Speak basic Mandarin Chinese in 5 hours

1. Course Introduction: . 2. Introduction to Chinese: Hello and welcome to the first lesson of our course. This is an introductory lesson where we're going to get to know more about the way the Chinese language works. And let's start with learning our first phrase. You probably already know that it means "hello" In Chinese. And you probably have noticed these signs above the vowel sounds here. These signs actually represent the Chinese tones. And every tone is represented by a different sign in the Pinyin. Pinyin is just this characters' romanization here. It represents the sounds of the Chinese language. It is used to help students to learn Chinese without characters' knowledge. You can see that every Chinese character is represented by one single syllable. And every syllable usually has three components, initial (or a consonant), final (or a vowel), and the tone. Tones are the usage of the voice pitch to distinguish the meanings of the syllables. It simply means that the same syllable with the different tones will have different meanings. Let's see an example with the syllable "ma". Ma, with the first tone, means mom or mother. With the second ma means hemp, with the third ma, horse, with a fourth, ma to scold. And finally, with the fifth tone, ma is a grammar particle. Altogether there are four major and one neutral tone in Mandarin Chinese. As you could notice, all the tones are pronounced accordingly to the way they look. So there will be no problem for you to distinguish and remember them. In the next lesson, we'll take a close look at each tone. And will learn to pronounce it. 3. Chinese tones: Let's take a look at this chart, where the Chinese tones are displayed. Here are the highest and lowest points of your vocal range. And the first tone will be pronounced here with the highest voice pitch, just like this. It is flat and monotone. You can see that the first tone is represented by a straight horizontal line in Pinyin. The second tone is the rising tone. It starts nearly at the middle point of the vocal range and goes up to the top. It sounds like if you would ask a question "whaaat"? And as you can see, It is represented by this rising diagonal line. The third tone first falls and then rises up again like this. And it is represented by a curved dipping line. And in real daily speech, when the third tone syllable is combined with other syllables, it will just be pronounced low and short, like this. The fourth tone starts high and drops sharply to the bottom of the tonal range. It may remind you of an angry command. In Pinyin, it is represented by a dropping diagonal line. And the last, fifth tone will not be displayed in a tone chart as it doesn't have a defined pitch contour. The fifth or the neutral tone is pronounced in a quick and light way. And syllables with the fifth tone just don't have any tone marks. Now please listen to the following syllables and repeat them. 4. Greetings: Now, when we actually know how to pronounce Chinese tones, let's practice saying them and learn new Chinese vocabulary at the same time. Do you still remember the phrase nihao, hello from the previous lesson. It is actually is made up of two words, nǐ, which means "you" and hǎo Which means "good". So it literally implies you good. Both words have a third tone. But in daily speech, and the "nǐ" here will change its third tone to the second one. So nǐhǎo will become níhǎo. You may wonder why. Well, because in daily speech, some syllables will change their tones accordingly to the tone change rules. These rules exist to make speech smoother and more flowing. There are only three of them, and we will cover each of them in our lessons. But for now. Just remember that when 2 third tones are combined together, the first one will be changed to the second one. nínhǎo - hello, respectful. It is different from "ni hao" in the way that it is used to greet someone who is older than you are in a higher job position. It make sense because the character "nin" itself means "you" respectful. Please listen to the pronunciation of this phrase and then repeat it. ha lou Hello (casual). It is a quite casual way to greet someone and usually is used among young people, friends and family members. dajiahao - hello everyone. By the way, "dajia" on itself means everyone. zaoshang hao - Good morning. zhongwu hao - Good afternoon. wei - Hello (on phone). Pay attention that this phrase is only used to greet someone when you pick up phone calls. 