Learn Chinese for Free - Lesson 349
Today's Chinese characters:
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
Description and Examples
The meaning of: 你好！ 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". |
The meaning of: 您 It is a respectful form of the second person pronoun 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. |
The meaning of: 你早！ It is an everyday greeting that is used when people meet each other in the early morning (till 9 a.m.). |
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: 您贵姓？ This is a respectful and polite way of asking the name of a person. ATTENTION: The answer is never "我贵姓", but "我姓". |
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: The two of you 你们两个人 |
How to say: How are you? Just add 吗 to the greeting formula "你好！" changing it into a question! How are you? 你好吗？ literally: You good吗？ Anyway, please be careful, because its usage actually differs from the English greeting "How are you?" While the English "How are you?" is also an everyday greeting, in Chinese you should ask 你好吗？ only if you really want to ask about the state of health or condition of a friend, not just as a greeting. |
How to say: Yes or No Maybe you've already read that one of the meaning of 是 is "yes, right" and that one of the meaning of 不 is "used alone as a negative answer". Anyway, about this simple subject, more must be said. 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: 你认识他吗？ answer 1: 认识。 (meaning: Yes, I do) answer 2: 不认识。 (meaning: No, I don't) |
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 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 孩儿 is not "hái ér" but "háir" (please note that the vowel "i" is not pronounced, so the actual pronunciation is "hár"). 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 write and read a year Simply write the number followed by 年 and read every single figure. NOTE: Number zero (零) can also be written ○. All the following examples are correct: 2000年 二零零零年 二○○○年 The following example is wrong: 两○○○年 ATTENTION: Cannot read 二千年, must read er4 líng líng líng 年, every single figure. |
How to write and read a month Simply write the corresponding number (from 1 to 12) followed by 月 and read as normal. |
How to write and read a day 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: 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. |
Exercise
Learn by heart the very common expressions just reviewed.
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