Introduction to Chinese language

Prepared by: Mahder Girmay

Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that pitch is used to distinguish words. About one-fifth of
the world speaks some form of Chinese as its native language, making it the most common
language in the world.
Chinese is one of the few languages in the world that does not use an alphabet or a syllable; instead,
thousands of characters are used, each representing a word or a part of a word.
The government of China has developed a system of writing Chinese in the Roman alphabet,
known as Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音/漢語拼音, "spelling according to sounds").
Chinese language One of the five official languages of UN.
It has been estimated that until the 18th century more than half of the world's printed books were
in Chinese.
Benefits of Learning Chinese language

Let’s start with the most commonly cited reasons for studying Chinese
1. China is the most populous country in the world with over 1.4 billion people. Mandarin is spoken
by almost one billion people. It is the most widely spoken language in the world. One out of five
people in the world is Chinese;
2. Mandarin is spoken in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia,
Brunei, Singapore, The Philippines, and Mongolia;
3. Knowing Chinese will allow students to compete effectively in the business environment of the
future;
4. China is one of America’s largest trading partners;
5. Many American companies do business in China, including Motorola, Coca Cola, and Ford;
6. Knowing Chinese may be an edge when competing for a job. The demand for business people
who know Chinese is skyrocketing;
7. China is playing a major role in world affairs and will continue to do so;
8. The Chinese have a culture that reaches back at least 5000 years and has managed to record
much of what has happened and been said and created over those years.
Chinese Language Pronunciation
Pinyin Spelling
Pinyin is the special system, created for people to learn Mandarin pronunciation. It may be used
as an input method to enter Chinese characters into computers or electronics as well.

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Pinyin spelling consists of syllables. Syllables are the building blocks of Chinese words and
phrases. Each Chinese character corresponds to one syllable.
A syllable is consisting of three components: the initial, the final and the tone.
 Initials (consonants)
 Finals (a vowel, or a combination of vowels, sometimes with a nasal at the end)
 Tones (four distinct and one light tones)
 Each Chinese character corresponds to one syllable. A syllable is consist of an initial, a
final and a tone.

Initial Tone

Syllable
nǐ
你
Final

Chinese Character

Initials and Finals

In speech, Chinese words are created using just 21 beginning sounds called initials, and 35 ending
sounds called finals. Initials and finals, of course, combine to create the basic sounds of Chinese.

For example, consider Beijing:

• bei: b is an initial, and ei is a final.

• jing: j is an initial, and ing is a final.

Initial Sounds

The initial is:

• an alphabet that comes at the front of the syllable

• A consonant (not including y, or w)
• Usually one letter, except for: zh, ch, sh
Following is a table of initials with an explanation of how to pronounce them.
Pinyin Initials Sound English Equivalent Examples Approximate pronunciation
B,p,m,f,d,t,n,l,g,k,j,s, Approximately the neng
w,y,ch,sh same as in English tou
gan
C Like the ts in rats can, cu tsahn,tsu
H hao how
Q Like the ch in cheap qin,qu cheen,chiu

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 R No English equivalent ru roo
X Like the sh in sheen xiao,xin Shee-you, sheen
Z zai,zu Zaai,zoo
zh Like the hard j in jack zhang, zhou jahng, jou

Final Sounds

In Mandarin Chinese there are 35 final sounds:

The final is made up of the letter(s) after a syllable's initial, not including the tone mark.
A final:
• begins with a vowel
• can be made of 1-4 alphabets
• end with a vowel, n, ng, or r

6 simple finals: a, e, i, o, u, ü
13 compound finals: ai, ao, ei, ia, iao, ie, iou, ou, ua, uai, üe, uei, uo
8 front nasals: an, en, ian, in, uan, üan, uen, ün
16 nasal finals:
8 back nasals: ang, eng, iang, ing, iong, ong, uang, ueng

Additional syllables in Mandarin Chinese:

7 special cases: er, hm, hng, m, n, ng, ~r

Tones
Every syllable in Chinese has a clearly defined pitch of voice associated with it to distinguish
words with the same sound from each other. Unfortunately, there is no indication of the tone given
when reading a character, so the tones for words must be individually memorized. To help with
this, pinyin uses four easily-remembered main diacritical marks and one neutral tone (or, as some
say, five tones)

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 Initial Final Tone Syllable
nǐ
n i
̌
h ao
̀ hào

t a tā
-
l ai
ˊ lái

The initial and final sounds make a total of 56 basic sounds. Combinations of initials and finals
plus the special cases result in 413 possible combinations. Applying the four tones of Mandarin
Chinese to this, we get a total of around 1,600 unique syllables.

