Beginners’ Chinese

About this free course

This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course L197 Beginners’ Chinese :
www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/l197.html
This version of the content may include video, images and interactive content that may not be optimised
for your device.
You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free
learning from The Open University
www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/chinese/beginners-chinese/content-section-0
There you’ll also be able to track your progress via your activity record, which you can use to
demonstrate your learning.
Copyright © 2016 The Open University
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Contents
Introduction 4
Learning Outcomes 5
1 The Chinese Language 6
1.1 Varieties of Chinese 6
1.2 Pinyin 7
1.3 Tones 9
1.4 Chinese characters 10
1.5 Simplified and traditional forms of Chinese characters 10
1.6 Word formation 11
2 Introducing oneself 13
2.1 Names and nationalities 13
2.2 Professional titles and professions 14
3 Describing your activities 17
4 Names of languages 18
5 Food and drinks 19
Conclusion 20
Keep on learning 21
Acknowledgements 22

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Introduction

Introduction
This free course, Beginners' Chinese , is introductory material and was chosen to be
easily accessible for those with some basic knowledge of Chinese. This course
concentrates on Mandarin Chinese as a tool for communication, but also provides some
insights into Chinese society and culture. It contains a brief introduction to the Chinese
language, its scripts and sounds, and how words are formed. The language activities and
audio extracts presented here are not meant for a complete course (i.e. not designed to
move progressively from one to another), but are samples to give you a taste of what it is
like if you sign up for the Open University’s Beginners’ Chinese course. You will hear short
conversations where people greet each other, introduce themselves, describe where they
come from and what they do for a living. You’ll hear them talk about their daily activities
and order food and drinks in a restaurant.

The Open University is conducting a survey investigating how people use the free
educational content from our OpenLearn website. The aim is to provide a better free
learning experience for everyone. If you have 10 minutes to spare, we’d be delighted if you
could take part and tell us what you think
Please note this will take you out of this course.

Before you continue with this course, make sure you have enabled the Chinese font on
your computer. The document linked below gives step-by-step instructions for both PC
and Mac users. Right-click on the link to open the document in a new tab or window.
How to install the Chinese font

File attachments are not available in this format.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course
L197 Beginners’ Chinese .

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Learning Outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
l understand varieties of the Chinese language
l understand the sound system of Mandarin Chinese (pinyin and tones)
l understand simplified and traditional forms of Chinese characters and how they are combined together to form
new meanings
l demonstrate an improved vocabulary and pronunciation related to names, nationalities, professions, age, daily
activities, languages and ordering food and drinks
l demonstrate a cultural understanding of how professional titles are used to address people.
l understand how characters are combined together to form new meanings
1 The Chinese Language

1 The Chinese Language

The Chinese language, in its various forms, is spoken by the Han Chinese and is known in
China as 汉语 hànyŭ (literally, Han language). The Han Chinese constitutes about 94
percent of China’s population. About 70 percent of the Han people speak Mandarin
Chinese; the remaining 30 percent speak other related Chinese languages or dialects.
Speakers of non-Chinese languages (e.g. Mongolian, Tibetan) make up about 6 percent
of China’s population.
Mandarin Chinese is the official language of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan,
and one of the official languages of Singapore. It is also one of the six official languages of
the United Nations. Mandarin and other forms of Chinese are spoken by many expatriate
Chinese communities, both in Southeast Asia and overseas. The map below shows how
the Chinese language has spread around the world.

Figure 1 The Chinese-speaking world

(Adapted from ASDFGHJ, ‘A map of the Sinophone world’, 24 January 2009, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:
New-Map-Sinophone_World.PNG, last accessed 29 May 2009)

1.1 Varieties of Chinese

Apart from Mandarin, the other six major varieties of spoken Chinese are Cantonese,
Gan, Hakka, Min, Wu and Xiang. The map below shows the areas of China in which they
are spoken and by approximately how many people, as well as the parts of China where
non-Chinese languages are predominantly spoken.