5. Polite phrases: When you want to thank Chinese, use the phrase, xiexie - thank you. Pay attention that this sound "x" is pronounced like English is SH. But your tongue should be behind the lower front teeth. As a polite reply to your thanks, you will usually hear "bu yong xie" which literally means no need for thanks and can be translated to English as "you're welcome". dui bu qi - I'm sorry. That literally means something like "can't afford to face you". Pay attention. That sound, Q is pronounced like the English sound CH, but you should be behind the lower front teeth. mei guan xi - it's okay, It's nothing. It's a common polite reply to somebody's apology. 6. Saying good-bye: Let's learn a few ways how to say goodbye in Chinese. The first one "zaijian" - is a very common and formal way to say goodbye. And literally means see you again. Pay attention that the sound j is pronounced like English sound j, but your tongue should be behind the lower front teeth. bai bai - goodbye. It sounds just like the English bye-bye. It's a quite casual way to say goodbye and usually is used among friends and family members. gua le - literally means I'm going to hang up. it is only used when you're saying goodbye on the phone. wan an - good night. 7. Self-introduction: In this lesson, we are going to learn a few different ways of self-introduction in Chinese. First of all, let's learn a couple of new words that will help us with that. shi - to be, yes I am in Chinese is - wo shi You can use it to introduce yourself just like this. wo shi plus your name. For example. Wo shi dawei - I am David. Wo shi Mali - I am Mary. Now please try to do the same thing with your name. And another way of self-introduction is by using the verb jiao - to call, to be called wo jiao - my name is... literally, I am called. wo jiao dawei - my name is David, or I am called David wo jiao mali - My name is Mary or literally, I am called Mary. Now please try to do the same thing with your name. 8. Difficult Chinese sounds : Now let's take a step back and talk a bit about the Pinyin sounds. As you could notice, I'm Chinese sounds are quite different from English. That's why it is essential to learn the correct Chinese pronunciation at the very beginning. It will not only improve your speech, but also will help you to avoid lots of mistakes and will ease your Chinese language learning process. In this lesson, we will only make a short overview of all the difficult Chinese sounds, if you would like to learn everything on Pinyin in a more detailed way and get more practical exercises. In addition to this course, please download the worksheets that we have prepared for you. You will find a lot of useful information, practical writing, reading, and listening exercises there There are easy and difficult initials. Easy are those are similar to them that exist in English. And difficult are those that don't exist in English at all. We have divided them into three groups based on their tongue position. Our first group of difficult initials is zh, ch, sh, r These sounds have the same tongue position. The tongue is pulled back or curled back a bit more. zh is pronounced like English j, but the tongue is curled further back. CH is pronounced like English CH, but the tongue is curled further back. SH is pronounced like English SH And R sound is pronounced as English R sound accordingly, but with your tongue pulled back a bit more. Please listen to the following syllables and then repeat them, minding the tongue position. In the past lessons, we already did show a preview of the sounds j, q, and x. And if you remember, they also have the same tongue position, which is behind the lower front teeth. J is pronounced like English j, but your tongue tip should be behind the lower front teeth. Q is pronounced like English CH, and X is pronounced like English SH. But remember, your tongue tip is placed behind the lower front teeth. Please listen to the following syllables and then repeat them minding the tongue position. The next group of sounds is z and c. Z is pronounced like DS in the English word kiDS, And C is pronounced like TS in the English word caTS. And as for finals, the most difficult final sounds for Chinese beginners are E and Ü. The Chinese E is pronounced like the combination of two sounds. 'u' sound from the English word 'put' plus 'uh' from the word 'duh'. If you said this sound in the right way, you will feel as it is produced in the back of your throat. Please listen to the following syllables and then repeat them To produce the sound ü, First start saying e sound continuously, and then round up your lips, as when you say an 'oo' sound, Please listen to the following syllables and then repeat them. 9. She is very beautiful: We already know all three important Chinese pronouns. wo - that means I, me, ni - you, and nin, which means you respectful. The other three important pronouns are ta - he, ta - she ta - it. All of them are pronounced in the same way in spoken Chinese and only have different characters. Let's now make a couple of sentences with newly learned words. Her name is Mary. He is David. Now let's learn a few Chinese adjectives. hao - good, fine gaoxing happy By the way, the word gao itself means high or tall piaoliang - beautiful. When you want to say that somebody is good, happy, or beautiful, in English, we would use the verb to be. But in Chinese, we will not use the "shi" verb. To connect to a noun with an adjective, we'll use the word "hen". The original meaning of hen is very, but in most cases, when it is used before adjectives, it doesn't give any intensification. He is happy. Mary is beautiful. I am fine. David is tall. And if you really mean very, you can use the word feichang, which literally means not normal, not as usual. 