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这是我朋友

* These are Russian names. Sorry, guys, but the audio was made for Russian students, and it cannot be changed, therefore, the names cannot be changed too. Anyway, strange names, words, sounds... are all the part of studying Chinese, so... enjoy! :)

Notes

1. “这是我爸爸。” — “This is my father.” The expression “这是” is usually used to introduce one person to another, and the expression “我是” is used when one introduces oneself. (“是” in both expressions is pronounced light).
2. “你们好。” — “Hello” is used to greet more than one person.

Pronunciation drills and conversation practice

Initials	zh sh
Finals	-i [] iou (-iu) eng

1. The four tones and neutral tone

   zhē	zhé	zhě	zhè	}	zhè shì
   shī	shí	shǐ	shì

   bā	bá	bǎ	bà	—	bàba
   mā	má	mǎ	mà	—	māma
   shā	shá	shǎ	shà

   pēng	péng	pěng	pèng	}	péngyou
   yōu	yóu	yǒu	yòu

2. Sound discrimination

   zhēn — zhēng
   shuō — shōu
   liú — lóu
   lè — liè

   dàng — dèng
   zhǐ — zhě
   shé — shí

3. Tone discrimination (2^nd tone and 1^st tone)

   péng — pēng
   zhí — zhī
   shéng — shēng

   shé — shē
   zhóu — zhōu
   shén — shēn

4. Tone changes — half 3^rd tone

   wǒ māma
   wǒ gēge
   wǒ péngyou
   wǒ dìdi
   wǒ bàba
   wǒmen
   hǎo ma

   nǐ māma
   nǐ gēge
   nǐ péngyou
   nǐ dìdi
   nǐ bàba
   nǐmen
   nǐ ne

5. Read out the following phrases:

   tā māma
   tā bàba

   tā péngyou
   tā hǎo

Identifying people or objects

1. Father and Mother

   Zhè shì wǒ bàba / māma.

   Zhè shì tā bàba / māma.

2. Introducing one person to another

   A: Zhè shì Māsha.

   B: Nǐ hǎo!

3. Introducing oneself

   A: Nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì Āndéliè.
   В: Nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì Māsha.

4. Greeting each other

   1. A:
      B:

      A:         
      B, C, D:

   2. 
      Nǐ bàba máng ma?
      Wǒ bàba hěn máng.
      (Read the phrases aloud, then replace the bold word with the following words:
      māma, péngyou)
   
   
   3. A: Nǐ bàba hǎo ma?
      В: Тā hěn hǎo.
      A: Nǐ māma ne?
      В: Тā yě hěn hǎo.
      (gēge, dìdi, māma, péngyou)
   
   
   4. A: Nǐ máng ma?
      В: Wǒ bù máng.
      A: Nǐ péngyou máng ma?
      B: Wǒ péngyou bù máng.
      A: Nǐ gēge, nǐ dìdi ne?
      B: Tāmen bù máng.

Phonetics

How to pronounce these initials and finals

Initial zh [tʂ] ≈ [ʤ]

The initial zh [tʂ] is a blade-palatal, unaspirated voiceless affricate. It is produced by curling the tip of the tongue and raising it against the front part of the hard palate, allowing a narrow opening between the tongue-tip and the hard palate for the air to squeeze out. The vocal cords do not vibrate in pronouncing it.

Initial sh [ʂ] ≈ [ʃ]

The initial sh [ʂ] is a blade-palatal voiceless fricative. It is produced by curling the tip of the tongue and raising it to the hard palate, leaving a narrow opening between them to allow the air to squeeze out through it. The vocal cords do not vibrate in pronouncing it.

Simple final -i []

The letter “i” is used to stand for the blade-palatale vowel [] after the initials “sh, zh” (and “ch” and “r” to be introduced in the next two lessons). In order to distinguish the simple final “i []” from the simple final “i [i]”, “i []” written as “-i” when it stands alone. In pronouncing such syllables as “zhi” and “chi”, the tongue is kept still, and care must be taken not to pronounce it as the simple final “i [i]” which is never found after “zh, ch, sh” or “r”.

Compound final iou [iəu]

The compound final iou [iəu] is produced by first lowering the tongue from the position of “i” to that for “o”, then raising the tongue fom the position of “o” to that of “u”. The compound final “iou” is written as “iu” when it comes after an initial and the tone-graph is placed on the last element, e.g. “liù”.

Listen to the following one-syllable words. Write them in transcription pinyin. Lay tone marks:

只; 使; 六; 牛; 梦; 门; 丢; 等; 疼; 说;
捉; 朋; 胖; 省; 深; 商; 跟; 更; 争; 针;
周; 受; 比; 批; 某; 谬; 圣; 上; 地;
报纸; 头疼; 上课; 深刻; 耕地。

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

1. Zhè shì wǒ gēge.
2. Dìdi hěn máng.
3. Nǐ bàba, māma hǎo ma? — Tāmen dōu hěn hǎo.
4. Wǒ bù máng, wǒ péngyou yě bù máng.

Do you know?

Chinese Phonetic Alphabet pinyin

The transcription system pinyin (pīnyīn, 拼音) is the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet (pīnyīn zìmǔ, 拼音字母). “The Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet”, which was adopted at the First Plenary Session of the First National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on February 21, 1958, is a set of symbols used to transliterate Chinese characters and combine the speech sounds of the common speech into syllables. The scheme makes use of the Latin alphabet, modified to meet the needs of the Chinese language. The scheme, which will form the foundation for the creation of a Chinese alphabetic system of writing, is being used throughout the country to facilitate the learning of Chinese characters, help unify pronunciation and popularize the common speech. The scheme has for years been used among foreign learners of Chinese as well and has been found much useful and helpful.