How to Speak Chinese

Chinese (中文 or "zhōngwén") is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken mostly in the People's Republic of China, and is also prevalent in Hong Kong, Taiwan (the Republic of China), Macau, Singapore, Mauritius and the United States. The name 中文 ("zhōngwén") comes from China's name for itself, 中国 ("zhōng​guó​"), meaning "Middle Country."

There are approximately 873,000,000 people who speak it as their native language, and 178,000,000 who speak it as their second language http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm. "Chinese" itself is made of many different dialects, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Jin, Huainan, Xiang, Gan, Min, and Pinghua http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/faq.php. Mandarin Chinese (普通话 or "pǔtōnghuà," meaning "common speech") is the official dialect of China, and is the dialect of Chinese that is taught to all foreign language students, and will be the dialect referred to as "Chinese" in this article.http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mandarin.htm

Linguistically, Chinese is generally an SVO ("subject-verb-object") languagehttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cmn like English. This means that Chinese speakers can say 我喜欢蛋糕 ("wǒ xǐhuan dàngāo," "I like cake") and the order is the same. 我 (wǒ) is "I," 喜欢 (xǐhuan) is "like," and 蛋糕 (dàngāo) is "cake." There are many different other grammatical structures used in Chinese that change word order (much like English, where word order is important to distinguish between a statement and a question), however this structure is generally the rule.

Despite it's fairly basic grammar, Chinese is consistently listed as one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learnhttp://www.language-learning-advisor.com/hardest-language-to-learn-survey.html. This is mainly due to the writing system used (where one or two characters represent an idea, noun, verb, object, etc., unlike the alphabet system in English where one letter is meant to represent one sound). However, the second main reason given for its difficulty is the tones. A tone is a change in the voice's pitch - for example, your tone rises towards the end of a question, and drops sharply when yelling your pet's name in anger. Chinese has five separate tones: a flat and high tone, a rising tone, a tone that falls and then rises, a tone that quickly drops, and a "non-tone" (often when a word has two syllables, the first syllable has a tone, and the second has none, causing the second syllable to be said very quickly and quietly). For example, the word "ma" could have several different meanings depending on which tone you use. When using the flat, high tone (called the "first tone"), you have 妈 (mā) meaning "mother." With the rising tone (the "second tone"), you have 蟆 (má) meaning "toad." With the falling, then rising tone (the "third tone"), you have 马 (mǎ), meaning "horse." The falling tone (the "fourth tone") creates 蚂 (mà), meaning "grasshopper." The "non-tone" creates 吗 (ma), a word used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question. Tones are, therefore, extremely important to Chinese, but they are difficult for an English speaker to learn and get used to, as they are not used as often in English.

Let's get started on a few of the basic principles of how to speak Chinese.

Pronunciation is fairly straightforward in Chinese, though there are a few strange rules and sounds that do not exist in the English language. For ease of understanding, a writing system called Pinyin (pronounced "peen-een," not "pin-yin") will be used to demonstrate the sounds of the Chinese language. Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet (with accent marks to represent tones) to transliterate the sounds of the Chinese language. This makes it easier for learners to read the language and learn the sounds and tones without having previous knowledge of Chinese characters.

The following are the letters used in Pinyin, and how they are pronouncedhttp://mandarin.about.com/od/pronunciation/l/blsounds.htm:

b - same as in English

p - same as in English

m - same as in English

f - same as in English

d - same as in English

t - same as in English

n - same as in English

l - same as in English

g - same as in English

k - same as in English

h - similar to English, but slightly more guttural, like the "ch" in "Bach"

r - similar to English, but farther back in the mouth

z - pronounced "dz" like in "woods"

c - pronounced "ts" like in "cats"

s - same as in English

y - same as in English (with some exceptions outlined below)

w - same as in English (with some exceptions outlined below)

j - similar to "j" in English, but farther forward in the mouth, almost like a "d"

zh - similar to "j" in English, but farther back in the mouth

q - similar to "ch" in English, but farther forward in the mouth, almost like a "t"

ch - similar to "ch" in English, but farther back in the mouth

x - similar to "sh" in English, but farther forward in the mouth, almost like a "s"

sh - similar to "sh" in English, but farther back in the mouth

a - pronounced "ah" like in "father" in most cases

- Exceptions:

- an - pronounced "an" like in "fan"

- ian - pronounced "yen" like in English

e - pronounced "uh" like in "plus" in most cases

- Exceptions:

- ei - pronounced "ay" like in "hay"

- er - pronounced "ar" like in "are"

i - pronounced "ee" like in "bee"

Exceptions:

- ia - pronounced "ya"

- ie - pronounced "yeh" like in English "yet"

- iao - pronounced "yow" like in English "yowzers"

- iu - pronounced like English "yo"

