎo – to bake
网球 – wǎngqiú – tennis
篮球 – lánqiú – basketball
打 – dǎ – to play (examples: 打网球 – to play tennis; 打篮球 – to play basketball)
音乐 – yīnyuè – music
不错 – búcuò – not bad, quite good
还可以 – hái kěyǐ – all right (as in “the movie is all right)
马马虎虎 – mǎmǎhūhū – so so
工作 – gōngzuò – job, to work
做 – zuò – to do; to make
搞 – gǎo – to deal with

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生词 Shēngcí

老师 lǎoshī n. teacher
学生 xuéshēng n. student
中文 zhōngwén n. Chinese (the language)
英文 yīngwén n. English (the language)
游泳 yóuyǒng n. v. to swim; swimming
都 dōu adv. all, both
讲 jiǎng v. to speak, to talk
教 jiāo v. to teach
学 xué v. to study, to learn
很 hěn adv. very
胖 pàng adj. to be chubby, fat
瘦 shòu adj. to be thin, skinny
高 gāo adj. to be tall
矮 ǎi adj. to be short (as in humans)
长 cháng adj. to be long
短 duǎn adj. to be short (as in length)
新 xīn adj. to be new
旧 jiù adj. to be used, old, or worn (as in condition, but not age)
会 huì aux. v. can, to be able to
一点 yīdiǎn adv. n. a little
我会讲一点中文 – Wǒ huì jiǎng yīdiǎn zhōngwén. – I can speak a little Chinese.

Language Points

Adjectives
It’s important to note that adjectives such as “长” and “大” are in fact verbs. They are typically used with “很”, for instance, “我很高” (literally “I am very tall”), although “我高” is a perfectly grammatical sentence. Examples:

• 他(tā)很瘦 – He is very thin.
• 美国(Měiguó)很大 – The United States is big.
• 我的(wǒde)猫很小 – My cat is small.
• 她(tā)的汽车(qìchē)很旧 – Her car is very old.

The negative form is typically without “很” (我不矮 instead of 我不很矮):

• 你(nǐ)不胖 – You are not fat – Very useful if you want to please a Chinese woman
• 老师不高 -The teacher is not tall.
• 这张(zhèzhāng)桌子(zhuōzi)不大 – This table is not big.

会
会 is an auxiliary verb. It is used in front of a verb to indicate abilities i.e. “can”. Examples:

• 我会讲中文 – I can speak Chinese.
• 你会游泳吗? – Can you swim?
• 他不会讲英文. – He can’t speak English.

都 & 也 (part 1)
都 and 也(yě) are both adverbs. They are most commonly used in front of verbs. Examples:

• 我是(shì) 学生. 你也是学生. 我们(wǒmen)都是学生.
  I am a student. You are also a student. We are both students.
• 我学中文. 你学中文.他也学中文. 我们都学中文.
  I study Chinese. You study Chinese. He also studies Chinese. We ALL study Chinese.
• 他会游泳. 她也会游泳. 他们都会游泳.
  He can swim. She can swim, too. They both can swim.

Note: When 都 and 也 are used together, 也 precedes 都:

• 他们都是美国人. 她们也都是美国人.
  They are all American. They are also all American.

Pinyin Review

Below are some commonly mis-pronounced sounds. If you are unsure about the pronunciation of any of these, visit the interactive pinyin chart on http://www.pinyin.org:

1) z/zh/j
zang zhang jiang;
zan zhan jian;
zong zhong jiong;
zuan zhuan juan;

2) c/ch/q
cang chang qiang;
can chan qian;
cuan chuan quan;

3) s/sh/x
si shi xi;
sun shun xun;

4) i/i
zhi chi shi zi ci si ri;
versus
bi pi mi di ti ni li ji qi xi yi;

5) ü/u
bu, pu, mu, fu, du, tu, nu, lu, gu, ku, hu, zhu, chu, shu, zu, cu, su, ru, wu;
ju qu xu yu; (these are ü spelt without the two dots)
lu/lü & nu/nü;

6) an/ang
tan/tang – hint: resist the temptation to say the orange drink mix brand or what is the darkening of the skin!

