#16: How to ask How are you doing in Chinese

Today we run into someone we haven’t seen in a while and ask, “How are you doing?” Here is the question and answer:

Question
你最近怎么样？
Nǐ zuìjìn zěnmeyàng?
How are you doing?



Answer
我很好。谢谢。你呢？
Wǒ hěn hǎo. Xiè xie. Nǐ ne?
I’m good. Thanks. And you?

Think of all the ways you could greet someone in English: How are you? What’s up? How have you been? How are you doing? How is it going? How have you been lately? What’s new? What’s going on? They are all slightly different but all get the same point across.

This happens in Chinese too. There are lots of ways to greet people. Which greeting you use might depend on your relationship with the person, the time of day, or the kind of response you are looking for. Today we will be looking at two ways to greet someone with the question, “How are you doing?” If you are looking for some hip ways to greet your friends, check out Brandon’s post on how to say,
 “What’s up?” in Chinese

Our question today doesn’t match up with English very well at all. The word order and word choice are very different from English. There is no verb in the sentence and to make things worse, the words don’t translate very easily.

So today we’ll take a slightly more detailed look at what is going on with this question so you can get a handle on it. The first word,
你(Nǐ) is no stranger to us. It means “you” and it often comes at the beginning of a question, so no surprise here. The next word is
最近(zuìjìn) and it means “recently.” This is one of those times that taking a closer look might help you remember the characters and help you to make a connection when you see them in another context.

The character 
最(zuì) is a superlative meaning “most.” You can put it in front of any adjective and it gives it the –est treatment: like biggest, smallest, etc. For example, we can say 最好(zuì hǎo) to mean “best.” In our question
 最(zuì) is connected to
近(jìn) which means “close.” The character
 近(jìn) can also be used to talk about the distance between two places that are “close.” So
 最近(zuìjìn) means “most close” in a metaphorical sense. You can take it to mean “most close
 time” or maybe “most close
 to you.” It’s a slippery word and can take a bit to get used to.

At any rate, the best translation we have for it is “recently” or “lately.” Finally, we have
 怎么样(zěnmeyàng). Few phrases are as versatile as
 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) in Chinese. Its flexibility makes it a must-know phrase, but that also means that it can have a lot of meanings. In our question here,
怎么样(zěnmeyàng) just means “how.” But, of course, we have three characters, so let’s take this phrase apart to understand it a little better.

The character
怎(zěn) means “how” in this context, but it can also mean “why” or “what.” The character
么(me) has no meaning. All you need to know is that it is just something that gets thrown in with a few of the question words: 什么(shénme) 什么时候(shénme shíhou) and 怎么(zěnme). The character
样(yàng) is kind of ambiguous. It can mean,
“kind” “way” “style” or
 “type.” It isn’t very helpful for us. A very rough literal translation of these three characters might be “what way.”

Put the whole question together and you get, “You must close what way?” That’s a very sketchy translation, to say the least, but it can help you to remember the characters and make a connection when they come up in other contexts. Now, after all that being said, if you just remember
 你最近怎么样？(Nǐ zuìjìn zěnnmeyàng?) as a chunk that means, “How are you doing?” you’ll be just fine!

The answer gives the information you’d expect (a subject and an adjective to describe it) but Chinese is unique when it comes to adjectives. We start out with
 我(wǒ) which means “I.” The next word is
 很(hěn) which means “very.” But two things are odd about this.

First, the Chinese don’t use a form of the word “to be” with adjectives. For example, in English, you might say, “I
am good” so you would expect the Chinese translation to be 我是好(Wǒ
shì hǎo).
THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Chinese doesn’t use the verb 是(shì) with adjectives.

The second odd thing is that the word 很(hěn) in this context doesn’t really carry much meaning with it. Yes, the word
 很(hěn)
 does mean “very” but if you really wanted to say “very good” in this context, you would probably replace
 很(hěn) with another word. Here
 很好(hěn hǎo) will mean just plain old “good” as often as it will mean “very good.”

You might be wondering if you can just skip the
 很(hěn) altogether. In this particular sentence, the answer is yes, but with other adjectives, not with 
好(hǎo). The general rule is that adjectives that are only one syllable will get
 很(hěn), or some other modifier, in front of them. The next sentence simply means “thanks.” The character
 谢(xìe) means “to thank” and Chinese like to keep things symmetrical, so the syllable is repeated.

We’ve seen the last sentence before. The character 你(nǐ) means “you” and 呢(ne) is a particle that just acts as a question mark that the speaker needs to say. So our literal translation is, “I (very) good. Thanks. And you?”

Below are some other common responses to the question 你最近怎么样？ (Nǐ zuìjìn zěnmeyàng?)

• 不错。 (Bú cuò.) Great. (lit. not bad)
• 还好。(Hái hǎo.) Good. (lit. still good)
• 还可以。(Hái kěyǐ.) Okay.
• 我很忙。(Wǒ hěn máng.) I’m very busy.
• 不太好。(Bú tài hǎo.) Not too good.
• 不好。(Bù hǎo.) Not good.

More Info:
In English, we can use the question, “How are you doing?” to mean something more like, “How are you feeling?” or “What’s the matter?” There are a few ways to hint at this in Mandarin as well. You can say, 你怎么了？(Nǐ zěnme le?) or you can say 什么事？(Shénme shì?). Below are some ways to respond:

• 我饿了。(Wǒ è le.) I’m hungry.
• 我渴了。(Wǒ kě le.) I’m thirsty.
• 我病了。(Wǒ bìng le.) I’m sick.
• 我不舒服。(Wǒ bù shūfu.) I don’t feel well. (lit. I not comfortable.)
• 我很累。(Wǒ hěn lèi.) I’m tired.
• 我很困。(Wǒ hěn kùn.) I’m sleepy.
• 我很冷。(Wǒ hěn lěng.) I’m cold.
• 我很热。(Wǒ hěn rè.) I’m hot.

*Note: the adjectives 饿(è) 渴(kě) and 病(bìng) do not use 很(hěn) as a modifier.

#17: How to ask What does she look like in Chinese

Today our friend is telling us about someone else and we are asking, “What does she look like?” Here is the question and answer:

Question
她长得怎么样？(Tā zhǎng de zěnmeyàng?)
What does she look like?

Answer
她很漂亮.（Tā hěn piàoliang.）
She is very pretty.

Asking what someone looks like in Chinese isn’t too hard even though the question doesn’t resemble English at all. This is one of those cases where the Chinese make more sense than the English. The English question, “What does she look like?” is obscured a bit. If you were trying to learn English, you might expect to hear an answer comparing the person with a noun, not an adjective:

Q: What does she look like?
A: She looks like a model.

In comparison, the Chinese question is a lot more logical. Let’s take a look.

The word 她(tā) means “she.” (Note: the masculine “he” has the same pronunciation but uses a different character, 他) The next word, 长 (zhǎng) has a few meanings, but here it would literally mean “grow.” The character得(de) is a particle and it has no meaning here. In the question, it is used to connect the verb with the adjective to tell how the “growing” is done (in this case, the growing is pretty.)

That’s the detailed explanation of the two characters but it might be more practical to just remember that when长(zhǎng) combines with得(de) the meaning is “looks like” or “appears.” We looked at怎么样(zěnmeyàng) in detail in question #16, so there is no need to go over each character again individually. 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) just means “how” in our question. When you put it all together you get something like, “She grows how?” or “She looks/appears how?” Now let’s go on to the answer.

The answer gives the information you’d expect (a subject and an adjective to describe it) but Chinese is unique when it comes to adjectives. We start out with 她(tā) which means “she.” The next word is 很(hěn) which means “very.” But what makes Chinese different is that it doesn’t use a form of the word “to be” with adjectives. For example, in English, you might say, “She is pretty” so you would expect the Chinese translation to be 她是漂亮(Tā shì piàoliang). THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Chinese don’t use the verb 是(shì) with adjectives in this grammar pattern.

The final word is漂亮(piàoliang) which means, “pretty.” The definitions of the individual characters don’t help out much here, so it’s best to just remember them together as “pretty.” So all together we get, “She very pretty.” Now you might be asking yourself, can I use the长得(zhǎng de) in the answer? Sure. Your answer would look like this, 她长得很漂亮(Tā zhǎng de hěn piàoliang.)

More Info:
You can replace 漂亮(piàoliang)in the answer with any one of the adjectives below to describe a person’s physical traits.

• 好看 (hǎokàn) – good looking
• 难看 (nánkàn) – ungly (lit. hard look)
• 可爱 (kě’ài) – cute
• 老 (lǎo) – old
• 年轻 (niánqīng) – young
• 高 (gāo) – tall
• 矮 (ǎi) – short
• 胖 (pàng) – fat
• 瘦 (shòu) – thin

#18: How to ask What is she like in Chinese

We know from question #17 that she is pretty. But now we want to know about her personality and we’re asking, “What is she like?” Here is the question and answer:

Question
她的性格怎么样？(Tā de xìnggé zěnmeyàng?)
What is she like?

Answer
她很友好.(Tā hěn yóuhǎo.)
She is very friendly.

We first saw the phrase 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) back in question #16, “How are you doing?” As you can see now, we’re getting a lot of mileage out of it. It’s useful because it works in a lot of basic patterns. But perhaps more importantly, it gives your language ability some depth. You no longer have to simply spell out the details of your life in objects (nouns) and actions (verbs). Now you can use 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) to get to the details about those objects and actions. You can also express your thoughts and opinions. That’s deep stuff. This lesson gets you to that next level. Let’s take a look.

