Want to learn Chinese? :)

[Jessica]

does this meaning help: (I don't know if it is the right one)
it's described as a vocal question mark at the end of a sentence to make it a question

ma has a meaning but not a direct translation.

hope you get this, lee ying ;-)

[lee ying]

not really. but it´s ok , lol
Anyway , Thank you so much, Don´t worry, If I have more questions I´ll feel free to ask you, ok? *_ *;)

[Jessica]

Basically, it's used in Yes No questions
There's 3 kinds of questions.

1. Keyword question
Example:
Shui shi ni de peng you? Who is your friend?
Lee ying ;) shi wo de peng you. Lee ying is my friend.
Notice that you replace the key word, shui (who) with a person's name.

2. Yes No Question
Ni shi xue sheng ma? Are you a student?
Shi/Bu Shi Yes/No

3. Choice question
Ni shi bu shi lao shi? Are you a teacher or not?
Wo (bu) shi lao shi. I am (not) a teacher.

[lee ying]

jessica is most clear now, *_* I¨ll try to study more and more, I thank you so much.

[Jessica]

no problem! always glad to help you! :-)

[Jessica]

China has 56 ethnic groups. The Han make up more than 90% of the population (my parents are Han).

just a little fact

[Jessica]

ni cong na li lai?

Where do you come from?


Wo cong jia na da lai. I come from Canada.
Wo cong zhong guo lai. I come from China.
Wo cong xi ban ya lai. I come from Spain.


this is a key word question.


Any questions about this?


Any other questions?


Please don't hesitate to ask, and I will do my best to get you satisfied :)

[Jessica]

This relates to foods and ordering.
bi sa bing means pizza.
Ni yao shen me? What do you want?
Ni yao he shen me? What do you want to drink?
Ma shang - right away
huan ying - welcome
huang ying guan lin - welcome you come here
huang ying xia ci guan lin - welcome you come here next time.

[chanman]

Most common greeting is ni hao, which means 'you (are) good'
Wo ai hanyu = I love chinese
Ni shi wode baobei ma? = will you be my sweetheart? :) :) :)

Isn't the last one more like "Are you my sweetheart?", not "will you be"?

Before you teach them all the pronunciations, shouldn't people learn how the letters are actually pronounced in pinyin first?

this relates to foods and ordering.
Bi sa bing means pizza.
Ni yao shen me? What do you want?
Ni yao he shen me? What do you want to drink?
Ma shang - right away
huan ying - welcome
huang ying guan(g) lin - welcome you come here
huang ying xia ci guan(g) lin - welcome you come here next time.

ni cong na li lai?

Where do you come from?


Wo cong jia na da lai. I come from Canada.
Wo cong zhong guo lai. I come from China.
Wo cong xi ban ya lai. I come from Spain.


this is a key word question.


Any questions about this?


Any other questions?


Please don't hesitate to ask, and I will do my best to get you satisfied :)

Don´t forget to put a "de" at the end of all those sentences. Otherwise they sound awkward.

Wau, I am criticizing like crazy.

China has 56 ethnic groups. The Han make up more than 90% of the population (my parents are Han).

just a little fact

Well, yeah, but some are disputed. such as the Muslims (I forget the actual name) of Xinjiang. Genetically, they're argued to be almost completely Han, but identified differently by the government just to separate them by something less controversial than religion.

[chanman]

Ok, I did not bother to look through every single page (there are too many) to see if there is a pinyin pronunciation guide, so I will provide some of the trickier ones for those who have never encountered pinyin.
Vowels are usually pronounced the same in every word.
A - short "a", like in lalalalala.
E -"uh" sound, like in dud. So "mén" is not pronounced like in English, but more like "mún".
I -Long E sound, like in Bee. Lì = Lee
O - I have trouble describing this one. Very similar to "uo", but less of a "u" sound at the beginning.
U -a short "o" sound, like when there's an infomercial and the audience is like "Ooooooooh."
Ü -sounds like "you", but also without finalizing it. Closer to "yu".
ei -Long A. like in "bay".
ai -Long I, like in "bye".
uo -hard to describe in English. Sort of like the beginning of "whoa", without finalizing it. Like "whuo".
ou - Long O sound, like in "Low".
ao -pronounced like "ow"
ie - think of it more like "ye", like the first part of "yeah".
iu - is a diphthong "ee-oh", most comparable to "Yo!" in English.
ing - pronounced the same as in English
ang - is NOT pronounced like the ang in "angle". Is pronounced more like the "ong" in "long".
ong - is NOT pronounced like the ong in "long". Instead, is pronounced as "oong", with an "ooooh" sound.
eng - is pronounced like "ung". Depending on location, though, some Chinese speakers may pronounce "meng" and "feng" more like "moong" and "foong" than "mung" and "fung".
I think I covered all vowel combinations

When a W is before a U (wu), do not pronounce the W. It just sounds like "ooooh" like in "coo, boo, goo, loo, to"
The "y" sound is not pronounced when before an "i" (yi=long e sound, like in Beach).
When "i" comes after certain letters "R, Z, C, S, CH, ZH, SH", do not pronounce the "i". Instead, pronounce the primary sound. (So "ri" would be pronounced more like "Rrrr")

Now that you got some basic rules, let's move on to consonants' pronunciations.
I will not include consonants that sound the same, or extremely similar, to English.