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1 The Chinese Language

Figure 3 Varieties of Chinese

(Adapted from ‘Chinese dialects in China’, 1987, www.rcl.cityu.edu.hk/atlas/20/A2_20.jpg, last accessed
29 May 2009, and Wu Yue, ‘Map of the Sinitic languages’, 2004, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:
Map_of_sinitic_languages-en.svg, last accessed 29 May 2009)

There is some debate among linguists about whether the different varieties of Chinese
should be regarded as dialects or as languages in their own right. Interpretations depend
on how ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ are defined. Furthermore, each dialect group consists of
many sub-dialects, several of which are spoken widely enough to be categorised by some
linguists as major dialects (or languages) that could justifiably be added to the list above.
The samples presented here teach Mandarin Chinese in its standardised modern form.
Standard Mandarin Chinese is commonly referred to as 普通话 pŭtōng huà (common
speech) in the People’s Republic of China, 国语 guó yŭ (national language) in Taiwan and
华语 huá yŭ (Chinese language) in Singapore. We will refer to Mandarin Chinese simply
as ‘Chinese’ here.
Chinese is often perceived in the West as a difficult language, mainly because of its
different character script and the fact that it is a tonal language – i.e. it uses tones to
distinguish meanings. Chinese grammar, on the other hand, is quite simple compared to
that of many European languages. There is no conjugation, number agreement or case
change, so you only ever have to learn a word in one form.

1.2 Pinyin
There are various systems for transcribing Chinese sounds into the Roman alphabet.
Pinyin was adopted as the official system in the People’s Republic of China in 1958, and

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1 The Chinese Language

has since become the standard and most-used form of transcription in schools, the media
and elsewhere. This course uses pinyin in the teaching of pronunciation.
Read the language note below about pinyin sounds, then go on and complete the activity.

Language note: single finals and initials

Chinese is a vowel-dominated language. In total, there are 35 vowel sounds, known as
‘finals’ because they occur at the end of syllables. The six vowel sounds in Activity 1 are
called ‘single finals’ and are written in pinyin as a , e , i , o , u and ü . These simple vowel
sounds are put together in various combinations to form 29 ‘compound finals’, which you
will learn about later in this course.
There are 23 consonant sounds in Chinese, called ‘initials’ because they appear at the start
of syllables. Here are the 23 initials:

b p m f d t n l
g k h w y j q x
z c s zh ch sh r

Activity 1 Finals and initials

When you listen to the audio track below you will hear six single vowels, known as
finals in Chinese. Repeat after each sound.

a e i o u ü

You will then combine these vowels with some consonants, known as initials in
Chinese. Note how similar they sound to some English consonants. Repeat after each
sound.

ba pa ma fa de te ne le gu
ku hu wo yi

You will then hear some consonants, or initials , combined with the final i . Listen and
repeat.

ji qi xi zi ci si zhi chi shi ri

Audio content is not available in this format.

Consonants

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1 The Chinese Language

1.3 Tones
Chinese is a tonal language. In Mandarin Chinese, there are four tones (five if you include
the neutral tone). Tones are marked in pinyin as follows:

1st tone: ‾
2nd tone: ′
3rd tone: ˇ
4th tone: `

The 1st tone is a high level tone, the 2nd rises from medium to high, the 3rd falls from low
medium to low and then rises to high, and the 4th falls from high to low (see the diagram
opposite). The tone marks are put over the single finals a , e , i , o , u and ü . There are
some syllables that do not have a tone mark (e.g. some particle words or last syllable in a
word), and they are called ‘neutral tone’. The neutral tone is low and flat with no stress.

Figure 2 The tones used in Mandarin Chinese

Each syllable has a definite tone. So syllables with different tones mean different things.
For example, 王 wáng with the 2nd tone means ‘king’ and is also a common family name,
whereas 忘 wàng with the 4th tone means ‘to forget’.

