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Introducing Chinese

1 PRONUNCIATION

1.1 Vowels

SINGLE VOWELS

There are seven basic single vowels:

a	similar to a in ah
e	similar to a in ago
ê	similar to e in ebb (this sound never occurs alone and is transcribed as e, as in ei, ie, ue)
i	similar to ee in cheese (spelled y when not preceded by a consonant)
o	similar to oe in toe
u	similar to oo in boot (spelled w when not preceded by a consonant)
ü	similar to German ü in über or French u in tu; or you can get ü by saying i and rounding your lips at the same time (spelled u after j, q, x; spelled yu when not preceded by a consonant)

VOWEL COMBINATIONS

These single vowels combine with each other or with the consonants of n or ng to form what are technically known as diphthongs. These combinations are pronounced as a single sound, with a little more emphasis on the first part of the sound.

You can learn these combinations in four groups:

Group 1:	diphthongs starting with a/e/ê
ai	similar to y in my
ao	similar to ow in how
an
ang
en
eng
ei	similar to ay in may

Group 2:	diphthongs starting with i
ia
ie	similar to ye in yes
iao
iou	similar to you (spelled iu when preceded by a consonant)
ian
ien	similar to in (spelled in when preceded by a consonant)
ieng	similar to En in English (spelled ing when preceded by a consonant)
iang	similar to young
iong

Group 3:	diphthongs starting with u/o
ua
uo
uai	similar to why in British English
uei	similar to way (spelled ui when preceded by a consonant)
uan
uen	(spelled un when preceded by a consonant)
ueng
uang
ong

Group 4:	diphthongs starting with ü
üe	used only after j, q, x; spelled ue
üen	used only after j, q, x; spelled un
üan	used only after j, q, x; spelled uan

1.2 Consonants

Consonants may be grouped in the following ways.

Group 1:	These consonants are almost the same in Chinese and English.
CHINESE	ENGLISH
m	m
n	n
f	f
l	l
s	s
r	r
b	pronounced as hard p (as in speak)
p	p (as in peak)
g	pronounced as hard k (as in ski)
k	k (as in key)
d	pronounced as hard t (as in star)
t	t (as in tar)

Group 2:	Some modification is needed to get these Chinese sounds from English.
CHINESE	ENGLISH
j	as j in jeep (but unvoiced, not round-lipped)
q	as ch in cheese (but not round-lipped)
x	as sh in sheep (but not round-lipped)
c	as ts as in cats (make it long)
z	as ds as in beds (but unvoiced, and make it long)

Group 3: No English counterparts

Chinese zh, ch, and sh have no English counterparts. You can learn to say zh, ch and sh starting from z, c and s. For example, say s (which is almost the same as the English s in sesame) and then roll up your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. You get sh.

TONES

Chinese is a tonal language, i.e. a sound pronounced in different tones is understood as different words. So the tone is an indispensable component of the pronunciation of a word.

1.3 Basic tones

There are four basic tones. The following five-level pitch graph shows the values of the four tones:

• The First Tone is a high, level tone and is represented as ¯, e.g. 妈 mā (meaning mother, mom).

• The Second Tone is a high, rising tone and is represented by the tone mark ́, e.g. 麻 má (hemp or sesame).

• The Third Tone is a falling, then rising tone. As you can see from the pitch graph it falls from below the middle of the voice range to nearly the bottom and then rises to a point near the top. It is represented by the tone mark ˇ, e.g. 马 mǎ (horse).

• The Fourth Tone is a falling tone. It falls from high to low and is represented by the tone mark ̀, e.g. 骂 mà (curse).

In Chinese speech, as in English speech, some sounds are unstressed, i.e. pronounced short and soft. They do not have any of the four tones. Such sounds are said to have Neutral Tone. Sounds with the neutral tone are not marked. For example in 爸爸 bàba (daddy) the first syllable is pronounced in the fourth tone and the second syllable in the neutral tone, i.e. unstressed.

TONE CHANGES

Tones may undergo changes in actual speech (“tone sandhi”). The third tone, when followed by a first, second, fourth or neutral tone sound, loses its final rise and stops at the low pitch. Followed by another third tone sound, it becomes the second tone. This is a general rule and the notation of third tone sounds remains unchanged.

