Welcome to Gaia! ::

你好！

In this thread, I am going to attempt to teach you some basic Mandarin Chinese. I should mention that I've only been studying Chinese for a year and a half now, but to my credit I've been studying it very seriously and my professors tell me I speak it very well, so rest assured that I'll do my best to make sure everything I post here is as correct as possible, at least according to what I've learned from a textbook, the internet, and from actual native Chinese speakers.

At the moment I have a vague outline of what exactly to teach, but I'd like this to be interactive, so if there's anything at all (certain vocabulary, grammar points, etc.) that you'd like to learn, post it here and I'll include it in future lessons.

Also, I'll be posting little exercises with each lesson. Feel free to post your answers in the thread (or PM them to me, if you're self-conscious xd ) and I'll correct 'em whenever I get the chance. I'm thinking each lesson will include some new vocabulary, some grammar points, and then some exercises based on whatever I just covered.

Lessons:
- Overview of writing system/phonology
- Pronunciation, pt. I: Simple finals
- Pronunciation, pt. II: Initials
- Pronunciation, pt. III: Compound finals
- Pronunciation, pt. IV: Spelling rules
- Pronunciation, pt. V: Tones
- Lesson 1: Chinese names/introducing yourself, basic expressions, numbers 0 to 10
- Lesson 2: Numbers 11-99, basic expressions, talking about yourself
- Lesson 3: Measure words, family
- Lesson 4: Days of the week/dates/time, numbers 100 to 9999
- Lesson 5: Hobbies, the Verb-Object Compound, etc.
- Lesson 6: Food! / Questions
- Lesson 7: Housing, etc.
- Lesson 8: Numbers 10,000 - 9,999,999,999 ( eek )
- Lesson 9: Buying stuff
- ?

I'm kinda busy at the moment, so I won't get started just yet, but I will get to it soon, I promise! If you're anxious to start, you could check out http://www.pinyin.org and start learning how to pronounce Chinese written in pinyin.

Resources:
http://www.zhongwen.com -- dictionary, general information on Chinese and much more!
http://www.chinese-tools.com -- another good dictionary site
http://www.pinyin.org -- an excellent/thorough introduction to and overview of pinyin, with recordings for every syllable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin_table -- handy pinyin table!
http://web.mit.edu/~jinzhang/www/pinyin/finals -- easy reference for pinyin finals
http://www.pinyinpractice.com -- practice recognizing initials, finals and tones
http://www.lostlaowai.com/lang/tones.shtml -- useful explanation of tones

Simple finals

The pronunciation of pinyin gets complicated, so let's just ease into it by taking a look at the basic vowel sounds. There are six of them:

a o e i u ü

(click each one to hear the sound)

a is pronounced much like the a in "father"
o is not "oh" as one might expect, but rather a sound not found in English; I can't properly describe it in words, but it is a sound made in the back of the mouth, and with rounded lips like you're about to make a "w" sound; basically, listen to the sound sample and try to imitate it
e is another vowel sound not found in English... it's somewhere between the vowel sounds in the words "could" and "but"; when pronouncing it, try to keep your lips in a more flattened shape instead of a rounded one
i is pronounced like the i in "machine"
u is like the vowel sound in "moon," except make sure you round your lips when you say it, almost to the point that it sounds like "oh" instead of "oo"
ü is a sound not found in English, but it is found in languages like French and German... to get the sound, round your lips like you're about to say "oo," but with your lips still rounded say "ee" instead

Practice these vowel sounds, but also keep in mind they are not always pronounced in the way I just presented them. A few vowels, especially i, may have a variety of different pronunciations depending on what consonant comes before them. We'll get into all that later.

For now, here are some words you can practice saying that do have those six vowel sounds. You don't have to worry about the tones just yet, just try to pronounce the syllable first and then listen to the sample, paying attention to the vowel to see if you pronounced it correctly.

