Forums > Study > Chinese Grammar Basics

Chinese Grammar Basics

Grammar plays the key role in bringing chinese characters together. in compensation, chinese grammar is considerably easier than english. here are just some examples of difference between chinese and english for your reference.

1. As there are no singular and plural in chinese, subject-verb agreement doesn''t exist.

English: I am a student. we are students.

Chinese: 我是学生,我们是学生。

Chinese personal pronouns are pluralized by adding the suffix 们.

For example, 我= i, 我们= we

2. Chinese verbs do not express time, but simply action, so chinese has no verb tenses.

English ：I am learning chinese.I learn chinese.

Chinese ：我学中文。我学习中文。

Notice that there is no difference between "i learn chinese" and "i am learning chinese" in chinese. Then how to let others know whether the thing has happened or not? In chinese, adverbs are frequently used to take the place of verb tense.

明天 tomorrow to show the thing has not happened yet

昨天 yesterday to show the thing has happened already

现在 right now to show the thing is happening

3. Chinese has no genitive case, character 的 is used to indicate possession.

English:This is my pen. Nancy's friend is very smart.

Chinese:这是我的笔。南希的朋友很聪明。

Ok, here above are just three simple examples. You will encounter much more on your way of learning chinese.

Forums > Study > Chinese Pinyin Tones

There are four tones in Mandarin Chinese Pinyin, plus one neutral tone(or called "no tone").

在汉语中有四个声调,加一轻声(或称为"无音")音。

First tone in Chinese Pinyin

The first tone is marked as a straight line like this¯. It has a long and sustained sound (as if singing a note).

第一种音调标记为这样的¯直线。它有一个长期和持续的声音(好像唱的说明)。

Second tone in Chinese Pinyin

The second tone is marked upwards like thisˊ . It is a rising tone (start from the lower part of your voice, then go up).

第二个音调的特点是向上ˊ这样。这是一个升调(从你的声音下部开始,然后向上)。

Third tone in Chinese Pinyin

The third tone is marked down and up like this ˇ. It is a low and curved tone. Try to go as low as you can and then bounce up.

第三种种语调明显下降,类似这样ˇ.。这是一个低,弯曲的基调。尝试尽可能的低,然后再反弹上去。

Fourth in Chinese Pinyin

The fourth tone is marked downwards like thisˋ. It is a falling tone (start from the grating highest part of your voice, then go down, as if exclaiming).

第四种语调像这样ˋ下调。这是降调,从你的声音光栅的最高部分(开始,然后下降)。

Neutral in Chinese Pinyin

The neutral tone has no mark. It is a short and light tone.

在轻声没有标记。这是一个短的和轻音。

Where should I mark the tones?

Tones should be marked on a vowel. If a word has more than one vowel, the tone should be marked on the main vowel of the word. Vowels are listed in the following order: a, o, e, i, u and ü. As the vowel 'a' appears first in this list, the tone in the word liao should be marked on the vowel 'a'.

我应该在哪里标注音调？

音调应标记在元音上。如果一个词有多个元音,语调应标明这个词的主要元音。元音列出以下顺序：1,a, o, e, i, u。由于元音'a'出现在这个列表中第一位,在liao中音调应该标在'a'.上。

Forums > Study > The Composition of the Chinese Characters

The Composition of the Chinese Characters

The composition of the main characters are in three ways:

汉 字 的 构 成 主 要 有 三 种 方 法：

1.Pictographic method

This is the earliest form of Chinese characters method to create the most original characters, Example: "日" 、"月" 、" 水 "、" 牛"and so on take the shape of each term. These Pictographic characters changed the original character of the physical into a subsequent Founder fonts after gradual evolution, and some reduction in the number of strokes and some strokes added by the rules have become irregular fonts.

1.象形法

这是形成汉字的最早方法,因此创造了最原始的文字,例："日","月","水","牛"等等。这些象形字经过逐渐的演变,倒后来都改变了原字的形状,变成了后来方正的字体,有的笔画减少了,有的笔画增添了,由不规则变成了有规则的字体。

2.Associative law

It's easier to see the creation of truth through Pictographic characters, but they should not express an abstract meaning. The ancients would have created another law —— Ideographic law. They used different symbols or borrowing Pictographic characters to add some symbols to express an abstract meaning. Example: the character "明" is made up of "日" and "月", meaning bringing bright. "旦" is made up of "曰" and"一" meaning the sun is rising from the horizon.

3.会意法

象形字比较容易看出造字的道理,但他们不能表达抽象的依稀。古人便创造了另一种造字法—会意法。就是用不同的符号或借用"象形字"加上一些符号来表达一个抽象的意思。例："明"意思为"日"和"月"带来光明。"旦"字意思为太阳出地平线而升起。

4.Pictophonetic Law

Ideographic characters and Pictographic characters can be seen from the shape on the meaning of the words, but they are not allowed to deliver voice. And therefore people created a sound law-shaped characters. To express the sound of voices and express the meaning of the side next to match the shape, a lot of new words came into being. Example: the character "爸" is made up of phonetic character "巴" and meaning character "父"；"芭 " is a combination of the word "巴" and "++" with a form and so on so forth. According to statistics, Pictophonetic Characters account for about 90% of Chinese characters. The formation and development of Chinese characters, become an important tool for the exchange of ideas, adapted to the needs of human social life.

