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Dialogue 1

Ní hăo – How do you do?

nĭ

you

shì

be (am, is, are)

xiānsheng

Mr

ma

question word

shì de

yes

wŏ

I/me

hăo

to be good/fine/well

Ní hăo

hello

hěn

very

gāoxìng

to be pleased/happy/glad

jiàndào

to meet

yě

also/too

jiào

to call/to be called

lăo

old/to be old

ba

placed at end of sentence for informality

hăo de

OK

qĭng

please

huānyíng

to welcome

lái

to come/to come to

 

 

 

Notes to Dialogue 1

Greetings

Note that whenever a third tone (nĭ) precedes another third tone (hăo) the first third tone is changed to a second tone.  Thus we have ní hăo, not nĭ hăo.

 

Names and Forms of Address.

In Chinese, names always appear in the order: Surname, First Name, Title (when used).  For example:  Dèng Xiăopíng – Dèng is the surname, and Xiăopíng is the first name.

Colleagues and friends address each other either by full name or by putting lăo (old) or xiăo (young/little) in front of the surname depending on the relative age and seniority of the speaker.  For example:

A younger person may address an elder as Lăo Zhāng to show respect.  Lăo Zhāng may cal his younger colleague Xiáo Lĭ.

Sometimes Lăo is used as a friendly term among men even in their thirties and forties to address each other.  First names are used among families and close friends.

Titles likexiānsheng (Mr), nŭshi (Madam), xiáojie (Miss) are seldom used among Chinese people on the mainland, but are increasingly used in business.

 

Personal Pronouns

All personal pronouns such as wŏ (I/me) ands nĭ (you singular) can be used as both subject and object in a sentence.  Note the positions in the sentences:

    Wŏ shì Wáng Lín.             (I am Wang Lin)

    Jiào wó Lăo Wáng ba.    (Call me Lao Wang please)

    Hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nĭ.  (Very pleased to meet you)

To make any personal pronoun plural, simply add men to the end of it.  Wŏ (I) therefore becomes wŏmen (us).

 

The Verb To Be

One of the usages of shì (to be) is to say who you are

    Wŏ shì Alan Boyd.                         (I am)

    Tāmen shì Zhōngguórén.            (They are)

    Tā shì lăoshī .                                   (He is)

As you can see, there is no concept of conjugation in Chinese, which makes things considerably less complicated.

 

Yes/No Questions with ma.

To ask a yes/no question in Chinese, simply add the word ma to the end of a statement and speak with a rising tone as in English.  There is no need to change the word order.

    Statement                                  Question

    Ní shì Jones xiānsheng.            Ní shì Jones xiānsheng ma?

    You are Mr Jones.                     Are you Mr Jones?

 

Verb-adjectives

In English, there are no verb-adjectives since adjectives can be preceded by the verb to be. However, in Chinese, some adjectives can incorporate the verb to be and they become verb-adjectives.  For example, the word lăo is an adjective when it means ‘old’ but is a verb-adjective when it means ‘to be old’. The verb shì is not used in this case.  When these verb-adjectives are used they are usually modified by adverbs such as hěn (very), tĭng (rather), etc in front of them.  Thus we have:

    Tā tíng lăo

    lit: She rather be old

    She is rather old

 

    Wó hěn gāoxìng.

    lit: I very be happy.

    I am very happy.

 

Use of qĭng

When the word qĭng (please) is used to invite someone politely to do something it is always placed at the beginning of the sentence.

    Qĭng lái Zhōngguó

    Please come to China.

 

Use of ba

This word does not have any specific translation; however if you place it at the end of a sentence or phrase it makes whatever you say sound more friendly or casual.  It can be broadly translated as ‘please’ in these contexts.  It is less formal than qĭng.

    Qĭng jiào wó Lăo Wáng. (formal)

    Jiào wó Lăo Wáng ba.     (informal)

 

Adverb yě

The adverb yě (also) usually occurs before the phrase it modifies whether it is an adjective phrase or a verbal phrase.  For example: 

    Wó yě shì Zhōngguórén

    lit: I also be Chinese

    I am also Chinese

 

    Wŏ yé hěn gāoxìng jiàndào nĭ.

    lit: I also very be pleased meet you.

    I’m also very pleased to meet you.