你 nǐ (you)

八 bā (eight)

车 chē (car)

末 mò (end)

路 lù (road)

女 nǚ (woman)

Compound finals

So far you've learned all of the six simple finals: a, o, e, i, u and ü.

There are also many "compound finals," which consist of the combination of two or three vowel sounds, sometimes with the addition of -n or -ng on the end.

-----

Here are all of the compound finals (and there are a lot of them, so take your time), presented in parts:

ai ei
ao ou

The first two, ai and ei are the sounds "a" and "e," respectively, followed by the sound "i," resulting in sounds similar to those in the English words in "eye" and "day".

The final ao isn't exactly found in English, but it consists of the sounds "a" and "o" after each other, and sounds vaguely like the vowel sound in the word "how," only pronounced more in the back of the mouth.

The final ou sounds very similar to the English word "oh".

-----

Putting an i- at the beginning of the final gives us these finals, which all sound like they start with a "y" (and in fact, they are often spelled that way, which we'll get to in the next post):

ia ie iao iu

y + a = ia ("yah")
y + e ("eh") = ie ("yeh")
y + ao = iao
y + (o)u = iu (similar to "yo")

-----

Similarly, adding a u- to the beginning of the final has the effect of inserting a "w" sound between the initial and the final:

ua uo uai ui

w + a = ua ("wah")
w + o = uo
w + ai = uai ("why")
w + ei = ui (note: sounds like "way," not "wee")

A few finals can also be formed with ü-:

üe

ü + e ("eh") = üe (this is a hard sound to get used to for an English speaker... just listen to the recording and do your best to imitate it)

-----

Adding a final -n or -ng (as in thing, not as in finger; in other words, don't pronounce the g!) sound gives us these finals:

an en ang eng ong

a ("ah") + n = an
e + n = en
a + ng = ang ("ahng")
e + ng = eng
o ("oh") + ng = ong ("ohng")

ian in iang ing iong

y + a (pronounced like "eh" for some reason!) + n = ian
y + i + n = in
y + a ("ah") + ng = iang
y + i + ng = ing
y + o ("oh") + ng = iong

uan un uang ueng

w + a ("ah") + n = uan
w + e + n = un
w + a ("ah") + ng = uang
w + e + ng = ueng

üan ün

ü + a (again, inexplicably pronounced like "eh") + n = üan
ü + i + n = ün

-----

And last but not least, there's the ever-popular:

er

which is pretty much just the vowel "e" with an "r" on the end.

-----

Okay, you made it! By combining the initials and finals you just learned, you should now be able to pronounce every possible syllable of Chinese. surprised

To practice, try pronouncing these words; again, don't worry about the tone, we'll get to that soon! For each one, just try pronouncing it first, and then listen to the recording and compare.

多 duō (many)
当 dāng (to serve as)
肉 ròu (meat)
忘 wàng (to forget)
中 zhōng (middle)
教 jiāo (to teach)
点 diǎn (point, dot)
家 jiā (family, home)
想 xiǎng (to think)
听 tīng (to listen)
快 kuài (fast)
话 huà (speech)
证 zhèng (certificate, proof)
晚 wǎn (late, evening)
文 wén (language, culture)
员 yuán (employee)
酒 jiǔ (liquor)

Tones
(gotta love 'em!)

As you probably know, Chinese is a tonal language. This means that the pitch or "tone" of your voice is an important part of the pronunciation. In fact, in Chinese, it's so important to pronounce your tones correctly, that if you accidentally say a word with the wrong tone, it completely changes the meaning of the word. This can lead to comical misunderstandings, such as the classic:

请问。。。 qǐng wèn (lit. "please ask") If I may ask...
请吻。 qǐng wěn (lit. "please kiss") Please kiss me.

So, obviously, it's crucial to get your tones right!

