The Chinese is totally different with English grammer, pronunciation, and characters. To better start to read, speak, and write Chinese, the 4 basic knowledges below, including pinyin, tones, characters and grammers, will help beginners walk into the world of Chinese quickly.

What is Pinyin?

Pinyin is the Chinese alphabats that refer to the pronunciation of a Chinese character. However, pinyin is not often shown along with a Chinese character only when it is for school age children to learn. For beginners, it's quite important to know Pinyin, which helps you pronumce a character quickly.

There are 21 initial consonants and 24 simple or compound vowels of a Chinese syllable in Chinese. Some of them looks just like an English letter but with totally different pronumciation.

21 initial consonants of a Chinese syllable

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

24 vowels of a Chinese syllable

a o e i u ü
ai ei ui ao ou iu
ie üe er an en in
un ün ang eng ing ong

What Is the Four Tones?

The four tones system is used to differentiate the characters that with the same syllable. With different tones, a character or a word can refer to different meanings.

The first tone sounds even, just like monetone. It uses a horizontal line to put on a vowel. Check some examples and pronuncations here.

tīn līng

The second tone uses a diagonal line to represent. Check some examples and pronuncations here.

cái féi wúi yún

The third tone maybe a little bit difficult to pronunce for non-Chinese speakers. Its tone falls firstly and then rises. Check some examples and pronuncations here.

yuǎn měi niǔ xǐng

When pronunce the fourth tone, it sounds like an angry expression. Check some examples and pronuncations here.

shàng cùi

Basic Chinese Words That Are Used in Daily Life

The Chinese characters are called "Hanzi" in mandarin. Different with English, speakers are not able to pronunce a Chinese character by its strokes. Usually Pinyin is not shown with the character, only when it is designed for school age children to learn. Thus, you will have to memorize at least 1000 characters to support you read and write in Chinese.

Hanzi is a kind of hieroglyphic, which was created by a subject's appearance, meaning, or even sound. Here are some words that are frequently used in daily life.

Words Meaning Pinyin
你好 Hello nǐ hǎo
谢谢 Thank you xiè xie
再见 Goodbye zài jiàn
对不起 Sorry dùi bù qǐ
没关系 It's OK. Never mind. mei guan xi
早上好 Good morning zǎo shàng hǎo
下午好 Good afternoon xià wǔ hǎo
晚安 Good night wǎn ān
今天 Today jīn tiān
明天 Tomorrow míng tiān
洗手间 Bathroom xǐ shǒu jiān
餐厅 Restaurant cān tīng
酒店 Hotel jiǔ diàn
地铁 Subway dì tiě
超市 Supermarket chāo shì
可乐 Coke cola kě lè
咖啡 Coffe kā fēi
矿泉水 Water kuàng quán shuǐ
饮料 Drinks yǐn liào
食物 Food shí wù

Basic Chinese Grammers That Helps You Make Sentences

Though the grammer is totally different between Chinese and English, you will have no problem with any kind of sentence pattern once you get the rules below.

"I have" Pattern

Subject Has/Have Quantifier+Nouns Hanzi Pinyin
I / 我 have / 有 a dog / 一只狗 我有一只狗。 wǒ yǒu yì zhī gǒu
You / 你 have / 有 a book / 一本书 你有一本书。 nǐ yǒu yì běn shū
He / 他; She/ 她 has / 有 a sister / 一个姐姐 他/她有一个姐姐。 tā yǒu yí gè jiě jie

"I am" Pattern

Subject Is/Are Quantifier+Nouns Hanzi Pinyin
I / 我 am / 是 a teacher / 一名老师 我是一名老师。 wǒ shì yì míng lǎo shī
You / 你 are / 是 a student / 一个学生 你是一个学生。 nǐ shì yí gè xué shēng
He / 他 is / 是 my brother / 我的弟弟 他是我的弟弟。 tā shì wǒ de dì di

"I am doing" Pattern

Subject Am/Are Doing Hanzi Pinyin
I / 我 am/ 在 reading / 看书 我在看书。 wǒ zài kàn shū
You / 你 are / 在 dancing / 跳舞 你在跳舞。 nǐ zài tiào wǔ
He / 他; She/ 她 is / 在 drawing / 画画 他/她在画画。 tā zài huà huà

"I did" Pattern

Subject Did+过 Something Hanzi Pinyin
I / 我 went to / 去过 Beijing / 北京 我去过北京。 wǒ qù guò běi jīng
You / 你 watched / 看过 this film / 这部电影 你看过这部电影。 nǐ kàn guò zhè bù diàn yǐng
He / 他; She/ 她 took / 坐过 a flight / 飞机 他/她坐过飞机。 tā zuò guò fēi jī

Subject + Verb + Nouns Pattern

Subject Verbs Nouns Hanzi Pinyin
I / 我 give up / 放弃 the competition / 比赛 我放弃比赛。 wǒ fàng qì bǐ sài
He/ 他; she/ 她 eats / 吃 an apple / 苹果 他/她吃苹果。 tā chī píng guǒ

How to Ask A Question with "吗?"

Subject Verbs / Nouns 吗? Hanzi Pinyin
Do you / 你 like running / 喜欢跑步 ? / 吗? 你喜欢跑步吗? nǐ xǐ huān pǎo bù ma
Is he / 他是; she/ 她是 a docter / 医生 ? / 吗? 她/他是医生吗? tā shì yī shēng ma

Negative Sentence Pattern

Subject Negative word Nouns Hanzi Pinyin
I / 我 am not / 不是 the player / 选手 我不是选手。 wǒ bú shì xuǎn shǒu
He/ 他; she/ 她 does not like / 不喜欢 exercising / 运动 他/她不喜欢运动。 tā bù xǐ huān yùn dòng
It / 它 has no / 没有 home / 家 它没有家。 tā méi yǒu jiā

Future Tense

Subject Time Verbs Hanzi Pinyin
I will/ 我 tomorrow / 明天 set off / 出发 我明天出发。 wǒ míng tiān chū fā
He will / 他; she will/ 她 3 days later / 三天后 come back / 回来 他/她三天后回来。 tā sān tiān hòu huí lái

Further reading:
Bullet Train from Beijing to Shanghai: Timetable, Tickets, Prices
China Entry and Travel Restrictions in 2021
Baggage Rules of China Rail

July 20th, 2021 Published by: Jolie Chow