10. Nice to meet you! : Let's learn a couple of new verbs and then built with them some sentences. Ai - to love How do you say I love you in Chinese? That's right, wo ai ni xihuan - to like. ta xihuan ta - he likes her ren shi - to be acquainted with, to know somebody. dawei ren shi wo - David knows me. There is an important Chinese phrase with the word "renhi" that usually is used to say nice to meet you - wo hen gaoxing renshi ni And it literally means, I'm happy to know you. You can use it after someone has introduced oneself to you. And your last verb for this lesson is zhidao - to know something, to be aware of. wo zhidao mali xihuan dawei - I know that Mary likes David. wo zhidao wo hen piaoliang - I know that I am beautiful. 11. No, not: We already know how to make statements in Chinese, and now let's learn how to turn statements into negations. For this goal, we will use the word bu, which means no, not. Just put it before a verb or an adjective to make it negative. Have you noticed that bu before shi, ai changed its fourth tone to the second one. That's the second tone change rule and is quite simple and easy to remember. When bu stands before the word with the fourth tone, bu will change its tone to the second tone. In other cases, it will not change its tone. Let's see a few sentences' examples. Dawei bu ai ta - David doesn't love her. Wo bu renshi ni - I don't know you. wo bu hao - I'm not fine. Lili bu gaoxing - Lily is not happy. 12. Asking "yes-no" questions: After you have introduced your name, you may want to add something else. Let's say your profession. Let's learn a few new words that will help us with that. xuesheng - a student, laoshi - a teacher, yisheng - a doctor. Now let's practice building some sentences with these words. I am a student. He is not a doctor, he is a teacher. We already know how to make statements and negations. So it's time to learn to ask questions. In a previous lesson, we've learned how to use the word bu. That means no no, not. To make negations. We can use it to make yes-no questions as well. Yes, no questions are simply those questions that you can answer yes or no to. Let's see how it works. First, we put the verb, then we add bu, and then we add the verb again. For example, are you student. Literally, you are not are student? Is David a doctor? Literally, David is not is a doctor? Does he love her, literally, He loves doesn't love her? Does he like her? literally he likes doesn't like her? Pay attention in a daily speech in such questions, verbs that are made up of two characters will lose their second character before bu. Also, there is another way to ask such questions by using ma - it is a yes, no question particle. Just put it at the end of the statement to turn this statement into a yes-no question. he likes you. Does he like you? Students know the teacher. Do students know the teacher? The doctor's name is David. Is the doctor's name David? Let's see one more example. I hope you still remember our phrase, nihao - hello. As you remember, its literal meaning is, you good, guess what will happen if we add ma to nihao, we will get the phrase ni hao ma, which means are you good? and can be translated to English as how are you? 13. Answering "yes-no" questions: Now when we know how to ask yes-no questions, time to learn how to answer them. There are two basic ways to do this. The first one is just to repeat back the verb from the question in case of a positive answer. And if your answer is negative at BU before that verb, for example. Do you know him? I know. Which implies yes. I don't know, which implies no. And another way to answer such questions is to use the verb shi. Although there are no such specific words as yes and no in Chinese. In this case, shi and bu shi will have the same functions as yes and no words in English. Do you know him? It is or I do. Which implies yes. It is not or no, I don't. Which implies no. Let's see a few more examples. Do you love Mary? The first way to answer this question is to use the verb from the question, I love, which implies yes. Don't love, Which implies no. And the second way is to use the shi verb. It is, implies yes It is not. Implies no. Do