needed to get these Chinese sounds from English.
| CHINESE | eNGLISH |
| j | as j in jeep (but unvoiced, not round-lipped) |
| q | as ch in cheese (but not round-lipped) |
| x | as sh in sheep (but not round-lipped) |
| c | as ts as in cats (make it long) |
| z | as ds as in beds (but unvoiced, and make it long) |
Group 3: No English counterparts
Chinese zh, ch, and sh have no English counterparts. You can learn to say zh, ch and sh starting from z, c and s. For example, say s (which is almost the same as the English s in sesame) and then roll up your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. You get sh.
1.4 Tones
Chinese is a tonal language, i.e. a sound pronounced in different tones is understood as different words. So the tone is an indispensable component of the pronunciation of a word.
1.4.1 Basic Tones
There are four basic tones. The following five-level pitch graph shows the values of the four tones:
The First Tone is a high, level tone and is represented as ¯, e.g. 妈 mā (meaning mother, mom).
The Second Tone is a high, rising tone and is represented by the tone mark
The Third Tone is a falling and rising tone. As you can see from the pitch graph it falls from below the middle of the voice range to nearly the bottom and then rises to a point near the top. It is represented by the tone mark
The Fourth Tone is a falling tone. It falls from high to low and is represented by the tone mark
In Chinese speech, as in English speech, some sounds are unstressed, i.e. pronounced short and soft. They do not have any of the four tones. Such sounds are said to have Neutral Tone. Sounds with the neutral tone are not marked. For example in 爸爸 bàba (daddy) the first syllable is pronounced in the fourth tone and the second syllable in the neutral tone, i.e. unstressed.
1.4.2 Tone Changes
Tones may undergo changes in actual speech (“tone sandhi”). The third tone, when followed by a first, second, fourth or neutral tone sound, loses its final rise and stops at the low pitch. Followed by another third tone sound, it becomes the second tone. This is a general rule and the notation of third tone sounds remains unchanged.
For example, in 所以 suǒyǐ (therefore, so), notation remains the third tone for both syllables, but the word is actually pronounced like suóyǐ.
Two important words 不 bù (no) and 一 yī (one) also undergo tone changes. You will find the details of their tone changes under these entries.
1.5 Syllables
1.5.1 Chinese Syllables: Distinct Units
Normally a consonant and a vowel merge to form a syllable in Chinese. Every syllable is a distinct unit in speech. Learners should say each syllable clearly and give full value to most syllables in speech. The general impression of Chinese speech, described in musical terms, is staccato rather than legato (which could be used to describe English).
1.5.2 Syllable Division Mark
As Chinese syllables are distinct units and should not be liaised with preceding or following syllables, a syllable division mark (’) is sometimes used to avoid confusion, e.g. shí’èr, píng’ān, tiān’é.
2 WRITTEN CHINESE
2.1 “Chinese characters,” a unique writing system
Chinese is not written in letters, like a, b, c, nor does it use an alphabet. Chinese is written in logograms, known as 汉字 (Hànzì) and generally referred to as “Chinese characters.” Each Chinese character is pronounced as a syllable and, with few exceptions, has distinctive meaning or meanings. Though there are tens of thousands of Chinese characters, only a couple of thousands are in frequent use – the first 1,000 Chinese characters cover about 90% of daily communication.
2.2 The composition of Chinese characters: Meaningful components
Chinese characters may be composed of parts, some of which convey certain meanings. The presence of such components gives you some clue to the meaning of characters. The ability to recognize these components is both useful and interesting. See List 1 Meaningful Character Components on page xvi.
2.3 The writing of Chinese characters
STROKES
Each Chinese character is written by a number of strokes, with the sole exception of 一 (which means “one”). The table below shows the basic strokes.
STROKE ORDER
For the character to look correct, its strokes should be written in the correct order. Knowing the order will also help you remember characters. The general rules of stroke order are as follows.
2.4 Simplified and Traditional characters
The Chinese government simplified hundreds of Chinese characters in mid-1950s by reducing the numbers of their strokes. Such simplified characters are called 简体字 jiǎntǐzì. This dictionary uses jiantizi. Traditional versions (also known as complicated characters) are still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and they are shown where applicable, e.g.:
xué 学 Trad 學
3 VOCABULARY
3.1 Words in this Dictionary
This dictionary gives detailed description of the 5,000 words prescribed for Level 1 to Level 6 of the new chinese Proficiency Test (New HSK 新汉语水平考试 Xīn Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì), the Chinese government-sponsored, international standardized test. Over 1,000 more words are covered, to further develop learners’ vocabulary power.
3.2 The importance of chinese characters
Most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters; the component characters usually determine the meaning of words. It is widely accepted by teachers and students of Chinese that in order to understand the meaning of a word, one should first of all learn the meanings of its component characters. This dictionary treats Chinese characters as individual items and gives them clear definitions, with the exception of a very few which are not used alone in Modern Chinese.
3.3 Word-formation methods
Chinese words are very transparent, i.e. the way a word is formed tells a lot about its meaning.