Activity 2 Tones
Firstly, listen and concentrate on identifying the different tones. You can listen again
and repeat, emulating the tone. Don’t worry about the meaning of the words at this
stage. Listen to the examples of the four tones on the audio track below, and repeat.

Audio content is not available in this format.

Tone

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1 The Chinese Language

1 mā má mǎ mà
2 tā tá tǎ tà
3 zhī zhí zhǐ zhì
4 jī jí jǐ jì

1.4 Chinese characters

Speakers of different dialects, especially the southern dialects, often cannot understand
each other when they speak. However, literate Chinese people can communicate with
each other in writing, as they share a common script: 汉字 hàn zì (lit. Han characters).
The Chinese character script is believed to have originated from stylised pictures of
physical objects, which evolved over the centuries into characters formed from strokes.
The total number of Chinese characters is estimated at about 50,000, of which roughly
3000 are used for everyday purposes. This course (and the OU’s Beginners’ Chinese
course) teaches simplified characters, which were introduced by the Chinese government
in the 1950s in an attempt to increase literacy.
Each character in written Chinese represents a syllable. A word in Chinese can consist of
one character (e.g. 中 zhōng , central), two characters ( 中国 Zhōngguó , China) or three
characters ( 中国人 zhōngguórén , Chinese person/people). In Chinese texts, there is no
spacing between characters. Traditionally there was no punctuation either, but this has
since been adopted.
There is no obvious correlation between how characters are written and how they are
pronounced. For example, the following three characters, made up of very different
strokes, are all pronounced jing , albeit with different tones: 京 (1st tone) means ‘capital’;
井 (3rd tone) means ‘well’ (as in a water well); and 净 (4th tone) means ‘clean’.

1.5 Simplified and traditional forms of Chinese

characters
In this section you will learn about traditional and simplified characters and work on some
activities.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government
introduced a range of ‘simplified characters’ ( 简体字 jiăntĭ zì) in an effort to improve the
literacy level in the population. About 2,000 characters have been simplified and the rest
of the characters remain the same. It is useful to be aware of traditional forms (sometimes
referred to as ‘complex characters’ ) ( 繁体字 !Warning! Palatino Linotype not
supportedfăntĭ zì ), as they are still used in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other overseas
Chinese communities.
The simplification of the 2000 characters involved reducing the number of strokes in most
cases, while also preserving either the overall shape of the character or of one part of the
character. In the table below are some examples of characters in both simplified and
traditional form, and the number of strokes that these forms comprise.

Examples of traditional characters

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1 The Chinese Language

简体字 Strokes 繁体字 Strokes

jiăntĭ zì făntĭ zì
xué to learn 学 8 學 16
yī medical 医 7 醫 18
mén door 门 3 門 7
chén dust 尘 6 塵 14
shū book 书 4 書 10

Activity 3 Identifying simplified characters

In the quiz linked below try to match the simplified characters with what you think might
be their traditional forms.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Below you’ll find a table with all the characters used in the quiz for reference.

Matching
characters
1国 (d) 2们 (b)
3见 (c) 4谢 (e)
5吗 (a)

1.6 Word formation

In this section we talk about combining characters to form new words. You can complete
the activities now, but you may also find it valuable to come back to them once you’ve
covered the other sections.

Activity 4 Making character combinations

The quiz linked below contains eleven character combinations that have to do with
professions, forms of address, pronouns and so on. Drag and drop the appropriate
characters to match their English counterparts.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Below you’ll find tables with all the characters used in the quiz for reference.

