How to Read & Speak Chinese for Beginners

Beginners can read and speak Chinese after learning a few key concepts.

Chinese has more native speakers than any other language -- three times more than English, according to the Summer Institute for Linguistics. Mandarin Chinese is notoriously difficult for Western learners because it is a tonal language and has a writing system based on pictographical symbols.

Instructions

1. Practice the four tones. Chinese is a tonal language, and Mandarin Chinese uses four tones. The tone is marked above the vowel in the Romanized Pinyin system for writing Chinese, but in the actual pictographical character there is no tonal indication. You must memorize the tone associated with each word before you can read characters effectively. The first tone is represented by -- and requires a high, level pitch. The second tone is shown by the / symbol, and this tone starts high and rises. The third tone falls first and then rises, as indicated by its symbol v. The fourth tone starts high and then falls, indicated by \.

2. Start reading Chinese words with Pinyin. Pinyin is the name for the Chinese writing system that uses the Roman alphabet. The main purpose of Pinyin is to help foreigners learn the language and help young children learn the correct pronunciations. Several other Westernized versions of Chinese existed prior to Pinyin, but it has emerged as the most popular version for foreigners and Chinese alike.

3. Write some Chinese characters. Characters are the pictographical symbols that make up Chinese writing. Each character represents a single word or, occasionally, a particle. One example of a particle is the word "ma," which turns a statement into a question when put at the end of a sentence. Beginners should start with Pinyin to learn vocabulary words and progress gradually toward the easiest characters, which are those that require five strokes or less.

4. Memorize a few basic introductory words and phrases to start speaking Chinese. "Ni hao" (nee-how) is the most basic phrase in the language; it means "hello" or literally, "you good." This phrase can be used at any time of the day for a basic greeting. Another very important word is "bu" (boo), which means "no." the word for "yes" is "shi" (sure). The way to say "good-bye" is "zai jian" (dzi-jeeann), which literally means "again see."

5. Learn about measure words. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Mandarin grammar is its use of measure words. These words are used to indicate some quality of an object, such as its shape or the type of container it comes in. An equivalent in English is the term "stick" of gum. The difference is that Chinese requires a measure word for every noun. The measure word is placed between the number and noun. The phrase "seven children," for example, requires the structure "seven (measure word) children." While there are dozens of different measure words in Chinese, the word "ge" is the most common measure word.

References

• Ignatius: Languages
• "Oxford Starter Chinese Dictionary"; Boping Yuan and Sally Church; 2000
• "Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook"; Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington; 1998