Tones, Tones, Tones!

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of tones. Consider the following examples:

shíjiān – 时间 – time
shíjiàn – 实践 – in application, in practice
shìjiàn – 事件 – an incident or event

xiǎnshì – 显示 – to show or reveal
xiànshí – 现实 – reality
xiánshì – 闲事 – a trivial task, a matter that’s none of one’s business

shèjī – 射击 – to shoot (as a sport)
shèjì – 设计 – design
shèjí – 涉及 – pertaining to, involving

shǐzhōng – 始终 – throughout
shízhōng – 时钟 – clock
shìzhōng – 适中 – just right, fit

yìshi – 意识 – to realize
yíshì – 仪式 – ceremony
yíshī – 遗失 – to lose

fǔshì – 俯视 – bird’s eye view
fǔshí – 腐蚀 – to erode
fúshì – 服饰 – apparel

Sometimes getting the tones right is just half the trick. Consider the following:

yǎnshì – 掩饰 – to cover up, to hide
yǎnshì – 演示 – to demonstrate, show
rénshì – 人事 – human resource
rénshì – 人士 – people

shùmù – 树木 – trees
shùmù – 数目 – numbers
bàofu – 报复 – revenge, retaliation
bàofu – 抱负 – aspiration, ambition

jūliú – 拘留 – to detain/arrest
jūliú – 居留 – to stay, to remain a resident of
yuányóu – 原油 – crude oil
yuányóu – 缘由 – reason, origin

So how do you know what a speaker is referring to when you hear one of these words? It’s all in the context!!!

Tonal change of “一”(Yī)

“一”, when used in front of measure words (as an indefinite article) is pronounced with different tones, depending on the tones of the measure word. This tonal change is unique to the word “一”. Generally, if the measure word after “一” is in 1st, 2nd or 3rd tone, “一” is pronounced as 4th tone; if the measure word is in 4th tone, “一” is pronounced as 2nd tone. The table below shows the tones as should be pronounced when “一” is used in front of a measure word. It is important to note that, when writing the pinyin, the standard practice is to always spell”一” with its native tone, the first tone i.e. yī.

Examples

In front of 1st tone: yì zhāng, zhī, bēi, shuāng

In front of 2nd tone yì tái, tiáo, fú

In front of 3rd tone yì bǎ, běn, zhǎn

In front of 4th tone yí gè, liàng, jià, fù

生词 Shēngcí – New Words

běnzi [běn] – notebook – 本子[本]
fèizhǐlǒu [gè] – waste paper basket – 废纸篓[个]
chōuti [gè] – drawer – 抽屉[个]

Note: I’ve started posting the characters for the new words, even though I haven’t formally introduced them in class. Don’t worry about learning how to write them yet. But here’s an interesting exercise for you. Copy the individual characters of a new word into the dictionary (http://hmarty.free.fr/hanzi/index.html will work fine) and see what you find. This will help you understand why I say learning the Chinese language is like building a brick house!

Language Points

“Yǒu” (有) indicating existence
In addition to expressing possession as in “Wǒ yǒu yī zhī māo.”, Yǒu is also used to express existence or location. Its closest counterpart in English would be “there is”. Note that Yǒu, when indicating existence, must be preceded by a directional word (shàng, xià, lǐ, etc). Examples:

Zhuōzi shàng yǒu yī zhāng bàozhǐ. - There is a newspaper on the table.

Zhuōzi xià yǒu yī tiáo dìtǎn. – There is a rug under the table

Qiáng shàng yǒu yī fú huàr. – There is a picture on the wall.

Chōuti lǐ yǒu yī fù yǎnjìng. – There is a pair of glasses in the drawer.