I'm Going To Learn Mandarin Or Get Fucked Trying

so from this post on i’m going to be introducing vocab and grammar starting from the beginning

***note: the characters will be typed with simplified characters and then the pinyin and meaning

词汇 cíhuì Vocabulary

我 wǒ I, me

你 nǐ you

您 nín you (polite)

他 tā he

她 tā she

它 tā it

们 men plural suffix for pronouns and some nouns

名字 míngzì name

中文 zhōngwén Chinese language

这 zhè this

那 nà that

叫 jiào to be called

不 bù negative prefix, not

是 shì to be (note: 是 can only be used with nouns; a different word is required for adjectives), yes

很 hěn very

什么 shénme what

谁 shéi who

什么时候 shénme shíhou when

为什么 wèishénme why

呢 ne a final particle

吗 ma a question particle for yes-no questions

老师 lǎoshī teacher 

学生 xuéshēng student

先生 xiānshēng Mr.

小姐 xiǎojie Miss***

太太 tàitai Mrs.

早上／上午 zǎoshàng/shàngwǔ morning

中午 zhōngwǔ noon, midday

下午 xiàwǔ afternoon

晚上 wǎnshàng evening

早上好／早安 zǎoshàng hǎo/zǎo’ān good morning

下午好 xiàwǔ hǎo good afternoon

晚上好／晚安 wǎnshàng hǎo/wǎn’ān good evening

好 hǎo good

不错 búcuò not bad, fine

不太好 bú tài hǎo not so good

***since 小姐 is also considered as slang for prostitute, i asked some native speakers for advice and one said if you use someone’s name with 小姐 it’s okay (e.g., 陈小姐 Chen xiaojie) but that you can also use 美女 měinǚ and 姑娘 gūniang as alternatives. all in all, just treat carefully with 小姐

语法 yǔfǎ Grammar

Greeting others

When greeting others, you must address the person first then say the greeting.

陈先生，你好。

Hello Mr. Chen

刘太太，早安！

Good morning Mrs. Liu

Basic Sentence Structure

Like English, Mandarin has a Subject-Verb-Object sentence structure.

他是老师。

He is a teacher

我是学生。

I am a student

When asking a question, you usually can replace a word with the necessary question word.

她是谁？

Who is she?

她是金老师。

She’s Teacher Jin.

你叫什么名字？

What is your name? (literally You are called what name)

我叫雅玲。

My name is Yaling (literally I am called Yaling)

吗 is used to ask a yes-no question

你是老师吗？

Are you a teacher?

我是老师 OR 我不是老师

I am a teacher OR I am not a teacher

呢 ne 

If someone asks you a question, you can use 呢 ne at the end of a sentence to make it interrogative. In many cases it functions the same way as “how about…?” in English.

你好吗？

How are you?

我很好，你呢？

I’m well, and you?

1. 是 [shì] ~ (to) be

2. 有 [yǒu] ~ (to) have

3. 做 [zuò] ~ (to) do; (to) make

4. 可以 [kě yǐ] ~ can; (to) give permission

5. 认识 [rèn shí] ~ (to) be acquainted qith

6. 知道 [zhī dào] (怎样) (zěn yàng) ~ (to) know (be aware)

7. 理解 [lǐ jiě] ~ (to) understand

8. 讲 [jiǎng] ~ (to) speak; (to) talk

9. 听 [tīng] ~ (to) listen to

10. 听到 [tīng dào] ~ (to) hear

11. 看 [kàn] ~ (to) see

12. 觉得 [jué de] ~ (to) feel

13. 活着 [huó zhe] ~ (to) live

14. 要 [yào] ~ (to) want

15. 需要 [xū yào] ~ (to) need

16. 喜欢 [xǐ huān] ~ (to) like

17. 爱 [ài] ~ (to) love

18. 给 [gěi] ~ (to) give

19. 拿 [ná] ~ (to) take

20. 玩 [wán] ~ (to) play

21. 笑 [xiào] ~ (to) laugh

22. 来 [lái] ~ (to) come

23. 去 [qù] ~ (to) go

24. 坐 [zuò] (…) 去 [qù] ~ (to) go by (…) (e.g. by car)

