Chinese Vocab




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Tim Ferriss 13 (8) Sentences for Chinese

Learning Mandarin Chinese This post is a public workbook for deconstructing the basic structures of Mandarin Chinese, following Tim Ferriss’ blog post on  How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour Six Lines of Gold The apple is red. 苹果是红色的 Píngguǒ shì hóngsè de apple-fruit yes red colour of It is John’s apple. 这是约翰的苹果 Zhè shì yuēhàn de píngguǒ This is John of apple-fruit I give John the apple. 我给约翰的苹果 Wǒ gěi yuēhàn de píngguǒ I give John of apple-fruit We give him the apple. 我们给他苹果 Wǒmen gěi tā píngguǒ We group give him apple-fruit He gives it to John. 他把它交给约翰 Tā bǎ tā jiāo gěi yuēhàn He did it cross give John She gives it to him. 她给了他 Tā gěile tā She gives the he Verbs are not conjugated 给 gěi – “to give” 是 shì – “to be” Mandarin placement of indirect objects (John), direct objects (the apple), and their respective pronouns (him, it) appears similar to English. Mandarin Negations (“I don’t give…”) and...
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Chinese Chengyu, Sayings and Idioms

Chinese are patient, also in business. This idiom expresses the notion that success is not achieved overnight: 一蹴而就 Literally it means one step then success The idiom is most often used with a negation in front. I like the idiom especially today used about the Belt and Road Initiative which has the word "road" in its name. The idiom contains the word step 蹴 and thus goes well to describe the Belt and Road initiative which definitely is not something you can achieve overnight. It requires patience and effort and cooperation to get there. It is therefore not 一蹴而就。Learning Chinese is exactly the same. The result will emerge following many sustained steps.  ------------- This idiom will impress your business partner but especially so if you use China in the sentence 举足轻重 It means pivotal, important, significant, decisive role For example, you can say (...) 中国占有举足轻重的地位 (.. in our industry/company/country) China plays a pivotal role China probably also plays a piv...
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13 Mandarin Chinese Grammar Patterns and Structures We Love to Hate

The conventional wisdom is that Mandarin Chinese grammar is easy. After all, the hard parts are Chinese tones, characters, and chengyu , right? If you’re no longer a newbie, you might be cursing that conventional wisdom right now. Because we all know that intermediate or advanced Chinese grammar is actually really hard. Here are tips on Chinese grammar patterns and structures that I wish I’d heard when I started learning Chinese grammar. Why Chinese Grammar Patterns and Structures Are So Hard Before digging in, let’s discuss some of the reasons why Chinese grammar is difficult. First, the word order in a sentence is different from English, and this requires getting used to. (But not always – here is a simple introduction to some Chinese sentence structures ). Second, there are new concepts that have no real counterpart in English (eg. 了) – and these can throw you in for a loop because there is no analogue. Third, there are Chinese grammar patterns and structures whic...
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