HIPPOCRENE BEGINNER'S SERIES

BECJINNER9
CHINESE
WTT 4UDIO CD5

Yong 瑟o

Hippocrene Books
LVezy 了0)
 Acknowledgements

The pinyin portion of this book was prepared using Pintone Plu 6, an easy-
to-use software program developed by Professor Teng Shou Hsin of National Contents
Taiwan Normal University. I would like to thank him for his unfailing SupPort
and assistance with my use of the program. It is true, as one of my colleagues
commented, that we as teachers of Chinese all depend on his utility to survive，
Iowe a special debt to Mr, Jorge A. Estrella, whose readiness to help and
masterly troubleshooting compnuter skills have made easier my PC life in gener- Introduction
al and the preparation of this manuscript in particular Whenever Irun into Chinese Language: Its Prominent Features
problems, I can always count on him for help. Chinese Phonetics
Thanks are also due to my daughter Adele, who helped type portions of the Written Chinese
manuscript and set the Pinyin marks. Just as I benefited from her valuable Serv- Grammatical Terms Explained
ice, she found it an educational and rewarding experience.
Lesson 1. Greetmng
Lesson 2. Names
Lesson 3. Places
Lesson 4. Family
Lesson 5.Time
Text copyright @ 1997 by Yong Ho Lesson 6. Nationalities and Language
Audio copyright @ 2005 by Yong Ho Lesson 7. Money and Shopping
Cover photograph @ Jiaxuan Zhang Lesson 8. Food and Eating
Lesson 9. Travel
All rights reserved,. No reproduction, copy, or transmission of this publication Lesson 10. Weather
may be made without written permission.
Glossary 128
lst paperback-with-audio edition, 2005. Key to the Exercises 140
37ad PTinatin8，2000. Pinyin Practice 151
Pinyin-Wade-Giles Cross-referencing 161
ISBN 0-7818-1095-7 Pinyin to Wade-Giles 161
ISBN of previous edition: 0-7818-0299-7 Wade-Giles to Pinyin 163
Resources for Students of Chinese 165
Jacket design by K 廊P Publishing Services Bibliographic Resources 165
Internet Resources 167
For information, address:
HIPPOCRENE BOOKS, INC.
171 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
www.hippocrenebooks.com

Cataloging-in-Publication data available from the Library of Congress

Printed in the United States of America

 Jrtje 7198 centary belonged io Biitai ad the 204 Ce1attd1y 1O te CU1zited States，
jeil tje 212 centt1y Willstudrepy pelong io Chiza. Mi advice: Make sure Jo ids
Lea771 CHzjese.

-Jim Rogers, 矿 oztP Magazine

Introduction

Congratulations on the two right choices you have made. You decided to study Chinese
and you picked the right book.
Possible Sound Combinations in Mandarin Chinese

The decision to study Chinese is a good one because it is a language of twenty-first

century as Jim Rogers observed above. Believe it or not, there are more people in the world
speaking Chinese than English or any other language. Chinese is one of the six official
languages forthe United Nations, Above all, the ability to speak and write Chinese goes a long
Way to the understanding of 53,000 years of Chinese civilization, the exchanging ofideas with
its pcople, and the conducting of business in or with China.

The selection of this book for your study of Chinese is a good one because it is unique and
itfills a void, This book has been written for the adult learner who has no background in
Chinese, and for travelers who want to take a quick course on Chinese. The majority of
courses offered to these students in the United States (variously called elementary, beginning
or level 1 Chinese) consists of ten to twelve sessions, yet most textbooks used for such courses
contain thirty to forty lessons. It would take at least three or four levels or semesters to finish
Such a book. Obviously by the time the students reach the end of the book, they are no longer
beginners. For beginning students of Chinese, such textbooks are unwieldy and intimidating.
Beginzter s Chijaese consists of ten lessons, Each lesson is comprised of the following
components: basic sentence patterns, a series of conversations that illustrate the
communicative use of these pattems, Words and expressions, supplementary words and
expressions, language points, exercises, and cultural insights about the topic of the lesson. The
book has been written in such a way that it is teachable and leamable during one academic
Semester for adult students. By the time students finish this book, they will have learned abonut
ninety basic sentence patterns, three hundred characters, basic grammar, and basic
communicative Skills.