students like the teacher? Like, which implies yes. Don't like, which implies no. It is, implies yes. It is not implies no. 14. Plural & Possessive : In English to express possession, we use 'S, and in Chinese, we will use the possessive particle DE, which has the same function as, 'S in English. And can be used not only with the nouns by the width pronounced as well. My your, Your respectful. His. Her. Its. David's Teacher's Let's see some sentences' examples. He is Mary's teacher. My doctor's name is David. And if you want to make any pronoun or some nouns referring to individuals plural, we just put the plural marker, MEN after it, like this. We, us. You plural. You plural, respectful. They - male or a mixed group of people. They - only female group of people. I don't know them. They are the teacher's students. They don't like their doctor. Now let's practice what we've learned recently. Please first read the following sentences and then say them in Chinese. You will have 10 seconds per sentence. Feel free to pause the video if you need more time. 15. New vocabulary: In this lesson, we're going to learn a couple of new nouns. Let's start with a simple word baba. Father. Doesn't it sound like English, papa? And as for mother, in Chinese, it is mama. Quite simple, right? When it comes to daily speech, Chinese children like to use short forms to call their parents. Ba for dad and ma for mother. And if we combine these two words together, we'll get a new one, bama - parents. The next word is peng you - a friend. Now let's see a few examples with newly learned words. My father's name is David. My mother's name is Mary. Having noticed that DE was dropped out here. That's because when a certain especially close relationship is involved, it's more natural to drop the DE out. Let's see some more examples. My friend is a doctor. My friend is a doctor. You can use any of these options. My dad is a doctor. My mom is a teacher. 16. "Bounce-back" questions: In one of the previous lessons, we've learned how to ask yes-no questions. And now let's learn how to ask "bounce-back" questions in Chinese. Bounce-back questions are simply those questions that literally bounce back to a person who initially asked a question. In order to ask such questions in English, we often use "and you" or and how about you? And in Chinese, we will use the "bounce-back" question particle NE. To English it can be translated as "how about you?" or "and you?". Let's see some examples. How are you? I'm fine, Thanks. And how about you? Which implies, and how are you? My name is David. And what about you? Which implies and what is your name? He doesn't know an how about you, which implies and do you know? Now let's do the practice. Please ask the following questions in Chinese. You will have 10 seconds per question. Feel free to pause the video if you need more time. I don't know him. And how about you? I don't like the teacher. And how about you? I don't like Mary's mother, and you? You did really great, see you in the next lesson! 17. WH-questions: We already know how to ask two different types of questions. They are yes-no questions and bounce-back questions. Except for these two types, There are also WH-questions. WH-questions are those questions that contain such words as who, what, why, when, where, and etc. They are being asked in order to get some information. For example, what is this? Who is that? Where are you? and so on. Before, we will learn how to ask such questions in Chinese. We will need to learn a few new words. Zhe - this. Na - that. Now let's use these words to form WH questions. What is this? Or literally, this is what? Who is that? Literally, that is who? As you could notice, unlike in English in Chinese, the order in WH-questions stays unchangeable. Let's see a few more examples. Whose friend is she? Literally, she is who's friend? Who do you know? What do you know? Another important WH-question is the question, What is your name? You can ask it just by saying. Literally, you called what? But it sounds a bit rude and disrespectful. To make it more polite, you need to add the word mingzi - a name to your question. The whole question will sound like this. What's your name? In this lesson, we've learned quite a lot. And now it's time to practice. Please ask the following questions in Chinese, you will have 10 seconds per question. Feel free to pause the video if you need more time. What is the name of David's friend? Do you know what he knows? Whose mother is the teacher? 