The character 她(tā) means, “she.” The particle 的(de) has no meaning by itself. When you combine 的(de) with a person’s name or a pronoun it makes that noun or pronoun possessive. So 她的(tāde) means, “her.”

Next is the word 性格(xìnggé). The character 性(xìng) means “character” “disposition” or “temperament.” The character 格(gé) means “standard” or “style.” So you can see that together 性格(xìnggé) is pretty close to the English, “personality” “disposition” or “temperament.”

Finally, we come back to 怎么样(zěnmeyàng). We took a detailed look at 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) back in question #16 so you can go back and check it out if you are curious about the individual characters. But in this context, it is easiest to just translate 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) as “how.” Together the literal translation is, “Her personality how?” Now let’s check out the answer.

The answer gives the information you’d expect (a subject and an adjective to describe it) but Chinese is unique when it comes to adjectives.

We start out with 她(tā) which means “she.”

The next word is 很(hěn) which means “very.” But what makes Chinese different is that it doesn’t use a form of the word “to be” with adjectives. For example, in English, you might say, “She is friendly” so you would expect the Chinese translation to be 她是友好(Tā shì yóuhǎo). THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Chinese don’t use the verb 是(shì) with adjectives in this grammar pattern.

The final word is 友好(yǒuhǎo). The character 友(yǒu) means, “friend” or “friendly” and the character 好(hǎo) means, “good” so it is easy to see how 友好(yǒuhǎo) matches up with “friendly” in English.

More Info:
You can replace 友好(yǒuhǎo)in the answer with any one of the adjectives below to describe a person’s physical traits.

• 和气 (héqì) – nice, kind
• 吝啬 (lìnsè) – mean
• 外向 (wàixiàng) – outgoing
• 害羞 (hàixiū) – shy
• 矜持 (jīnchí) – reserved
• 平静 (píngjìng) – calm
• 懒惰 (lǎnduò) – lazy
• 勤奋 (qínfèn) – hardworking
• 聪明 (cōngmíng) – smart, clever
• 笨 (bèn) – stupid
• 严 (yán) – strict
• 随和 (suíhé) – easy going

#19: How to ask How was the movie in Chinese

Today we are catching up with a friend about what we did over the weekend and we are asking, “How was the movie?” Here is the question and answer:

Question
这部电影怎么样？ (Zhè bù diànyǐng zěnmeyàng?)
How was the movie?

Answer
我觉得很有意思. (Wǒ juéde hěn yǒu yìsi.)
I thought it was very interesting.

We’ve come a long way in only 19 questions. When we started out we could only ask and tell our names, and now we are about to give our opinions on films. It feels very civilized, doesn’t it? And you’ll be glad to know that 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) is back again so there is very little new stuff to learn in this lesson. So let’s take a look.

The character 这(zhè) means, “this.” Chinese doesn’t have a word for “the” so you’ll always need to use words like “this” and “that” in contexts where English might use “the.” The next word 部(bù) is a
measure word for movies. Measure words are used when you are pointing out an object (this pen, that pen) or when you are counting objects (1 pen, 2 pens, 3 pens). We have measure words in English too: a pair of pants, a flock of geese, a cup of coffee. But there are lots more in Chinese and they are used more often.

To be honest, this is kind of a pain when you are first learning the language. The best thing to do is just try to remember the measure words with their objects when they come up in context. Trying to memorize all the measure words and the categories of things they measure, or count, isn’t really a good use of your time at this point. Okay, enough about measuring words.

The next word is 电影(diànyǐng). This is a fantastic translation. At this point, you may not know that Chinese doesn’t create new characters for new words. Instead, they just recycle characters that already exist. So when new inventions pop up, the Chinese have no choice but to dig through thousands of characters to match the symbols with the object.

The character 电(diàn) means “electric.” The character 影(yǐng) means, “shadow.” So together we get “electric shadow.” That’s genuine poetry right there!

Finally, we come to 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) which means, “how.” The rough literal translation is likely to stick with you, “This electric shadow how?”

Okay, let’s take a look at the answer. This answer starts differently from the other answers in this mini-怎么样(zěnmeyàng) series. We are giving our opinion here so instead of starting with a word for “it” we say 我(wǒ) which means, “I.” The character 觉(jué) means “sense” or “feel.” The character 得(de) is a particle that could translate as “ability” but it doesn’t really add much meaning in this context. So you might want to think of 觉得(juéde) as “feel ability” just to remember the two characters. We don’t need to use a word for “it” in the answer.

The next word is 很(hěn) which means “very.” (Chinese does not use 是(shì) to describe objects with adjectives).

Finally we have 有意思(yǒu yìsi). The character 有(yǒu) means, “to have.” The character 意(yì) means “meaning” and 思(si) means “thinking” or “thought.”

So if something “has meaning thought” then it’s logical that it is interesting. The rough translation to get you thinking in this Chinese sentence pattern is “I think very interesting.”

More Info:

You can replace 部电影(bù diànyǐng) in the question with other diversions to ask questions about all kinds of entertainment. Remember, each of the first characters is the measure word for each form of entertainment.

• 本+书 (běn shū) – a book
• 本+杂志 (běn zázhì) – a magazine
• 个+视频 (gè shìpín) – a video
• 场+游戏 (chǎng yóuxì) – a game (a general word for a game)
• 个+网络游戏 (gè wǎngluò yóuxì) – an online game
• 个+应用程序 (gè yìngyòng chéngxù) – an app
• 个+电视节目 (gè diànshì jiémù) – a TV program
• 场+音乐会 (chǎng yīnyuè huì )– a concert
• 场+演出 (chǎng yǎnchū) – a performance (concert, show, play)
• 场+球赛 (chǎng qiúsài) – a ball game

You can replace 有意思(yǒu yìsi) in the answer with any of the adjectives below.

• 好看 (hǎokàn) – great, excellent
• 棒 (bàng) – great
• 好玩 (hǎowán) – fun
• 好笑 (hǎoxiào) – funny
• 带劲儿 (dàijìnr) – exciting
• 好美 (hǎoměi) – beautiful
• 还行 (hái xíng) – okay
• 不好玩 (bù hǎowán) – not fun
• 美意思 (méiyìsi) – not interesting
• 无聊 (wúliáo) – boring
• 长 (cháng) – long
• 奇怪 (qguài) – strange
• 差劲 (chàjìn) – horrible

#20: How to ask How do you say ‘fortune cookie’ in Chinese

Today we are at a bit of a loss for words and we’re asking, “How do you say, ‘fortune cookie’ in Chinese?” Here is the question and answer:

Question
“Fortune cookie”中文怎么说？(“Forture cookie” zhōngwén zěnme shuō?)
How do you say “fortune cookie” in Chinese?

Answer
幸运饼干. (xìngyùn bǐnggān.)
“xìngyùn bǐnggān.”

We’ve finally come to the end of our 20 Questions to Basic Fluency series and we are wrapping up with one of the most useful questions. This question not only helps you learn new words and saves you when you’re in a jam, but it also gives you a productive pattern that allows you to ask how to do anything. Let’s look at the question.

“Fortune cookie” can obviously be replaced with anything you need to know about. If you don’t know what the thing is or if the person you’re speaking to doesn’t know English you can just say, 这个(zhè ge) which means “this” or 那个(nà ge) which means “that” and continue with the rest of the question. The word 中文(zhōngwén) means “Chinese.” You could also replace this with 汉语(hànyǔ) or 普通话(pǔtōnghuà) both of which also mean Mandarin Chinese.

Another option is to just drop the word for “Chinese” altogether since it’s probably pretty obvious which language you are inquiring about. The word 怎么(zěnme) means “how” and the word 说(shuō) means “say.” It’s really just that easy. But now let’s divide this question in half between 中文(zhōngwén) and 怎么(zěnme). You’ll notice that when you look at the sentence this way, the order of the two halves is reversed from English.

Now let’s just look at 怎么说(zěnme shuō). This is a great pattern to know because placing 怎么(zěnme) in front of a verb can ask how something is done.

怎么做 – how to do something
(zěnme zuò)

怎么学 – how to learn/study something
(zěnme xúe)

怎么走 – how to get somewhere
(zěnme zǒu)

怎么看 – how to see or read something
(zěnme kàn)

怎么弹吉他 – how to play guitar
(zěnme tàn jíta)

怎么知道 – how to know something
(zěnme zhīdao)

This works with the most common verbs. You can also ask if someone knows how to do something or say that you know how to do something by using this pattern:

你知道怎么跳舞？– Do you know how to dance?
(Nǐ zhīdao zěnme tiàowǔ?)

我知道怎么打网球。– I know how to play tennis.
(Wǒ zhīdao zěnme dà wǎngqiú)

All you need to do is replace the final verb with another verb and you’re all set. For a list of more activities that can work in this pattern check out Question #4.

More Info:
The phrase 怎么会(zěnme huì) falls into this pattern and is very productive in its own right. You can use it alone as a question to mean, “How come?” or “How can that be?” You can also add information to ask about how something could be possible:

你怎么会来？- How come you came?
(Nǐ zěnme huì laí.)

你怎么会没来？– How come you didn’t come?
(Nǐ zěnme huì méi laí.)

