Text

她住多少号?

Zhōngguó xuéshēng: Tā bú zài, qǐng zuò.

Zhōngguó xuéshēng: Tā zài sùshè.

Zhōngguó xuéshēng: Sì céng sì’èrsān hào.

Notes

1. “Dīng Yún 在吗?” — “Is Ding Yun here?”

   “在” here is a verb. “在” also has a meaning “to be located”. E.g., “Běijīng 在中国, Mòsīkē 在 Éluósī”.

2. “她住多少号?” — “What’s her room number?”

3. “四层四二三号.” — “No. 423, 3^rd floor (Br.) / 4^th floor (Am.)”.

Pronunciation drills and conversation practice

Initials	z c s
Finals	-i [] er

1. The four tones

   zāi	zái	zǎi	zài	—	zài ma
   zuō	zuó	zuǒ	zuò	—	qǐng zuò
   cēng	céng	(cěng)	cèng
   sī	sí	sǐ	sì	—	sì céng
   sū	sú	sǔ	sù	—	sùshè
   sān	sán	sǎn	sàn
   (ēr)	ér	ěr	èr
   duō	duó	duǒ	duò	}	duōshǎo
   shāo	sháo	shǎo	shào

2. Combinations of tones

   “´” + “ˉ”
   Chángjiāng
   túshū (books)
   niánqīng
   juéxīn

   “´” + “´”
   shíxí
   xuéxí
   Chángchéng
   huídá
   Huánghé
   yínháng

   “´” + “˘”
   Cháoxiǎn
   cáichǎn (property)
   niúnǎi
   píjiǔ

   “´” + “`”
   xuéyuàn
   búcuò (not bad)
   búduì (not right)
   búzài
   bú kèqi
   bú xiè
   bú kàn

   “´” + “˚”
   péngyou
   érzi
   bízi (nose)
   xuésheng
   shénme

   “˘” + “´”
   nǐ máng
   hěn máng
   Fǎguó
   Měiguó
   nǎ guó
   qǐchuáng

3. Final “er” and retroflex final

   èr
   nàr
   nǎr
   zhèr

   érzi
   ěrduo
   nǚ’ér
   wánr

   (son)
   (ear)
   (daughter)
   (to play)

4. Read out the following dissyllabic words:

   zìjǐ
   cuòwu
   qúnzi
   cóngcǐ
   xǐzǎo
   chīfàn
   cānguān
   qīzi
   shēngcí
   hànzì
   Éluósī

   (self)
   (mistake, error)
   (skirt)
   (from now on)
   (to take a bath)
   (to eat)
   (to visit)
   (wife)
   (new word)
   (Chinese character)
   (Russia)

5. Try to pronounce the following polysyllables in quick succession:

   shuō hànyǔ
   niàn shēngcí
   xiě hànzì
   tīng lùyīn
   zuò liànxí
   fānyì jùzi
   jiǎng yǔfǎ
   Dǒng bu dǒng?
   Dǒng.
   Duì bu duì?
   Bú duì.

   (to speak Chinese)
   (to read aloud new words)
   (to write Chinese characters)
   (to listen to recordings)
   (to do exercises)
   (to translate sentences)
   (to explain grammar)
   (Do you understand?)
   (Yes, I do.)
   (Right or wrong?)
   (Wrong.)

1. Asking for someone

   (1)
   A: Dīng Yún zài ma?
   В: Zài. Qǐng jìn.

   Wáng nǚshì
   Dīng gūniang
   Jīn dàifu

   (2)

   A: Qǐngwèn, Dīng Yún zài ma?
   В: Tā bú zài.
   A: Tā zài nǎr?
   В: Tā zài sùshè.

   yīyuàn
   xuéyuàn
   nàr

2. Asking about addresses

   (1)

   A: Nǐ zhù nǎr?
   B: Wǒ zhù zhèr.
   A: Nǐ zhù duōshao hào?
   B: Wǒ zhù sì céng sì sān’èr hào.

   èr — èrlíngyī
   sì — si’èrwǔ

   (2)

   A: Nín guì xìng?
   B: Wǒ xìng Dīng, wǒ jiào Dīng Yún.
   A: Nín zhù nǎr?
   B: Wǒ zhù yī’èr wǔ hǎo.

   422
   sì’èr’èr
   124
   yī’èrsì

3. Asking the way

A: Qǐngwèn, Wàiyǔ xuéyuàn zài nǎr?
B: Zài nàr.

sùshè
cèsuǒ
yīyuàn

Phonetics

How to pronounce these initials and finals

Initial z [ts‘] ≈ [tz]

The initial z [ts‘] is produced by first pressing the tip of the tongue against the back of the upper teeth, then lowering it to let the air squeeze out through the narrow opening thus made. It is unaspirated. The vocal cords do not vibrate when producing this sound.

Initial с [ts’] ≈ [ts]

The initial с [ts’] is an aspirated consonant corresponding to the unaspirated “z”.

Initial s [s]

The initial “s” is produced by pressing the tip of the tongue to (but not against) the back of the upper teeth, forming a narrow opening through which the air escapes causing audible friction. The vocal cords do not vibrate when producing it.