Solution
Solution
We 我们
I am very well 我很好
very good 很好

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1 The Chinese Language

good person 好人
They 他们
Old Wang 老王
Mr Wang 王先生
Old Li 老李
Mrs Li 李太太
Teacher 老师
Doctor 医生

Characters
Characters
我 们 老 师
wŏ men lăo shī
很 他 王 李
hěn tā wáng lĭ
好 们 先 太
hăo men xiān tài
人 医 生 太
rén yī shēng tài

Here are some more combinations of characters:

先 xiān (first) + 生 shēng (new; to be born; strange) = 先生 xiānsheng (Mr; husband;

old-fashioned term for teacher)
小 xiǎo (little; young) + 姐 jiĕ (elder sister) = 小姐 xiǎojie (Miss)
北 běi (north) + 京 jīng (capital) = 北京 Běijīng (Beijing)
伦 lún (ethics; human relations) + 敦 dūn (honest) = 伦敦 Lúndūn (London)
地 dì (field; earth; place) + 方 fāng (referring to places and directions) = 地方 dìfang
(place)
中 zhōng (central; middle; medium) + 国 guó (country; kingdom) = 中国 Zhōngguó
(China)

Activity 5 Word formation

In the quiz linked below, match the characters to their corresponding pinyin and
English translations using the drag and drop options provided.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Below you’ll find a table with all the characters used in the quiz for reference.

Word formation

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2 Introducing oneself

Characters Pinyin English

好人 hǎo rén good person
生字 shēng zì new character
生人 shēngrén stranger
地名 dì míng place name
人名 rén míng a person’s name
北方 běifāng northern place;
north
北方人 běifāngrén northerner
姐姐 jiějie elder sister
英国 Yīngguó Britain

2 Introducing oneself
In this section, you will learn about Chinese names, how Chinese people address each
other and how profession titles are used.

2.1 Names and nationalities

When a Chinese name is given in full, the family name always precedes the given name.
To take the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as an example, the family name 邓
Dèng goes before the given name 小平 Xiǎopíng
It is very common for Chinese people to address each other by their full names, even
amongst friends or family. The most common Chinese family names have only one
character. Chinese given names typically consist of two characters.
The titles 先生 xiānsheng (Mr), 小姐 xiăojie (Miss) and 女士 nǚshì (Madam) are popular in
Hong Kong and Taiwan, and since the 1980s have been catching on in mainland China,
too, especially in the business sector. They tend to be used on formal occasions when you
are unsure of another person’s position or profession. The term 太太 tàitai (Mrs) is also
used to address a married foreign woman but is not an appropriate way to address a
married Chinese woman because Chinese women do not change their family names after
marriage.

Activity 6 Names

Part A
Listen to the audio track below to hear how these two people say their names, and how
they address each other, then answer the following questions.

Audio content is not available in this format.

Names

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2 Introducing oneself

What is the woman’s name?

¡ a) Wang Xiaoying
¡ b) Wang Jing
¡ c) Li Xiaoying

Part B
What is the man’s name?
¡ a) Wang Xiaoying
¡ b) Wang Jing
¡ c) Li Xiaoying

Activity 7 Nationalities
In the quiz linked below, you will be asked to listen to the audio extract, in which Mr
Wang ( 王先生 Wáng xiānsheng ) and Miss Li ( 李小姐 Lĭ xiǎojie ) talk about their
places of origin. Number the sentences in the order you hear them.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Here is a summary of the answers for reference.

1 您是哪国人 nín shì n ǎ guó rén

2 我是中国人 Wǒ shì Zhōngguórén
3 您是不是英国人 nín shì bu shì yīngguórén
4 我住在伦敦 wǒ zhù zài Lúndūn

2.2 Professional titles and professions

Read the culture note and the reflection note that follows. Then reflect about your own
culture.

Culture: professional titles

China is very much a hierarchical society, where titles are important. Chinese people like to
address each other by attaching professional titles or official positions, such as 老师 lăoshī
(teacher) or 医生 yīshēng (doctor), to a family name. So you might hear someone being
addressed as 李老师 Lĭ lăoshī (Teacher Li) or 王医生 Wáng yīshēng (Doctor Wang), for
example.
This practice is also common in Chinese business circles, where job titles such as 经理
jīnglǐ (manager), 主任 zhǔrèn (director) and 总裁 zǒng cái (CEO) are used as forms of
address, as well as to refer to someone in the third person. So, for example, a manager
whose surname was Wang would be referred to as 王经理 Wáng jīnglĭ (Manager Wang).
For CEOs, the form is shortened to 总 zǒng : so a CEO with the surname Li would be
referred to and addressed as 李总 Lĭ zǒng .