他怎么会走得这么快？– How come he’s walking so fast?
(Tā zěnme huì zǒu de zhème kuài?)

怎么会有这么多车子？– How come there are so many cars?
(Zěnme huì yǒu zhème dūo chēzi?)

怎么会下雨了？– How can it be raining?
(Zěnme huì xìayǔ le?)

The phrase 怎么办(zěnme bàn) is also very useful. Used by itself it means, “What can be done?” or “What can/should I do?” You can add information in front of this phrase to ask, “What should be done about…?”

考试怎么办？– What should I do about the test?
(Kǎoshì zěnme bàn?)

钱包没带了，怎么办？– I didn’t bring my wallet, what should I do?
(Qiánbāo méi dài le, zěnme bàn?)

你知道怎么办？– Do you know what to do?
(Nǐ zhīdao zěnme bàn?)

我不知道怎么办。– I don’t know what to do.
(Wǒ bù zhīdao zěnme bàn.)

Finally, you can use 怎么这么(zěnme zhème) plus an adjective to express, “How could something be so…!”

怎么这么贵！- How could it be so expensive!
(zěnme zhème guì!)

怎么这么慢！- How could it be so slow!
(zěnme zhème màn!)

怎么这么难！- How could it be do difficult!
(zěnme zhème nán!)

And just to bring things full circle, let’s reference Question #1 “What’s your name?” You can also use this question to ask what something it called:

这个叫什么？－ What is this called?
(Zhè ge jiào shénme?)

Our answer is really just a blank to be filled in by the information you are looking for. You might hear 这是(zhè shì) in front of it to say, “this is” but this is really a case where answering in an incomplete sentence is okay. *Note: Fortune cookies are mostly a Western phenomenon. You might have a tough time finding them in China!

That brings us to the end of the 20 Questions to Basic Fluency series here on DigMandarin. We hope that the questions and patterns that we’ve covered will be useful and helpful to you. The idea here is to give the beginner a quick reference guide to communicating in Mandarin, so be sure to go out there and use this in the wild. Thanks for tuning in!

Related Reading: A Comprehensive Guide for Chinese Beginners

The post 20 Questions to Get You from Zero Chinese to Basic Fluency (Part 4) appeared first on .

#11: How to ask do you have a fork in Chinese

We are having some trouble with chopsticks and we’re asking “Do you have a fork?”

Here is the question and answer:

Question
  Answer
你有没有叉子？ 
没有.
(Nǐ yǒu méiyǒu chāzi?)
 (Méiyǒu.)
Do you have a fork?
 No.

When you are learning a foreign language sometimes the differences between it and your native language can be stark.  This is one of those times.  But before we begin to take a look at this question, you should know that there are two ways to ask it that are both very common in Chinese.

The question above is pretty exotic to English speakers, but it is a basic structure that you absolutely have to know, even as a beginner.  We’ll take a look at the other way to ask this question later on.
The question above is what we call a “yes/no” question because when you ask it you can simply reply with “yes” or “no.”  The word choice isn’t so different from English but the structure makes it sound very blunt.  Here is the literal translation:  “You have not have fork?”

We can structure the question like this in English too: “Do you have a fork or not?” or “Do you or don’t you have a fork?”

But this structure in English almost always implies that the person asking the question has just about had it with the other person and wants to know once and for all about the fork in question.   But in Chinese, this is perfectly normal and doesn’t hold any implications about the person’s emotional state.

Notice that the Chinese question doesn’t use “Do…” at the beginning.

We also don’t have to use “a” before “fork.”  Chinese is very streamlined in this way.  There are no words for “a” and “the” in Chinese.  There are ways to ask about “this” “that” “these” and “those” and you can also ask about numbers of things.  But if you are just wondering if someone has something in general, like a fork, a pen, or a phone, then you just follow the pattern in the question above.  Now let’s look at the answer again:

没有. (Méiyǒu.)
No.

Do you notice something strange about how this kind of question is answered?  After seeing the question, the answer sure does look logical.  It simply says, 
”Not have.” And yes, it is quite short, but the English equivalent, “no,” is even shorter.

Hmmm…  Well, this is a “yes/no” question but notice that there is no “no” (or yes) in our answer.  There is a negative word,
 没(méi), but “no” doesn’t show up as it would in English.

For example, in English, a full answer to this “yes/no” question would be “No, I don’t have a fork.”  But in Chinese, there are no words for “yes” and “no!”  So now you maybe you are wondering what the person might say if he did have a fork.

In that case, the answer would be,
 有(yǒu).  In Chinese, you need to answer “yes/no” questions by repeating the verb in the question for “yes” or by putting a negative word in front of the verb for “no.”  This happens often and it doesn’t happen with just verbs.  Adjectives can follow the same pattern.  But that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves.  Let’s look at this structure in some other common verb examples.

But… before we do that, you need to know that
 没(méi) is used to negate the verb
 有(yǒu).  But you also need to know that
 没(méi)  IS NOT used to negate most verbs.  The word
 不(bù)gets the job of putting a slash through your average verb.  Both words are negative and both would translate to “not” in this context.  Below are some other common “yes/no” questions. You can choose to add the pronoun at the beginning of the sentence or leave it out.

Question: 他在不在？ Tā zài bú zài? Is he here?
Answer: 不在。 or 在。

Question: 你是不是美国人？ (Nǐ shì bú shì Méigūo rén?) Are you American?
Answer: 我不是美国人。 or 我是美国人。

Question: 你能不能跑？ (Nǐ néng bù néng pǎo?) Can you run or not?
Answer: 不能。 or 能。

Question: 你会不会说英文？ (Nǐ hùi bú hùi shūo Yīngwén?) Can you speak English?
Answer: 不会。 or 会。

Question: 你要不要喝茶？ (Nǐ yào bú yào hē chá?) Do you want tea?
Answer: 不要。 or 要。

Question: 你想不想吃饭? (Nǐ xiǎng bù xiǎng chīfàn?) Do you want to eat?
Answer: 不想。 or 想。

Question: *你喜不喜欢上网？ (Nǐ xǐ bù xǐhuān shàngwǎng?) Do you like to go online?
Answer: 不喜欢。 or 喜欢。

Question: *我可不可以进去？ (Wǒ kě bù kěyǐ jìnqù?) Can I go in?
Answer: 不可以。 or 可以。

*Check out how the two character verbs
 喜欢(xǐhuān) and
 可以(kěyǐ) can be shortened to just the first character in front of
 不(bù)in this pattern. You don’t have to shorten it, but it is very common and a lot less cumbersome to say.

More info:
The verb 
有(yǒu) in our question
 你有没有叉子? means “have.” But if we leave out the pronoun
 你(nǐ) we would translate this question a little differently. So in the question
 有没有叉子? the verb
 有(yǒu) might better be translated as “there is” as in, “Is there a fork (around here)?” or literally, “There is, there is not a fork?” This is very simple but important to know. In English for example, if you want to know if someone is occupying a restroom you may ask at the door, “Is there someone in there?” but we would probably not say “Are YOU in there?” unless you were pretty certain of who was the occupant. Similarly, in Chinese asking
 有没有人？(Yǒu méiyǒu rén? – Is there a person or not?) is a less personal question. So to sum up this point,
 你有没有… means, “Do you or don’t you have…” and
 有没有 (Yǒu méiyǒu…?) means,
 “Is there or isn’t there…?”

Even more info:
The other way to ask our yes/no question,
 “Do you have a fork?” is
 你有叉子吗？ (Nǐ yǒu chāzi ma?)
 The word order in this question matches up well with English,
 “You have fork (question particle)?” Here the 
吗 just tells us that this is a question, similar to how
 “Do” signifies a question in the English question. This is also a very common pattern and while adding
 吗 is the easier way to go for English speakers, it is still just as important to be able to use the
 有没有 (and the “Verb不 Verb”) pattern.

Below are some things that you might want to ask if a person has, or not. Just replace
 叉子 in the question 
你有没有叉子? with one of the things from the list below.

• 刀 (dāo) – knife
• 勺子 (sháozi) – spoon
• 筷子 (kuàizi) – chop sticks
• 啤酒 (píjiǔ) – beer
• 可乐 (kělè) – cola
• 一瓶水 (yī píng shuǐ) – a bottle of water
• 笔 (bǐ) – pen
• 纸 (zhǐ) – paper
• 手机 (shǒujī) – cell phone
• 烟 (yān) – cigarette
• 钱 (qián) – money
• 信用卡 (xìnyòngkǎ) – credit card
• 护照 (hùzhào) – passport
• 自相车 (zìxíngchē) – bike
• 车子 (chēzi) – car

#12: How to ask how much in Chinese

Today we are in the marketplace and we’re asking, “How much?”
Here is the question and answer:

Question:
多少钱？(Duōshao qián?)
How much?

Answer:
七块九毛九分钱。(qī kuài jiǔ máo jiǔ fēn qián.)
¥7.99

Money can be difficult to deal with in another language. Numbers have a way of resisting the mind’s attempts to switch from one language to another. If the language has a different way of expressing monetary units, like Chinese, then the job is even tougher.

So in this lesson, we won’t look at everything you need to know about money, but rather just the absolute basics of what you should know about shopping in places where Chinese is spoken. Let’s take a look at the question.

