Chinese class/course for you

 

 

 

As promised, here's a little class of Chinese (mandarin) :

Chinese pronounciation and writting are difficult, but the grammar is rather easy. And easier than japanese or korean grammar.

Chinese lacks of conjugation (all verbs stay the same, they don't change) so you do not need to learn many many verbs forms or tenses, so it's easy. If they don't use tense verbs, then how do they indicate the past, present and future tense? It's simple:  They put a small word after the verb, that will indicate the tense. 

Example:

GUO = Guo is a small word stuck to the verb, that indicates the action has happened, at least once, in the past. It's like a "experience past" its like " I already did that" in English.  We could say : Guo = already

Exemple:  Wo jian ta = I see him.  Wo jian-guo ta : I have already seen him (in the past).   (wo = I / jian = see / guo = "already"/ ta =him or her )

LE :This small word indicates the situation is changing and becomes new.

Exemple:  Xia yu le !  It's raining! means that it didn't rain earlier, but now it is raining. The situation is NEW and just occured. So you add "LE" at the end of the phrase, after the verb. Xia = Fall /  Yu = Rain /  Le = "new situation" =  Xia yu le = It just started to rain! or "it's raining now!"

- To indicate the future tense, Chinese language uses adverbs. Example: I go to the book store tomorrow =  Wo mingtian qu shudian ( Wo = I / mingtian = tomorrow / qu = to go /  shudian = book store)  The adverb is always located AFTER the subject and BEFORE the verb. 

I go to the book-store tomorrow =  Wo mingtian qu shudian.

 

____________________________________________ 

DE :  Indicates relation. Wo DE shu = My book  (wo = I / de = relation / shu = book )

 

DE can also mean "who"  =   People who love each other :  Ai de ren (ai = love / ren = people)

A small flower :  Xiao de fang (litteral translation:  xiao = small / de =  that is / fang = flower )  "a flower that is small"

 

-Interrogative phrase :

To ask a question, just add "ma " at the end of the phrase =  Ni lei = you are tired. Ni lei MA ?  = Are you tired ?

- Negative form:  You use "bu"  =  Wo qu = I'm going. Wo BU qu = I'm not going

All of the verbs in negative form in chinese use "bu". Except for the verb to have. They use "meiyou" for the negative form of "to have" (to have not)

Wo you shu = I have a book /  Wo meiyou shu =I don't have a book

______________________________________

Personal nouns:

Wo = I / Me / Myself

Ni : You

Ta : He or She (He and She is said both "Ta" in chinese but in chinese writting system (hanzi) it is written different, (not the same character) but the pronounciation is the same ( TA )  when someone speaks in chinese and say "ta", you can only make difference between He and She thanks to the context.

 

To make PLURAL personal nouns you add "men"

Wo : I  / Women :We

Ni : You  / Nimen =You (plural)

Ta = He or She /  Tamen : They

_____________________________________

The verb "chi-fan" means "to eat" .  If you add like :  I eat NOODLES then the "fan" in "chi-fan" disappears and get replaced with the word noodles (mian) exemple:  I am eating noodles = Wo chi-mian. But if you wanna say just "I am eating" then you keep the "fan" = Wo chi-fan = I am eating.

_______________________________________

Ni zai zheli deng wo  =  You wait for me here  (Ni = you /  zai = stay / zheli = here / deng = wait / wo = me )

Wo zai zhongguo gongzuo = I'm working in China  (Wo = I /  zai = "in" / zhongguo = china /  gongzuo = to work )

Zai is then used to indicate where something happens  (I work where ? in CHINA.  Where do you wait for me ? in HERE ) 

Ni zai zheli ma ? = are you here ? 

Zai is always located after the subject and before the place (in china, in here, etc..)

______________________________________

The days of the weeks in chinese is pretty easy: Monday is the 1st day of the week, right ? So in chinese, monday is said like this :  "1st day-of-the-week"  which in chinese is :  Xingqi yi  (xingqi = day of the week /  yi = 1 (or 1st ) 

Tuesday will be "xingqi er "  (er = 2 ) and so on ...  Only Sunday is different : you say xingqi ri. That's the only exception. 

It's the same with months:  January will be said "1st month of the year" etc etc...  (month = yue in chinese)

So, Chinese grammar is easier than Japanese or Korean one, but since all languages aren't 100% easy, theres some difficulties in chinese too like the tons, writting and pronounciation. But the chinese grammar is rather easy.