Parent Introduction for Mandarin Flashcards

Version 4

These flashcards reflect the Mandarin characters and words typically seen by students in each grade at Woodstock Elementary School. Although these
flashcards can be a valuable study tool, there may be variation among teachers and between years for the same grade. Therefore it is important to remember
that your child is responsible for the characters and words that his or her teacher requires that year, whether or not they appear in these flashcards1. Your
childs teacher is the only authority on what is required for his or her class and any questions should be directed to that teacher.
You may ask, Why cant I get a definitive list of the characters and words that my child needs to know? The situation is comparable to the lists of
required spelling words in English language classes. In English class, students are given lists of words that they are expected to learn to spell, will be tested
on, and should be able to recognize and write correctly on a daily basis. But each student is expected to recognize, use and write many other words as well.
No English teacher would be expected to give you a list of ALL these words required to function well in class. The difference is many students dont have
the environmental support for Chinese that they do for English. This can lead us to think that all the Chinese words should be documented. Certainly, such
a list would be helpful, but as with English words, it would be an ill-defined and moving target. With this caveat in mind, the supplemental words in these
flashcards may help to fill-in the gap.
The Kindergarten words in these flashcards have been developed by Woodstock teachers through the years. Starting in first grade in the 2009-10 school
year, Woodstock adopted a curriculum based on a set of textbooks from Singapore. The words in these flashcards and lists reflect words introduced in that
text. Starting with the first grade, the vocabulary lists are based on the textbook. Sometimes, new meanings for old characters or words are introduced in
later years. So, flashcards from earlier years may continue to be helpful.
The Word Lists
Each set of flashcards comes with a word list. The word list contains the same words and the same information as the flashcards, except for the Part Of
Speech (POS) column. Each flashcard has an ID that can be matched to the corresponding entry in this list. The R/W/S column indicates whether the student
is expected only to be able to read (R) the word or is also expected to be able to write the word (W) in addition to being able to read it. Supplemental words
(S) have been on homework, on class worksheets, or in common classroom conversations, but do not seem to be formally required at that grade level. Each
card has the grade level on the back and the R/W/S level on the front.
The POS column in the list may help you understand how some Chinese words are used. But Chinese parts of speech do not correspond directly to those in
English. For example, adjectives can also be used in Chinese in a manner similar to how verbs are used in English. So please remember that the POS given
here is only an approximation.
Mandarin Chinese Grammar Notes
The following simple Chinese grammar concepts may help you when using the flashcards with your child.

Most nouns in Chinese have indeterminate plurality, i.e. they can be either singular or plural without any change.. The meaning of such nouns is
usually given in the singular form.

Some words which use the same character twice have the same meaning as that character used once. The two character version may be a juvenile
version of the word used by small children or lyrically as in a song. For example, see (xng) and
(xng xng) which both mean STAR.

Sometimes a character may be used alone in a word, but may also be combined with the character (zi), CHARACTER and have the same meaning,
such as
(y zi), LEAF. Labeling characters like these is still a work in progress, but one reason for this may be that the single character is more
likely to be used in compounds. Another reason may be that the single character is a common personal name and so the two character version helps
distinguish the meaning when not used as a name

Chinese verbs are not conjugated directly to indicate tense. Instead, tense is understood based on context or is indicated by additional words elsewhere
in the sentence. Chinese has a part of speech sometimes called a particle, for example (le), that can show this (as performing other grammatical
jobs.)

Chinese often (but not always) relies on word order to indicate relationships that English indicates using prepositions like to, from, and at. So
these kinds of words may appear to be missing.

Chinese sentences often leave out words that are already known from previous context. So the subject, object or other parts of a sentence may appear
to be missing.

When talking about or counting certain objects, Chinese often attaches a counter to the number of the items. This is very similar to the way English
requires the word pair or bunch as in one pair of socks or two bunches of radishes. The difference is that these counters need to be used with
many more words in Chinese than in English. In these word lists, counters are indicated by a POS of counter. Note that a counter may also have a
standalone meaning in and of itself.

Some characters are used simply as sounds and have no meaning, similar to hey or oh in English. Often, these characters have a
part of the character and take their pronunciation from the other parts of the character. The POS for such characters is sound.

How To Use These Flashcards

Flashcards can be sorted into R, RW, and S groups and quizzed separately.

If you notice a significant difference with these lists, please let us know via email (flashcards@shurenofportland.org) and we will try to update future versions.

(ku) as one

Kindergarten Word List for Flashcards

Version 4

The 80 characters labelled as Read-Write (RW) are from Ms. Sius classroom chart of characters that children should learn fluently and are tested on. The
remaining Supplemental (S) words are gathered from various places, including the chart of additional phrases, the original Grade K word list from the
school website, and a few handouts. These may be used for listening and speaking exercises in class and may be included on worksheets or homework but
do not seem to be required. The current list does not yet cover all, or even likely most, of the words on handouts. But if you email comments or corrections
to flashcards@shurenofportland.com, future updates will be more comprehensive. Please remember that your childs teacher is the only authority on
what is required for his or her class.

