Text

她们是很好的朋友

Māsha shì Āndéliè de nǚpéngyou. Xiànzài tāmen dōu xuéxí

Māsha 是 Āndéliè 的女朋友。现在他们都学习

hànyǔ. Tāmen lǎoshī xìng Wáng, shì Zhōngguó rén. Wáng

汉语。他们老师姓 Wáng, 是中国人。Wáng

xiānsheng shì tāmen de lǎoshī, yě shì tāmen de péngyou.

先生是他们的老师、也是他们的朋友。

Māsha rènshi Zhōngguó liúxuéshēng Dīng Yún. Dīng Yún

Māsha 认识 中国 留学生 Dīng Yún. Dīng Yún

xuéxí éyǔ，yě xuéxí yīngyǔ. Māsha cháng qù xuésheng sùshè

学习俄语、也学习英语。Māsha 常去学生宿舍

kàn tā. Tāmen shì hěn hǎo de péngyou.

看她。她们是很好的朋友。

Notes

1. “Māsha 是 Āndéliè 的女朋友。” — “Masha is Andrei’s girlfriend.”

2. “Māsha 常去学生宿舍看她。” — “Masha often goes to the students’ dormitory to see her.”

3. “Māsha 认识中国留学生 Dīng Yún”. — “Masha knows Chinese student Ding Yun.”

   The meaning of “认识” goes beyond the simple “know”. In fact, first of all, the verb means “to recognize visually” and only after that “to know” as a special case of the main meaning. In Chinese you can say:

   “我认识她、她不认识我。” — I know her, but she don’t know me.

   The same goes for other nouns as direct objects after “认识” as “characters” (e.g., “I know these characters”), “dormitory” (I know (can imagine) how my brother’s dormitory looks like), “way” (know the way to...).

4. “Dīng Yún 学习俄语、也学习英语。” — “Ding Yun studies Russian and English languages.”

   In Chinese, the meaning “the language of a country” is conveyed by the morpheme “语” or “文” after the name of the country (if a country has “国” in its name, “国” is omitted), for example, “俄语”, “英语”, “法语” etc.

5. “她们是很好的朋友。” — “They are good friends.”

Phonetics Review

A brief summary of the finals and initials

The system of initials

1. Vowels predominate in Chinese syllables. A syllable can consist of two consonants at most, which can never follow each other but must always be separated by a vowel.
2. Modern Chinese has altogether 21 initials only a few of which are voiced, i.e. “r, m, n” and “I”, and the rest are all voiceless.
3. In the 21 initials there are 6 pairs of corresponding initials (12 in all) in which 6 are aspirated and the other are unaspirated. Since in Chinese aspiration or the lack of it is capable of differentiating meaning, care must be taken to pronounce the sounds correctly and not to confuse the aspirated sounds with the unaspirated ones or vice versa.
4. Every syllable in Chinese has its specific tone. Change of tone involves change of meaning. So, in learning a new word, we should bear in mind what tone it has as well as what change in tone there should be under a given condition.

A brief summary of the rules of phonetic spelling

Pronunciation drills and conversation practice

1. Sound discrimination

   (1) The aspirated and unaspirated sounds

    

   b — p
   d — t
   g — k

   z — c
   zh — ch
   j — q

   b — biǎoyáng (to praise)
   р — piāoyáng (to flutter)

   zh — zhīdao (to know)
   ch — chídào (to be late)

   d — dàifu (doctor)
   t — tàidu (attitude)

   j — dǎ jiǔ (to buy some wine)
   q — dǎ qiú (to play basketball)

   g — gānjìng (clean, neat)
   k — kàn qīng (to see clearly)

   z — xǐ zǎo (to take a bath)
   с — chú cǎo (to weed, weeding)

   (2) Alveolar-finals and velar-finals

   an
   ang
   ian
   iang
   uan
   uang
   en
   eng
   in
   ing

   dànshì
   dāngshí
   liánxì
   liángkuai
   zhuānjiā
   zhuāngjia
   pénzi
   péngyou
   rénmín
   rénmíng

   (but, however)
   (at that time)
   (contact)
   (nice and cool)
   (expert)
   (crops)
   (basin)
   (friend)
   (people)
   (a personal name)




2. Half 3^rd tone

   Nǐ hē chá ma?
   Nǐ xī yān ma?
   Nǐ yòng cídiǎn ma?