This book is based on the premise that less is more. When presented with only the basic
and most crucial words and patterns, students will be able to start talking and communicating
immediately without being concermed about the intricacies of grammar and vocabulary. For
this reason, Begizzter's Chijiese is truly abeginners guide.
 Begz7z71E7S Cjizzese

on television, in radio broadcasts, and in movies. More importantly, it has been promoted to the
junguage of instruction in primary and secondary Schools，Gzwo)xzi/Ppzto7zgjaa has been chosen as
the standard dialect because of the sheer number of speakers. With a multitude of mutually
Chinese Language: Its Prominent Features unintelligible dialects, there is a need for a lingua ffranca through which speakers of various
dialects can communicate. If you speak Mandarin, chances are you may not understand people
Students come to my Chinese classes for different reasons. Some are looking for atool to
Who speak a different dialect, but they may understand you. Besides those in China, Mandarin is
gain an in-depth understanding of Chinese culture and society. Others， primarily those of Chinese
则 so Spoken by more than one million people in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei,
descent, try to connect with their roots and cultural heritage. Still others want to learn the
Mongolia, Thailand, and Philippines.
language to communicate with their Chinese friends, parents of their Spouses, and business
partners. These are all valid reasons, Interestingly, there are also students who cometo Study
People outside China are often under the impression that there are two languages in
Chinese just for the thrill oftaking up an academic challenge by learning a language drastically
China: Mandarin and Cantonese, but this is not the case. Cantonese or Gwaz8do7gjpzua, which is
different 人 om English.
8$poken by only 5% of the population in China, is popular in the United States and elsewhere
primarily due to the f 乌 ct that early immigrants to the United States were mostly ffom Canton, a
于 learning a drastically different language is the sole purpose, the choice of Chinese is
Coastal province Where residents have easy access to the sea，However Since then，more people
definitely a right one. Although similarities do exist between the two languages, Chinese differs
from the Mandarin-speaking areas in China have been finding new homes in this and other
人fom English significantly in sounds, grammar, and writing. I should hasten to add that these
countries.
differences are not insurmountable hurdles. With enough practice and exposure, they will
ultimately prove to be aids in gaining access to the perceptions and conceptions ofthe people
Chinese belongs to the family of Sino-Tibetan languages. As the world's second largest
whose language they are learning. Didn't some philosopher once Say that to know a second
language family (next only to the Indo-European family), the Sino-Tibetan family is comprised of
language is to gain a second soul?
more than 300 languages that are Spoken over a vast geographic area extending ffrom
Northeastern India to Southeast, South, and East Asia. Other members of the family include
Chinese is the language spoken by more people in the world than any other language, yet
Tibetan, Burmese, and a number of lesser known languages. These languages share a number of
in the West it is often categorized as a less commonly taught language. Poor knowledge and
common features including, among others, monosyllabism, tonality, and the use of classifiers. Let
misinformation have produced an abundance of myths and misconceptions about the language.
us now take a look at monosyllabism and the use of classifiers. (Tonality will be discussed in the
Hopefally, the following discussion will help dispel some of the mysteries that shroud Chinese。
next chapter on Chinese phonetics.)

You are about to study the Chinese language and you should know the word for Chinese
Monosyllabism refers to a language phenomenon where each morpheme is represented by
language in Chinese., Instead of one, there are two terms: Perpxs and Zjpo1zgwe1z. The term Pet
asSyllable. While the syllable may be easy to understand, the morpheme may not be. The
Which is widely used in China to refer to the Chinese language and is adopted as thetitle for most
morpheme has been traditionally regarded as the smal est unit of ing, although c< porary
Chinese language textbooks, literally means "the language ofthe 有 az " If you have some
linguists have distinguished finer units. In languages like English, a morpheme can consist of one
但miliarity with Chinese history, you will know that 严 azz was the second imperial dynasty of China
or more syjlables such as jzd (one syllable, one morpheme) and zzojzosyiaplie (five syllables and
(the first imperial dynasty was Oizz，formerly Cpiz from which Cpzzpza derives). Due to its
two morpheme -ojz0 and syiapie) and can even be realized by a consonant, such as -s in catS.
importance in history, the name 严 az came to be used to refer to ethnic Chinese Itis not difficult
Morphemes in English are often bound, meaning that individual morphemes cannot stand alone
to see that 有 az is not a politically correct term to use, because Chinese is also Spoken by most
but have to be strung together to form a word. In a monosyllabic language, syllables are
ofthe minority groups in China as the second language and some of them as the first language.
coterminous with morphemes. In other words, a syllable is a morpheme,. In this sense, Chinese is
For this reason, Zjpo7gwemz meaning the language ofthe Chinese people，would be a better term.
truly monosyllabic, because each morpheme is indeed represented by a syllable and most
morphemes in the language are free rather than bound (they can stand alone as independent
As one of the seven major dialect groups in China, Mandarin js Spoken by over 900 million
words). However it would be wrong to assume the reverse: a word always consists of a
or 70% of the Chinese people in northern and parts of southern China and is understood by 94%
morpheme and thus a syllable. The majority of words used in contemporary Chinese are disyllabic
of the population. Mandarin is not a language, but is a vocal representation of Chinese_ The
or polysyllabic，consisting of two or more morphemes/syllables. What is noteworthy in this
dialecb which is referred to in China as peiKzrzgjaa (northern speech), has its own subvarieties of
regard is that most of these disyjllabic and polysyllabic words are formed by freestanding rather
northern Mandarin, northwest Mandarin, southern Mandarin and southwest Mandarin_ The
than bound morphemes. Juxtaposing two freestanding morphemes/words doesn't mean that the
standard Mandarin, called gwoyxs or Ptuiozgjua, is based on, but not equivalent to, the Beijing
meaning of the new word is the sum total of the meanings of the component words. They can be
dialect, The term 8xojxx, which means "national language," is used in Taiwamn Hong Kong, and
very different.
Overseas Chinese communities; the term Pztozgjpua, which means "common Speech,”is used in
mainland China，This standard form has become an administrative and offcial medium_ It is used
过
 CjPpijiese La11SUQSe: 188 Pro1zi11e12l Featares Begijzj2ers CPizzese