18. Live, study, work: In the previous lesson, we've learned a lot about asking WH-questions. And in this lesson, we're going to practice with WH questions even more. But first, let's learn a couple of new words. Zhu - to live. gongzuo - to work. zuo - to do, to make. xuexi - to study. Now to remember these words better, Let's build with them some sentences. What do you like to do? I like studying, and you? What do you do? or literally, you do what work? This is a common question about one's job. The answer would be simple. I am a teacher, I am a doctor, and so on. To ask such questions as "where do you live?" or "where do you work?", we will need to use the question word, nali - where. The word na itself means which and li - inside. Do you still remember words zhe and na from the previous lessons? And if we add li after them, will get new words zheli - here and nali - there. And to express locations in Chinese, we will need to use the word zai - at, on, in. This word is added before location. For example. Where, here, in Beijing, in Shanghai. Let's see some sentences and questions examples more. Where do you live? I live in Shanghai. By the way, the name of the Shanghai city in Chinese is made up of two characters, shang - above and hai - sea. So literally it means "above the sea", which is quite logical because Shanghai is located above the sea. Where do you work? I work in Beijing. By the way, the name of the Chinese capital, Beijing is also made up of two characters. bei - which means North and jing - which means capital. As Beijing is located in the north part of China. It makes a lot of sense. In this lesson, we've learned a lot of new vocabulary and language points. Let's now do a short practice to consolidate our knowledge. I live here. I work there. You've done an amazing job. And I'll see you in the next lesson. 19. Conjunctions: Often happens that language learners already know a lot of vocabulary, but they forget about the "glue" words, That is, conjunctions, that help to combine all these words into one whole big sentence. So let's learn a few conjunctions that will help us to extend our sentence building skills. he - in Chinese is used to connect two or more nouns or pronouns together. Me and him. Marry, and David. father, mother and me. Let's see a couple of sentences with he. I and her are not good friends. I and my parents live in Beijing. Ye - also, too, either. Now let's see how we can use this word in the sentences. I'm fine, and you? Me too. He also likes her. Teacher doesn't know either. And our last word for this lesson is dou - both, all. Let's see some sentences' examples with it. We are all students. His parents are both doctors. Are you all her friends? It's time to practice. Please use words that we've learned today to build the following sentences in Chinese. 20. Countries & Nationalities: When talking about countries and nationalities in Chinese, there are two most important words that you will definitely want to learn. Here they are. Guojia - country. Ren - a person, people Why these words are so important? The majority of countries names in Chinese contain the character guo from guojia. For example, China, America, England, South Korea, France, Germany, and so on. And as for nationalities in Chinese, they are formed in a very simple way. Just add the word ren - person, after any country to turn it into a nationality. Chinese, American, British. Let's see a few sentences examples. I live in America. Mark is British. Lijun is Chinese. The question, what country are you from or what is your nationality? In Chinese will sound like this. Which literally means you are which country person? What country are you from? I am French. And if you want to be more specific and ask about which city is someone from, just ask Literally, you are where person? Where are you from? I'm from Shanghai. Now, please name your nationality in Chinese. 21. Practice. Summing up: In the past lessons we have learned quite a lot of new vocabulary and how to make different types of sentences. And one of the best ways to remember newly learned things is to practice them. In this practice session, we will have three exercises. Let's start with the first one. Please. First, listen to the dialogue and then answer the questions. - Hello! - Hello! - What is your name? - My name is Mark, and you? - Nice to meet you! My name is Li Jun. - Nice to meet you too! - What country are you from? - I'm American, and you? - I'm Chinese. - What work do you do? - I'm a teacher, and you? - I am a doctor. Please answer the following questions accordingly to the dialogue's content. Great job! Let's move on to our second exercise. Please listen to the following passage. This is my friend. Her name is Mary. She is American. Mary is a student. Mary and her parents live in America. Her father's name is David. He's also an American. Her mom's name is Lily, she is British. Her dad is a doctor. Her mom is a teacher. I know her parents. Her parents also know me. Now please use the answers to the following questions to make your own story. Use the previous passage as an example. You've done an amazing job. You've completed the first part of our course. But there are still a lot of things to learn. And I hope I'll see you in the next lesson. 