The words for “How much” are
 多少(duōshao). The character
 多(duō) means “more” or “many.” The character
 少(shao) means “few” or “less.” The character
 钱(qián) means “money.” So
 多少钱(duōshao qián) might seem to have a connotation of “more or less money?” That might be a good way to remember the characters but it is not a very good translation. This question isn’t asking for an estimate of how much something costs. It is simply asking the price of something. But it can be useful to keep a loose translation for
 多少(duōshao) in your mind because it can also be used to ask about numbers in general, not just to ask “how much” or “how many.” We’ll talk more about that later. Now let’s look at the answer.

In the US, we might say this price as, “Seven dollars and ninety-nine cents” or we might just say, “Seven ninety-nine” or if we want to round it up we might say, “8 bucks.” This kind of thing happens in Chinese too. The base monetary unit in China is 元(yuán) but most people will say
 块(kuài)instead in everyday speech. It’s kind of the same as “dollar” and “buck” in English.

Next, we have some words that don’t have a translation in English. Chinese uses measure words to hold the 10s and 100’s place when talking about money:
 毛(máo) is used for the tenths place and 
分(fēn) is used for the hundredths place. The word
 钱(qián) at the end just means “money.”

Just as in English, Chinese speakers may choose to leave out some of the pieces of information above, but not the numbers of course! As a beginner, it is best to use all the measure words above. It’s a good communication strategy (and good practice) to repeat the price after you hear it with all the information to make sure you’ve understood. When in doubt, ask the person to write the number down.

More Info:
The characters 多少(duōshao)can also be used to ask about a phone number.

你的手机号码是多少?(Nǐ de shǒujī hàomǎ shì duōshǎo?)
What is your cell phone number?

我的手机号码是八六七五三零九。(Wǒ de shǒujī hàomǎ shì bāliù qīwǔsān líng jiǔ.)
My cell phone number is 867-5309.

The important thing to remember about
 多少(duōshao)is that it is used to ask about numbers. It is most often used to ask “how much” or “how many” but it can be a bit more flexible and be used outside of that context as well.

Chinese Numbers

*It is important to note that Chinese uses numerals (1, 2, 3…) just as English does. So you are likely to see prices, phone numbers, years, etc. expressed in numerals, not just Chinese characters.

• 一 (yī) – 1
• 二 (èr) – 2
• 三 (sān) – 3
• 四 (sì) – 4
• 五 (wǔ) – 5
• 六 (liù) – 6
• 七 (qī) – 7
• 八 (bā) – 8
• 九 (jiǔ) – 9
• 十 (shí) – 10

• 十一 (shíyī) – 11
• 十二 (shí’èr) -12
• 十三 (shísān) – 13
• 十四 (shísì) – 14
• 十五 (shíwǔ) – 15
• 十六 (shíliù) – 16
• 十七 (shíqī) – 17
• 十八 (shíbā) – 18
• 十九 (shíjiǔ) -19

• 二十 (èrshí) – 20
• 二十一 (èrshíyī) – 21
• (numbers to 99 follow the same pattern)

Chinese numeration

When dealing with larger numbers, Chinese is the same as English in most aspects. Chinese use words for hundred, thousand, million, and billion. But unlike English, Chinese kind of starts over after the thousands place and reuses the characters for tens, hundreds, and thousands in combination with the word for the “ten thousand’s” place, 万(wàn).

This pattern happens again after the hundred thousand places. In other words, the Chinese number system uses the thousands place in the same way English uses the hundreds place. The prefix characters, 千，百，十 are always reused and the base characters are changed every four places. The easiest way to explain this is to see it illustrated. Check out the number below.

1, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0 (one billion)
十亿 亿 千万 百万, 十万 万 千, 百 十 个
shíyì, yì qiānwàn bǎiwàn, shíwàn wàn qiān, bǎi shí gè

#13: How to ask what time does the show start in Chinese

Here is the question and answer:



Question


演出几点开始？(Yǎnchū jǐ diǎn kāishǐ?)
What time does the show start?



Answer
七点半。(Qī diǎn bàn.)
7:30

Telling time in Chinese is refreshingly easy and logical. But there are some minor differences from English that could lead to major difficulties, so we are going to keep it as simple as possible. We will focus on the most basic way to express time so that you can know what to listen for when you hear it and so that you can tell time easily. Let’s look at the question.

Notice that the word order is different from English. The event comes first in the sentence, in this case, it is the show,
 演出(yǎnchū). Next is the
 “what time” part of the sentence. It is important to know here that
 几(jǐ) doesn’t mean “what” and 
点(diǎn) doesn’t mean “time.” These characters are used to refer to how many “points” or “dots” are indicated by the hands on the clock.

So imagine an old analog clock with no hour numbers on it, just dots. The hour hand is somewhere over in the 7 o’clock area, but it’s kind of hard to tell. So you start counting the dots. Sure enough, you count seven dots. Now the question makes a little more sense:
 “The show / how many dots / start?” If it is helpful for you, you might even want to remember the translation of this question as,
 “At what point does the show start?” instead of “What time does the show start?”

The final piece is
 开始(kāishǐ) which means
 “start.” We put “start” at the end of the question in English too, which is convenient. Just as we can replace “the show” with other events, we can also replace “start” with other words: end, open, close, arrive, and leave. We’ll take a look at how to do that later. Now let’s learn how to tell time.

Begin by saying the hour. In our answer, we have seven, 七(qī). Next, you need to say “dots,” 点(diǎn). Sometimes you’ll hear or see 钟(zhōng) next, which means “clock” but let’s just keep it simple and stick with 点(diǎn). Now we are ready to talk about the minutes in our time. In our time we have 半(bàn) which means “half.”

So the time in our answer is literally “seven and a half dots.” Using “quarter” hours is also very simple. For “quarter after” use 一刻(yí kè), which means “one quarter.” For “quarter of” use 三刻(sān kè), which means “three quarters.”

If you want to be specific about the minutes you can simply say the number of minutes as you would say any other number. So 7:17 would be 七点七十(qī diǎn qīshí). But you need to know two things about expressing minutes.

First, if you have minutes from 01 to 09, you usually say the preceding zero, or 零(ling) in Chinese. So 7:05 would be 七点零五(qī diǎn ling wǔ). Second, it is also common to put 分(fēn) at the end of the sentence to say “minutes.” So 7:05 could also be expressed 七点零五分(qī diǎn ling wǔ fēn). But you never need to use 分(fēn) with half hours and quarter hours. It is only used when you are naming the number of minutes.

More Info
:
Maybe you want to ask about when, but not necessarily about the hour. For example, you might want to ask, “When are you going to China?” In this case you are not expecting the person to answer with a time, but rather some future date. Here Chinese works a lot like English.

The characters for “when” in Chinese are 什么时候(shénme shíhòu) and they mean “what” and “time” respectively. But the 时候(shíhòu) part of this means time in general and isn’t specific to just clock time, therefore the meaning is closer to “when” than to “what time.” So you might be wondering if 什么时候(shénme shíhòu) can replace 几点(jǐ diǎn) in our question above. Well, yes it can.

演出几点开始？(Yǎnchū jǐ diǎn kāishǐ?)
What time does the show start?

演出什么时候开始？(Yǎnchū shénme shíhou kāishǐ?)
When does the show start?

And now you might be wondering why not just use 什么时候(shénme shíhòu) all the time since it can do 几点(jǐ diǎn)’s job and more. The English translations above illustrate the answer pretty well. It’s important to know how to construct this question with both “what time” and “when” in English. The same goes for the Chinese.

But since we are primarily concerned with time in this lesson, 几点(jǐ diǎn) is the most logical option. Also, you need to use 点(diǎn) to tell the time anyway. Plus, it’s easier to say than 什么时候(shénme shíhòu).

A wee bit more
:

Many countries, including China, use the 24-hour clock for transportation time and other scheduled events. This is a source of trouble for Americans who aren’t used to this system. We won’t complicate things by looking at it here. Just know that it works the same way as the patterns above. But it might be helpful to know how to express AM and PM. These are the three times of day that will be used for telling time:

早上 下午 晚上 (zǎoshang xiàwǔ wǎnshàng)
morning afternoon evening/night

Just add these expressions at the beginning of the sentence in front of the hour to specify the time of day.

早上七点半。(Zǎoshang qī diǎn bàn.)
7:30 am (in the morning)

Here are some examples of how to ask questions about time and how to answer. Remember the basics that we covered in our first question and answer, but be aware of the other options that might pop up.

Question
Answer

演出几点开始？ 七点一刻。(Yǎnchū jǐ diǎn kāishǐ? Qī diǎn yīkè.)
What time does the show begin? 7:15

演出几点结束？ 七点一半。(Yǎnchū jǐ diǎn jiéshù? Qī diǎn yībàn.)
What time does the show end? 7:30

商店几点开门？ 七点三刻。(Shāngdiàn jǐ diǎn kāimén? Qī diǎn sān kè.)
What time does the store open? 7:45

商店几点关门？ 七点零七。(Shāngdiàn jǐ diǎn guānmén? Qī diǎn líng qī.)
What time does the store close? 7:07

火车几点走？ 七点钟零七分。(Huǒchē jǐ diǎn zǒu? Qī diǎn zhōng líng qī fēn.)
What time does the train leave? 7:07

火车几点到？ 七点钟四十七分。(Huǒchē jǐ diǎn dào? Qī diǎn zhōng sìshíqī fēn.)
What time does the train arrive? 7:47

现在几点？ 七点。(Xiànzài jǐ diǎn? Qī diǎn.)
What time is it? 7:00

#14: How to ask when is your birthday in Chinese

Today we are talking about the most important day of the year, your birthday! It’s not only important on a personal level, but it also teaches you the pattern for expressing dates. And in Chinese, this pattern is very easy. Let’s take a look at the question and answer.

