Eng. Pagina/The Chinese Language.htm

Ni hao. (Hallo)

People likes it if you are trying to speak Chinese when you are in China.
The Chinese language has a totally different structure and different and other sounds than the English language.
It is a language with four different tones for each sound. Below I show you the four different tones.

There is also a neutral tone which is definite through the previous tone. The combination of the sound and tone determine the meaning. Modern Chinese has thousands of characters with a thousand tones-sound combination.

You can Chinese characters encode to the Latin script through the pīnyīn-language.
Watch your pronunciation, differently it is possible that you call your mother (māma) for a vituperative horse (mà mǎ).

According statistics the most common characters are 80% of the characters used in books, magazines and papers. If you have learned 940 characters more you know 96% of that stuff.
Character "de- 的" is the most used character. It is following by: yi- 一, le- 了, shi- 是, wo- 我, zai- 在, you- 有, ren- 人,.....

Some pronunciation rules

b, d en g	=	Similar to an English “b”, “d” and “g” as in “bill”, “dill” and “gill”.
c	=	Same as “ts-h” in “it’s hot”.
ch	=	Similar to an initial English “ch” as in “shall”
e	=	Is similar to the “e” in the standard British English pronunciation of “terse” or “hers”.
ei	=	Similar to "ei” in English “weigh”.
en	=	The Chinese “e” in “en” is the same as the final “a” in “America”.
eng	=	The same “e” as in “en” above.
h	=	Similar to an initial English “h” as in “hood”.
ie	=	Similar to the English “yeah” when pronounced as a single syllable.
j	=	As in “jeep”.
p, t en k	=	“p” as in “pill”, “t” as in “till” and ‘k” as in “kill”, but all with much more aspiration.
qi	=	Is similar to the “ch” in “cheap”. Note that Chinese “q” is strongly aspirated.
r	=	Similar to the “z” in “azure’ or the “j” in French “jaune” (yellow).
sh	=	Similar to an initial English “sh” as in “shall”.
u, ü	=	This sound is not found in English, it occurs both in French (la lune) and German (über).
ui	=	A Chinese “w” followed by a Chinese “ei”.
w	=	Similar to a initial English “w” as in “wall”.
xi	=	Is similar to the “sh” in “sheep”.
y	=	Similar to an initial English “y” as in “yes”.
z	=	Same as the “ds” in “woods”, but the sound is unvoiced and the tonque tip is a slightly further forward.
zh	=	Similar to an initial English “j” as in “Jill”.

Numbers:

1	=	yī	20	=	èr-shí
2	=	èr	21	=	èr-shí-yī
3	=	sǎn	30	=	sǎn-shí
4	=	sì	40	=	sì-shí
5	=	wǔ	50	=	wǔ-shí
6	=	liù	100	=	yī-bǎi
7	=	qī	101	=	yī-bǎi-ling-yī
8	=	bā	102	=	yī-bǎi-ling-èr
9	=	jiǔ	120	=	yī-bǎi-èr-shí
10	=	shí	200	=	èr-bǎi
11	=	shí-yī	1000	=	yī-qiān
12	=	shí-èr	10000	=	yī-wàn
15	=	shí-wǔ	100000	=	yī-bǎi-wàn

To practice:
First English, than the PinYin, underneath the characters.
Click right on the characters for the pronunciation!!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. / yī, èr, sǎn, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí。

一,二,三, 四, 五, 六七, 八, 九, 十。

11, 12. / shí-yī, shí-èr。

十一，十二。

20, 30. / èr-shí, sǎn-shí。

二十，三十。

100. / yī-bǎi。

一百。

140. / yī-bǎi sì-shí。

一百四十。

Thousand. / yī-qiān。

一千。

22 yuan 5 mao. / èr-shí-èr kuài wǔ。(Mao is omitted.)

二十二快五

6 yuan 3 mao. / liù kuài sǎn。 (Mao is omitted.)

六快三。

8 Yuan. / bā kuài qiān。

八快钱。

Hallo / nĭ hǎo

你好

Thanks. / Xièxie。

谢谢

Are you for the first time in China? / Nín shì dì yī cì lái Zhōngguó ma?

您是第一次来中国吗。

One glass of beer. One bottle of beer. / Yī bēi pijiǔ. Yī píng pijiǔ。

一杯啤酒。一瓶啤酒

The bill, please. / Mǎi dān。

买单。

A glass of mineralwater. / Yī bēi kuàngquán shui。

一杯矿泉水。

A cup of coffee. A cup of tea. / Yī bēi kāfēi. Yī bēi chá shui。

一杯咖啡。一杯茶水。

OK. / Hǎo, Kěyĭ。

好, 可以。

Big, Small. / Dà, Xiǎo。

大，小。

Do you have cheaper? / Yǒu piányíde ma?

有便宜的吗。

Howmuch is this? / Zhèige xūyào dǔoshǎo qián。

这个需要多少钱。

Howmuch is a room for two persons?. / Shuāngren fángjiān dǔoshǎo qián。

双人房间多少钱。

I am ill, where is a doctor? / Wǒ bìng le, yīshēng zài nàr。

我病了，医生在那儿。

Ik will to... / Wǒ yào qù。。。。

我要去。。。。。

We don't have, is not... / Méi yǒu.

没有。

Impossible. / Bù xíng。

不行。

Cheers. / Gānbēi。

干杯。

Sorry, I don't understand. / Duìbuqĭ, wǒ tīng bu dǒng。

对不起，我听不懂。

Too expensive. / Tài guì le。

太贵了。

Bye Bye, Goodbye. / Zàijiàn。

再见。

From which country are you? / Nĭn cóng nàyīge guójiā lái。

您从那一个国家来。

To-day, tomorrow / Jīntiān, Míngtiān。

今天，明天。

Where is the trainstation? / Huǒchēzhàn zài nàr。

火车站在那儿

Where can I buy tickets? / Zài nàr kěyĭ mǎi piào。

在那儿可以买票。

Wait a moment. / Děng yīděng. Děng yĭ xià。

等一等，等以下。

Welcome. / Huānyíng nĭn。

欢迎您。