22. Have & Have not: When we talk about having something in Chinese, we use the verb you. For example. I have friends, he has parents. Let's learn a few more simple words that we can use with "you". money a cat, cats, a dog, dogs an apple, apples Now let's practice these newly learned words by using them in the sentences. I have money. Mary has a cat and a dog. Now, we know how to use you when we want to say that someone has something. But how about using you in negative sentences such as, He doesn't have apples, David doesn't have money, and etc. In one of the previous lessons, we learned that we would need to put "bu" before a verb to make it negative. But the verb "you" is the only exception here. You can't say Instead, you must say Remember this important rule, and never use "bu" with "you" Also pay attention that "mei you" can be shortened to "mei" without altering its meaning. For example, I don't have apples, he doesn't have money or he is poor. You may wonder why "mei qian" can also be translated as poor. That's because in the Chinese language, some adjectives are created by putting a few words together. In future lessons, we will surely learn much more about such adjectives. But for now, just remember that you qian, or literally have money, will sometimes mean rich and may have no money. Or poor, let's see an examples. 23. Questions with 有: In this short lesson, we're going to learn to ask questions with you. In the previous lessons, we've already to learn to ask yes-no questions in two different ways. The first one is by using the ma particle, and the second one is by using the structure, verb + bu + verb For example, Are you a teacher. Does he love her? When it comes to asking yes-no questions with you, you can do it in two ways, just as with the other verbs. The first way is by reason the ma particle, Does he have a dog? And the other way is by using the formula you + mei + you Does he have a dog? Which literally is he has not has a dog. Okay. Now let's practice what we've just learned. 24. Counting up to 10: Things that we have often require to be measure with a number. And, in this lesson, we're going to learn Chinese numbers from one to 10 and also 0. one Now let's do the practice. I hope you've learned all the Chinese numbers and I'll see you in the next lesson. 25. Numbers 11-99: Now we know all the numbers from 1 to 10. Let's see how we can use them to make bigger numbers. To say numbers from 11 to a 19, we just say 10 plus the number, There are numbers from 20 onwards are built like this. The multiple of ten plus ten plus the multiple of one. So 21 in Chinese is literally 2-10-1. If the number ends in 0, it's just two characters. The multiple, and then the 10, 20, Now let's practice the following numbers in Chinese. 26. Large numbers: 100, 1000, 10 000+: In the past lessons we've learned all the numbers from 1 to 99. And now let's learn large numbers from 100 up to 10 million. The next big number in Chinese is wan, which means 10 thousand. Doesn't exist an English, but it is used in the same way as bai, and qian, for example, 50.000, and etc. And the last large number that you need to know is "yi". And it means 100 million. Large numbers are formed in a very similar way to numbers from 11 to 99, and also quite similar to the way that they are formed in English. Let's see some examples. Now let's practice. Please say the following numbers in Chinese. 27. Big numbers: exceptions: Now let's see a few rules and exceptions about big numbers in Chinese. First of all, when you say 2000 in Chinese, you can't use the number two, you should use the "liang" word instead. "liang" also means two. And we will surely talk more about this special number in the future lessons. So 2 thousand in Chinese is In the case of 200, you can use both options. You can say Another important rule that you need to remember when saying Chinese numbers is the usage of 0. when there is one or more zeros in the middle of the number. As a placeholder, it is only needed if there are other digits that are not 0, which follow the 0 or zeroes. So 0 is only pronounced when it is in between two digits other than 0. For example, Now, it's time to practice. Please look at the following numbers and then say them in Chinese. Nicely done. See you in the next lesson. 