Chinese Characters
Chinese characters constitute one of the oldest forms of writing in the world. Archaeologists
making excavations since the 1970s have discovered that characters were already in use in the
Stone Age, even though the symbols can probably not be considered script in the true sense of the
word. When scholars consider the early history of the characters, they often focus on the Shang
dynasty about 3400 years ago (sixteenth-eleventh centuries B.C.) because of the rich historical
material from the period.
There are about 56,000 characters, but the vast majority of these are archaic. It is commonly felt
that a well-educated, contemporary Chinese might know and use between 6,000 and 8,000
characters. To read a Chinese newspaper you need to know 2,000 to 3,000, but 1,200 to 1,500
would be enough to get the gist.
Each Chinese character represents a spoken syllable; so many people declare that Chinese is a
monosyllabic language.
The Main 4 Principles for Character Construction:
 Pictographs (≈4%)
Represent real-life objects by drawings

Oracle Semi- Regular Regular

Seal Clerical Cursive
Bone Cursive Script Script Pinyin Meaning
Script Script Script
Script Script (Traditional) (Simplified)

rì Sun

yuè Moon

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 shān Mountain

shuǐ Water

yǔ Rain

mù Wood

 Ideographs (≈1%)
Ideograms express an abstract idea through an iconic form, including iconic modification of
pictographic characters. In the examples below, low numerals are represented by the appropriate
number of strokes, directions by an iconic indication above and below a line, and the parts of a
tree by marking the appropriate part of a pictogram of a tree.

Character 一 二 三 上 下 本 末
Pinyin yī èr sān shàng xià běn mò
Translation one two three up below root apex

 Logical Aggregates (≈13%)

Logical aggregates are characters in which two or more parts are used for their meaning. This
yields a composite meaning, which is then applied to the new character.

 林; lín; 'grove', composed of two trees

 森; sēn; 'forest', composed of three trees
 休; xiū; 'shade, rest', depicting a man by a tree
 采; cǎi; 'harvest', depicting a hand on a bush (later written 採)
 看; kàn; 'watch', depicting a hand above an eye
 信; ‘xìn’ 'truthful', formed from 人; 'person' (later reduced to 亻) and 言; 'speech'
 莫; mù; 'sunset', depicting the sun disappearing into the grass,
 坐 ; zuò ‘sit’, formed from person and ground

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  Phonetic Complexes (≈82%)

Phono-semantic compound characters, in which one part often called the radical indicates the
general semantic category of the character (such as water-related or eye-related), and the other part
is another character, used for its phonetic value.

 Semantic, providing part or whole of the meaning;

 Phonetics, giving the sound to the character, or something very close to it.

Example: 晴 qíng "clear/fair (weather)", which is composed of 日 rì "sun", and 青 qīng

"blue/green", which is used for its pronunciation. These are often called radical-phonetic
characters.

Lesson 1: Basic Greetings

nǐhǎo ma
A: 你 好 吗 ？ How are you?

hěn hǎo xièxiè

B: 很 好 ， 谢 谢 。I’m very well, thank you.

nǐ shì zhōngguó rén ma

A: 你 是 中 国 人 吗 ？Are you Chinese?

búshì wǒ shì měiguó rén

B: 不 是 ， 我 是 美 国 人 。No, I’ m American.