ID

Pinyin

POS

K.1

adjective

one

RW

K.2

adjective

two (regular form)

RW

K.3

li ng

adjective

two (special form often used with counters)

K.4

sn

adjective

three

RW

K.5

adjective

four

RW

K.6

adjective

five

RW

K.7

li

adjective

six

RW

K.8

adjective

seven

RW

K.9

adjective

eight

RW

K.10

ji

adjective

nine

RW

K.11

sh

adjective

ten

RW

K.12

adjective

big, big <object>

RW

K.13

xi o

adjective

small, small <object>

RW

K.14

rn

noun

person, people

RW

K.15

k u

noun

mouth

RW

K.16

tu

noun

head

RW

K.17

sh u

noun

hand

RW

K.18

w sh u

phrase

K.19

shng

adjective, verb

(the direction) up, X

K.20

xi

adjective, verb

(the direction) down, X means under X, come/go down

RW

K.21

zh ng

adjective

middle

RW

K.22

shu

noun

water

RW

K.23

hu

noun

fire

RW

K.24

noun

sun, day

RW

K.25

yu

noun

moon, month

RW

K.26

shn

noun

mountain

RW

K.27

noun

wood

RW

K.28

tin

noun

sky, day

RW

K.29

tin q

noun

weather

K.30

yn

noun

cloud

K.31

noun

fog

K.32

du

adjective

many

RW

K.33

sh o

adjective

few

RW

K.34

go

adjective

tall

K.35

adjective

short

K.36

y u

verb

have, has

mi, mi y u

verb

do not have, does not have

K.37

Char / Word

Meaning

R/W/S

shake hands

S
means on top of X, come/go up

RW

RW
S

RW
S

Kindergarten Wordlist for Flashcards

ID

Char / Word

Pinyin

POS

Meaning

R/W/S

K.38

noun

ear

RW

K.39

ch

noun

vehicle, car

RW

K.40

hu ch

noun

train

K.41

ni

noun

cow

RW

K.42

yng

noun

sheep

RW

K.43

noun

horse

RW

K.44

l oh

noun

tiger

K.45

d xing

noun

elephant

K.46

t z

noun

rabbit

K.47

k ng lng

noun

dinosaur

K.48

m y

noun

ant

K.49

ni o

noun

bird

RW

K.50

ni o zu

noun

bird beak

K.51

zh o

noun

claw (a birds foot)

K.52

y mo

noun

bird feather

K.53

ch b ng

noun

wing

K.54

cho

noun

nest

K.55

dn

noun

egg

K.56

noun

fish

RW

K.57

chng

noun

bug

RW

K.58

sh

noun

tree

RW

K.59

sh

noun

rock

RW

K.60

noun

leaf

RW

K.61

y zi

noun

leaf

K.62

noun

rice (usually raw)

K.63

m fn

noun

rice (cooked not raw), a meal

K.64

c o

noun

grass

RW

K.65

noun

dirt, the ground

RW

K.66

s n

noun

umbrella

RW

K.67

mn

noun

door, gate

RW

K.68

fng

noun

wind

RW
RW

RW
S

K.69

pronoun

I, me,
My <personal object like arm, home, father, etc.>

K.70

w mn

pronoun

we, us

K.71

pronoun

you

K.72

noun

rain

RW

K.73

xi y

verb

to rain

K.74

xu

noun

snow

K.75

xi xu

verb

to snow

K.76

xi rn

noun

snowman

K.77

dng

noun

light

RW

K.78

ki

verb

to open, to turn on (a light)

RW

K.79

gun

verb

to close, to turn off (a light)

RW

Version 4

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Page 2

Kindergarten Wordlist for Flashcards

ID

Char / Word

Pinyin

POS

Meaning

R/W/S

K.80

do

noun

knife

RW

K.81

xng

noun

star (in the sky)

RW

K.82

xng xng

noun

star (in the sky)

K.83

fi

verb

to fly

K.84

fi j

noun

airplane

K.85

bng

noun

ice

K.86

bng q ln

noun

ice cream

K.87

hu

noun

flower

K.88

hu hu

noun

fireworks

K.89

ln

noun

woods, forest

RW

K.90

z u

verb

to walk, to go

RW

K.91

sh

noun

book

RW

K.92

ch

noun

ruler

RW

K.93

ch

verb

to eat

RW

K.94

kn

verb

to look at

RW

K.95

noun

tooth

RW

K.96

sh

verb

is, am, are

RW

K.97

adv

no, not

RW

K.98

b sh

verb

is not, am not, are not

K.99

noun

pen

K.100

qin b

noun

pencil

K.101

l b

noun

crayon

K.102

tin

noun

field

RW

K.103

zh

adjective

this (right here)