- iang - pronounced "yang" (with the "a" like "ah" in "father")

o - same as "oh" in English

Exception:

- iong - pronounced "yong"

u - pronounced "oo" like in "food"

Exceptions:

- ua - pronounced "wa" like in "water"

- uo - pronounced "wo" like in "woven"

- uai - pronounced like the English "why"

- ui - pronounced like the English "way" (think "feng shui")

- uan - pronounced "wan" (with the "a" like "ah" in "father"), unless it's "juan," "quan," "xuan" or "yuan," in which case "-uan" is pronounced "uen" (with the "u" as a combination "oo"/"ee" sound as described below)

yi - pronounced "ee" like in "bee" (not "yee")

wu - pronounced "oo" like in "room" (not "woo")

yu - pronounced like a combination of "oo" and "ee," form your mouth like you are going to say "oo," keep your lips rounded, and move your tongue to where it is when you say "ee" (not "yoo")

Special note: Some words end in "-n" like 一点 (yīdiǎn, "a little"). However, the "standard" Mandarin pronunciation will often replace "-n" with "-r" and it may be written 一点儿 (yīdiǎnr). Do not be confused by "-nr," this is simply a way of suggesting that both "-n" and "-r" are technically correct. Mandarin spoken in Taiwan will tend to use 一点 (yīdiǎn) while mainland China will tend to use 一点儿 (yīdiǎr). Both are correct.

If it already seems complicated to you, don't stress. A lot of their alphabet is quite similar, and you will become accustomed to the strange rules that they have. For those that would like to hear these sounds, a very useful table can be found here (click on an example, and click one of the four tones available for that example to hear both how the letters are pronounced, and how Chinese tones work): Pinyin Practice

As mentioned in the introduction, Chinese has five tones: a flat and high tone, a rising tone, a tone that falls and then rises, a tone that quickly drops, and a neutral tone. These are integral to the language, and when improperly pronounced, can cause confusion. For example, you can ask someone:

"Ni you ertong ma?"

However, the meaning of the sentence is dependent on what tones you use. There are at least two possible sentences:

你有儿童吗 (nǐ​ yǒu​ ěrtòng ma)? = Do you have children/a child?

你有耳痛吗 (nǐ​ yǒu​ értóng ma)? = Do you have an earache?

And that's just the beginning. Say you don't pronounce the tones for "ni," "you" or "ma" correctly. You could end up with something like this:

尼游耳痛吗 (ní​ yóu ​értóng ma)? = The Buddhist nun swims earache?

It is important, therefore, to learn your tones. (To be fair, by now I'm sure your friend would know what you meant, according to the context of your earlier conversation, however it is important to bring up this point.)

Notice also that there are accents above the vowels. When using pinyin, these accents represent the five tones, and they are very easy to understand. I will use the letter "a" as an example to show the different tones.

ā - high, flat tone (see how it is straight and unmoving, like your voice)

á - rising tone (see how it rises from left to right)

ǎ - falling and rising tone (see how it falls, then rises again)

à - falling tone (see how it falls from left to right)

a - neutral tone (see how there is no mark, indicating a "non-tone")

Practice raising and lowering the pitch of your voice. For practice, tones can be heard at www.quickmandarin.com.http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable

Now that you have pronunciation and tones down, here are some useful phrases (pronunciations can be found at www.omniglot.com). http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/mandarin.php

Hello! - 你好 (nǐ hǎo)

How are you? - 你好吗 (nǐ hǎo ma)

I'm fine, thanks. And you? - 我很好，你呢？ (wǒ hěn hǎo, nǐ ne)

What's your name? 你叫什么名字 (nǐ jiào shénme míngzi)

My name is ... - 我叫 ... (wǒ jiào ...)

Where are you from? - 你是哪国人 (nǐ shì nǎguórén)

I'm from America / I'm American - 我是美国人 (wǒ shì měi​guó​rén)

Goodbye - 再见 (zàijiàn)

Bye - 拜拜 (bàibài)

I don't understand - 我不懂 (wǒ bùdǒng)

Please say that again - 再说一边 (zài shuō yībiān)

Do you speak Mandarin? - 你会不会讲普通话？ (nǐ huìbúhuì jiǎng pŭtōnghuà)

Yes, a little - 会，一点儿 (huì, yīdiǎr)

How do you say ... in Mandarin? - ... 中文怎么说？ (... zhōngwén zěnme shuō)

Thank you - 谢谢 (xièxie)

I love you - 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - 圣诞快乐 新年快乐 (shèngdàn kuàilè xīnnián kuàilè)

Happy (Chinese) New Year - 恭喜发财 (gōngxǐ fācái)

Happy Birthday - 生日快乐 (shēngrì kuàilè)

One language is never enough - 一种语言永远不够 (yīzhǒng yǔyán yǒngyuǎn bùgòu)