Why does Chinese have more collective nouns than English?
One of our users recently pointed out that the translation of certain sentences in our app could be more precise. The example pointed to was: “我想喝酒(wǒ xiǎng hē jiǔ)” which…
A Beginner’s Guide to Chinese Question Words and Sentence Structures
As you embark on your journey to learn the Chinese language, you’ll quickly realize that asking questions is a fundamental skill that opens the doors to effective communication. While simple…
Translating “can” into Chinese: 可以 (kě yǐ), 会 (huì) and能 (nénɡ)
As you get a little more confident with learning Chinese, some of the initial problems such as tones, characters and strange pronunciations the mouth seems to refuse to make start…
Interesting Idioms & Slang that use Monkey in Chinese – 猴 (hóu)
According to the Chinese zodiac, the Monkey (猴, hóu) is the ninth of the 12-year cycle animals. 2016 is the Year of the Monkey (猴年, hóu nián) starting from February 8,…
Beginner Building Blocks: A Comprehensive Overview of Chinese Pronouns
For the majority of Chinese learners, the first greeting they encounter is “你好” (Hello). This initial step reveals that Chinese learners become acquainted with Chinese pronouns sooner than they might…
Tiger Stories and Idioms in Chinese
Once you have grasped the basics of Mandarin, you will discover that one of the most interesting, if complex areas to study is chengyu. Chengyu are four character idioms which…
A Thematic Learning Approach – Chinese Characters about Agriculture
Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the topic-oriented characters learning method, which focuses on specific themes to…
Master the Art of ‘Picking Up’ in Chinese: Translations You Need to Know!
Stop giggling at the back! When you saw the title, did you think we were diving into the world of dating and romance in Chinese class today? Well, instead we’ll…
A Thematic Learning Approach – Chinese Characters about Animals
Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the topic-oriented characters learning method, which focuses on specific themes to…