Question
你的生日是几月几号？(Nǐ de shēngrì shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào?)
When is your birthday?

Answer
我的生日是十一月二十四号。(Wǒ de shēngrì shì shí yī yuè èrshísì hào.)
My birthday is November 24th.

You can see that the word order and word choice are different from English, but this is one of those cases where the differences don’t seem to matter much.

The sentence starts out with 你(nǐ) which means “you.” The character 的(de) can have lots of meanings, but here it just changes the “you” into the possessive “your.”

Next, the character 生(shēng) means“birth” and the character日(rì) means “day.” We couldn’t ask for a simpler translation.

Next, the character 是(shì) means “is.” Now we’re on to the date. The character 几(jǐ) means “what.”

You might remember that 什么(shénme) also means “what.” But the two are not interchangeable. When used in a question, 几(jǐ) always asks for “what number.” The character 月(yuè) means month. So 几月(jǐ yuè) means, “what number month.”

So you might be asking yourself why we need to use “what number” to talk about months. Chinese uses numbers from 1 to 12 for months rather than names as in English. So January is literally “first month.” We’ll see more about this below.

Now for the day; The character 号(hào) is really the most confusing part of all this. The 号(hào) means “number.” Why Chinese doesn’t use the word “day” here is a mystery. But regardless, in this context, 几号(jǐ hào) means “what day.”

The literal translation, “Your birthday is what month what day?” definitely sounds foreign and maybe even a bit robotic. But it is easy to understand and remember and as we will see later, the pattern can be used to ask about any date. Now it’s time for the answer.

The first part of the answer 我的生日是… (Wǒ de shēngrì shì…) just repeats the question. The only difference is that you need to replace “your” 你的(nǐ de) with “my” 我的 (wǒ de). The next part of the answer is also a repetition of the question. All you need to do is replace
几(jǐ)in both places with the number for the month of your birthday and the number for the date of your birthday. Look at the pattern below.

Question Answer
…几月几号？ …十一月二十四号.
(…jǐ yuè jǐ hào? … shíyī yuè èrshísì hào.)
…what month what day? … 11th month 24th day.

More Info:
Here are some cosmic connections to help you remember this pattern. First, 日(rì) means “day” but it is also the character for “sun” and 月(yuè) means “month” but it is also the character for “moon.” This makes a lot of sense since the movement of the sun defines a day and the movement of the moon defines a month. The characters even kind of look like stylized representations of the sun and the moon (especially the moon with its crescent stroke).

Also, you might remember that 什么时候(shénme shíhou) means “when.” So why not use it in this question and avoid the 几月几号(jǐ yuè jǐ hào) altogether? You certainly could do that. The question would then look like this:

你的生日是什么时候？
(Nǐ de shēngrì shì shénme shíhou?)
When is your birthday?

We didn’t include 什么时候(shénme shíhou) in our original question because you need to know the 几月几号(jǐyuè jǐ hào) pattern to be able to say the date anyway. But please know that 什么时候(shénme shíhou) is ok here too.

Finally, the day and date are always wrapped up with one another so let’s take a quick look at the days of the week. There are a few ways to express the days of the week in Chinese, but we are going to take a look at the most common. To ask “What day?” you say, 星期几?(xīngqī jǐ?). To answer, you just replace 几(jǐ) in the question with a number. Just like Chinese months, Chinese days are expressed with numbers. Here are the days of the week:

星期一 / 星期二 / 星期三 / 星期四 / 星期五 / 星期六 / 星期天
(xīngqī yī / xīngqī èr / xīngqī sān / xīngqī sì / xīngqī wǔ / xīngqī liù / xīngqī tiān)
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Notice that the Chinese week starts on Monday and that Sunday uses the character 天(tiān) and not the number 7, 七(qī). You cannot put 星期(xīngqí) and 七(qī) together to mean Sunday.

And while we’re at it…

Asking someone’s age in China isn’t as taboo as it can be in the West, so it might come up. There are a few ways to ask how old a person is, but we’ll just look at one here. This question also uses 几(jǐ) to ask “What number year?”

Question Answer
你今年几岁？ 我今年四十岁。
(N ǐ jīnnián jǐ suì? Wǒ jīnnián sìshí suì.)
How old are you (this year)? I’m 40 years old (this year).

Personalizing your Q and A

Here are some examples of how you can ask and answer questions about dates. To change the question simply put the event you want to ask about in front of 几月几号(jǐyuè jǐ hào).

Question / Answer
圣诞节是几月几号？ 十二月二十五号。
(Shèngdàn jié shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào? Shí’èr yuè èrshíwǔ hào.)
When is Christmas? December 25th.

聚会是几月几号？ 三月十五号。
(Jùhuì shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào? Sān yuè shíwǔ hào.)
When is the meeting? March 15th.

你去中国几月几号？ 八月八号。
(Nǐ qù zhōngguó jǐ yuè jǐ hào? Bā yuè bā hào.)
When are you going to China? August 8th.

*Note: You will often see Chinese dates written with numerals. For example:

Question Answer
聚会是几月几号？ 3月15号。

#15: How to ask what is this in Chinese

Today we are almost too scared to open our mouths to ask, “What is this?” There are few things more frightening than being in a foreign country and having to face food that doesn’t resemble… well, food. Here is the question and answer.

Question

这是什么？(Zhè shì shénme?)
What is this?

Answer

这是豆腐。(Zhè shì dòufu.)
This is tofu.

Despite some of the complexities that Chinese can throw at you, it can also be beautifully simple. This is one of those times. The question is a mirror image of the English and the answer matches up exactly with English. Let’s look at the question first.

The question is in the reverse order of the English sentence, but since there are only three words to deal with this isn’t much of an obstacle. The first character is
这(zhè) and it means
“this.” The character
是(shì) means
“is.” Finally,
什么(shénme) means
“what.” So the literal translation is,
“This is what?” – beautiful and simple. Now let’s look at the answer.

The answer follows the same word order as the question. (Notice that in English we switch the word order from question to answer. We do this a lot and it makes learning English a bit complicated for foreigners.) All we need to do in the Chinese answer is replace the question word,
什么(shénme), with a thing and you’re done.

In our answer, we have
豆腐(dòufu). So the literal translation for the answer is,
“This is tofu.” (We’re likely to complicate things even a little more in English by replacing “This…” in the question with the word “It…” in answer: “It’s tofu.”)

More Info
:

We’ve seen 什么(shénme) before and we’ve had some other words that we can also translate as “what.” But 什么(shénme) is the stock translation for “what.” You can say 什么?(shénme?) all by itself if you didn’t hear someone to mean, “What?” Or, if you did hear the person, but you can’t quite believe what the person said, then you can also say 什么(shénme) to show your incredulity. So as you can see, in this context 什么(shénme) works the same as the word “what” does in English.

Getting more specific


You might find yourself in a situation where saying, “what is this?” might sound a little too blunt. Let’s say you are at someone’s home for dinner. Dinner is served and you’d like to know the name of the dish. In this situation, saying, “what is this?” can sound rather rude. In other contexts, asking, “what is this?” can make you seem one chopstick shy of a pair.

Imagine you are in a tea house in Shanghai. A cup of tea is placed in front you. You want to ask what kind of tea it is. But if you ask, “what is this?” people are likely to smile at you sympathetically and say, “tea.” Luckily, asking about kinds of things uses the pattern that we’ve reviewed above. All you need to do is add the kind of thing you want to know about at the end of the question, 这是什么_____?(Zhè shì shénme_____?) You are literally saying, “This is what_____?” Take a look at the examples below.

这是什么菜？(Zhè shì shénme cài?)
What kind of food is this?

这是什么茶？(Zhè shì shénme chá?)
What kind of tea is this?

这是什么肉？(Zhè shì shénme ròu?)
What kind of meat is this?

这是什么蔬菜？(Zhè shì shénme shūcài?)
What kind of vegetable is this?

这是什么水果？(Zhè shì shénme shuǐguǒ?)
What kind of fruit is this?

这是什么酒？(Zhè shì shénme jiǔ?)
What kind of alcohol is this?

这是什么啤酒？(Zhè shì shénme píjiǔ?)
What kind of beer is this?

这是什么东西？(Zhè shì shénme dōngxi?)
What kind of thing is this?

*Note: If you need to say “that” instead of “this” you just replace 这(zhè) with 那(nà).

那是什么？(Nà shì shénme?)
What is that?

Now it’s your turn. Try to tell me about the topics above and I will launch more topics for learning basic Chinese later.

The post 20 Questions to Get You from Zero Chinese to Basic Fluency (Part 3) appeared first on .

Thumbs up

● handy list of most common bigrams
● spaced repetition
● options to customize studying

Thumbs down

● audio is clear but very unnatural and irritating to listen to
● no examples sentences
● flashcards read like dictionary entries

Review

This app is enticing because it focusses on something unique: words. Most others go for the most common characters. But if you’ve studied Chinese at all, you know that knowing characters is different from knowing words. It is kind of similar to studying latin or greek roots in order to better understand English: it’s helpful, but probably not the first thing you want to dig into when jumping into studying Mandarin. For example, you might know that 子 zǐ means “child.” That’s definitely helpful information but 子 zǐ usually doesn’t mean “child” in context. It frequently combines with other characters to form a noun, like 盒子 hé zi which means “box”, in which case 子 zi doesn’t carry any real meaning at all. So in this way WCC Bigrams is on the right track.

