1. Pinyin
2. Greetings
3. Strokes
4. Numbers
5. Calendar and time
you3 have/has, wo3 you3…
Wo3 you3… I have…
Ta1 you3… He/She has…
Women/tamen/nimen you3… We/They/You have…
De particle word to form the possessive such as my/yours/his/Norman’s
(In Chinese, simply add de to the personal pronouns wo3, ni3 ta1, etc to form possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives not as in English, such as my for possessive adjective mine for possessive pronoun.)
Ta1 shi4 wo3 de tong2 xue2. He is my classmate.
Ta1 shi3 wo3 de lao3 shi. She is my teacher.
Wo3 shi1 chen2 lao3 shi1 de xue2 sheng1. I am a student of teacher Chen.
Wo3 de ba4ba shi4… My father is…
Zhe4 shi4 wo3de… This is my…
Ren2 人 person, people e.g. nǎ guó rén? zhǒng guó rén Měi guó rén
Jia1 family, household, home
wo3 jia1 you3… (There are … in my family.)
Ge4 个 measure word (Almost every noun in Chinese has a specific measure word.
ge4 is the most common measure word; normally pronounced in the neutral tone.
Yi1 ge ren, yi ge laoshi, wu3 ge tong2 xue2. )
Kou3 口 mouth; measure word for how many members in a family
e.g. wo3 jia1 you3 si4 kou3 ren2. (There are four people in my family.)
ji3 几 some, several, how many/much (used to ask how much or how many, need to add a measure word after
几. Eg. ni you ji ge laoshi?)
ni3 jia1 you3 ji3 kou3 ren2? (How many people are there in your family.)
Ba4ba dad; father
Ma1ma mom; mother
Ge1ge elder brother
Jie3jie elder sister
di4di younger brother
mei4 mei younger sister
zhu4 zai4 live
Xian1 sheng1 Mr./husband
Xiao3 jie3 Miss
Tai4 tai4 Mrs./wife
Lao3 old, elderly
(Lao3 + family name to address an older person to show respect and friendliness like Lao Liu.)
Xiao3 small, little (xiao3+family name is a casual, friendly form of address to a person younger than oneself like Xiao3 Li.)
liang3 two: liang3 kou3 ren2, liang3 ge4 ren2, used before a measure word to refer to two something; er4 is used in math or number
Shui2 who/whom
Shui2 shi4 ni3 de lao3 shi1? Who is your teacher?
Ta1 shi4 shui2? Who is he?
Wo3 jie4 shao4 yi1 xia4 … May I introduce…
Zhe4 shi4… This is…
Da4 big, large
Xiao3 small; little
Mao1 cat
Gou3 dog
He2 and
Wo3 jiao3… ( I am ... 'your name'.)
wo3 shi4... (I am ...'your occupation')
Wo3 jia1 you3 wu3 kou3 ren2, ba4ba, ma1ma ge1ge, mei4mei he2 wo3.
(There are 5 people in my family, dad, mom, brother and sister.)
Wo3men zhu4zai4 (live) Mei3guo. (We live in the United States.)
Wo3 ba4ba jiao4 .... (My father's name is...)
ta1 shi4 … (He is ...'his occupation')
wo3 ma1ma shi4…
wo3 ge1ge shi4…
1. Write a paragraph about your family in pinyin.
2. Learn to write those new characters
人 个 口 几