RW

K.104

zh er

pronoun

here (this place)

K.105

adjective

that (over there)

K.106

n er

pronoun

there (that place), over there

K.107

ch n

noun

spring

K.108

xi

noun

summer

K.109

qi

noun

fall

K.110

d ng

noun

winter

K.111

gu

noun

fruit

RW

K.112

png gu

noun

apple

K.113

noun

eye

RW

K.114

verb

to love, to love to <verb>

RW

K.115

verb

to go

RW

K.116

li

verb

to come

RW

K.117

b ba

noun

father

RW

K.118

m ma

noun

mother

RW

K.119

g ge

noun

older brother

RW

Version 4

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RW
S
RW
S
RW
S

S
RW

RW

Page 3

Kindergarten Wordlist for Flashcards

ID

Pinyin

POS

Meaning

K.120

mi mei

noun

younger sister

K.121

d di

noun

younger brother

K.122

ji jie

noun

older sister

K.123

l o sh

noun

teacher

K.124

xu sheng

noun

student

RW

K.125

png you

noun

friend

RW

K.126

jio

verb

to call, to be called <name>

K.127

k y

adverb

ok to <verb>, possible to <verb>

K.128

shnme

pronoun

what (a question word)

K.129

mng z

noun

a persons name

K.130

yo

verb

to need, want, want to <verb>

K.131

verb

to be hungry

K.132

verb

to be thirsty

K.133

du bu q

phrase

Im sorry

phrase

Happy Birthday !

K.134

Char / Word

shng r kui
l

R/W/S

K.135

xn nin kui l

phrase

Best Wishes for the New Year !

K.136

xn nin h o

phrase

Happy New Year !

K.137

su

noun

<number> years old

K.138

j su

phrase

how many years old? (a question phrase)

(This indicates an action has been completed, similar to but not

identical to indicating past tense.)

to like to do <verb>, to like <person, thing, etc.>

K.139

le

particle

K.140

x huan

verb

K.141

g ng x f ci

phrase

Good Luck! (at New Years)

K.142

zh

counter

(counter for hands and some animals)

K.143

mo

noun

animal hair, wool

K.144

bn

noun
counter

notebook
(counter for books)

K.145

ti yng

noun

sun

K.146

zi

verb

to be at a place

K.147

h lu bo

noun

carrot

K.148

nn

noun

boy (male)

K.149

noun

girl (female)

K.150

de

preposition

s (suffix for possession), of

K.151

xi

verb

to write

K.152

noun

Chinese character, ideographic character, word

K.153

chng

verb

to sing

K.154

noun

song

K.155

xio

verb

to smile

K.156

shu

pronoun

who (a question word)

K.157

hu

verb

can do <verb>, will do <verb> (in the future)

K.158

h di

noun

butterfly

K.159

conjunction

and, <noun> and <noun>

K.160

to zi

noun

peach

Version 4

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Kindergarten Wordlist for Flashcards

ID

Pinyin

POS

Meaning

K.161

l zi

noun

pear

K.162

sh ci

noun

vegetable(s)

K.163

nn gu

noun

pumpkin

K.164

y m

noun

corn

K.165

bin

counter

(counter for number of times to have done something)

K.166

hn

adv

very

K.167

pio liang

adjective

pretty, beautiful

K.168

verb

to read

K.169

yn s

noun

color

K.170

hng

adjective

red

K.171

bi

adjective

white

K.172

hi

adjective

black

K.173

k fi s

adjective

coffee color

K.174

zu y

noun

homework

K.175

kn din sh

phrase

to watch television

K.176

x y

phrase

to wash clothes

K.177

jio

verb

to teach <someone>

K.178

y z

noun

chair

K.179

zhu z

noun

table

K.180

xu xio

noun

school

K.181

ji

noun

home

K.182

dng w

noun

animal

K.183

hu

verb

to draw

K.184

xi xi

phrase

thank you

K.185

gi

verb

to give to <person>

K.186

qi

verb

to cut

K.187

ya

sound

(the sound) YA

K.188

jin

verb

to meet, to see

K.189

zi

adverb

again (for something yet to happen)

K.190

zi jin

phrase

See you later!

K.191

xng q y

noun

Monday

K.192

xng q r

noun

Tuesday

K.193

xng q sn

noun

Wednesday

K.194

xng q s

noun

Thursday

K.195

xng q w

noun

Friday

K.196

xng q li

noun

Saturday

K.197

xng q r

noun

Sunday

K.198

jn tin

noun

today

K.199

mng tin

noun

tomorrow

K.200

zu tin

noun

yesterday

Version 4

Char / Word

Please email comments or corrections to flashcards@shurenofportland.org

R/W/S

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