C - "ts" sound. I don't think there is an English equivalent. The end of "cats"
G - Is always hard in Pinyin. Always like the G in "give", never like in "giraffe".
H - Although it can be pronounced the same as in English, it usually has more of a guttural sound to it, like the "ch" in Chanukah, but not THAT pronounced.
Q - What is usually considered the "ch" sound in English. like "church"
X - the "sh" sound in English. "shoe"

When there is an H after C, Z, or S (ch, zh, and sh), bring the tongue to the roof of your mouth and pronounce the first letter as you normally would. DO NOT pronounce Ch and Sh as in English. Examples are: chang, zhang, shang.

Tones:
-, ex lā. Keep it flat, like holding a note in music (of course, when you are speaking, you won't be holding a word)
/, ex pá. The sound goes up, like at the end of a question. "Hngh?"
v, ex yǎ. Technically, the sound goes down and then up. In reality, when speaking, it really just goes down a little, with maybe a subtle trace of going up. A little similar to the first tone when it ends. No English equivalent. If you say something while sighing softly, the tone may resemble this one. Very difficult to describe without hearing it. :sad: You know how you can start off a sentence either high or low in English? (as in "Do you want to go to the park?" or "Do you want to go the park?") It resembles the start of a sentence when you start it off low (the second example of a sentence).
\, ex yào. Goes sharply down, like a command. "Go!"

The tone marks always go on top of the vowel that comes first in the alphabet. (Usually, there is only one vowel, but there are a few vowel combinations, which I have noted above).

Anything else I missed?

[Jessica]

lol you are a big help! ^_^

[chanman]

thank you! Can you edit your first post or perhaps the title or description to link people to that post? I think it's #210.

[Jessica]

you're welcome.

and what do you mean?

[Rusty]

What he means is that you can link to his post, where he gives pinyin pronunciation, in the first post of this thread so that others don't have to guess how to pronounce the pinyin.

I already looked into this possibility and couldn't find a post near the beginning of the thread where it would be relevant to place such a link. It could be done later, about the time where Elaina asked how to pronounce pinyin words (and you said it was difficult to explain), but what followed that discussion made me think it wasn't such a good place to put the link to chanman's post. So, since I couldn't find a logical spot for the link in the first 25 posts, I decided against it.

People can find chanman's post by searching. In the Search Forums dialog box, check the Show Posts radio button and enter pinyin pronunciation in the input box, then select Go, but I went ahead and included the link in the first post.

[Jessica]

okay thanks!

[chanman]

More vocab?

睡觉
shuì jiào
To go to sleep.

上床
shàng chuáng
To get in bed
Lit: To go up bed

起床
qǐ chuáng
To get out of bed
Lit: To get up from bed

醒
xǐng
To wake up

枕头
zhěn tóu
Pillow

被子
béi zi (no tone for Zi, usually pronounced as if third. zǐ )
Blanket, quilt

房间
fáng jiān
Room

睡房
shuì fáng
Bedroom
Lit:Sleeping Room

厨房
chú fáng
Kitchen

厨师
chú shì
Chef

老师
lǎo shī
Teacher
Note: Lǎo does not mean teach, in case you were trying to draw that inference. This is just a phrase that has acquired the meaning "teacher". 老 means old, and 老师 probably stems from the idea that older people had more wisdom to teach.

书房
shū fáng
Study, "library (not as in a public one where you can check out books)"

书桌
shū zhuō
Desk

书
shū
Book

铅笔
qiān bǐ
Pencil

圆珠笔
yuán zhū bǐ
Ballpoint Pen

珍珠
zhēn zhū
Pearl

珍惜
Zhēn xī (proper), zhēn xǐ (also often said)
Appreciate, treasure (verb)

珍宝
zhēn bǎo
Treasure (noun)

宝贝
bǎo bèi
Baby (not literal. Like what you would call your boy/girlfriend, and also used by parents for kids). Darling, honey, sweetie.

国宝
guó bǎo
National treasure

德国
dé guó
Germany

美国
měi guó
America

中国
zhōng guó
China

英国
yīng guó
Great Britain

可惜
Kě xī (proper), kě xì
Unfortunately

可能
kě néng
Possibly, maybe.

可怕
kě pà
Scary
Lit: Able to be feared

可爱
kě ài
Cute, adorable
Lit: Able to be loved

可以
ké yǐ
Can, Able

I tried to make this list in a way that you would be able to inference what individual characters mean, as many are abstract and hard to define in the way you would define many European words. The "Western" misconception that every character means something is a hindrance to learning Asian languages sometimes, and it's easier to avoid that when you teach actual words instead of characters.

[Jessica]

you are such a big help! thanks again!!!!

[lee ying]

yes, it is a big help for us!!!!^_ ^ thanks. I like to learn chinese a lot.

[chanman]

I like to teach =D.
When I think of a good list of related terms, I'll post another one.

[Jessica]

you're good at teaching :) Better than me