Why learn the most common individual characters when it isn’t likely you will need to know them in isolation? Better to learn the most common words. (Note: this is just a hypothetical opinion. There are plenty of benefits to learning the individual characters.) Certainly, if you are at a level where you are doing a lot of reading, this app can help reinforce what you are most likely seeing. But all by itself, the app isn’t very helpful. Why? Well, first, even though the words come at you in order of frequency, they might as well be random. When studying vocabulary the most important thing to do is to make connections with it to other words. You want to memorize it in a set of words that are similar or, even better, learn it in context. It’s tough to make a word stick just on its own merits and this is essentially what WCC Bigrams does: it shows you the word and leaves it up to you to make the important connections so that it stays with you. But perhaps you are ready to do this and take on the task of reading and making the necessary connections own your own. That’s a wonderful goal but it’s only reasonable for advanced students. The reason for this is because the most common words that show up in Chinese text are not very accessible to beginner or even intermediate students. For example, here are some words in the top 50 WCC Bigrams list: 24 government 政府 zhèng fǔ，27 the people 人民 rén mín， to conduct 进行 jìn xíng，48 representative 代表 dài biǎo. It doesn’t take too much imagination to figure out what kind of text these words would appear in. Could you read through newspaper articles about politics and business and learn Chinese? Absolutely. But most people will get too frustrated with this approach and, at the very least, it’s a huge time investment and it isn’t the best way to gain traction in your studies at the beginner and intermediate levels.

Recommendation

WCC Bigrams is a good app for students who are at the advanced level and are focused on improving their reading skills. Students who are taking the HSK test or other standardized tests for Mandarin Chinese language ability stand to gain from using the app. Students at the beginner and intermediate level will have a much more difficult time making connections to the bigrams because many are found in contexts that are above their ability level.

The post Learn How to Study Chinese Bigrams with WCC Bigrams App appeared first on .

#6: How to ask What are you doing in Chinese(the present tense)

Today we are looking at the present tense in Chinese and asking, “What are you doing?” Unlike some other aspects of Chinese, using verb tenses is pretty simple. Here is today’s question and answer:

Q: 你在做什么？ （Nǐ zài zuò shénme?）
What are you doing?
A: 我在看电视。 （Wǒ zài kàn diànshì.）
I am watching TV.

The word
在 (zài) in this context tells you that you are in the present continuous tense, or simpler terms, it acts as the “-ing” that we put on the end of our verbs in English. So in our examples above,
在做 (zài
zuò ) means “doing” and
在看 (zài
kàn ) means “watching.” Just replace the
看电视 (diàn shì)in the answer to tell about different actions that you are doing. Here is a list of some common actions that work well in this pattern:

• 起床 （qǐ chuáng) – get up
• 做早饭 (zuò zǎofàn) – make breakfast
• 吃早饭 (chī zǎofàn) – eat breakfast
• 看报纸 (kàn bàozhǐ) – read the newspaper
• 喝咖啡 (hē kāfēi) – drink coffee
• 喝茶 (hē chá) – drink tea
• 洗碗 (xǐ wǎn) – wash dishes
• 上楼 (shàng lóu) – go upstairs
• 洗澡 (xǐzǎo) – take a shower
• 刮脸 (guā liǎn) – shave (face)
• 化妆 (huà zhuāng) – put on make up
• 梳头发 (shū tóufa) – comb hair
• 上厕所 (shàng cèsuǒ) – use(go to) the bathroom
• 刷牙 (shuā yá) – brush teeth
• 穿衣服 (chuān yīfu) – put on clothes
• 下楼 (xià lóu) – go downstairs
• 开车 (kāichē) – drive a car
• 坐公共汽车 (zuò gōnggòng qìchē) – on the bus
• 坐地铁 (zuò dìtiě) – on the subway
• 走路 (zǒulù) – walk
• 骑车 (qí chē) – ride a bike
• 路上(lùshàng) – on the road/on the way
• 上课 (shàngkè) – in class
• 上班 (shàngbān) – at work
• 玩 (wán) – play
• 吃午饭 (chī wǔfàn) – eat lunch
• 下课 (xiàkè) – get out of school
• 下班 (xiàbān) – get off of work
• 做作业 (zuò zuòyè) – do homework
• 整理 (zhěnglǐ) – straighten up
• 洗衣服 (xǐ yīfu) – wash clothes
• 睡午觉 (shuì wǔjiào) – take a nap
• 做晚饭 (zuò wǎnfàn) – make dinner
• 吃晚饭 (chī wǎnfàn) – eat dinner
• 上网 (shàngwǎng) – go on the internet
• 聊天 (liáotiān) – chat
• 取钱 (qǔ qián) – take out money
• 上街 (shàng jiē) – go shopping
• 买菜 (mǎi cài) – go grocery shopping
• 看书 (kàn shū) – read a book
• 休息 (xiūxi) – rest
• 睡觉 (shuìjiào) – sleep

Remember, when you add
在 (zài) in front of any of these actions, it means you are “doing” that action – for example, “sleep” will change to, “sleeping.” And if you have nothing to do, you might say
没事做！(Méi shì zuò!) “There’s nothing to do!”

#7: How to ask What did you do yesterday in Chinese(the past tense)

Today we are looking at the past tense in Chinese and asking, “What did you do yesterday?” Unlike some other aspects of Chinese, using verb tenses is pretty simple. Here is today’s question and answer:

Q: 你昨天做了什么？Nǐ zuótiān zuò le shénme?
What did you do yesterday?

A: 我昨天吃了中国菜。Wǒ zuótiān chī le zhōngguó cài.
Yesterday I ate Chinese food.

Notice that the verb 吃 doesn’t change, or get conjugated. Adding
 了 behind the verb in this context signifies that the action is completed. So 吃了
translates to “ate” in this sentence. The past tense can be flexible in Chinese, but for now, just follow this pattern:

SUBJECT + TIME MARKER + VERB +了+ OBJECT

For example: I +yesterday + ate +了+ Chinese food.

In Chinese, the subject and the time marker can sometimes be switched, but the meaning stays the same. Here are some examples of both cases :

我昨天看了书。Wǒ zuótiān kàn le shū.
Yesterday I read a book.

这周末我去了公园。
Zhè zhōumò wǒ qù le
gōngyuán.
I went to the park this weekend.

今天我喝了三杯咖啡。
Jīn tiān wǒ hēle sān bēi kāfēi.

TodayI drank three cups of coffee.

There are some instances where
了 might show up in a different location in the sentence or it may not be used at all. But for now just include a time marker and put the
了right after the verb (and before the object) in your sentence and you can be pretty sure that you are forming the past tense correctly. (It’s also worth mentioning that
了
can sometimes refer to the future, so don’t assume that
了
is always used to make something past tense.) Here are some past-tense time markers that you can use in this pattern:

• 今天 (jīn tiān) – today
• 昨天 (zuó tiān) – yesterday
• 前天 (qián tiān) – the day before yesterday
• 大前天 (dà qiántiān) – three days ago
• 以前 (yǐqián) – before
• 这周末 (zhè zhōumò) – this weekend
• 这个星期 (zhège xīngqī) – this week
• 上个星期 (shàng gè xīngqī )– last week
• 上上个星期 (shàng shàng gè xīngqī )– week before last
• 这个月 (zhè gè yuè) – the month
• 上个月 (shàng gè yuè) – last month
• 上上个月 (shàng shàng gè yuè) – the month before last
• 今年 (jīn nián) – this year
• 去年 (qù nián) – last year
• 前年 (qián nián) – the year before last year
• 大前年 (à qiánnián) – three years ago

Check out
 Question #4 and Question #6 for lists of verbs with objects that will work well in this pattern.

#8: How to ask What are you doing tomorrow in Chinese(the future tense)

Today we are looking at the future tense in Chinese and asking, “What are you doing tomorrow?”Unlike some other aspects of Chinese, using verb tenses is pretty simple. Here is today’s question and answer:

Q: 你明天要做什么？Nǐ míngtiān yào zuò shénme?
What do you want to do tomorrow?

A: 我明天要去博物馆。
Wǒ míngtiān
 yào qù bówùguǎn.
I 
want to go to the museum tomorrow.

Just as in the past tense and present tense, the verb in the question,
 做 (zuò), and the verb in the answer,
 去 (qù), don’t need to be changed, or conjugated. To form the future tense simply put
 要 (yào) in front of the verb.

The verb 
要 (yào) by itself means “want” but in this context it functions as “will” or “want to” or “going to.” If you’ve been studying Chinese for a bit you may have also noticed that
 会 (huì) can be used to form the future in the same way. Either one is fine to use to form the future tense, but for now let’s just use
 要 (yào) to keep things simple.

So you may be asking yourself, “What if I don’t want to go to the museum? What if I want to talk about what I’m going to DO (or what I want to DO) tomorrow?” If you want to talk about actions that you will do in the future, you can just replace
去博物馆 (yào qù bówùguǎn)in the answer above with any action.