Key Vocabulary

nǐ hǎoma hǎo shì zhōng guó rén hěn

你 好吗 好 是 中 国 人 很
how are you good to be Chinese person very
wǒ xièxiè nǐ bù měiguó rén
我 谢 谢 你 不 美国 人
I thank you you not American person

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 Supplementary Vocabulary

duìbuqǐ méi guān xì bù cuò

对不起 没 关 系 不 错
sorry it does not matter not bad

qǐng wèn búyòng xiè bútài

请 问 不用 谢 不太
excuse me no need to thank not too

Lesson 2 Numbers and Prices

Counting Numbers in Chinese:
líng yī èr sān sì
零 一 二 三 四
Zero One Two Three Four
wǔ liù qī bā jiǔ
五 六 七 八 九
Five Six Seven Eight Nine

shí shíyī èrshí èrshíyī sānshí

十 十 一 二 十 二 十 一 三 十
Ten Eleven Twenty Twenty one Thirty

Note: (When counting, two is èr 二, when used with measure words, it is liăng 两)
The Chinese counting system is based on units of 10. These multiply as follows:
10 shí 十
100 băi 百
1000 qiān 千
10,000 wàn 万
100,000 shíwàn 十万
1 million băiwàn 百万
10 million qiānwàn 千万
100 million yì 亿
1 billion shí yì 十亿

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Ordinal numbers:
Simply prefix any number with dì, and it becomes an ordinal:
1st 第一 dì yī
2nd 第二 dì’ èr
3rd 第三 dì sān
10th 第十 dì shí

Asking for the price

qǐngwènzhègeduōshǎoqián
Excuse me, how much is this? A: 请 问 这 个 多 少 钱 ?

shíkuàiqián
Ten yuan. B: 十 块 钱 。

wǒyàozhège xièxiè
I want this one. Thanks. A: 我 要 这 个。 谢 谢 。

Lesson 3 Expression of Time Vocabulary

Days of the week 星期 Xīngqī
xīng qī yī zhōumò liùyuè nián jīntiān
星 期一 周 末 六月 年 今天
Monday Weekend June Year Today
xīng qī èr yuè qī yuè rì hào hòutiān
星 期二 月 七月 日、 号 后 天
Tuesday Month July Day Day after tomorrow
xīng qī sān yī yuè bāyuè diǎn qiántiān
星 期三 一月 八月 点 前 天
Wednesday January August O’clock Day before yesterday
xīng qī sì èr yuè jiǔyuè fēnzhōng yíkè
星 期四 二月 九月 分 钟 一刻
Thursday February September Minute Quarter of an Hour
xīng qī wǔ sānyuè shíyuè miǎo bàn
星 期五 三月 十月 秒 半
Friday March October Second Half
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 xīng qī liù sì yuè shí yí yuè zuótiān xiǎoshí
星 期六 四月 十一 月 昨 天 小 时
Saturday April November Yesterday Hour
xīng qī tiān wǔyuè shí èr yuè míngtiān shíjiān
星 期天 五月 十二 月 明 天 时 间
Sunday May December Tomorrow Time
chà
差
Lacking

Phrases & Sentences:

jǐdiǎnle
What time is it? 几点了 ?

jiǔdiǎnshífēn
It is 9:10. 九点十分 。

jīntiānxīngqījǐ
What day is it? 今天星期几 ?

jīntiānshìxīngqīyī
Today is Monday. 今天是星期一 。

jīntiānjǐyuèjǐhào
What is the date of today? 今天几月几号 ?

jīntiānwǔyuèyíhào
Today is May 1. 今天五月一号 。

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 Expressions of Time

yìdiǎnwǔfēn
1:05 一点五分
liǎngdiǎnyíkè liǎngdiǎnshíwǔ
2:15 两点一刻 / 两点十五
jiǔdiǎnbàn jiǔdiǎnsānshí
9:30 九点半 / 九点三十
chàyíkèwǔdiǎn sìdiǎnsānkè sìdiǎnsìshíwǔ
4:45 差一刻五点 / 四点三刻 / 四点四十五
chàwǔfēnzhōuyìdiǎn
6:55 差五分周一点

Today is March 12, 2022

jīntiānshì yuè yuè hào
今 天 是 2022 月 3 月 12 号
jīntiān shì liǎng qiān líng èr èr nián sān yuè shí
今 天 是 两 千 零 二 二 年 三 月 十 二号

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