The use of classifiers is another feature that characterizes Chinese and most other the problems that beset English and other languages in relation to gender simply do not exist in
Sino-Tibetan and Southeast Asian languages. Basically, a classifier is a word that comes berween Chinese. Ionce gave atalk on the relationship between language and thought. The original title
anumber or a demonstrative pronoun (e.g., 1jpis, tpaf) and a noun. Classifiers are also referred to Was Li28UiStic Spapi28 OF 7TjpoxSjpt Mazz at tpe Mercy of FisZLangxyage. You may quickly
as measure Words. They are occasionally used in English (a Piece ofpaper, a scpool of jsj two notice, as Idid at the time, that this is not a politically correct title . It didn't seem to sound right
peads of caxi1iowe 由 but in Chinese the use of classifiers is the rule rather than the exception。 either 这 I changed it to Zi28wistic Spapizg Of 7Tpoxghpt PersoizPeople at the Mercy of
Classifiers help disambiguate homophones and supply additional semantic rather than quantitative JeTjpeir LanzgxaSse. Fortunately, my Chinese came to the quick rescue. The final title
information about the nouns they are used with. For this reason, it is inappropriate to refer to became Zazz8xaSe G1G 77ox8pt Re at 1pe Mercy of Tade 1La1gxage: Ren (person or people)
them as measure words. Refer to Lesson Four for a detailed discussion of classifiers. and taae (his or hen did their job and no one was offended.)

