| a | like English a in far |
| e | like English u in fur |
| i | like English ee in fee |
| o | like English o in for |
| u | like English ue in sue |
| ü | like French u |
Tones
A tone is a variation in pitch by which a syllable can be pronounced. In Chinese, a variation of pitch or tone changes the meaning of the word. There are four tones each marked by a diacritic. In addition there is a neutral tone which does not carry any tone marks. Below is a tone chart which describes tones using the 5-degree notation. It divides the range of pitches from lowest (1) to highest (5). Note that the neutral tone is not shown on the chart as it is affected by the tone that precedes it.
The first tone is a high-level tone represented by a level tone mark
The second tone is a high-rising tone represented by a rising tone mark
The third tone is a low-dipping tone represented by a dish-like tone mark
The fourth tone is a high-falling tone represented by a falling tone mark
The neutral tone is pronounced light and soft in comparison to other tones and is not marked by any tone mark. A syllable is said to take on a neutral tone when it forms part of a word or is placed in various parts of a sentence.
Basic grammar
Compared to many European languages, Chinese grammar is quite simple. There are no verb conjugations, no plurals, no gender in nouns, no articles and the sentence order is intuitive to English speakers. This section presents Chinese grammar in parts of speech familiar to English speakers.
1 Word order
More often than not, Chinese word order is the same as in English:
| subject – verb – object | ||
| Wǒ xué Hànyǔ | 我﹣学﹣汉语 | I study Chinese |
2 Nouns and pronouns
Mandarin words are mostly made up of two characters and nouns are no different. No distinction is made between singular and plural nouns. When it is necessary to distinguish plurals, this is done through the use of measure words which indicate the number of items involved.
For example, the word for “hotel,” bīn'guǎn 宾馆 can be either singular or plural unless it is necessary to indicate that there are more than one. Thus,
| yì jiā bīn’guǎn | 一家宾馆 | “one hotel” |
| liǎng jiā bīn’guǎn | 两家宾馆 | “two hotels” |
| sān jiā bīn’guǎn | 三家宾馆 | “three hotels” |
In the above examples, the noun bīn'guǎn 宾馆 “hotel” is qualified by a number with the appropriate measure word jiā 家, which indicates whether or not it is singular or plural. You will notice that whereas the number èr 二 “two” is used in counting, e.g., yī, èr, sān... 一二三 “one, two, three ...” the word liǎng 两 “a couple of” replaces èr 二 “two” where a measure word is used.
Like nouns, Chinese pronouns do not change form whether they are used as subjects or objects. Simple personal pronouns are: wǒ 我 “I/me,” nǐ 你 “you,” tā 他 “he/him,” tā 她 “she/her” and tā 它 “it” (the last three pronouns share the same pronunciation but are written with different characters).
Unlike nouns, however, Chinese pronouns can take on plural forms with the addition of the suffix -men 们, making the above examples into wǒmen 我们 “we/us,” nǐmen 你们 “you” (plural), tāmen 他们 “they/them” (either all male or mixed) and tāmen 她 们 “they/them” (all female). Similarly, the pronoun for animals or insects is tāmen 它们 “they/them.” The suffix -men 们 is added to nouns only sparingly in greetings, e.g., nǚshìmen, xiānshengmen 女士们、先生们 “ladies and gentlemen,” as it is unnecessary to indicate plural forms in nouns.
In addition to personal pronouns, there are demonstrative pronouns. For example, zhè 这 “this” and nà 那 “that.” It is important to note that a plural measure word xiē 些 is added to give the plural forms of these pronouns: zhèxiē 这些 “these” and nàxiē 那 些 “those,” so it is not a plural form in the sense that -men 们 is used.
3 Possessives and measure words
To make a possessive out of a noun or pronoun, simply add the particle de 的. Thus,
| dǎoyóu de | 导游的 | “the tour guide’s” |
| Lǐ xiǎojie de | 李小姐的 | “Miss Li’s” |
| wǒde | 我的 | “my” or “mine” |
| nǐde | 你的 | “your” (singular) or “yours” |
| tāde | 他/她的 | “his/her” |
| wǒmende | 我们的 | “our” |
| nǐmende | 你们的 | “your” (plural) or “yours” (plural) |
| tāmende | 他们的 | “their” or “theirs” |
You have learned to use measure words in conjunction with numbers to indicate the plural form of a noun. In English we say “a slice/loaf of bread,” “a piece/ream of paper,” “a school of fish” etc. In Chinese this usage applies to all nouns in order to specify number, e.g., “a book” is yìběn shū 一本书, “a table” is yì zhāng zhuōzi 一张桌子 and “two chairs’ is liǎng bǎ yǐzi 两把椅子. As you can see from the above examples, there isn’t one unique measure word for each noun; measure words tend to describe classes of objects with similar characteristics. Thus the word běn 本 describes bound books, zhāng 张 describes wide, flat objects of many types such as tables, paper, bedsheets, etc., and bǎ describes things with handles including chairs, knives, forks, etc. Luckily for beginners of the language, there is a general-use measure word ge 个 which is used in simple phrases like zhè ge 这 个 “this one,” nà ge 那个 “that one,” nǎ ge 哪个 “which one” or