28. Measure words: In the past lesson, we've learned everything in Chinese numbers. And now let's learn how to use numbers in daily life when counting things or objects. In English we say five cups of coffee, three pieces of cake, two glasses of water. We can't just say five, coffee two waters and etc. Instead, we use these measure words here. And as you can see, every object here requires a different measure word. Measure words are words that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun. But on the other hand, in English, there are plenty of words that don't require any measure words. Five cats three dogs, seven people. And when it comes to Chinese, we have to use measure words every time when we use numbers with nouns. Let's see how it works. For example, five cats, three dogs, three cups of coffee and etc. The measure of words usage formula is a number plus a measure word, plus an object. One friend. Two cups of tea. Pay attention! When specifying quantities and using measure words to do it liang is used instead of er. This is when you want to say two of something or both. As you can notice, there are much more measure words in Chinese than in English. About 150 most commonly used. And sometimes it may be difficult, not just for Chinese learners, but even for native Chinese speakers, do recall the correct measure word for some objects. In such situations, you can just use the universal measure word. The measure word ge is a measure word for people, but it is frequently used for many types of things. That generic measure word can be used when referring to items like apples, bread, and light bulbs, even when there are other more appropriate measure words for these objects. Now let's learn some measure words and their usage more. A person or one person. A friend A mother, or one mother. A cat. A dog. A cup of coffee, a cup of tea. Let's see some sentences' examples. I have three friends. My friend has three cats and one dog. Now let's practice using measure words more. Please look at the following sentences and fill the gaps with the correct measure words. 29. New Vocabulary & Measure Words: There are some more important and commonly used measure words in Chinese. Although 个 (gè) can be used in most situations, When we want to be more formal and respectful, it's a good practice to use the measure word 位 (wèi) when referring to people, for example, one teacher. One student. . One gentleman. . One lady. You might think that there are so many measure words and it's hard to remember them all, but that's not true. You just need to understand their specific uses. For example, there is a useful measure word 把 (bǎ) which is usually used with objects that have a handle or can be grabbed with a hand. You can see this meaning in its radical 手 (shǒu) which means hand. One chair. One key. One umbrella. One knife. Another useful measure word is 张 (zhāng). It is typically used for wide and flat objects. The most common examples include sheets of paper and a table. One table. One piece/sheet of paper. A measure word for means of transportation, such as cars or bicycles is 辆 (liàng). A bicycle. A car. Do you still remember the word 家 (jiā)? which means home or family? Well, it is also a measure word. It is used for facilities such as libraries, restaurants and shops. Basically, places with a roof. One restaurant. One library. One supermarket. If you still remember, we learn the measure word 条 (tiáo) when referring to a dog. 条 (tiáo) is a measure word commonly used for long and flowing objects that aren't straight. For example, such as rivers and roads. One road. One street. . One river. Now let's do some exercises. Please look at the following words and choose a suitable measure word for each. 30. Measure Words Practice (Story): There was a person named Zhijie who had three cats and two dogs. His friend Yutong, really liked Zhijie's cats and dogs. So she wanted to buy one dog and one cat from him. Yutong asked Zhijie, "how much is one of your cats? How much is one of your dogs? I like to buy them." Zhijie said, one cat is 200 yuan and one dog is 300 yuan. Yutong said, "altogether, there's 500 yuan, right?" Zhijie replied, "yes, do you want to buy them?" Yutong said, "I have one table and three chairs at home. One table sells for 200 yuan, one chair for 100 yuan and three chairs for 300 yuan. I'll give you the chairs and the table in exchange for the cat and the dog. How about that?" 31. This, that, and some: Now that you know how to combine numbers with measure words followed by a noun, let's also learn how to express this one, that one, and which one using measure words. Let's first recall the demonstrative words from the previous lessons. zhe – this na – that na - which, the formula for using these words follows the same pattern as with numbers, but instead of a number, we use a demonstrative word. zhege This one, na ge That one. Na ge - which one? Using this formula, let's look at some other examples with different objects. This book. This cat. That restaurant. That car. Which dog? Which chair? To say these, those and which (plural), we use the measure word xie. It has the same function as ge, but it's used for plural objects. These. Those. Which ones? These