Although Chinese shares these characteristics with other Sino-Tibetan languages, there are Syntactic economy is prominently manifested in what 工 would call a single-signal system.
other features that are unique to Chinese, These include morphological simplicity, syntactic Chinese allows only one signal for one meaning. In the English sentence7 pave tyo pooks, the
economy，meaning taking precedence over the fbrm, and the topic-comment sentence structure. plural meaning ofthe word bgook is indicated by two signals: tyo and the suffx -. In Chinese
people would simply say (equivalent to English) 7 pere tpo pook. The negative of the sentence wo
Morpjpological smPliciby As compared with English and other Indo-European languages， papa qu 1e Zjpomg8xyo (my father has gone to China) is wo papa meijoxy 9 Zjpompggyo, where the
Chinese grammar is very Simple, It is considered by some people to be so simple that they say aspect marker je has to be dropped because the negative word meiyox already Signals a completed
Chinese does not have grammar, These people would be right ifgrammar were equated with action. -Me is one ofthe few su 人fxes used in Chinese. It is used after personal pronouns and
inflection, but unfortunately it is not, Grammar is a system of rules which govern the use of human nouns to indicate plurality such as xxesjpe7zg7z&72 doz pe pao (the students are all good).
language, so every language has grammar. Chinese is for the most part not inflectional 一words However when there is another signal present in the sentence indicating plurality, -em is
are invariable, unaltered and allow no internal changes; affxes signaling lexical or grammatical dropped. We cannot Say WO yOU Sa7z ge QZjpo7gwWe1z Laosjizjze7 (I have three Chinese teachers), we
meaning do not figure very large; syntactic and lexical meanings are not indicated through the instead Say WO )yOU SG11 8e Zjpo7gwWe)z 1aosjpi, Since Sa7? 8e (three) already signals plurality.
manipulation of word forms, but through word order, specific particles and vocabulary items. Similarly we cannot Say tazze7zz SJpi Jaosjizzejz (they are teachers), because tamze7 (they) already
makes the number clear. yeszo questions are another case in point, They are formed in Chinese
ztactic ecozo71ig Many syntactic distinctions made in English are not made in Chinese, by either using the sentence final particle 7mza or by repeating the verb using its negative form such
These include the distinctions between singular and plural (ook vs. pooks), nominative case and as7i sji Zjpo7z1gSUOre1z 11 (are you a Chinese) or 7 S1i pa Si Zjpo7gSWOre1. In the second form
objective case (7 vs. 7ze), first/second person and third person (7 speak vs. je speaks), active voice Jaa is not used because the verb plus its negative form is only used in Chinese to indicate a yeszo
and passive Voice (CQU VS. be calied), the positive degree and comparative degree (Dretty vs. question.
Pretfie站), past time and present time (1 was a teacjpher vs.7amz a leacjpher). Tense is another
example. For nonnative speakers, verbs are usually the most difficult part of an inflectional deamij1g iakes P1ecedejice oOyer Jo171，Since morphological changes are nonextant and
language. The concept of tense has two components: fizzze and aspect Since time is conceived of conjunctions are sparingly used, word order becomes paramountly important in indicating
differently in difterent languages, let's confine ourselves to English, where time can be divided into meaning. In stringing sentence constituents together, Chinese is characterized by parataxis
past, present, future and future in the past (e.g.，when you reflect on a comment about a future Whereby grammatical elements such as phrases or clauses are coordinated without the use of
event that you made on a past occasion). Aspect refers to the manner in which an action takes conjunctions. This is different from English, which relies on hypotaxis whereby grammatical
place. The distinction of aspects made in English are indefinite, continuous/ progressive, perfect， elements are joined with connectives. Sentences in paratactic languages such as Chinese are
and perfect continuous/progressive. These four times and four aspects form a matrix which necessarily simpler and less embedded than those in hypotactic languages such as English. The
generates a total of sixteen different verb forms: 7yzite a lettemn Jprote a jetter Twinwritea most noticeable feature of word order in Chinese is the natural iconicity between syntactic
Letten GTSai 轴 Touldw1ite aietten Ta HTg aietten TaswiB Getten Toillbewriling structure and temporal sequence or chronological succession of events 一 What happens earlier in
aietten GTsaig Totldbewy1ili1galetter THavewrittenaletten ItpoxgjbTpadrwprittena time and what exists earjlier in concept comes earlier in the sentence. Expressions oftime and
lettem TVi1parve writezaletten ITSsaidj To parve writtenaietter 7Tjave peen WO G place precede the verb in Chinese because they provide the scene and setting for the action.
jetten GT ijporgj8Tpadl peez Vi1i1g aleten Twinve jeemnw1itigaleten Tsaig Twoxld Modifiers, adjectives, adverbs, phrases or clauses, always come before modified，nouns or verbs.
parve beem WIN1S aietter Notwithstanding the controversies that abound as to whether some of Lacking an article system, Chinese resorts to word order to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness.
these structures are really tenses, the number and complexity of these verb forms seems daunting. Generally, nouns with definite or specific reference are placed at the beginning of the sentence，
Fortunately for students of Chinese, verbs do not present a major problem because time is Whereas those with indefinite or unspecified reference are placed towards the end of the sentence.
expressed lexically and aspect markers are few and far between. There are only two aspects Renowned linguist Yuen Ren Chao once said that all Chinese grammar is Syntax, all Chinese
distinguished in Chinese: complete and continuous. The gender distinction of nouns is also absent. Syntax is word order, and therefore all Chinese grammar is word order.
aoytOMa7z can be both waiter and waitress, and Jrmzyza7z can be both actor and actress. (Many of

jv
 Cjnijiese ZC11BUGSe: 113 Promzizze1t Features

7Dpic-co71111E121 Se有ite11ce. About 50% of sentences in Chinese contain a binary division of

