Essential Mandarin Chinese Phrasebook & Dictionary. Catherine Dai
your passport to learning to communicate with confidence!
Pronunciation guide
The book uses the standard romanized system of Mandarin Chinese called Hanyu Pinyin.
Consonants
Most of the Chinese consonants are similar to the English ones, with the following exceptions:
| Pinyin | Pronunciation | Example |
| c | like ts in its | 粗 cū “rough” |
| q | like ch in cheer, with a strong puff of air | 去 qù “go” |
| x | like sh in she | 西 xī “west” |
| z | like ds in kids | 字 zì “word” |
| zh | like dg as in judge, with the tongue rolled back | 这 zhè “this” |
Vowels
Most of the Chinese vowels are similar to English also:
| Pinyin | Pronunciation | Example |
| a | short a, as in far | 八 bā “eight” |
| e | short e, as in the | 鹅 é “goose” |
| i | long ee, as in fee | 七 qī “seven” |
| o | short o, as in for | 我 wǒ “I, me” |
| u | long u, as in cute | 哭 kū “cry” |
| ü | as in yü or the French u | 绿 lǜ “green” |
Combination Vowels
The combination vowels are also fairly similar to those in English:
| Pinyin | Pronunciation | Example |
| ao | like ow in now | 好 hǎo “good” |
| ei | like ay in say | 黑 hēi “black” |
| er | like er in number, with a longer “r” sound | 二 èr “two” |
| ian | like yen | 天 tiān “sky” |
| ie | like ea in wear | 鞋 xié “shoe” |
| iu | like ew as in pew | 丢 diū “throw” |
| ou | like ow in low | 猴 hǒu “monkey” |
| ui | like way in sway | 水 shuǐ “water” |
| uo | like wo in sword | 说 shuō “word” |
| ue | like ue in fluent | 学 xuě “study” |
Tones
A tone is a variation in pitch when a syllable or word is pronounced. In Mandarin, a variation in the pitch or tone changes the meaning of the word. Mandarin has four different tones, each marked by a sign above the vowel. In addition there is a neutral tone which does not carry any mark—often used in the second syllable of a word, e.g., nǐmen 你们 “you” (plural). Below is a tone chart which shows how the tones work.
Tone 1 is a high-level tone represented by a level tone mark above the vowel.
Tone 2 is a high-rising tone represented by a rising tone mark above the vowel.
Tone 3 is a low-dipping tone represented by a dish-like concave tone mark above the vowel.
Tone 4 is a high-falling tone represented by a falling tone mark above the vowel.
The neutral tone is pronounced lightly and softly in comparison to the other tones and is not marked by any tone symbol. A syllable is said to take on a neutral tone when it is not emphasized or stressed in the sentence, (i.e., it is skipped over quickly).
Take care to pronounce the words accurately according to their tone marks, as the same syllable can have several different meanings. For example,
| Word | Tone Number | Meaning |
| 妈 mā | 1 | mother |
| 麻 má | 2 | numb |
| 马 mǎ | 3 | horse |
| 骂 mà | 4 | scold |
| 吗 ma | neutral tone | question marker |
Pronouncing a word with a different tone can change its meaning. For example, “I’m looking for my mother” can become “I’m looking for my horse”!
Basic grammar
Chinese grammar is very simple. There are no verb conjugations, no plurals, no gender forms, no articles and the sentence order is essentially the same as English. This section presents a basic guide to Chinese grammar in terms familiar to English speakers.
1 Word order
Chinese word order is the same as in English: subject + verb + object.
Wǒ bú huì shuō Hànyǔ.
I not can speak Chinese
= I don’t speak Chinese.
Wǒ yào qù Běijīng.
I want go Beijing
= I want to go to Beijing.
Qǐng gěi wǒ yí bēi lěng kāishuǐ.
Please give me one glass cold drinking water
= I’d like a glass of cold water.
When asking a question, add the question word ma 吗 at the end of the sentence. (See page 13)
Nǐ huì shuō Hànyǔ ma?
You can speak Chinese (question marker)
= Do you speak Chinese?
Nǐ yào qù Běijīng ma?
You want go Beijing (question marker)
= Do you want to go to Beijing?
Nǐ kěyí gěi wǒ yí bēi lěng kāi shuǐ ma?
You can give me one glass cold water (question marker)
= Can you give me a glass of cold (drinking) water?
2 Nouns
Mandarin nouns often consist of two characters or syllables joined together. For example, Hànyǔ “the Chinese language”, lǎoshī “teacher” or kāfēi “coffee”. No distinction is made between the singular and plural forms. When it is necessary to indicate a plural, this is done by adding a number and a measure word to indicate the number of items involved (see page 10).
3 Pronouns
Chinese pronouns are used just as we use English pronouns. The same word can have two meanings, for example, wǒ 我 can refer to both “I” and “me”. The other pronouns in Chinese are nǐ 你 “you”, tā 他 “he/him”, tā 她 “she/her” and tā 它 “it” (the last three all share the same pronunciation but are written with different characters).
To indicate plural forms, you add the suffix -men 们 so the plural forms are wǒmen 我们 “we/us”, nǐmen 你们 “you” (plural), tāmen 他们 “they/them” (either all male or mixed genders) and tāmen 她们 “they/them” (all female). The pronoun for animals or insects is tāmen 它们 “they/them” (same pronunciation but different characters).
4 “This” and “That”
In addition to the personal pronouns, there are demonstrative pronouns zhè 这 “this” and nà 那 “that”. The plural forms are: zhè xiē 这些 “these” and nà xiē 那些 “those”.
5 Possessives
To indicate possession, simply add the particle de 的 between the words. Thus,
Wǒ de shu
I/me (possessive particle) book
= “my book”
Nǐ de shǒujī
You (possessive particle) mobile phone
= “your mobile phone”
Jīntiān