books. Those cards. Which people? To say some as in some apples or some people, simply add yi before xie instead of a demonstrative word. Pay attention. yi in yi xie changes its tone from the first one to the fourth one according to the tone change rule. Some apples. Some people. Some money. This river is beautiful. That person is not my friend. Which cat is yours? Do you know all those people? There are some apples at home. 32. How much & How many: When talking about quantities, apart from knowing how to state the amount of something, it is also essential to know how to ask questions about amounts. There are two ways to do that in Chinese. Similar to English. We differentiate between how much and how many depending on the size of the quantity. How much in Chinese is Please listen and repeat. It is used when talking about larger numbers, usually more than ten or when the exact quantity is unknown, for example. How many people are there? How much money do you have? As you can see, Duo Shao is composed of two characters, Duo, which means many and Shao, which means few or little. When combined, they form "how much". Additionally, note that the third tone in Shao changes to a neutral tone. It also has another function. You can use it when inquiring about prices like this. Which basically means how much money or how much is this? If you want to be more specific, you can ask Which means how much does it cost? How much does this book cost? Another way to ask about quantity is by using ji followed by a measure word. If you don't remember or don't know the correct measure word, you can use the universal measure word Please listen and repeat Let's see how to use it. How many friends do you have? How many cats does she have? also means a few and can be used in statements like these He has a few friends. Anna has a few books. Another useful word to know is kuai Please listen and repeat It is used as a measure word for money. A cup of tea is 20 yuan, and a cup of coffee is 25 yuan. It is also used as a major word that means piece To distinguish these two uses, kuai in piece, it's usually followed by er. You can think of er as a suffix. It is also part of the Northern Chinese dialect. A piece of cake. A piece of apple. 33. Eat & Drink: In this lesson, we're going to learn a few useful words related to food and drinks. To eat. To drink. So young. How how about? Please listen and repeat. She Cam. Why she want to pino? I like to eat apples. Will you eat it or not? Tashi Wang ho ta. She likes to drink tea. N. Do you drink coffee? Naaman. How are your parents? Julie, the cafes in Maya. How's the coffee here? Here's something interesting about Chinese adjectives. If you add before a verb, it transforms the verb into a positive adjective. Let's see how it works. When we add to drink, it becomes an adjective, meaning delicious when talking about drinks. How? When we add how, but for chu to eat, it becomes an adjective, meaning delicious when talking about food. How che. We'll learn more of these kinds of adjectives in the future lessons. But for now, just remember this rule about the formation of some Chinese adjectives. If you want to say that something isn't good, for example, in terms of taste, you need to turn a positive adjective into a negative one. This can be easily done by using the negative particle boo, for example, pooh. Not tasty for drinks. Pooh. Not tasty for food. Let's learn a couple of new useful orbs. Shia has multiple meanings. But in this lesson, we will focus on its use as to want or would like to. A. Yo. Can mean to want to need or to be about to do something. As you can see, they both can mean to want, but they are used differently. Hang is often used to express desire or intention in a softer or less direct way. It can also mean to think or to want in terms of a wish or thought. Yo, is stronger and more direct. It indicates a clear intention or need for something. It can also mean need or must. Let's look at an example sentence to better understand their differences. Imagine you're at home on a rainy day and you would like to have a cup of tea. In this case, you can say, Whoa. I want to drink tea. Now, let's say you're at a coffee shop or a restaurant and you're going to have tea. In this case, you would say, Wa huh? I want to drink tea. This indicates that you are ordering tea or making a decision to have it. Please listen and repeat. Yo. Whang Hu cafe WpushanHta. I want to drink coffee. I don't want to drink tea. Wab need a tea. I don't want your money. Now let's practice all the words that we've learned in this lesson once again by listening to the short dialogue. WashanHua Nina. What puts it out. Teja yo Sama, how hum. Tell the Taffe sangha huh? Wo phanhta Whang, her cafe. Tully, the cafe tema yang. How her? How? Now, we her in Bay cafe? Who put it down.