In mandarin, they are 5 tones.
The 1st tone is one that is high.The tone must be strong from the beginning to the end of the word. Emphasis on the vowel is used to show what the tone is:
ā like
xīn/心 (heart)
kāi xīn/开心 (Happy)
The 2nd tone is a tone that starts low and rises. The sign at the top of the vowel is
á like
tóng/同 (same)
tóng xué/同学( Student)
The 3rd tone is the most difficult tone.This tone starts low and then back to the neutral tone. The sign placed on the vowel: ǎ like
hǎo/好 in the sentence
nǐ hǎo/你好(hello)
The 4th tone is the tone that goes low . Starting from the neutral tone and then it lowers. The sign is:
à . example: love
(ài/爱) like in this sentence
wǒ ài nǐ/我爱你 (I love you)
The 5th tone is the neutral tone. It's like to speak normally without emotion. There isn't any accent on the vowel to indicate the tone.
The tones are the first thing to understand if you want to speak Mandarin.How To prounouce consonants:
b,d,f,g,,k,l.m,n,p,s,t,w,y as in english.
c: s like say
j:between j and t
q: ch like cheese
r: like love
x: like see
z: like english ch in kids
sh: like she
zh: between z and j h: r
How to prounouce vowels:
a: same a in french
e:
ou: o
u: ou
Pronoun:
我/wǒ(ouo): I
你/nǐ(ni/nii):You
他/tā(ta): He
她/tā(ta):She
它/tā(ta): It
我们/wǒ mén(ouomen): We
你们/nǐ mén(ni men):You
他们/tā mén(ta men):They
她们/tā mén(ta men)They
Verbs:
是/shì:be
有/yǒu: have
看/看见/kàn jiàn: see/look
爱/ài:love(like: I love...)(may also be a noun)
喜欢/xǐ huan: Like
吃/chī:eat
相/xiāng: think
去/qù: go
哭/kū:cry
笑/xiào:smile (may also be a noun)
学/xué: study
忘记/wàn jì:forget
记得/jì de:remember
要/想/yào/xiǎng :want
说/shuō: speak/say
In Chinese to conjugate verbs we need a character that you put before or after the verb like:
我是: I'm . (I'm) in the future tense you put 会(huì) before the verb. 我会是:I will be.
我是:I'm. In the past tense you put 了(le) after the verb. 我是了:I was
Negative sentence.
To make a negative sentence we put
不 before the verb.
Example: I' m Chinese (我是中国人) so I'm not Chinese is :我
不是中国人
We can make a negative sentence with 没(méi)
Interrogative sentence: We put the verb before and after this character 不 like: 你是不是中国人 (Are you Chinese?)
Another method: The character 吗(ma). We put this character at the end of a sentence like 你喜欢他吗/你喜欢她吗 (Do you like him?/Do you like her?)
Few sentences:
你好/nǐ hǎo (Hi)
你好吗?/nǐ hǎo ma (How are you?)
很好,您?/hěn hǎo, nǐn? (Fine and you?)
你什么名字?/ nǐ shénme míngzi? (What is your name?)
我的名字是叫/wǒ de míngzi shì jiào (My name is...)
我叫/wǒ jiào (I'm call)
对不起/dui bù qǐ: Sorry.
你是谁/nǐ shì shéi: Who are you?
我想有/ wǒ xiǎng yǒu (I want to have...)
我想吃/wǒ xiǎng chī: I want to eat.
(The chinese characters are simplified ones and not traditional ones)