Note that when three third tones are together in the same meaning group, the first and last third tones remain unchanged while the second third tone changes to a second tone. Thus we have wŏ yé hěn and not wŏ hě hěn.

 

Verb huānyíng

If you want to say ‘Welcome to China’ in Chinese, you must use the structure ‘Welcome you come to China’ thus we have:

    Huānying nĭ lái Zhōngguó.

     

 

Dialogue 2

Nĭ lèi ma?   - Are you tired?

nĭde

you/yours

yílù

journey/trip (lit “one road”)

shùnlì

to be smooth

xièxie

thank you

lèi

to be tired

yŏu yìdiăn

a little bit (lit “to have a little”)

xiăng

would like/to want (when followed by a verb)

hē

to drink

yī

one

yī bēi

one cup/glass

kāfēi

coffee

tài….. le

extremely/very much/too

zhè

this

bù

no/not

bù kèqi

you are welcome (lit “not polite”)

 

 

 

Notes to Dialogue 2.

Possessive Pronouns

Simply add de to any personal pronoun to form the possessive pronouns and adjectives (my/mine). In Chinese these are the same. For example:

    Zhè shì wŏde kāfēi 

    This is my coffee.

    Zhè bēi kāfēi shì wŏde. 

    This coffee is mine.

You must also add de to a persons name to indicate the relationship between the person and an object. For example:

Zhè shì Xiáo Lĭ de kāfēi.  This is Xiao Li’s coffee.

 

Two verbs occurring in the same sentence.

Whenever there are two or more verbs occurring in the same sentence or phrase simply put them together. There is no need to use a link work such as ‘to’.  Also remember that the verbs remain unchanged in tense.  For example:

    Tā xiăng hē yī bēi kāfēi

    lit: She like drink one cup coffee.

    She’d like to have a cup of coffee.

Note that the verb xiăng means ‘to want’ or ‘would like to’ only when it precedes another verb.

 

Negation word bù

To negate a verb, verb-adjective or the adverb hěn simply put bù in front of them.  For example:

    Wŏ bù shì Dèng Xiăopíng.          

     I am not Dèng Xiăopín

Note that bù carries the fourth tone.  However, when it is followed by another fourth tone word, it changes to second tone. So we have bú shì.  Examples:

    Tā bù xiăng lái Zhōngguó.

    lit: He not want come China.

    He doesn’t want to come to China.

 

    Tāmen hěn bù gāoxìng.

    lit: They very not be happy.

    They are very unhappy.

 

    Tāmen bù hěn gāoxìng.

    lit: They not very be happy.

    They are not very happy.

Note the subtle difference between these last two. The former negates the verb-adjective while the latter negates the adverb hěn.

 

Responding to questions ending with ma

In English, yes/no questions are so named because they can be answered with either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  In Chinese, shì de (yes) and bú shì (no) are not often used.  They are definitely used if the verb in the question is shì.  For example:

    Ní shì Jones xiānsheng ma?

    Answer:  Shì de or bú shì.

When the verb shì is not used in the question, usually the main verb or verb-adjective in the question is either repeated in the answer for ‘yes’ or is negated by bù for ‘no’. For example:

    Q:  Nĭ lèi ma?            Are you tired?

    A:  Hěn lèi                  Very tired or

    A:  Bú lèi                    Not tired

     

    Q:  Ní xiăng hē kāfēi ma?            You want drink coffee?

    A:  Xiăng, xièxie.                            Want, thank you or

    A:  Bù xiăng, xièxie.                      Not want, thank you

Note: if you want to say ‘Yes please’ in Chinese, add xièxie, not qĭng after the verb.

 

Tài… le

The word tài by itself means ‘too’ as in ‘too sweet’.  It is used in conjunction with le to mean ‘extremely’ or ‘very much’.  The word le does not mean anything by itself.  Place the verb or adjective you want to modify between them.  For example

    Tài hăo le                            Extremely good. (adjective)

    Tài xiăng le                         I want it very much (verb)

    Wŏ tài xiăng hē kāfēi le.  I’d very much like to drink coffee (verbal phrase)

However, the word le is omitted when the negation word bù is used.  For example:

    Bú tài lèi.                   Not too tired.

    Bú tài shùnlì.            Not too smooth.

 

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