For example, in 所以 suǒyǐ (therefore, so), notation remains the third tone for both syllables, but the word is actually pronounced like suóyǐ.

Two important words 不 bù (no) and 一 yī (one) also undergo tone changes. You will find the details of their tone changes under these entries.

1.4 Syllables: Distinct units

Normally a consonant and a vowel, said in a particular tone, merge to form a syllable in Chinese. Every syllable is a distinct unit in speech. Learners should say each syllable clearly and give full value to most syllables in speech. The general impression of Chinese speech, described in musical terms, is staccato rather than legato (which could be used to describe English).

1.5 Pinyin: the romanization scheme to show pronunciation

As Chinese writing normally does not indicate pronunciation, a romanization scheme, known as pinyin, is used to represent the sounds and tones of Chinese, as in this dictionary. Pinyin is useful for learning the phonetics of Mandarin.

2 WRITING CHINESE: 汉字 Hànzi

Chinese is not phonetic like most European languages (in varying degrees). Chinese is written in logograms, known as 汉字 (Hànzi) and generally referred to as “Chinese characters”, or “Sinograms.”

2.1 Chinese characters as syllables

Each Chinese character is pronounced as a syllable. It is of course important to be able to read a character with the correct pronunciation.

2.2 The composition of Chinese characters: Meaningful components

Chinese characters can be analyzed into components. It is acknowledged that there are three kinds of components. Of the three, the most interesting to learners of Chinese is a group of components that convey certain meanings. The presence of such a component in a character gives you some clue to its meaning of the character. Hence, learning the meaning of these component parts will deepen your understanding of characters you know, and help you guess the meaning of unfamiliar characters. See List 1 on page xv.

2.3 The writing of Chinese characters

STROKES

Each Chinese character is composed of strokes. The table below shows the basic strokes. Recognizing the strokes in a character is helpful for finding a character or radical in the Stroke Index, List of Radicals and Radical Index. Each of the strokes shown in the table is counted as one stroke.

STROKE ORDER

For the character to look correct, its strokes should be written in the correct order. Knowing the order will also help you remember characters. The general rules of stroke order are as shown below.

SIMPLIFIED AND TRADITIONAL CHARACTERS

The Chinese government simplified hundreds of Chinese characters in mid-1950 by reducing the numbers of their strokes. Such simplified characters are called 简体字 jiǎntǐzì. This dictionary uses jiantizi. Traditional versions (also known as complicated characters) are still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and they are shown after “Trad” where applicable, e.g.:

学 xué Trad 學

3 VOCABULARY: Word-formation

Chinese words are either of one syllable or more than one syllable (mostly two syllables). When they are made up of two or more syllables, their meanings are usually transparent; that is, the way a word is formed tells you a lot about its meaning. Therefore it is very helpful to know the meanings of the components in a word and the way the word is formed, and it also makes understanding the word easier and more interesting.

There are six basic word-formation methods:

• Compounding: the components of a word are complementary to each other in meaning and are of the same status. For example:

重 once again + 复 repeat → 重复 repeat

• Modification: one component modifies the other. For example:

外 outside + 国 country → 外国 foreign country

• Verb+object: the word has a verb-and-object relationship. For example:

发 develop + 烧 burning, fever → 发烧 to run a fever

• Verb+complementation: the word has a verb-and-complement relationship, that is, the first component is a verb or an adjective and the second one modifies it. For example:

提 raise + 高 high → 提高 raise

• Suffixation: the word contains a suffix. For example:

本 a book + 子 nominal suffix → 本子 notebook

• Idioms: the word is an idiomatic expression. For example:

马上 → at once, immediately

4 GRAMMAR

4.1 Main features of Chinese grammar

TOPIC+COMMENT STRUCTURE

The basic principle in making Chinese sentences is to follow the “topic+comment” structure. “Topic” means the subject matter you want to talk about, and “comment” is the information you give about the subject matter. To make a Chinese sentence, you simply first mention the subject matter you want to talk about, and then say what you have to say about it. For example, you can say 那本书 nà běn shū (that book) first as the “topic” and then add “comment”:

那本书 Nà běn shū (that book) + 很有意思 hěn yǒu yìsi (very interesting) → That book is very interesting.

那本书 Nà běn shū (that book) + 卖完了 mài wán le (sold out)→That book has been sold.

