Learn Chinese for Free—Lesson 149
Today's Chinese characters:
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This is step 4 of 5 of our review process. All characters are ordered according to their radicals. Below you find the interesting "The Meaning Of" and "How To" tables!
Characters' Essentials
| - | [verb] Shine, light, brighten |
| - | [noun] Light |
| - | [adjective] Bright, light |
| - | Fond of, like |
| - | Happy |
| - | [noun] Cause, reason |
| - | [preposition] Because of, as a result of |
| - | [noun] Reality, fact |
| - | [adjective] True, real, actual |
| - | [noun] War, warfare, battle, fight |
| - | [verb] Fight |
| - | [noun] Traveller, passenger; trip, journey, voyage |
| - | [verb] Travel, stay away from home |
| - | [noun] Step, pace |
| - | [verb] Walk, go on foot |
| - | Hair, feather (of an animal, plant, etc.) |
| - | Hair, beard (of humans) |
| - | [measure word] One-tenth of a Yuan |
| - | [verb] Rove around, stroll, travel, tour |
| - | [adjective] Moving about, roving, floating |
| - | [noun] Opinion, view |
| - | [verb] Discuss, exchange views on, talk over |
| - | Must, should, ought to |
| - | Will (probably), most likely, can be expected (reasonably or naturally) |
Description and Examples
The meaning of: 你好！(Ni hao!)
It means "Hi!", "How do you do?", "Hello!" It is an everyday greeting and is used at any time, on any occasion and by a person of any social status. The reply should also be "你好! (Ni hao!)". |
The meaning of: 你 and 您—Part 1 你 and 您 both mean "you". 您 is used as an honorific appellation or respectful title instead of 你. It is normally reserved for old people or elders. To show politeness, you may extend its use to people of your own generation, especially at the first meeting. Anyway, the usage of 你 is not limited to informal speech. You can use it addressing your close friend as well as the President of the People's Republic of China. |
The meaning of: 请问⋯ It's a polite expression used to ask questions. It might correspond to "May I ask...", "Excuse me...", etc. followed by a question. For example:
|
The meaning of: 不—Part 1 不 is used to form the negative of verbs, adjectives or other Chinese adverbial words. Its place is just before them. Change of tone: 不 normally is pronounced in the fourth tone, but when it precedes a syllable of the fourth tone, it is pronounced in the second tone. For example, before 好 it is pronounced in the fourth tone, but before 会 the tone must be changed into second. 不好 Attention: this rule about the change of the tone is limited to the character 不. |
The meaning of: 明早见！ 再见 (literally: again-see) means "see you again". Similarly, 明早见 (literally: tomorrow morning-see) means "see you tomorrow morning". |
The meaning of: 不太好 and 太不好 Note the different degree of goodness - or badness - that is expressed by the following phrases: 太好: extremely good. 很好: very good. 好: good. 不太好: not very good. 不好: bad. 很不好: very bad. 太不好: extremely bad. |
The meaning of: 他姓什么？ It is used for asking another person's name. One shouldn't say: "他贵姓？" |
The meaning of: 你叫什么名字？ It is used by elders when they want to know the names of young people or between young people. One may also say "你叫什么？" One shouldn't use it, therefore, when he wants to know an elder's name or when he needs to show respect and politeness to his hearer. Use "您贵姓？" instead. |
The meaning of: 张家和王家 家 after a surname indicates all the members of that family. So, we would translate 张家和王家 as "the Zhangs and the Wangs". |
The meaning of: “您是⋯⋯” It means "Who are you?" (literally "You are...") The hearer should respond with her name or social status. Such a sentence is used only when a stranger has started to speak to you. Caution: "你是谁？" is a rather impolite inquiry. So normally one avoids asking a stranger "你是谁？" |
The meaning of: 请问，您哪位？ This is another polite way to ask about the identity of a stranger who has started to speak to us, or call us. Like what we said about "你是⋯⋯", the meaning is "Who are you?" and the answer should be the name or social status. |
The meaning of: 几个人？ At the restaurant is a very common inquiry and often is the very first thing they ask you, not even giving you the time to say 你好！ 几个人？ means "How many people?" |
How to say: How are you?—Part 1 Just add 吗 (ma) to the greeting formula "你好!" (Ni hao!) changing it into a question! How are you? 你好吗？ (Ni hao ma?)
