Chinese Language course
A free 14-lesson beginner course in Mandarin Chinese: pinyin and tones, basic vocabulary and greetings, simple grammar, numbers, and telling the time.
Chinese Language course Articles
Lesson 1: From Nowhere to Pinyin
第 | 一 | 课 | 拼 | 音 dì | yī | kè | pīn | yīn From nowhere to pinyin For those with little insight to Chinese, the most obvious difference between this language an...
Lesson 2: The Chinese Tones
The significance of tones: Syllables with the same initials and finals, but with different tones may have completely different meanings. Sometimes what you say ...
Lesson 3: Initials and Finals in Standard Mandarin
汉语普通话声韵母拼合表 > 第一页 ) Possible combinations of initials and finals in standard Mandarin (page 1) Note: Every page contains all the initials (vertically), but only...
Lesson 4: Pronunciation of Syllables and Words
练习 liànxí (exercises): Pronounce the following syllables with all four tones: ji | jia | jiao | jie | jiu | jian | jin | jiang | jing | jiong qi | qia | qiao | ...
Lesson 5: shēngcí 1 (Vocabulary)
shēngcí 1 1. | 第 | dì | prefix for ordinal numbers 2. | 一 | yī | one 3. | 课 | (n.) | kè | lesson 4. | 面 | (n.) | miàn | face 5. | 蓝 | (adj.) | lán | blue 6. | 妈...
Lesson 6: Greeting Someone
Greeting someone: The best and simplest way to say hello to somebody in Chinese is 你好！ níhăo you good This can be used any time of the day, for greeting any per...
Lesson 7: shēngcí 2 (Vocabulary)
第二课 | : | 你好 dì èr kè | nĭhăo 生词： shēngcí Words written in bold appear in the text below. Those not in bold do not appear in the text, but they either do in the...
Lesson 8: kèwén 1 (Dialogue)
课文 kèwén （text）: 李东： Lĭ Dōng | 你好！ Nĭhăo! | 我 Wŏ | 叫 jiào | 李东。 Lĭ Dōng. 张宁： Zhāng Níng | 你好！ Nĭhăo | 我 Wŏ | 是 shì | 张宁。 Zhāng Níng. 李东： Lĭ Dōng | 你是 Nĭ shì | 哪...
Lesson 9: Asking Someone's Name and Nationality
Asking someone’s name: 1. The most common way of asking someone’s name is: 你| 叫 | 什么? | 你| 叫 | 什么 | 名字？ Nĭ | jiào | shénme | OR | nĭ | jiào | shénme | míngzi yo...
Lesson 10: The Interrogative Sentence
The interrogative sentence: An interrogative sentence can be formed by 1. putting the modal particle “吗” at the end of a declarative sentence. 他是张宁。He is Zhāng ...