In Mandarin there are five tones, referred to as first, second, third, fourth, and neutral.

first tone: 妈 mā (mother)
second tone: 麻 má (hemp)
third tone: 马 mǎ (horse)
fourth tone: 骂 mà (to scold)
neutral tone: 吗 ma (question particle)

To hear the difference between the tones, go to this site:
http://www.lostlaowai.com/lang/tones.shtml
and click the button in the first diagram.
Also, feel free to read the rest of the page for a better explanation of tones than I could give.

For practice with tones, you can use this site:
http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm

And for additional practice, try going back through the words I've introduced so far for teaching pronunciation and try pronouncing them with the correct tones, and then listen to the file and see if you did it right.

Pay special attention to the difference between second and third tones, as they are usually the most difficult to distinguish for people learning Chinese.

哪里，哪里！ biggrin

Lesson 1 is on the way, by the by, I've just been really busy this weekend... should be up at some point within the next few days, though. sweatdrop

And as far as I can tell, your Chinese was all correct. smile

Sorry for the delay! I've been really busy with exams and stuff. sweatdrop

Numbers 1-10

Alright, here's a good, easy thing to start with: the numbers!

1 - 一 yī
2 - 二 èr
3 - 三 sān
4 - 四 sì
5 - 五 wǔ
6 - 六 liù
7 - 七 qī
8 - 八 bā
9 - 九 jiǔ
10 - 十 shí

And for the curious, zero is 零 líng.

We'll go into some higher numbers in Lesson 3 (from 11 all the way through 9999!), but just as a sneak preview, here's 11 through 20, which are easy:

11 - 十一 shíyī
12 - 十二 shíèr
13 - 十三 shísān
14 - 十四 shísì
15 - 十五 shíwǔ
16 - 十六 shíliù
17 - 十七 shíqī
18 - 十八 shíbā
19 - 十九 shíjiǔ
20 - 二十 èrshí

As you can see, 11-19 are just 十 plus the numbers 1 through 9, and 20 is 二 (2) and 十 (10).

You can probably guess how to do 30 through 99 now, but we'll get to it in Lesson 3.

Chinese names

A lot of people learning Chinese like to give themselves Chinese names to go by when speaking Chinese, so I'll tell you about how names work in Chinese, in case you're interested.

Whereas in English (as well as in most other Western languages), the order of someone's full name goes (first name) (last name), in Chinese it's the reverse. The surname/family name comes first, and then is followed by the given name. So, to use the name of a well-known Chinese person, Mao Zedong, as an example,

毛泽东
Máo Zédōng

毛 (Máo) was actually his family name (i.e. what we would call our "last name" in English), and 泽东 (Zédōng) the name he was given by his parents (i.e. his "first" name).

If you're interested in coming up with a Chinese name for yourself, this website is pretty useful for ideas. Feel free to do it several times and mix and match the characters until you end up with a name you like.

Here's my Chinese name:

晏达文
Yàn Dáwén

晏 (Yàn) corresponds to my last name, Yarwood, and 达文 (Dáwén) corresponds to my first name, Dave/David.

Chinese people generally refer to each other by either their full names (i.e. 晏达文), or by just the family name with some title affixed before or after it. For example, people will usually address me by my full name, or in any of the following ways using only my family name 晏:

小晏 (Xiǎo Yàn) -- literally "Little Yan" -- this is what someone roughly my age (I'm 20, by the way) or older would call me
老晏 (Lǎo Yàn) -- literally "Old Yan" -- basically the opposite, this is how people younger than me would address me
晏先生 (Yàn Xiānshēng) -- this is the Chinese equivalent of "Mr. Yan," basically just a polite way of addressing men that you know already, or that you have just met
晏老师 (Yàn Lǎoshī) -- "Teacher Yan" -- this, of course, is how students address their teachers

There are also equivalents of Miss and Mrs.:

王小姐 (Wáng Xiǎojie) -- Miss Wang
王太太 (Wáng Tàitai) -- Mrs. Wang (太太 means "wife")

There are also a variety of other titles that are often used, such as 医生 (Yīshēng, "doctor"), used to address one's doctor.