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2 Introducing oneself

Reflection point ( 想一想 Xiǎng yi xiǎng )

In what contexts would you address people by their professional titles in your own culture?
‘Minister, could you clarify…’; ‘Madam Chairman, it is clear that…’; ‘Doctor, could you tell
me…’ Can you think of any other titles that you would use in everyday life? Does the use of
professional titles indicate respect for some professions above others, or is it just a matter
of convention? Do you think that forms of address are becoming less formal?

Activity 8 Describing one’s profession and age

Practise saying out aloud someone’s age and profession using the third person
pronoun 她 tā (she) or 他 tā (he). Look at the pictures below and describe the
profession and age of each person. Let us take Picture 1 as an example:
他是工人。他今年四十九岁。 Tā shì gōngrén . Tā jīnnián sìshíjiŭ suì . (He is a worker.
He is 49 years old this year.)
Say it aloud yourself and then play the audio clip to hear a sample answer.
Here are the professions featured in the pictures:

工 gōngrén worker
人
护 hùsh nurse
士
服 fúwùyuán waiter
务
员
科 kēxuéjiā scientist
学
家

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2 Introducing oneself

Answer
Listen to the audio clip to compare yours with the sample descriptions.

Audio content is not available in this format.

Professions

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3 Describing your activities

3 Describing your activities

Activity 9 Daily activities

In the quiz below link each noun with the correct verb to make up phrases for daily
activities.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Below you’ll find a table with all the nouns and verbs used in the quiz for reference.

Building phrases for daily activities

Nouns Verbs
(a) diànyǐng movie(s) = 看 kàn
电影
(b) xiǎoshuō novel(s) = 看 kàn
小说
(c) zuòyè homework = 做 zuò
作业
(d) hàn zì Chinese = 学 xué
汉字 character(s) 写 xiě
(e) diànshì TV = 看 kàn
电视
(f) 网 wǎng internet = 上 shàng
(g) zhōngwén Chinese language = 学 xué
中文
(h) 饭 fàn food = 做 zuò

Activity 10 Evening activities

Below is a timetable of evening activities. Give a short description of three of your
evenings in complete sentences. Say your description aloud and then click the ‘Reveal
answer’ button to play the audio clip to hear a sample answer and see the transcripts.

星期一/星期二晚上 星期三晚上 星期四晚上

xīngqī yī/ xīngqī’èr wǎnshang xīngqīsān wǎnshang xīngqīsì wǎnshang

学中文 看电视 写汉字

xué zhōngwén kàn diànshì xiě hàn zì

星期五晚上 星期六晚上 星期天晚上

xīngqīwǔ wǎnshang xīngqīliù wǎnshang xīngqītiān wǎnshang

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4 Names of languages

上网做作业 帮助小学生学英文 看电影

shàng wǎng zuò zuòyè bāngzhù xiăo xuéshēng xué yīngwén kàn diànyǐng

*Vocabulary note: 帮助 !Warning! Palatino Linotype not supportedbāngzhù to help

Answer
Some sample answers are provided in the audio track below.

Audio content is not available in this format.

Evening activities

4 Names of languages
If the relevant country name does not end in the character 国 guó , simply add 文 wén in
order to form the name of the languages:

l 西班牙 Xībānyá (Spain) + 文 wén (language) → 西班牙文 xībānyá wén (Spanish).

For country names that end in 国 guó , replace 国 guó with 文 wén to form the language
name:

l 中国 Zhōngguó (China) → 中文 Zhōng wén (Chinese language).

The only exception is 日本 Rìběn (Japan), which becomes !Warning! SimSun not
supported日文 Rìwén (Japanese).