So… say you want to see a movie tomorrow, you would say:

我明天要看电影。Wǒ míngtiān
 yào kàn diànyǐng.
If you want to
 GO see a movie tomorrow, you can say:

我明天要去看电影。Wǒ míngtiān
 yào
 qù kàn diànyǐng.

Check out
 Question #4 and
 Question #6 for some extensive lists of verbs that will work well in this pattern.

Here is a list of places that you might be going to tomorrow:

• 城市 (chéngshì) – the city
• 市中心 (shì zhōngxīn) – downtown
• 市场 (shìchǎng) – the market
• 商场 (shāngchǎng) – the mall
• 商店 (shāngdiàn) – the store (a shop)
• 超级市场 (chāojí shìchǎng) – grocery market
• 药店 (yàodiàn) － the pharmacy
• 饭店 (fàndiàn) – restaurant
• 面馆 (miànguǎn) – noodle shop
• 路边摊 (lùbiān tān) – street vendor
• 咖啡馆 (kāfēi guǎn) – the cafe
• 茶馆 (cháguǎn) – tea house
• 酒吧 (jiǔbā) – the bar
• 图书馆 (túshū guǎn) – the library
• 书店 (shūdiàn) – the bookstore
• 公园 (gōngyuán) – the park
• 博物馆 (bówùguǎn) – the museum
• 学校 (xuéxiào) – school
• 办公室 (bàngōngshì) – the office
• 工作 (gōngzuò) – work
• 教堂 (jiàotáng) – church
• 银行 (yínháng) – the bank
• 邮局 (yóujú) – the post office
• 海边 (hǎibiān) – the ocean
• 湖边 (hú biān) – the lake
• 河边 (hé biān) – the river
• 山 (shān) – the mountains
• 沙漠 (shāmò) – the desert
• 农场 (nóngchǎng) – the farm
• 工厂 (gōngchǎng) – the facotry
• 体育馆 (tǐyùguǎn) – the gym
• 游泳池 (yóuyǒngchí) – the pool
• 球场 (qiúchǎng) – the (ball) field/court
• 高尔夫场 (gāo’ěrfū chǎng) – the golf course
• 自动取款机 (zìdòng qǔkuǎn jī) – the ATM
• 机场 (jīchǎng) – the airport

#9: How to ask Where is the bathroom in Chinese

Today’s question, “Where is the bathroom?” is probably one of the most important to know in any language. Asking for the location of something in Chinese is wonderfully simple, so let’s take a look.

Q:厕所在哪儿？Cèsǔo zài nǎ’er?
Where is the bathroom?

A: 在那里。
Zài
 nàlǐ.

It’s
 there.

First let’s check out the question. All you need to do is start out your question with the place you want to know about. In this case,
 厕所 (cèsǔo). Next, the verb
 在(zài) means “is.” (*Note: You may remember that 是(shì) also means “is” as in, 我是美国人(Wǒ shì měiguó rén) “I
am American.”

The verb 在(zài) is used to express“to be” when you want to know where something is. You can’t use 是(shì) in this context.) Finally, use
 哪儿(nǎ’er) which means “where.” It’s backward from the English word order but still very easy to understand. The beauty of this pattern is that you use it for people, places, and things so it’s very high frequency and very flexible. The answer is even simpler.

To respond you once again use the verb
 在(zài). But here you can leave out the place that you asked about in the question. We do the same in English too. Once you’ve established that “the bathroom” is the topic in question, there is no need to repeat it in the answer. Can you say it again? Sure thing. Place 厕所 (cèsǔo) in front of 在(zài) and you’re good to go.

The end of the sentence is where you find the information about where the place is. In our answer we have
 那里(nàlǐ) which means “there.” Obviously there could be a lot of information about directions to the place you are asking about so
 那里(nàlǐ)is just one of many options. Notice that now the word order matches with the English exactly.

More Info:
You may have noticed that 哪儿(nǎ’er) in the question and 那里(nàlǐ) in the answer have a similar pronunciation and that the characters almost look identical. The little 口 in front of 哪儿(nǎ’er) signifies that it is a question and it means “which.” If 口 isn’t in there, then it isn’t a question and it means, “that.” Another important point is that 儿(er) and 里(lǐ) are interchangeable in this context. You can use either one with 哪(nǎ) and 那(nà) and be perfectly correct.

The list of places above  is that you might need to ask about. Just substitute anyone from the list below for 
厕所 (cèsǔo)in the question:


Q:
 厕所在哪儿？

Understanding directions in another language is notoriously difficult. Your understanding depends as much on your listening comprehension as it does on the other person’s ability to explain the route clearly (and his honesty about whether or not he actually knows where the place is that you are asking about.) As a beginner in this situation, sometimes the best you can do is find out if the place is close or far, have people point you in the general direction, and then ask someone else further down the road. So the list below is more of a guide for listening than a structure for how to give directions. Listen for these words to show up in the answer.


A: 在那里。

• 那里 (nàlǐ) – there
• 这里 (zhèlǐ) – here
• 后面 (hòumiàn) – behind
• 前面 (qiánmiàn) – in front
• 对面 (duìmiàn) – opposite
• 附近 (fùjìn) – near
• 远 (yuǎn) – far
• 旁边 (pángbiān) – next to
• 拐角 (guǎijiǎo) – corner
• 北 (běi) – north
• 南 (nán) -south
• 东 (dōng) -east
• 西 (xī) – west
• 左 (zuǒ) -left
• 右 (yòu) – right

#10: How to ask What do you want to do in Chinese

Today we are talking about making plans and asking “What do you want to do?” This is an easy one for English speakers to wrap their heads around, so let’s check it out.

Q:你想做什么？Nǐ xiǎng zùo shénme?
What do you want to do?

A:我想吃饭。Wǒ xiǎng chīfàn.
I want to have a meal.

Making plans to do something in Chinese is pretty simple. The nice thing about the structure of this question is that it opens up the door to some other high-frequency questions. We’ll check those out later but right now let’s take a look at the question. The Chinese and the English match up nicely here except for the placement of the question word “what.” The English question puts “what” at the beginning of the sentence but the Chinese question places
什么(shénme) at the end of the sentence. The Chinese is actually a bit less complicated because it leaves out the “do” that English uses in this question: “What
do you want to do?” As always, there is no verb changing, or conjugation, in any way. So word for word we end up with a literal translation of, “You want to do what?” Pretty straightforward, so let’s move on to the answer.

As you can see, the answer is beautifully simple and matches up with the English meaning and word order exactly. The only tricky part of this is that
吃饭(chīfàn)
means “eat” but it is two characters. The character
吃(chī) means “eat” and
饭(fàn)
means rice. But in this context their combined meaning is simply “eat” or to have a meal.
So the literal translation is, “I want eat.” But there are some variations of the question and answer that you should know. Let’s move on to them below.

More Info:
There are some other ways to ask, “What do you want to do?” in Chinese. Specifically, 想(xiǎng) and 做(zùo) can be replaced with other words. First, the verb 要(yào) can replace 想(xiǎng). What’s the difference? In this context they both mean “want” but 想(xiǎng) softens the question or request. It would be more like saying “I would like” instead of “I want.”

In Chinese culture it is always better to be a bit too polite instead of being slightly rude or informal, so as a beginner it is better to use 想(xiǎng). That being said, you will definitely hear 要(yào) replacing 想(xiǎng) in this context and it will be completely appropriate and not rude at all. Just be aware of the difference and use 想(xiǎng) when in doubt. Next, the verb 做(zùo) can be replaced by 干(gàn). Here there is no real difference. Either one gives you the same meaning in this context so feel free to use them interchangeably here.

It should also be noted in this section that 想 (xiǎng) CANNOT be used to say you want something. You can only use 想(xiǎng) to ask and say you want to DO something. In other words, when you use 想 (xiǎng) to mean “want” it has to be followed by a VERB.

How do you say you want SOMETHING? You use 要 (yào)! But in Chinese, you will be likely to find yourself in a situation where using 想 (xiǎng) + VERB will be very natural and you won’t have to use 要 (yào) + THING and chance sounding rude. Let’s look at why this is so.

Below are some of the common questions you might be asked using this pattern. Check out the answers and see if you can spot how the Chinese answer differs from the English

Question and Answer

Q: 你想做什么？ Nǐ xiǎng zùo shénme?
What do you want to do?
A: 我想吃饭。Wǒ xiǎng chīfàn
I want to eat.

Q: 你想买什么？Nǐ xiǎng mǎi shénme?
What do you want to buy?
A:我想买书。Wǒ xiǎng mǎi shū.
I want (to buy) a book.

Q: 你想喝什么？ Nǐ xiǎng hē shénme?
What do you want to drink?
A: 我想喝水。Wǒ xiǎng hē shuǐ.
I want (to drink) water.

Q: 你想吃什么？Nǐ xiǎng chī shénme?
What do you want to eat?
A: 我想吃炒饭。Wǒ xiǎng chī chǎo fàn.
I want (to eat) fried rice.

Did you see it? If someone asks you in English, “What do you want to eat?” you are likely to reply, “I want fried rice.” Saying, “I want to EAT fried rice” would sound pretty emphatic, like you haven’t eaten in days and must eat fried rice now!

I can’t think of a situation in English where I might be inclined to say, “I want to drink water ” but in Chinese repeating the verb that was asked in the question doesn’t sound strange at all. And for that reason, as a beginner you are still better off using 想(xiǎng) instead of 要(yào).