25. 写 [xiě] ~ (to) write

26. 读 [dú] ~ (to) read

27. 计数 [jì shù] ~ (to) count

28. 发音 [fā yīn] ~ (to) pronounce

29. 拼 [pīn] ~ (to) spell

30. 共轭 [gòng è] ~ (to) conjugate

31. 记住 [jì zhù] ~ (to) remember

32. 忘记 [wàng jì] ~ (to) forget

33. 吃 [chī] ~ (to) eat

34. 试 [shì] ~ (to) try

35. 用 [yòng] ~ (to) use

36. 打开 [dǎ kāi] ~ (to) open

37. 关闭 [guān bì] ~ (to) close

38. 欢迎 [huān yíng] ~ (to) greet; (to) welcome

39. 开始 [kāi shǐ] ~ (to) begin

Many new Chinese language learners try to learn Chinese characters and the Pinyin pronunciation at the same time, without realizing that learning Chinese needs a slightly different approach than that. Having said this, to learn Chinese is still easier than you think! Let`s debunk 3 popular myths about learning Chinese. 

(i apologize for the title i am not a creative person)

岩石 yánshí rocks

火成岩 huǒchéngyán igneous

花岗岩 huāgāngyán granite

黑曜岩 hēiyàoyán obsidian

玄武岩 xuánwǔyán basalt

浮石 fúshí pumice

沉积岩 chēnjīyán sedimentary

砂岩 shāyán sandstone

石灰岩 shíhuīyán limestone

白垩 bái'è chalk

燧石 suìshí flint

砾岩 lìyán conglomerate 

煤 méi coal

变质岩 biànzhìyán metamorphic

板岩 bǎnyán slate

页岩 yèyán schist

片麻岩 piànmáyán gneiss

大理石 dàlǐshí marble

矿物 kuàngwù minerals

石英 shíyīng quartz

云母 yúnmǔ mica

硫磺 liúhuáng sulphur

赤铁矿 chìtiěkuàng hematite

方解石 fāngjiěshí calcite

孔雀石 kǒngquèshí malachite

绿松石 lǚsōngshí turquoise

高玛瑙 gāomǎnǎo onyx

玛瑙 mǎnǎo agate

石墨 shímò graphite

宝石 bǎoshí gems

红宝石 hóngbǎoshí ruby

紫水晶 zǐshuǐjíng amethyst

黑玉 hēiyù jet

蛋白石 dànbáishí opal

月长石 yuèzhǎngshí moonstone

石榴石 shíliúshí garnet

黄玉 huángyù topaz

电气石 diànqìshí tourmaline

蓝宝石 lánbǎoshí sapphire

绿宝石 lǚbǎoshí emerald

玉石 yùshí jade

海蓝宝石 hǎilánbǎoshí aquamarine

钻石 zuànshí diamond

金属 jīnshǔ metals

金 jīn gold

银 yín silver

铂 bó platinum

镍 niè nickel

铁 tiě iron

铜 tóng copper

锡 xī tin

铝 lǚ aluminium 

汞 gǒng mercury

才 /cái/ has several important meanings.

Most often we use it in the sense ONLY THEN, NOT UNTIL. 

Basically the purpose of this word is to indicate that something is taking place LATER than we would wish. As in:

我晚上十点才有时间。/Wǒ wǎnshang shídiǎn cái yǒu shíjiān./ I DON’T HAVE TIME TILL 10pm.

Or in the sentence in the visual above..

遇见 (yù jiàn) — to meet 值得 (zhí dé) — to be worth 信赖 (xìn lài) — to trust 力量 (lì liàng) — physical strength

盼望 (pàn wàng) — to look forward to 一刻 (yī kè) — a short time 分享 (fēn xiǎnɡ) — to share 真心 (zhēn xīn) — true intention

保留 (bǎo liú) — to retain 献 (xiàn) — to present, show 理想 (lǐ xiǎnɡ) — ideal 拥抱 (yōng bào) — to hug 天堂 (tiān táng) — heaven

遇见 (yù jiàn) — to meet 值得 (zhí dé) — to be worth 信赖 (xìn lài) — to trust 力量 (lì liàng) — physical strength