Simple final -i []

The letter “-i” is sometimes used to stand for the blade-alveolar vowel [] when it occurs after such initials as “z”, “c” and “s”. (Care must be taken, however, not to pronounce “-i” as [i].) The sound “-i” comes only after “z”, “с” and “s”. It never comes after any other initials, nor does it occur as an independent final.

Simple final er [ǝr]

The simple final “er [ǝr]” is produced in the same way as but with the tongue curled and raised towards the hard palate.

Retroflex final

The final “er” is sometimes attached to another final to form a retroflex final and when thus used, it is no longer an independent syllable. A retroflex final is represented by the letter “r” added to the final. In actual writing, “儿” is added to the character in question, as in “wánr (玩儿)”.

Rules of phonetic spelling

When a syllable beginning with “a”, “o” or “e” follows another syllable in such an ambiguous way, that division of the two syllables could be confused, it is essential to put a dividing mark “’” in between, e.g. “nǚ’ér”.

Grammar

Sentences with a verbal predicate

A sentence with a verbal predicate is one in which the main element of the predicate is a verb. One way to make such a sentence negative is to put the adverb “不” before the predicative verb, indicating “One does not, will not do something or is not willing to do something”.

The object, if the verb takes one, usually comes after the verb.

Listen to the following word combinations. Write them in transcription pinyin. Lay tone marks:

菜—在—柴；错—坐—所；册—则；
走— 搜；尺—词—字—机—气；
增—层—称；送—崇—总；
层次；再见；零下；多数；座位；
测验；居住；设施；四季；号码。

Write the following sentences in Chinese characters adding tone marks above them:

1. Qǐng wèn, lǎoshī zài ma? — Тā bú zài.
2. Dìdi zài nǎr? — Zài Wàiyǔ xuéyuàn.
3. Huānyíng, huānyíng, qǐng zuò.
4. Nǐ zhù duōshao hào? — Sān wǔ’èr hào.
5. Wǒde péngyou zhù èr céng èr sì wǔ hào.
6. Qǐng wèn, liúxuéshēng sùshè zài nǎr?
7. Qǐng zuò, qǐng hē chá.
8. Dàifu bú zài.
9. Wàiyǔ xuéyuànde sùshè dōu hěn hǎo.
10. Gēge zài liúxuéshēng sùshè.

Write the following word combinations and sentences in Chinese characters and pinyin, lay tone marks:

Zhōngguó 医院;zài 这儿; liúxuéshēng 医院;北京医 院;美国 liúxuéshēng sùshè; zài 那儿.

1. Qǐng wèn, 医院 zài nǎr? — zài 那儿.
2. 厕所 zài nǎr?
3. Lǎoshī bú zài, tā zài 美国.
4. 王 dàifu zài nǎr? — Zài liúxuéshēng 医院.
5. 王先生zhù sān céng èr líng sì hào.
6. 小姐, qǐng jìn, qǐng zuò.
7. Wǒde 世界 dìtú zài nǎr? — Zài 这儿. — Xièxie.

Translate the following sentences from English into Chinese.

1. Excuse me, is doctor Wang here? — Yes, come on in, please, take a seat.
   
2. Is Mr. Xie here? — (No,) not here. — Where is he? — He is in the Institute.
   
3. Where is Master Ding? — He is in the dormitory.
   
4. Where’s Mum? — Mum is in the Institute.
   
5. Where is your map? — Here.
   
6. Where do you live? — I live in the dormitory.
   
7. What room (lit.: number) do you live in? — I live on the second floor (Am.), no. 241.
   



8. Excuse me, where is the Institute of Foreign Languages? — There.
   
9. Are you a student? — Yes, I am a student of the Institute of Foreign Languages.
   
10. What do you study? — I study Chinese.
    
11. Is Miss Jin in (the) hospital? — She is not (there), she is in the dormitory.
    
12. Where is W.C.? — W.C. is on the third floor (Am.).
    
13. Will you drink coffee? — No, I’ll drink tea.
    
14. Is this Huenghe? — No, this is Changjiang.
    
15. Where is Huenghe? — Look, (it’s) here.
    

Do you know?

China’s Minority Nationalities and Their Languages

China is a country of many nationalities, with 94% of her population belonging to the Han nationality. Apart from the Hans (hànzú, 汉族), there are more than 50 other nationalities such as the Monggols (Mongolians), the Huis, the Zangs (Tibetans), the Uygurs (Uighurs), the Miaos, the Yis, the Zhuangs, the Buy is, the Koreans, the Mans (Manchus) and the Gaoshans.

All of China’s minority nationalities have languages of their own (some have their own written languages) with the exception only of the Hui, Man and She nationalities who use Chinese or the language of the Hans. The Chinese Constitution stipulates that all the nationalities of China have the freedom to use and further develop their spoken and written languages. In order to rapidly develop the culture and education of the minority nationalities, the government has helped the Zhuang, Miao, Jingpo and other minority nationalities to devise their own written languages based on the Latin alphabet or to improve their existing writing system.