Activity 11 Names of languages

In the quiz linked below, identify the country and select the language spoken there.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Here are the correct answers:

Names of languages
1 意大 yìdàlìwén Italian
利文
2 德文 déwén German
3 法文 fǎwén French
4 英文 yīngwén English

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5 Food and drinks

5 Food and drinks

Activity 12 Food and drinks

In the quiz linked below, listen to how the various food and drink items are pronounced,
and number them in the order you hear them.
Click here to open the quiz.
Answer
Below you’ll find a table with all the terms used in the quiz for reference.

Food and drinks

Characters Pinyin English
白酒 bái jiǔ Chinese white wine (lit. white alcoholic drink)
红酒 hóng jiǔ Chinese red wine (lit. red alcoholic drink)
红葡萄酒 hóng pútaojiǔ red wine
白葡萄酒 bái pútaojiǔ white wine
橘子汁 júzi zhī orange juice
苹果汁 píngguǒ zhī apple juice
红茶 hóng chá black tea (lit. red tea)
绿茶 lǜ chá green tea
红烧肉 hóng shāo ròu braised meat in soy sauce (lit. red braised meat)
白菜 bái cài Chinese cabbage (lit. white leaves)
青菜 qīng cài green vegetable(s)

Activity 13 Placing orders

Read the scenarios below and say your orders out loud using the vocabulary provided.
Check your pronunciation by listening to the audio clip linked below.

Vocabulary:
要 yào would like to
瓶 píng bottle
啤酒 píjiǔ beer
蛋炒饭 dànchǎofàn egg-fried rice
一个 yī gè one portion (of)
炒青菜 chǎoqīngcài. stir-fried green vegetables
点 diǎn to order
饺子 jiǎozi dumplings
一盘 yī pán one plate (of)

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Conclusion

牛肉炒面 niúròu chǎomiàn beef fried noodles

只 zhī [measure word used after a number for small animals]
烤鸭 kǎoyā. roast duck

1 You are in a shop. You tell the shop assistant that you want three bottles of Beijing
beer.
2 You are in a small canteen. Ask for one portion of egg-fried rice and one portion of
stir-fried green vegetables.
3 You are in a restaurant with some friends. Order ten dumplings, one plate of fried
noodles and one roast duck.

Figure 6 Practice ordering food in Chinese

Audio content is not available in this format.

Ordering food

Answer
Here is the transcript for the audio track above. You can use it for reference purposes.

1 我要三瓶北京啤酒
Wǒ yào sānpíng Běijīng píjiǔ.
2 我点一个蛋炒饭，一个炒青菜
Wǒ diǎn yīgè dànchǎofàn ， yīgè chǎoqīngcài.
3 我们点十个饺子， 一盘牛肉炒面，一只烤鸭
Wǒmen diǎn shíge jiǎozi ， yīpán niúròu chǎomiàn ， yīzhī kǎoyā.

Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this course. Now that you know how to say your name, nationality,
profession, say what you like doing and order some food and drinks, you may wish to try
them out on your next visit to a Chinese-speaking country or region!

20 of 22 Monday 1 August 2016

Keep on learning

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Acknowledgements

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Acknowledgements
This free course was written by L197 Beginners’ Chinese course team.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions ), this
content is made available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence .
The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to
Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources
for permission to reproduce material in this course:
Course image: fnchng in Flickr made available under
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Licence .
Course image © AMD5150 (Via Flickr)
Figure 1: taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New-Map-Sinophone_World.PNG by
ASDFGHJ.
Figure 2: adapted from www.rcl.cityu.edu.hk and en.wikipedia.org, licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0, Attribution ShareAlike 2.5, Attribution
ShareAlike 2.0 and Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License, creativecommons.org/licenses.
Figure 3: courtesy of Fernando Rosell-Aguilar and Ana Sánchez-Forner
Figure 6: courtesy of Shasha Wang.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently
overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the
first opportunity.
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22 of 22 Monday 1 August 2016