two parts between 1Opic and co7z711e7zt The topic is what the speaker takes as his/her point of
departure and the comment is a statement on that topic. This structure is considered by some as a
Substandard way of expression, but in languages such as Chinese, it is quite normal and standard. Chinese Phonetics
Examples of topic-comment sentences (topic and comment are Separate by |) include': wo | dizi e
Le GTm hungry, literally 7stomzacj jzzi7287?)， tax Ga | spenti je1z pao (her mother enjoys good There are Six vowels and twenty-one consonants in Mandarin Chinese. As we discussed in
health, literally jper motper pealt good)， FU | wo ai7ai (ITwill work hard on my English,， the previous chapter, the majority of Chinese morphemes are monosyllabic. The syllabic structure
literally，E1gLisjp Ti or pardo17). in Chinese is Such that a syllable always consists of a vowel (V) or a consonant with a vowel
(CV), such as ba, fo, ne. Consonant clusters 一two or more consonants used in succession 一are
Aparticular linguistic structure reflects a particular cognitive process. The Chinese not permitted in Chinese. Syllabic combinations common in English such as VC (up, ab, CVC
topic-comment structure characterizes a type of thinking wherein the speaker, in communicating (big, pat map), CCVC (bred, dread, stone), CVCC (mask, best sand), CCV (fly, blue, grow)，
an idea, would first decide upon a topic without considering the syntactic Tepresentation of the CCCYV (Screw, Spray, stray), VCC (old, and, ing), VCCC (Olds, ants, amps), CCVCC (brand，
assertion. This is made possible by the freedom from abiding by the subject-verb agreement. 下 trains, Swings)， CVCCC (tests, tenths, lunged), CVCCCC (thirsts, texts, worlds), CCVCCC
you are interested in the corollary of this two-step cognitive organization, refer to my other book (Slurps, prints, flirts), CCCVC (street, squat, strut), CCCVCC (struts, squats, sprained), and
43Dect3 Of .Discow1se SNactai1e 困 Na1zdazT12 Cjzijzese. CCCVCCC (scrimps, sprints, squelched) are not possible in Chinese. CVC, on the other hand, is
possible in Chinese, but the final C can only be the nasal sounds -n and -ng and the retroflex -r，
As a final note, Chinese is not a phonetic language and the characters do not bear any Such as 11718, 1G11, yJO18 and e7. Consonants are often called initials because they invariably appear
resemblance to actual pronunciation, therefore a system of transcribing Chinese phonetics was initially in a Word with the exception of the final -7 -28 or 7，Wwhich can appear finally. Vowels
needed to assist people learning to read words in Chinese. There are two systems currently in use. are also called finals because they appear medially or finally in a word. Vowels can stand by
One is the Wade-Giles system and the other is the Pizyzz system. The Wade-Giles System was themselves when no initial consonant is present.
developed by Sir Thomas Francis Wade in the mid-nineteenth century and modified by the
Cambridge professor Herbert Allen Giles at the beginning of this century. This System makes it The 6 vowels are: G o, 6 14 芒 which should be learned in this sequence fortwo
easier, particularly for English speakers, to pronounce Chinese sounds, but is not an accurate important reasons, First, this Sequence shows a pattern or regularity of articulation. When you
representation of the sounds. For example, the Wade-Giles system often uses one Symbol to Pronounce a, the mouth is open the widest, and the tongue is the lowest. As you move down the
represent different sounds and different symbols to represent the same sound. In mainland China， list, the mouth gradually closes and the tongue gradually rises. By the time you pronounce zthe
the Wade-Giles system has been replaced by the PPzyiz (which literally means PDULNNS SOUN2GdS mouth is almost closed and the tongue reaches the highest point. Second, the tone mark used in
108etjper) system which was developed in 1958 with the purpose of introducing standard Pi1D1z always falls on the vowel but two or three vowels can be combined to form a compound
pronunciation of Mandarin to school children. This system has been adopted worldwide since the VOWel such as: ao, i 00 1 ia iao ie 7 Ma Mo, ze 2 Wai When this happens, the tone mark
late 1970s and is used in this book. A cross-reference between the Wade-Giles System and the will 人 Il on the vowel that comes earlier in the sequence (with the exception of ix and zi where
PH122211 System is given in the back of the book. the tone mark always falls on the second sound):

ao, ii 6u, si ii iaio, ie, iu ui uo, ue, ul, uaii

The 21 consonants are: 记忆 了 1 大 芭 了 也 78 五 记 六 g和 和 3 cj

A question that Ilike to ask students in my introductory class is: what kind of problem can
you envision for a language that has only 6 vowels, 21 consonants and is ofthe CV (with limited
CVC possibilities) syllabic structure? It doesn't take them very long to come up with the answer:
the jack of sound combinations to express all the meanings and ideas. Simple math will tell us that
there are only about 400 possible sound combinations in Chinese. By introducing four tones, the
total number of possible sound combinations increases to about 1600. In contrast, according to
the Danish grammarian Jespersen, there are 158,000 possible sound combinations in English.

Although the severely restricted number of possible sound combinations poses a hindrance
to effective communication, the student of Chinese don't have to learn too many Sound
 Cjizzese Pjpometics Begimjzers CHijzese

combinations, To help you practice Chinese phonetics, a list of all possible sound combinations in trouble, try to lower your chin as you produce the tone (but try not to get into an irreversible
Mandarin is provided in the back ofthe book with the four tones indicated. habit).