3.形声法

象形字和会意字都能从字形上看出字的意义,但却不能读出声音。因此又创造了形声法来造字。把表示声音的声旁和表示意义的形旁搭配起来,组成很多新字。例："爸" 字是表音的"巴"字和表形的"父"字的结合；"芭"字是由"巴"和"++" 搭配而成。这样文字越早越多,据统计,形声字占汉字的90％左右。汉字的形成和发展,成为人类交流思想的重要工具,适应了人类社会生活的需要。

Forums > Study > How to stduy Chinese?

How to stduy Chinese?

I point out three key method :interest,input,practice.

有三个关键点：兴趣,积累,练习

First,interest is the best teacher.If you want to be good at Chinese,you must bring up your interest of learning Chinese .Interest can help you fight against whit dull.Find something you like to do.For example you like to watch TV,so you can watch some Chinese TV with your mother language caption.If you like to chatting,you can using Chinese to chatting with Chinese throughth internet,or by other ways.

首先,兴趣是最好的老师。学习中文一定要有兴趣,这是学好中文的关键所在。找出你喜欢做的事。比如你喜欢,看电视,你可以看些带有英文字幕的中文电影。喜欢和朋友交流,你可以交一些中国朋友,用中文来和他们交流。等等。

Second,you must insist on studying.No input,no output.So you must learn some chinese character or phrase every somedays.After studying,it is better to use the character you have learn to write some chinese article,or chatting wiht chinese.So you can not forget the character or phrase. Do not stop learn for long,and learn continue to learn .If so,it almost impossible for you to be good at Chinese.But i advise you that not to learn too more by one time of learning Chinese.If so,you may be feel dull and then stop to learn Chinese.

第二,要有持之以恒,每天有一定的积累,但不能太着急。没有输入,就没有输出。在保证不会太枯燥的情况下,每天学习一些中文字或者词组。然后想办法把刚学会的字和词组用起来,比如用这些字和词组和中国朋友聊天,这样会产生兴趣,避免枯燥,帮助记忆。持之以恒,效果会很好。如果中断学习,后面再学习时,效果会很差。

Third,do not afraid to make mistake.Do not afraid make joke.Do not be too care with grammar.If you are too care with the grammar,it will be too dull to do practice everytime ervrywhere you want to practise chinese.Remember that if you want to be good at chinese,you must do more pratice.

第三,不要怕犯错误！不要怕闹笑话。不要太在意语法。如果会很认真的去学习语法,这样学习中文就太枯燥,很多外国人就因此放弃了学习中文。想说就说,增加了练习的机会,这样会提高很快。

The last.Creat a chinese environment as we know.The best way to learn chinese is to creat a chinese environment.Because it has more pritise chance,less dull,and you can remember what you study for long times,may be all your life.So many foreigners come to china for studying.But if you can not come to china,you can use the internet,or some other ways.

最后,培养一个中文的环境！我们知道,在外语环境里学外语,效果是最好的,因为练习的次数多,记忆效果好,而且不会产生枯燥。如果你不能来中国,就通过网络和中国人进行交流。

I hope that you can use the methods to learn chinese.So you can make greate progress by using less time.Thank you for you reading.

相信你用以上方法进行实践,你学习中文就能进步很快。谢谢。

Forums > Study > Very good free Chinese self-study materials

There is a new free online Chinese textbook at:

www.daydayupchinese.com

No registration is needed and the site is free.

The site has dialogs, example sentences, vocabulary development, grammar explanations, as well as practice activities. MP3 downloads of native speakers from northern China are available for some units.

In this first lesson we will learn the pronouns, the verb "to be", and the occupations "student", "teacher", and "businessperson".

After all, aren't we a little bit of all three?

The simple sentence pattern of pronoun + be + complement is a a quick and easy way to convey information about people - "He is an American", "They are students", "She is my coworker" etc.

Once you get in the basic form, it's simply a matter of plugging in additional vocabulary (which we will do in later lessons).

1.01 Pronouns

我

Wǒ

I

你

Nǐ

You

您
Nín
You

(respected)

他

Tā

He 她

Tā

She

它
Tā

It

你们

Nǐmen

You all

我们
Wǒmen

We

他们

Tāmen

They

Notes:

He and she have the same pronunciation in Mandarin, tā; in the written language they are differentiated by their characters, 他 for he and 她 for she.

To make the plural of any pronoun just add 们 men to the singular form of the pronoun. Please note that the distinction between plural and singular is not quite as important in Chinese, often the plural will simply be implied by the context.

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