大家好！我是 Everyday Easy Chinese 的何老师。
In our first Chinese language lesson, we will learn how to do self introductions in Mandarin. We will go through the vocabulary and grammar needed to help you create sentences and ask questions so that you can hold up your first conversation in Chinese.
Vocabulary
Here are several common words that can help you in introducing yourself.
1. Person/People: 人 Rén (This will help you say your nationality or ethnicity)
2. Country: 国 Guó
3. To call/Be called: 叫 Jiào
4. I/,Me: 我 Wǒ
5. You: 你 Nǐ
6. He: 他 Tā (If you are referring to a female, you can write the word 她 Tā , or if you are referring to an animal or object, you can write 它 Tā which means “it”.)
7. Good: 好 Hǎo
Grammar
This is the easy part because Chinese grammar is quite similar to English grammar. For example, in English, we will say “My name is Emma”. In Chinese, this will follow a similar structure and will be “我(I)叫(called)爱玛(Emma)”. Let's learn a few more bits of grammar to help us build sentences.
1. Am/Are/Is: 是 Shì (是 can also mean “yes” depending on the context.)
2. Come from: 从..来 Cóng... Lái
3. The closed question particle: 吗? Ma (You add this particle onto the end of the sentence to turn it into a question. This is mainly used for “yes or no” questions.)
4. The open question particle: 呢? Ne (You add this particle onto the end of the sentence to turn it into a question. This is mainly used for open ended questions.)
Let’s make some sentences with what we have learnt.
Sentences
1. 你好 Hello
2. 我叫爱玛 I am called Emma.
3. 我是爱玛 I am Emma. ( 叫 "call or be called" can also be used and this has the same meaning as using 是 which means "am")
4. 我是美国人 I am American. To say which country you are from, you will start with the: -Pronoun 我/你/他 (Same as in English)
-是 which means am/are/is
- The country, so in this case美国 (But you can also add the word 英 in front of the word 国 (country) which will mean England. To say that you are a person of that country, you will add the word 人 (person) behind the word "country". So 美国人 means American and 英国人 means British.)
You can also say you “come from” a place. For example:
5. 我从美国来 I come from America. To say where you are from, you would use:
- Pronoun: 我/你/他/她/它
- Grammar: 从xx来. (Replace the blank with the name of the country and it will read "I come from xx."
Rather than have a one-sided conversation. It is also good to ask questions!
Let’s learn how to ask questions:
Questions
1. 你是中国人吗？
- 你means You，是 means are，中国means Chinese, 人 means person. (This sentence means You are a Chinese person.)
To change this into a question, we will add the word 吗 at the end to turn the sentence into a question “Are you Chinese?”
2. 你呢？How about you?
- 你means You. If we add the open ended question particle 呢？ We change this to “And You?” or “How about you?”
Let’s practice now!
How would you say….
1. Hello, I am called XX.
2. I am from xx.
3. Are you Chinese?
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