Tones The fourth tone is called falling tone. It falls precipitously 他 om the top of the pitch level.
As mentioned above, tones are an effective means of reducing homophones (and It is interesting to observe that although we use this tone 人 om time to time in English, particularly
consequently ambiguity). Tones are variations of pitch contours. Such variations also occur in When we put our foot down by saying Jes!l or Nol, when it comes to pronouncing the fourth tone
English, but are only phonetic, not phonemic in that they may change the pragmatic meaning of a in Mandarin, a lot of students suddenly become indecisive and ineffectual. The key to getting this
word, but they do not change its lexical meaning. For example, there may be a variety of ways to tone right is to be resolute.
Say the word yes in English, but yes will never become desf or jporse. In Mandarin however pitch
change is not only phonetic, but also phonemic in that tones distinguish meaning. By varying the In addition to these four tones, Mandarin Chinese has a "fifth" tone, which is actually a
pitch of a sound combination, you get a totally different word. Here are Some examples: toneless tone. As Such it is usually called neutral tone. Its pronunciation is soft and quick. The
neutral tone js not diacritically marked. It occurs either on grammatical particles or the second
mi (motherD), ma (hemp), ma (horse), ma (scold) character of some words that do not receive stress. For example:
yi (one), YE(movej, yi (chainD), yi (hundred million)
wa (house), wa (none), wa (five), wu (fog) Grammatical Particles:

In Mandarin Chinese, there are four tones, which are referred to as the first tone, the Ni hio ma? (How are you2)
Second tone, the third tone and the fourth tone and are indicated by the tone graphs respectively Ni ne? (How about you?)
as -,v\ ,The workings ofthese four tones are demonstrated by the following chart: Wode sh (my book)
Ta qu le xu6xiao (He has gone to the school.)

[了 Second character of some words:

(2)
xiexie (thank you), mama (mothern), baba (fathenD, jioshi (teacher)
(4
(3
Tone Change

The juxtaposition of two tones may Sometimes result in a tone change known as ioje
Sa1Gjp1. This happens when
The first tone is called high level tone. As the name suggests, it should be high, almost at
the upper limit of your pitch range，and level, without any fluctuation. A common mistake 1.Athird tone becomes a second tone when immediately followed by another third tone,
observed among the students is that it is not high enough. The key to getting this tone right is that e.8.:
让 you feel there is still room at the top of your pitch range, you should go for it.
Ni hio 一 Nthio (Hello)l
The second tone is called rising tone. It starts from the middle of your pitch range and
Tises. This is usually not a difficult tone. Wa hn hio 一 W6 hn hio (Tm fine).

2. When a third tone is followed by the first tone, the second tone, the fourth tone and the
The third tone is called falling-rising tone. As such, it has two parts: first falling, then
rising. Although this tone is represented by the graph v, the two sides ofthe v are not of equal most neutral tones，it becomes a half third tone. A halfthird tone is a modified third
tone that falls but not rise, e.g8.:
size. A better representation would be a check mark \. It moves down from the lower half ofthe
pitch range and moves up to a point near the top. A common mistake is that students often start
wo mama (my mothenD, Ni ming ma? (Are you busy?)
too high. It is only too natural that 论 you start too high, it would be very diffcult to maneuver the
bend at the bottom of the valley when you need to rise. What you Should do is to try to start low.
In fact it doesn't matter very much how low you start. Start as low as you can. If you still have

viii
 有81zttezz Cjzjzzese

It is clear from the above that the third is seldom used in full in Chinese unless it falls on a
word in isolation or is followed by a long pause. Although the third tone undergoes changes in
connection with other tones, by convention it is still given the original tone mark in print.

There are a number of other conventions and rules that should be noted: Written Chinese

.iis written as y when it occurs at the beginning of a syllable, e.g., ie 一 ye, ian 一 yan. i is Of all the major writing systems in the world, Chinese is the only one that did not develop
a phonetic alphabet. Its writing system is neither alphabetic or phonetic, because it does not use
written as yi when it forms a syllable by itself e.g., i 一 yi romanization and its form does not bear any resemblance to the actual sound, The Chinese writing
System uses a logographic script in the form of characters.
uis written as WwW when it occurs at the beginning of a syllable, e.g., uo 一 wo, uan 一 wan.
SS

uis written as wu when it forms a syllable by itself e.g.,u 一 wu. Mention was made in a previous chapter that most of the major dialect groups in China
arenot mutually intelligible, but the written form is the same. People in China who cannot
is written as yu when it occurs at the beginning of a syllable or forms a syllable by itself
>

communicate through speech can communicate through the written language. A commonly heard
e.g., tue 一 yie, lian 一 yian ia 一 yu. expression in China is "Qing xig xia li (please write it down)." This linkage can even facilitate to
some extent communication between Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, who use Chinese
.i does not have any phonetic value when it follows z, c, s, zh, ch, sh and r. It is placed
characters extensively. It may be reasonable to assume that this unified writing system has helped
沁