More on Chinese titles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_titles

Introducing yourself

vocabulary:

我 (wǒ) -- I, me
你 (nǐ) -- you
您 (nín) -- you (polite)
们 (men) -- plural marker (explained below)
好 (hǎo) -- good
请问 (qǐng wèn) -- If I may ask...
贵 (guì) -- expensive, honorable
姓 (xìng) -- surname
叫 (jiào) -- to call, to be called
名字 (míngzì) -- name
什么 (shénme) -- what
呢 (ne) -- particle (explained below)

To greet someone, you say 你好 ("hello"), to which the person also responds 你好.

When addressing multiple people, you add 们 (men) to the pronoun, so to say "hello" to a group of people, you would say 你们好 (nǐmen hǎo), and they would respond with 你好.

When meeting someone for the first time, the polite way to ask for his/her name is to say:

请问，您贵姓？
Qǐng wèn, nín guì xìng?

Literally, this means, "If I may ask, your honorable surname?" The custom in Chinese is to ask for the person's surname first, and then the person will generally respond with his/her full name, thusly:

我姓晏。　我叫晏达文。
Wǒ xìng Yàn. Wǒ jiào Yàn Dáwén.

"I am surnamed Yan. I am called Yan Dawen." Notice that here, 姓 is used as a verb, meaning "to have the surname..." Keep in mind that 姓 is used only for surnames, whereas 叫 is used for given name or full name.

Also notice that in Chinese (as well as Japanese and other Asian languages), a little circle is used to represent the full stop, instead of the "." period we're used to.

A more casual way to ask for someone's name, maybe for people you kind of know but don't know their names or something, is:

你叫什么名字？
Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?

Literally, "You are called what name?"

Which is often abbreviated to:

你叫什么？
Nǐ jiào shénme?

Literally, "You are called what?"

The response, of course, is "我叫..." and then your name.

In casual conversation, if someone asks for your name and you reply, you can then say "and you?" to ask for the person's name without having to repeat the question "what is your name?"

你呢？
Nǐ ne?

呢 is a particle that, in this case, basically means "and how about X?" with X being whatever comes before it. It can be used with practically anything:

我：　小姐，　你叫什么？ (Miss, what is your name?)
小李：　我叫李爱明(1)。　你呢？ (My name is Li Aiming. And you?)
我：　我叫晏达文。 (My name is Yan Dawen.)
小李：　你的爸爸(2)呢？ (And your father?)
我：　他(3)叫Ｊｉｍ。 (His name is Jim.)
小李：　你的妈妈(4)呢？ (And your mother?)
我：　她(3)叫Ｊｏａｎｎｅ。 (Her name is Joanne.)
小李：　你的狗(5)呢？ (And your dog?)
我：　它(3)叫Ｚａｃｋ。 (His name is Zack.)
and so on.

1. Lǐ Àimíng
2. bàba (dad/father)
3. tā (him, her, it)
4. māma (mom/mother)
5. nǐ de gǒu (your dog)


Alright, so that turned out to be a pretty exhaustive lesson! Here are some exercises for practice:

Exercises

1. Count to ten in Chinese!

2. Translate the following dialogue into Chinese:

Xiao Wang: Hello!
Xiao Li: Hello! If I may ask, what is your honorable surname?
Xiao Wang: My surname is Wang.
Xiao Li: What is your name?
Xiao Wang: My name is Wang Baitiao (王白眺). What's yours?
Xiao Li: My name is Li Aiming (李爱明).

3. 你叫什么名字？

If you want, you can post your answers here or PM them to me and I'll correct them. Also, if you feel like recording yourself saying anything in Chinese, I'd be happy to critique your pronunciation!

再见！
－晏老师

Thanks, the recording of "üe" really succeeded in making my family go "WTF?"

Blasted Dad, turning the speakers up to full volume...>.>