Below is another common question that uses the same pattern with a different question word.

Question and Answer:

Q:你想去哪里？ Nǐ xiǎng qù nǎlǐ?

Where do you want to go?

A: 我想去公园。Wǒ xiǎng qù gōngyuán.
I want to go to the park.

So let’s get back to the original question and answer. If are making plans and someone asks you:

Q:你想做什么？Nǐ xiǎng zùo shénme?
What do you want to do?

You can easily tailor your answer by replacing
 吃饭 (chīfàn)
with any activity that you want to do. Check it out:

A:我想吃饭。Wǒ xiǎng
 chīfàn.
I want to
 eat.

For a list of activities to fill in, go to Question #4, 
”What do you like to do in your free time?”

Maybe you would like to tell the person where you would like to go instead of what you would like to do. If that’s the case then this is the answer for you:

我想去公园。
Wǒ xiǎng qù gōngyuán.
I want to go to
 the park.

For a list of places to go, check out Question #9,
 “Where is the bathroom?”

Related Reading: Comprehensive Guide for Chinese Beginners

The post 20 Questions to Get You from Zero Chinese to Basic Fluency (Part 2) appeared first on .

In this series, we will take a look at approximately 20 basic, high-frequency questions and answers that will help you with your communication skills in Mandarin Chinese. Please feel free to answer the questions in Mandarin or pinyin in the reply to the best of your ability.

If you are a basic Chinese level, perhaps you would like to answer the questions with a more in-depth response, using more colloquial language, providing some helpful tips and cultural information, or correcting the answers (or questions) for all who are new to Mandarin.

If you are still at the beginning stage, you can always start by going through our comprehensive guide for Chinese beginners.

Follow me, let’s learn basic Chinese now:

#1: How to ask What is your name in Chinese

Q:你叫什么名字？（Nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?）
What is your name?
A: 我叫 Matt. 你呢？（Wǒ jiào Matt. Nǐ ne?）
My name is Matt. And you?

Q: 你的中文名字叫什么？（Nǐde zhōngwén míngzì jiào shénme?）
What is your Chinese name?
A: 我的中文名字叫马特。（Wǒde zhōngwén míngzì jiào Mǎ Tè.）
My Chinese name is Ma Te.

#2: How to ask Where are you from in Chinese

Q: 你是哪国人？ （Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén?）
Where are you from?
A: 我是美国人。你呢？ （Wǒ shì Měiguó rén. Nǐ ne?）
I’m American. And you?

There are other ways to ask “Where are you from?” in Chinese depending on what information you are looking for. You may want to ask about what city, what state or what region a person is from. Or you may want to ask about where a person lives instead of asking where the person comes from. If you know how to ask these more specific questions about a person’s origin or living arrangements, we would love to see them in the reply.

#3: How to ask What do you do in Chinese

Learning basic Chinese with Matt. Today’s question is about professions. There are a few different ways to ask about this in Chinese, as well as in English, depending on the information you are looking for. Here is the most general way to ask, “What do you do?”

Q: 你是做什么的？ （Nǐ shì zuò shénme de?）
What do you do?

A: 我是老师。（Wǒ shì lǎoshī.）
I am a teacher.

When you answer, just add your profession at the end of the sentence. Here are some professions.

• 学生 （xuéshēng） – student
• 老师（lǎoshī） – teacher
• 商人 （shāngrén） – business person
• 秘书 （mìshū） – secretary
• 会计 （kuàijì） – accounting
• 记者 （jìzhě） – journalist
• 厨师 （chúshī） – chef
• 科学家 （kēxuéjiā） – scientist
• 医生 （yīshēng） – doctor
• 护士 （hùshì） – nurse
• 牙科医生 （yá kē yīshēng） – dentist
• 工程师 （gōngchéngshī） – engineer
• 技术人员 （ìshù rényuán） – tech staff
• 律师 （lǜshī） – lawyer
• 音乐家 （yīnyuè jiā） – musician
• 演员 （yǎnyuán） – actor/actress
• 艺术家 （yìshù jiā） – artist
• 退休 （tuìxiū） – retired

This answer is a little different. To say you are retired say:
我退休了。 （Wǒ tuì xiū le.）
I’m retired.

Of course there are a lot of other jobs out there to talk about. If you’ve got a question about how to say a profession in Chinese include it in your reply. Below are two other common ways to ask about professions with their answers:

Q: 你做什么工作? （Nǐ zuò shénme gōngzuò?）
What’s your job?
A: 我是老师。 （Wǒ shì lǎoshī.）

Q: 你在哪儿工作？ (Nǐ zài nǎr gōngzuò?)
Where do you work?
A: 我在学校工作。(Wǒ zài xuéxiào gōngzuò.)
I work at a school

#4: What do you like to do in your free time in Chinese

Today we are learning basic Chinese how to say, “What do you like to do in your free time?” in Chinese. Here is the question and answer:

Q: 你空余时间喜欢做什么？ (Nǐ kòngyú shíjiān xǐhuan zuò shénme?)
What do you like to do in your free time?
A: 我喜欢学中文。(Wǒ xǐhuan xué zhōngwén.)
I like to learn Chinese.

Just replace the
 学中文 in the answer above to tell about your own personal interests. Here are some pastimes that will work well with this pattern:

• 书法 (shūfǎ) － calligraphy
• 爬山 (páshān) – hiking/mountain climbing
• 电子游戏 (diànzǐ yóuxì) – video games
• 做饭 (zuò fàn) – cooking
• 跳舞 (tiàowǔ) – dancing
• 唱歌 (chànggē) – singing
• 画画 (huà huà) – drawing
• 喝酒 (hē jiǔ) – drinking
• 吃饭 (chīfàn) – eating
• 看电影 (kàn diànyǐng) – watching movies
• 养花 (yǎng huā) – gardening
• 听音乐 (tīng yīnyuè) – listening to music
• 拍照 (pāizhào) – photography
• 看书 (kàn shū) – reading books
• 体育 (tǐyù) – sports
• 上网 (shàngwǎng) – surfing online
• 聊天 (liáotiān) – chatting
• 旅游 (lǚyóu) – travelling
• 散步 (sànbù) – walking
• 看电视 (kàn diànshì) – watching TV
• 逛商店 (guàng shāngdiàn) – window shopping
• 长跑 (chángpǎo) – jogging
• 打篮球 (dǎ lánqiú) – playing basketball
• 打棒球 (dǎ bàngqiú) – playing basebal l
• 打橄榄球 (dǎ gǎnlǎnqiú) – playing football
• 踢足球 (tī zúqiú) – playing soccer
• 打曲棍球 (dǎ qūgùnqiú) – playing hockey
• 打网球 (dǎ wǎngqiú) – playing tennis
• 打排球 (dǎ páiqiú) – play volleyball
• 游泳 (yóuyǒng) – swimming
• 练功夫 (liàn gōngfu) – practicing kung fu
• 举重 ( jǔzhòng) – lifting weights
• 露营 (lùyíng) – camping
• 钓鱼 (diào yú) – fishing
• 攀岩 (pānyán) – rock climbling
• 划船 (huáchuán) – rowing
• 滑雪 (huáxuě) – skiing
• 锻炼 (duànliàn) – working out
• 弹吉他 (tán jítā) – playing guitar
• 弹钢琴 (tán gāngqín) – playing piano

#5: How many people are in your family in Chinese

Today’s question is, “How many people are in your family.” Here is today’s question and answer in Chinese:

Q: 你家有几个人？
(Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ gè rén?)

How many people are in your family?
A: 我家有四个人， 我太太， 两个儿子， 和我。 (Wǒ jiā yǒu sì gè rén, wǒ tàitai, liǎng gè érzi, hé wǒ.)

My family has
 four people, my wife, two sons, and I.

To tell how many people are in your family, simply replace
 四 with the appropriate number:
 两， 三， 四，五， 六， 七， 八， 九。(liǎng, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ.) In some places, 个 (ge) is replaced by 口(Kǒu), but the words are interchangeable in this context and do not change the meaning of the sentence.

Telling about your family members can be a little more complicated in Chinese than it is in other languages, so we won’t go into a full list of vocabulary here. Below are some common names for family members that should be enough for you to express yourself clearly.

• 丈夫 (zhàngfu)－ husband
• 太太 (tàitai) － wife
• 爸爸 (bàba) － father
• 妈妈 (māma) － mother
• 儿子 (érzi) – son
• 女儿 (nǚ’ér) － daughter
• 哥哥 (gēge) － elder brother
• 弟弟 (dìdi) － younger brother
• 姐姐 (jiějie) – elder sister
• 妹妹 (mèimei) － younger sister
• 男朋友 (nán péngyou) – boyfriend
• 女朋友 (nǚ péngyou) – girlfriend

What if you don’t really want to talk about your family, or what if answering with a number of people seems a little awkward? Here are some other ways to answer if you are single, if you are in a relationship or if you’d just like to gracefully sidestep the question.

• 我结婚了。(Wǒ jiéhūn le.) – I’m married
• 我离婚了。(Wǒ líhūn le.) – I’m divorced.
• 我有伴。(Wǒ yǒu bàn.) – I’m in a relationship.
• 我是单身。(Wǒ shì dānshēn.) – I’m single.

Now it’s your turn. Try to tell me about the topics above and I will launch more topics for learning basic Chinese later.

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