there to fulfll the syllabic requirement. That is, there must be a vowel in every syllable. preclude China from disintegration through the last two millennia. Ifanything, the writing system
is definitely a link forthe Chinese to connect to their literary tradition and cultural past. There
When preceded by a consonant, uei and uen become ui and un.
have been debates about whether Chinese should abandon its characters and adopt romanization
.is written asu afterj, q, x and y. as its writing System. These discussions are fruitless and serve no purpose. Ifyou followed our
CQ

discussion in the previous chapter on Chinese phonetics, you would have noticed the limited
When a syllable beginning with a, o, and e is juxtaposed with another syllable, the mark ()
ss

number of possible sound combinations and the abundance of homophones in Chinese. Although
is often used to demarcate the boundary between two syllables, e.g., niier (daughter) and the use of tones and classifiers, and dissyllabizing words can help alleviate the situation to some
extent, characters are the ultimate and the only way to distinguish words. Ten words may be
peie (quota). pronounced exactly the same, but they will all be written differently. There is simply no way that
In Mandarin, an extra syllable is often attached to another syllable to make it retroflexed. characters can give way to romanization in Chinese.
9

This extra syllable is phonetically transcribed as "r'" instead of "er'", e.g., yidiinr (alittle Chinese characters are often thought of as pictures representing objects and concepts. This
bit), xiiohair (child), and should not be pronounced separately. may be true of the earliest Chinese writing traceable to the fourteenth century BC when it was
largely pictographic in nature, but pictograms were Soon found inadequate to represent
everything, especially abstract ideas. Ideograms were then introduced as graphic representations
of abstract and Symbolic ideas. For those pictographic characters, centuries of refining and
stylizing resulted in the almost total loss ofimages and graphic quality.

Seventy-five percent of Chinese characters are composed of two parts, a left part and a
right part or a top part and a bottom part, In either formation, one part, called the radical, usually
appears on the left or the top. Radicals are category labels or specifiers that provide clues to the
semantic classification of the word such as person, food, metal, plant, animal, water, gender，
feeling, and language，Ifyou know the radical of a character, but do not know the character
itself you can get a general idea of its meaning. For example, all of the following characters share
the "water'" radical because all of them have to do with water:

Xi
 厂 7zittem Cjijzese Begz7z11erS CHij1ese

活 汪 旋风
二 尖 请有 光 UTOLEb 肖 In addition, they usually come with quizzes, on-screen flashcards, and a bi-directional dictionary.
yang hii he ha Xi han chit ji Some of the programs even have the ability to display Pizizz for any character by clicking on it.
Ocea1l SeQ Jier ake Wasjp SWeEat Poad SOaK
Characters are also referred to as square characters, because each one is shaped like a
There are 214 such radicals in Chinese, which are also used in Chinese dictionaries to Square. Irrespective of the complexity of strokes and structures, each character occupies the same
index words. The other component of the character, usually appearing on the right or the bottom, amount of space as the next one. To help with balancing and orienting strokes, it is a good idea
Provides phonetic clues. For example: that you practice writing characters using an exercise book with grid pages.

