Introduction
This book contains 21 highly-informative chapters on the fundamentals of Mandarin Chinese, the most widely spoken language in the world. It is written to address the needs of travellers, entrepreneurs, and students who want to have a good grasp of the language in no time at all. This book is designed for beginners and intermediate learners of Chinese who prefer to learn at their own pace and convenience. It aims to provide self-learners an excellent foundation of the language by imparting essential grammar features, pronunciation, vocabulary, and key phrases in everyday conversations.
The book starts with a full chapter on the basics of the Chinese language — pronunciation, numbers, telling time, months, days, and seasons, telling…show more content… Let’s begin the journey. Chapter 1: The Basics of Mandarin Chinese
One of the most important steps in learning the Chinese language is getting acquainted with its pronunciation. For beginners in the study of the Chinese language, the best places to start are Pinyin and the four tones of Mandarin. In this chapter, you will learn how to pronounce Mandarin words by familiarizing yourself with Pinyin and the four tones. In the succeeding sections, you will be acquainted with Chinese cardinal and ordinal numbers, colors, common greetings, and useful everyday phrases.
Pronunciation
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply Pinyin, is the official phonetic system used to convert Mandarin Chinese sounds into the Latin alphabet. It is the most common Romanized version of the Chinese language. Pinyin was invented in the 1950s and has since been used as a standard for teaching Chinese in Mainland China, as well as in other parts of the…show more content… c like the 'ts' in 'cats' cā s like the 's' in 'sun' sē i like the 'ee' in 'see' (with an exception — see below) xī i after r, sh, zh, ch — like the 'ir' in 'shirt' but the 'r' has a lighter sound chī i after z, c, s, — like the ‘I’ in 'sit' zī u like the 'oo' in 'broom' bū iu/yu similar to the 'yo' in 'yoyo' yŏu a like the 'a' in 'father' pà o like the 'o' in 'more' bō e similar to the 'uh' in 'duh' mē er like the 'e' in 'teacher' ér ie/ye like the 'ye' in 'yellow' léi ai like the 'eye' pài ei like the 'ay' in 'pay' or the 'ei' in 'weigh' tēi ia/ya combines 'ee' + 'a' — you must pronounce this very quickly to blend the two vowels lià ao similar to the 'ow' in 'cow' but longer báo ou like the 'ou' in 'dough' mōu an like the 'an' in the 'fan' kàn en like the 'en' in the 'taken' dĕn un combines 'oo' + 'en' and sound like 'uen' gūn in like 'een' in 'teen' nín ua/wa combines 'oo' + 'a' guā ui/wei combines 'oo' + 'ay' dūi uo/wo combines 'oo' + 'o' duō ang combines the sound of 'a' in 'father' and the 'ng' in 'sing' lāng eng combines the sound of 'uh' in 'duh' and the 'ng' in 'sing' zēng ong combines the sound of 'o' in 'more' and the 'ng' in 'sing' gōng ing combines the sound of 'ee' + 'ng' līng iao/yao combines the sound of 'ee' + 'ow' in 'cow'