literally: You good吗？ "你好吗？" (Ni hao ma?) actually differs from the English greeting "How are you?" in the way it is used. While the English "How are you?" is also an everyday greeting, in Chinese you should ask "你好吗？" (Ni hao ma?) only if you really want to ask about the state of health or condition of a friend. If you just want to greet a person, in this free Chinese course we will study how to do that the Chinese way. In the meantime, it's fine if you just say 你好! (Ni hao!) A little preview: In Chinese, a very common expression used to greet someone is "Did you eat?" (你吃了吗？Nǐ chī le ma?) that, I know, would sound strange if asked in English. The answer, in the English speaking world, maybe would be a surprised "Why?" Well, it's the same if we greet a Chinese person saying "你好吗？" (Ni hao ma?) The reaction would be something like "Sorry, I don't understand, I was not ill, I didn't survive any car accident, why are you asking me how I am?!?" Anyway, again, if we really want to ask a friend about her state of health or condition, "你好吗？" (Ni hao ma?) is the proper question to ask. Maybe we just need to move this expression from the "greetings" list to the "empathy" one. |
How to say: What's your name?—Part 1 您贵姓？ This is probably the most polite way to ask someone's name. It shows respect, honour, esteem. Please note that what is actually asked is only the surname. At this level of formality, there is no need to ask for the first name. |
How to greet someone—Part 1 你好！ You already know the simplest way to greet someone: 你好！ And, with a simple variation, you can also say: 您好！ But there are a lot of different ways to greet people. 先生好！ Today we can learn another one. We just need to replace the pronoun with the proper titles. For example, we could greet a woman the following way: 女士好！ And if she is a teacher or a physician, we could say: 老师好！ On the other hand, if we want to greet a man, we could say: 先生好！ |
How to write and read years Simply write the number followed by 年 and read every single figure. NOTE: Number zero (零) can also be written 〇. All the following examples are correct: 2000年 二零零零年 二〇〇〇年 The following example is wrong: 两〇〇〇年 ATTENTION: Cannot read 二千年, must read er4 líng líng líng 年, every single figure. |
How to write and read months Simply write the corresponding number (from 1 to 12) followed by 月 and read as normal. |
How to write and read days Simply write the number of the day followed by 日 or 号 and read as normal. 日 is mainly used in written Chinese, while 号 is preferred in spoken language. |
How to say: What's your name?—Part 2 In Part 1 we have seen that the polite way to ask someone's name is: 您贵姓？ It shows respect, honour, esteem. Well, to show the same respect and at the same time modesty, you should answer: 我免贵姓⋯ ...followed by your surname. Your answer would mean that there is no need to define your surname as precious because it is not more precious than the others, showing that way respect and modesty. |
How to ask questions—Part 1 As we have seen in the case of “你好吗？”, an interrogative sentence is formed by adding the modal particle 吗 at the end of a declarative sentence, either affirmative or negative. Example 1 Affirmative declarative sentence: Interrogative sentence: Example 2 Negative declarative sentence: Interrogative sentence: This is the most frequently used way of asking a question. |
How to ask questions—Part 2 The affirmative-negative question, or alternative question (often referred as A不A question), is formed by juxtaposing the verb or adjective of the predicate and its negative form. Examples 老师会不会说英语？ |
How to answer: Yes or No The most common way of simply and politely answering yes in Chinese is by repeating the main element (verb or adjective) of the question's predicate, or its negative form if you want to answer no. Example question: 你会不会说中文？ answer 1: 会。 (meaning: Yes, I do) |
How to ask questions—Part 3 The pronoun 怎么 is used to ask about 1) a way or manner, 2) a state of affairs, or 3) a cause or reason. Examples of asking about a way or manner. 请问“老师”用英文怎么说？ |
How to and when read 儿 as 'r' This is a feature, called erhua or erization, of Standard Mandarin Chinese. When an erization occurs, 儿 is not pronounced as "ér" (an exception might be its pronunciation in lyrics for balance or euphony). It is just a phonetic notation suffix to indicate that the pronunciation of the preceding character must be changed by adding a final "r" sound. For example, the pronunciation of 点儿 is not "diǎn ér" but "diǎnr". How do you know when 儿 is to be read "ér" and when not? Sadly, you cannot know if you don't first memorize which words are made of the suffix 儿. Just for you to know, despite being a rule of Standard Mandarin, in the south of China (including Shanghai) it is definitely unknown or completely ignored. It seems that a lot of people really don't like it! |
How to say: The two of you 你们两个人 |
How to say: How are you?—Part 2 When you address two or more people, you should say: "你们好吗？" 你好吗？ 你们好吗？ |
How to greet someone—Part 2 你早！ It is an everyday greeting that is used when people meet each other in the early morning (until 8-9 a.m.). You can also only say "早！" |
How to say: How do you spell it? "Smith, ess em i tee aitch!" The surname Smith is made up of five letters. To clear up all doubt on how to write it, we just read it letter by letter. Chinese surnames (actually all Chinese characters) are not made up of letters, but of strokes, figures, parts. How can we ask to and actually "spell" a Chinese character? Chinese people "spell" a character in two ways:
Example 1 Question: 什么 hu2？ That is: Out of those characters whose pronunciation is hu2, which one? Answer: 古月的胡。 That is: The character, whose pronunciation is hu2, that is composed by the symbols 古 and 月. Example 2 Question: 什么 míng？ That is: Out of those characters whose pronunciation is míng, which one? Answer 1: 日月的明。 That is: The character, whose pronunciation is míng, that is composed by the symbols 日 and 月. Answer 2: 明天的明。 That is: The character, whose pronunciation is míng, that is contained in the word 明天. |
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