| 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.
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 xiv.
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: 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