盼望 (pàn wàng) — to look forward to 一刻 (yī kè) — a short time 分享 (fēn xiǎnɡ) — to share 真心 (zhēn xīn) — true intention

保留 (bǎo liú) — to retain 献 (xiàn) — to present, show 理想 (lǐ xiǎnɡ) — ideal 拥抱 (yōng bào) — to hug 天堂 (tiān táng) — heaven

and the answers that we came up with were amazing.

girls don’t prefer boys, girls prefer (fast) cars and money 

boys prefer beautiful barbecues

girls prefer annoying cats

boys prefer 75 large plastic dinosaurs

and of course: pretty girls prefer pretty girls 

Bed － 床（chuáng）  Sheets － 床单（chuáng dān） Pillow － 枕头（zhěn tou） Wardrobe － 衣柜（yī guì） Fireplace － 壁炉（bì lú） Television － 电视（diàn shì） Remote control － 遥控器（yáo kòng qì） Sofa － 沙发（shā fā）  Chair － 椅子（yǐ zi） Table － 桌子（zhuō zi）

Coffee table／side table － 咖啡桌（kāfēi zhuō）or 茶几（chá jī）

Table cloth － 桌布（zhuō bù） Picture － 照片（zhào piàn）  Staircase － 楼梯（lóu tī）  Plant － 植物（zhí wù）  Washing machine － 洗衣机（xǐ yī jī）  Shelf － 架子（jià zi）  Cupboard － 柜子（guì zi）   Heating － 加热器（jiā rè qì) Light － 灯（dēng） 

Light bulb － 灯泡（dēng pào） 

Carpet － 地毯（dì tǎn）  Curtains － 窗帘（chuānglián） Doors － 门（mén） Windows － 窗户（chuāng hù） Walls － 墙（qiáng） Ceiling － 棚顶（péng dǐng） Floor － 地板（dì bǎn）

＋Outside － 外面（wài miàn）

She was warned. She was given an explanation.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

喜欢, 想, and 觉得 are similar, however the differences are important. Lets start with 喜欢 and 想 :

喜欢 can be translated as ‘to like’, meaning ‘to be fond of.’ For example, 我很喜欢跳舞 (I like dancing).

想 can be translated as ‘would like to’, meaning ‘to have the desire to.’ For example, 我想去跳舞 (I would like to go dancing).

Now the difference between 想 and 觉得. They can both be translated as ‘to think’, however 想 is in the sense of ‘to desire.’ In contrast, 觉得 can mean ‘to feel’, ‘to have the opinion’, or ‘to give a comment’.

It can be a bit tricky at first, but this example helped me to see the differences between the three :

我喜欢看中国电影，因为我觉得看外国电影很有意思，可是我现在不想看一个电影。我只想在家看电视、吃饭和睡觉。

I like watching Chinese films because I think foreign movies are very interesting, but right now I don’t feel like watching a movie. I only want to stay home and watch TV, eat, and sleep.

Bed － 床（chuáng）  Sheets － 床单（chuáng dān） Pillow － 枕头（zhěn tou） Wardrobe － 衣柜（yī guì） Fireplace － 壁炉（bì lú） Television － 电视（diàn shì） Remote control － 遥控器（yáo kòng qì） Sofa － 沙发（shā fā）  Chair － 椅子（yǐ zi） Table － 桌子（zhuō zi）

Coffee table／side table － 咖啡桌（kāfēi zhuō）or 茶几（chá jī）

Table cloth － 桌布（zhuō bù） Picture － 照片（zhào piàn）  Staircase － 楼梯（lóu tī）  Plant － 植物（zhí wù）  Washing machine － 洗衣机（xǐ yī jī）  Shelf － 架子（jià zi）  Cupboard － 柜子（guì zi）   Heating － 加热器（jiā rè qì) Light － 灯（dēng） 

Light bulb － 灯泡（dēng pào） 

Carpet － 地毯（dì tǎn）  Curtains － 窗帘（chuānglián） Doors － 门（mén） Windows － 窗户（chuāng hù） Walls － 墙（qiáng） Ceiling － 棚顶（péng dǐng） Floor － 地板（dì bǎn）

＋Outside － 外面（wài miàn）