那本书 Nà běn shū (that book) + 你有吗 nǐ yǒu ma (do you have) → Do you have that book?

那本书 Nà běn shū (that book) + 语言很优美 yǔyán hěn yōuměi (language is beautiful) → The language of that book is beautiful.

ELLIPSIS OF SENTENCE ELEMENTS

Chinese speakers may leave out words that are supposed to be understood, and therefore need not be spoken. Subjects and conjunctions are often omitted. For example, you may translate the English sentence If you like it, you may buy it, but if you don’t like it, you don’t have to, into the Chinese sentence 喜欢就买, 不喜欢就别买。 Xǐhuan jiùmǎi, bù xǐhuan jiù bié mǎi. Literally, it means “Like it, and buy, don’t like then don’t buy.” Compare the two sentences, and you will find that some English words, such as if, you, it, and but are not translated.

WORD CLASSES: FLEXIBILITY, NO INFLECTION

Chinese words do not have inflections, i.e. they do not change to indicate grammatical categories. For example, the verb 去 qù (to go) is invariably 去 qù; there is no past form or any other inflected form of this verb. Neither do Chinese words normally have formal markers of word class. Consequently it is rather easy for a word to be used in more than one word class. This relative flexibility in word classes, however, does not mean that Chinese does not have word classes (see Section 4.2).

MEASURE WORDS AND PARTICLES

Measure words (量词 liàngcí) and particles (助词 zhùcí) are two word classes found in Chinese but not in English and most other languages.

Measure words are usually required when a noun is modified by a numeral. For example, 两书 liǎng shū is unacceptable; you must use the measure word 本 běn between the numeral and the noun: 两本书 liǎng běn shū (two books). Furthermore, Chinese nouns require specific measure words to go with them. For example, the noun 书 shū (book) must be used with the measure word 本 běn. See List 2 on pages xvi–xvii for the common measure words.

In Chinese grammar, particles are words attached to other words or at the end of a sentence to indicate grammatical concepts or to express emotions. For example, the particles 了 le, 着 zhe, 过 guo are attached to verbs to indicate, respectively, whether the actions denoted are completed, in progress or past experiences.

4.2 Word classes

Following are brief explanations of the basic terms in Chinese grammar used in this dictionary. (A word of warning: it is a rather complicated matter to define grammatical terms accurately. Here we will be content with some general but useful ideas.)

ADJECTIVE	a describing word, a word that describes people, things or actions, typically used before a noun
ADVERB	a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb
CONJUNCTION	a word used to link two words, phrases or sentences, indicating certain relationships between them
IDIOM	a set phrase, the meaning of which cannot be readily derived from its components
INTERJECTION	a word that expresses strong emotions
MEASURE WORD	a word that connects a numeral to a noun. Measure words are a special feature of Chinese; a list of measure words is given in List 2
MODAL VERB	a word used before a verb to indicate necessity, possibility, willingness, etc.
NOUN	a naming word, a word that names people, animals, plants, things, ideas, etc.
NUMERAL	a word that represents a number, typically used with a noun
ONOMATOPOEIA	a word that imitates the sounds of a thing or an action
PARTICLE	a word used with another word, phrase, or sentence to indicate certain grammatical meanings or to express strong emotions
PREPOSITION	a word used before a noun or pronoun to indicate time, place, direction, manner, reason of an action, etc.
PRONOUN	a word that is used in the place of a noun, a verb, an adjective, etc.
VERB	an action word, a word that indicates what somebody does or feels

4.3 Other grammar terms

ATTRIBUTE	the element that modifies the subject or object of a sentence; or, in word-formation analysis, a word that modifies a noun
ADVERBIAL	the element that is used before the predicate of a sentence and modifies it; or, in word-formation analysis, a word that precedes a verb or an adjective to modify it
COMPLEMENT	the element that is used after the predicate of a sentence and modifies it; or, in word-formation analysis, a word that follows a verb or an adjective to modify it
IMPERATIVE SENTENCE	a command or a request
OBJECT	the element that follows a predicative verb, typically to indicate the target of an action
PREDICATE	the comment or information about the subject, typically a verb or an adjective
PREFIX	an additional element that immediately precedes the word it is attached to
SUBJECT	the topic of a sentence, what the speaker wants to talk about, typically a noun or pronoun
SUFFIX	an additional element that closely follows the word it is attached to