   Wǒ xuéxí hànyǔ.
   Wǒ rènshi tā.
   Wǒ zhù sùshè.

   Nǐ xìng shénme?
   Nǐ kàn shénme?
   Nǐ jiào shénme?

3. Trisyllabic words.

   túshūguǎn

   (library)
   yuèlǎnshì

   (reading-room)
   liúxuéshēng

   (foreign student)
   shōuyīnjī

   (radio)
   Éluósī

   (Russia, Russian)
   zhàoxiàngjī

   (camera)
   zìxíngchē

   (bicycle)
   huǒchēzhàn

   (railway station)
   bàngōngshì

   (office)

   Try to pronounce the following polysyllables in quick succession:

   fùxí kèwén

   (to review the text)
   yùxí shēngcí

   (to preview new words)
   zhùyì fāyīn

   (to pay attention to pronunciation)
   zhùyì shēngdiào

   (to pay attention to tones)
   zài niàn yíbiàn

   (Read it again.)
   zài xiě yíbiàn

   (Write it once more.)

Tone combinations

The table includes all possible tone combinations of disyllabic words and word combinations of the 12 lessons. Use it for phonetic exercise or warming-up

4. Read out the following poem:

Jìng Yè Sī

Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng,
Yí shì dì shàng shuāng.
Jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè,
Dī tóu sī gùxiāng.

Lǐ Bái

Homesickness On a Quiet Night

On the ground before my bed
Is spread the bright moonlight,
But I take it for frost
When I wake up at the first sight.
Then I look up at the bright full moon in the sky,
Suddenly homesickness strikes me as I bow my head
With a deep sigh.

Li Bai

1. Read out the following dialogues:

2. Say as much as you can about each of the following pictures:

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

Disyllabic words with different combinations of tones in the syllables:

现代；去年；认真；好汉；报纸；辞海；十分；
工作；茶叶；生产；统一；吸收; 医学；潮流。

Disyllabic words with a neutral tone in the second syllable:

地方; 休息；行了；两个；知识；在乎；奶奶；孩子。

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

1. Zhè shì wǒ gēgede nǚpéngyou.
2. Wǒde péngyou shì Wàiyǔ xuéyuànde lǎoshī.
3. Wǒ xuéxí hànyǔ, wǒ gēge xuéxí yīngyǔ.
4. Wǒ cháng qù liúxuéshēng sùshè kàn wǒde Zhōngguó péngyou.
5. Qǐng wèn, nǐ rènshi tā ma? — Rènshi, tā shì wǒmen xuéyuànde lǎoshī, tā shì Zhōngguó rén.
6. Wǒ bú rènshi tā gēge, wǒ rènshi tā dìdi.
7. Nǐmen xiànzài máng ma?
8. Wǒmen shì hěn hǎode péngyou.
9. Zhè shì wǒde yīngyǔ cídiǎn, wǒ cháng yòng.
10. Nǐde fǎyǔ lǎoshī xìng shénme?

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

nǚ 厕所; fǎyǔ 杂志; nǚlǎoshī; yīngyǔ 报纸; yīnghàn (英汉) cídiǎn; nǚdàifu; nǚxuésheng; 汉俄 cídiǎn; 日语 huàbào; 朝鲜语; 德语 lǎoshī; 俄汉 cídiǎn.

Translate the following sentences from English into Chinese.

1. Do you know his friend? — I know (him).
   
2. Excuse me, what’s his (sur)name? — His surname is Wang.
   
3. Do you know each other? — This is Mr. Ding. He is my friend and my teacher.
   
4. Where is my dictionary? — It’s here. — Do you need (lit.: use) it now? — No, take the dictionary back (lit.: return).
   
5. Do they all study here? — No, not all.
   
6. My friend is living in the dormitory for foreign students, on the third floor (Am.), no. 305.
   
7. I don’t know neither his elder brother nor his younger brother.
   



8. Where are you going? — I’m going to my friend’s dormitory.
   
9. Do you often go there? — Yes, I do/often.
   
10. Chinese students invite us to the dormitory to drink tea.
    
11. Is he in China now? — No, he is in France now.
    
12. They all study English in the Institute of Foreign Languages.
    
13. Do you know Mr. Wang? What is he (lit.: who)? — Yes, I know him. He is a doctor.
    
14. He is a friend of my father. We often go see him.
    
15. I don’t often go there. I’m very busy.
    

Congratulations! You’ve finished the basics.