It is appropriate to start off the introduction to Chinese with the common greeting 你好 ‹nǐ hǎo› (“Hello”)。 Below is a dialogue between two people meeting each other for the first time.
Dialogues
Dialogue 1
Jīnní: Nǐ hǎo.
金妮: 你好。
Ginny: Hello.
Ōuwén: Nǐ hǎo.
欧文: 你好。
Owen: Hello.
Jīnní: Wǒ jiào Jīnní. Nǐ jiào shénmemíngzi?
金妮: 我叫金妮。你叫什么名字？
Ginny: I'm Ginny. What's your name?
Ōuwén: Wǒ jiào Ōuwén.
欧文: 我叫欧文。
Owen: I'm Owen.
Dialogue 2
Jīnní: Tāmen shì shéi?
Ginny: Who are they?
金妮: 他们是谁？
Ōuwén: Tā shì Àiměi, tā shì Zhōngguórén. Tā shì Dōngní, tā shì Měiguórén.
Owen: She is Amy. She's Chinese. He's Tony, an American.
欧文: 她是艾美，她是中国人。他是东尼，他是美国人。
Jīnní: Nǐ yě shì Měiguórén ma?
Ginny: Are you also American?
金妮: 你也是美国人吗？
Ōuwén: Bú shì. Wǒ shì Yīngguórén. Nǐ ne? Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén?
Owen: No, I'm British. How about you? Which nationality are you?
欧文: 不是，我是英国人。你呢？你是哪国人？
Jīnní: Wǒ shì Fǎguórén.
Ginny: I'm French.
金妮: 我是法国人。
Vocabulary
| S.No. | Simplified | Pīnyīn | Part of speech | English |
| 1a | 你 | nǐ | (pronoun) | you (singular, masculine) |
| 1b | 妳 | nǐ | (pronoun) | you (singular, feminine) |
| 2 | 好 | hǎo | (adjective) | good |
| 3 | 们 | men | (particle) | (noun plural marker) |
| 4a. | 你们 | nǐmen | (pronoun) | you all (plural, masculine) |
| 4b | 妳们 | nǐmen | (pronoun) | you all (plural, feminine) |
| 5 | 我 | wǒ | (pronoun) | I, me |
| 6 | 我们 | wǒmen | (pronoun) | we, us |
| 7 | 他 | tā | (pronoun) | he, him |
| 8 | 她 | tā | (pronoun) | she, her |
| 9 | 他们 | tāmen | (pronoun) | they, them (masc.) |
| 10 | 她们 | tāmen | (pronoun) | they, them (fem.) |
| 11 | 叫 | jiào | (verb) | to be named, (lit.) to call |
| 12 | 什么 | shénme | (pronoun) | what |
| 13 | 名字 | míngzi | (noun) | name |
| 14 | 是 | shì | (verb) | to be (am/is/are) |
| 15 | 谁 | shéi OR shuí | (pronoun) | who, whom |
| 16 | 国 | guó | (noun) | country |
| 17 | 人 | rén | (noun) | person |
| 18 | 也 | yě | (adjective) | also |
| 19 | 吗 | ma | (particle) | (question particle for yes or no questions) |
| 20 | 呢 | ne | (particle) | (question particle for known context) |
| 21 | 哪 | nǎ OR něi | (pronoun) | what, which |
| 22 | 不 | bù | (adjective) | (negates verbs) |
Proper Nouns
| S.No. | Simplified | Pīnyīn | English |
| 1 | 金妮 | Jīnní | Ginny |
| 2 | 欧文 | Ōuwén | Owen |
| 3 | 艾美 | Àiměi | Amy |
| 4 | 东尼 | Dōngní | Tony |
| 5 | 中国 | Zhōngguó | China |
| 6 | 美国 | Měiguó | America |
| 7 | 英国 | Yīngguó | Britain |
| 8 | 法国 | Fǎguó | France |
Forming the nationality is usually as simple as adding on 人 Look up 人 in Wiktionary ‹rén› (“person”) to the country name. 中国 Look up 中国 in Wiktionary ‹Zhōngguó› (“China”) becomes 中国人 Look up 中国人 in Wiktionary ‹Zhōngguó rén› (“a person of Chinese nationality”), and so forth.
Grammar
Basic Sentences
The sentence structure of Chinese is very similar to that of English in that they both follow the pattern of Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). Unlike many languages, verbs in Chinese are not conjugated and noun and adjective endings do not change. They are never affected by things such as time or person.
S + V + O
1. 我叫艾美。
Wǒ jiào Àiměi.
I'm called Amy.
Sentences using shì [是]
The equational verb 是 ‹shì› (“to be”) can be used as the English is or equals. 是 ‹shì› can only be used to equate combinations of nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns. In Chinese, 是 ‹shì› (“to be”) is not used with adjectives, as it is in English, as in, "He is cold."
S + 是 + O
1. 我是中国人。
Wǒ shì Zhōngguórén.
I am a Chinese person.
2. 她是金妮。
Tā shì Jīnní.
She is Ginny.
3. 她们是英国人。
Tāmen shì Yīngguórén.
They are English.
是 ‹shì› is negated when preceded by 不 ‹bù› (“not”). 不 ‹bù› is normally 4th tone, but changes to a 2nd tone when it precedes another 4th tone.
S + 不 + 是 + O
1. 他不是东尼。
Tā bú shì Dōngní.
He is not Tony.
2. 我不是美国人。
Wǒ bú shì Měiguórén.
I am not American.
Articles
There are no articles in Chinese grammar. While English noun clauses often begin with "a", "an", or "the", Chinese is less verbose.
An example:
我是中国人。
Wǒ shì Zhōngguórén.
I am [a] Chinese person.
An "a" appears in the English translation, but the singular and indefinite nature of 中国人 ‹Zhōngguórén› (“Chinese person”) is just inferred in Chinese.
The question particle 吗 ‹ma›
Adding the modal particle 吗 ‹ma› to the end of a sentence makes a statement into a question. There is no change in word order unlike in English.
The declarative example sentence in #1 is transformed into an interrogative in #2.
1. 她是金妮。
Tā shì Jīnní.
She is Ginny.
2. 她是金妮吗？
Tā shì Jīnní ma?
She is Ginny ?
The question particle 呢 ‹ne›
Using the ending modal particle 呢 ‹ne› makes a question when the context is already known, similar to saying "How about...?" in English. A common circumstance is when you wish to repeat a question that was just asked for another subject. Simply add 呢 ‹ne› to the end of the noun or pronoun to ask "How about this".
1. 我叫东尼, 你呢？
Wǒ jiào Dōngní, nǐ ne?
I'm called Tony. How about you?
2. 艾美是中国人, 他呢？
Àiměi shì Zhōngguórén, tā ne?
Amy is Chinese. How about him?
Question words
Question words like 哪 ‹nǎ› (“what”) and 谁 ‹shéi› (“who”) also make statements into questions without changing the order of the sentence. In Chinese, each question word appears where its answer would complete the surrounding sentence.
1. 他们是哪国人？
Tāmen shì nǎ guó rén?
What nationality are they? (literally, "They are what country person?")
2. 谁是美国人？
Shéi shì Měiguórén?
Who is American?'
3. 她是谁？
Tā shì shéi?
Who is she? (literally, "She is who?")
Like us on Facebook: Learn Chinese Online