Complex characters are formed by components. These components are either independent
ying yang ying ying ying ying ying characters when used alone or blocks that recur in many other characters, Try to memorize these
SjpeeD Shape Oocea1l Jeig1 OUBe11 it 7zett components rather than individual strokes. It is easier to build a house using prefabricated
materials than individual bricks and loose sands.
The phonetic clue is only a rough one and becomes useful only when you already know a
Substantial number of characters to make a prediction. In addition, tones may be very difierent. A cursory look at any older Chinese dictionary will reveal that many of the characters are
Very complex in structure, consisting of up to twenty strokes. They are complicated to write and
Students of Chinese often wonder how many characters they need to learn in order to di 全 cult to remember. This also explains why illiteracy had been widespread in China up to the
have a reading knowledge of Chinese materials other than classical literature. Various estimates mid-twentieth century. In response to the pressing need to simplify the writing System, the
have been given, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000. Statistics shows that the majority of the Chinese government has introduced a total of 2,515 simplified characters since 1956. The most
50,000-60,000 existing characters are not in common use. Those that appear with 99.15% common form of simplification is the reduction of strokes in certain characters and assignment of
frequency amount to about 3,000，which is the vocabulary of the average high school student in a component to replace the whole. Contrary to the thinking of many people outside China that the
China. That is to say, the endeavor to learn the additional 50,000 or so characters can only simpliftication was imposed by the Chinese government on its people, the government
increase yOUr inventory of commonly used characters by less than 1%6. For this reason, knowledge standardized the Simplified forms that had already been in wide use for hundreds of years.
of 2,000 to 2,500 characters is adequate to tackle reading contingencies that are nonacademic and Simplification is a boon for millions of people, particularly for those who are struggling to shake
nontechnical. This would probably be equivalent to the vocabulary of the average junior high offilliteracy. This process has gone a long way towards helping alleviate illiteracy. Studies have
School graduate in China. Remember that the majority of words used in contemporary Chinese are found that the literacy rate in China has risen from 20-30%6 in the early 1950s to 80-90% in the
disyllabic or polysyllabic. The actual number of words you learn from these 2,000 to 2,500 1990s. Although favorably received, simplification of characters also created new problems. Since
characters js enormous. the decision to simplify characters was unilaterally made by the Chinese government, people in
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese communities are experiencing tremendous difficulty
Since characters are not phonetic and the emphasis of this or any other beginning course reading materials 人fom mainland China and children in mainland are also having trouble reading
foradult learners is on speaking or communicating, character learning and writing are not given classical materials. But with the reunification of Hong Kong with China, it won't be very far
priority. To spend too much time on character writing at this stage would consume too much time before simplification find its way there.
that should be spent building a solid foundation in pronunciation and the basic sentence patterns
used for various communicative founctions. It is advisable that serious study of characters for adult Beginning students often struggle with the decision whether to study the Simplified
students should follow a comfortable command of pronunciation, basic Vocabulary, and basic characters or traditional characters. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution as there is no
sentence patterns. In Spite of all this, you may find it very hard to resist learning Some characters consensus among teachers of Chinese about which form to teach. Although Ive used simplified
When you study the language. Feel free to pursue 这 you have the urge as long as you do not lose characters in this book, I suggest making the decision based on your purpose. Study simplified
Sight of the main goal at this stage. characters 这 you need to read literature from mainland China, and study traditional characters 让
you plan to read materials fom Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese communities. There
JIn writing a character, it is not only important to get the end product right, but also to are teachers of Chinese who suggest that students learn to read both forms, but write in the
follow the proper Stroke order. Failure to follow proper sequence is the first sign of illiteracy. Simplified form only. The above-mentioned software programs and all the Chinese
That is why teachers and parents in China keep a very close look at how children write and take Word-processing programs listed in the resource section of the book can be great aids in
pains to correct them when they make a wrong move. To that end, I would strongly suggest that crOSS-Teferencing between traditional and simplified characters. With a click of a button, most of
students take advantage of the multitude of software programs that teach the writing of these programs will convert the Simplified characters to traditional characters or vice versa.
characters. You will find a list of character tutoring programs in the resource section of this book.
Most of these programs will take you by the hand, animating the basic strokes and stroke order.

Xii Xiji
 Grammatical Terms Explained

Adverbial LESSON
A word, phrase or clause that functions to modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb，
Providing such information as time, Place, manner, reason, and condition.

Aspect
The manner in which an action takes place. English distinguishes four aspects: indefinite,
continuous, perfect and perfect continuous, whereas Chinese distinguishes only two: continuous
and perfect.

Classifier
A word used between a numeral and a noun to Show the sub-class to which the noun
belongs. SENTENCE PATTERNS

Object
Anoum pronoun, phrase, or clause that is used after and affected in some way by，a 你好 ! Hellol
transitive verb. Ifit is affected in a direct way, it is called the direct object, Ifit is affected in an Ni hiol
indirect way, it is called the indirect object. In the sentence hpe gaye me a pook a gook is the
direct object and pe is the indirect object. 你 好 吗? How are you?
Ni hao ma?
Particle
A word that has only grammatical meaning, but no lexical meaning, such as ja, me and pa 你 呢? How about you?
in Chinese. Ni ne?

Predicate
这 是 王 先生 . This is Mr. Wang.
Zhe shi Wang Xiansheng.
The part of a sentence that states or asserts Something about the subject, This role is only
assumed by the verb in English, but can also be assumed by the adjective in Chinese.
你 怎么 样? How is everything with you?
Ni zsnmeyang?
Predicative adjective
An adjective used after the verb lo pe in English as in 1pe book i3 ilerestizg, which is 我 也 很 好， Tm fine, too.
opposed to an attributive adjective used before a noun as in 1jjis 18 Gay? interestijzg book W5 Ye hen hio.
Predicative adjectives in Chinese are used without the verb io ze.
认识 你, 我 很 高 兴. Its a pleasure to know you.
Subject Resnshi ni wo hen gaoxing.
Something about which a statement or assertion is made in the sentence.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

Atransitive verb is one that needs to take an object such as We stcty Cipzese. An
intransitive verb is one that does not take an object such as wajk muz, and 8o.

Xiv