Nihao Susan, thanks for your good questions!

Na4 or na4ge = that (sometimes also pronounced as nei4ge). Na4 or na4me = so, then. So, na4 can mean ‘that’ and ‘so, then’.

To be more clear, the full word for ‘that’ is na4ge, the opposite of zhe4ge (zhei4ge). The full word for ‘so’ or ‘then’ is na4me.

The only other different ‘na’ is na3, pronounced in the third tone, meaning ‘which’, as in na3 yi2ge4 (which one). (ge4 is originally 4th tone; it’s either neutral or 4th tone, either way is fine.)

Now about ‘bu’ and ‘yi’. By default they are pronounced bu4 (fourth tone) and yi1 (first tone). But there is a rule for when they change their tones.

Bu4: when placed before a 4th tone, it turns into bu2 (second tone), e.g. bu2 shi4, bu2 yao4. When placed before the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tones, it stays bu4 (fourth tone). For example, in dui4 bu4 qi3, qi3 is third tone, so bu4 stays bu4. However, it can also be written as ‘neutral’ tone here. Either way is fine.

The same applies to yi1 (one). Before a fourth tone it becomes second tone, e.g. yi2 ci4 (one time). But yi4 qi3 (together) uses yi4 in the fourth tone.

This is a very common rule; it will help you understand why the tone is sometimes different with ‘bu’ and ‘yi’.

Dear Karen, just keep your voice low when you pronounce the third tone; try not to raise it. It’s basically like a low version of the first tone (you can cut the rising part, which is similar to the second tone and is what’s confusing you).

For the second tone, raise your voice immediately to the top. Don’t hesitate at the bottom, otherwise it will sound like the third tone.

Here are some hints on how to pronounce the four Chinese tones:

• 1st tone is level, like the second syllable of “tadaa!” Someone whisking the drape off a new painting might say tadaa!
• 2nd tone is rising, like the tone of the surprised question: “What?”
• 3rd tone goes down and then up, like the irritated, exaggerated “So” in: “You haven’t given me any reason to do it.” “So? Do it anyway.”
• 4th tone is a falling tone, like the “Hey” in “Hey! You there!”

Hi Martin, there is an explanation about this in the lesson transcript. The particle “ba” is used to indicate the possibility of something, when the speaker is not very sure; it plays the same role as the question particle “ma”. So whenever you doubt something, or aren’t sure whether it’s true, you use “ba” at the end of the question. Hope this helps. Best, Serge

Very good questions, Kori. Let me answer both.

1) The possessive ‘de’ can be omitted before names of relatives, close friends, your country, or something you want to emphasize is very close to you (e.g. your beloved car). For example, wo3 ba4ba4 (my father) instead of wo3de ba4ba4; wo3 peng2you3 (my friend) instead of wo3de peng2you3. Note that it is not a mistake to keep the ‘de’ there; you can simply omit it.

2) The ‘de’ used after shi4, e.g. shi4 de or dui4 de (meaning ‘yes’, ‘right’), is not a possessive ‘de’. It’s used to stress the meaning of the word and carries no meaning by itself. You’ll mostly see this in shi4 de and dui4 de, also hao3 de (good, ok), ke3yi3 de (fine, ok, will do), etc. It just enhances the meaning, nothing more. Regards, Serge

Nihao Stephen.

1) In English we always use the ‘to be’ verb. In Mandarin there must be a verb in the Subject-Verb-Object construction, but this verb can vary. Sometimes it’s shi4, sometimes zai4 or another verb, and in some cases it can even be omitted.

Shi4 is used for the more direct, literal meaning, when something or someone IS something or someone, but not when someone IS AT a location. When someone is at a location, the verb zai4 is used (you still translate it as ‘is at’).

E.g. wo3 shi4 Shi3di4wen2 (I am Steven) or wo3 shi4 lao3shi1 (I am a teacher), a direct, literal meaning. E.g. wo3 zai4 Zhong1guo2 (I am in China). It’s either shi4 or zai4; you can’t use both together (except to really emphasize something: wo SHI4 zai4 Zhong1guo2, “I AM in China”, answering someone who doubts you’re really there). The same goes for “I go to China”: it’s NOT wo3 qu4 zai4 Zhongguo. The correct way is just wo3 qu4 Zhong1guo2.

2) Yes: qing3 (please), zuo4 (to sit), so it’s ‘please sit’.

3) jin4 means ‘to enter, to come in’. Best, Serge

Dawei, Nihao! Thank you for your excellent question; it lets me explain a major grammatical point.

As a matter of fact, the ‘de’ in this sentence is not possessive. There are 3 different ‘de’s in Mandarin Chinese, written with different characters: 的 possessive de, 得 complement-of-degree ‘de’, and 地 particle ‘de’ used as an adverbial modifier (to modify the verb when there is an adverb preceding it).

Going back to your sentence, nide zhongwen shuo de hen hao (你的中文说得很好) → it’s the answer to the question shuo de zenmeyang? (说得怎么样？) “How does he speak it?” → he speaks very well.

So whenever you need to show the complement of degree (“how does someone do something”, “how does it look, taste, go, fly”), you use verb + de + result.

Generally, the complement of degree emphasizes the result of an accomplished action, while the adverbial modifier emphasizes the manner or attitude in which the action is or will be taken. For complement-of-degree sentences there are 2 ways to express it:

If the full “verb+object” phrase is used, e.g. shuo1 zhong1wen2 (说中文), then you NEED to repeat the main verb shuo1 (说) right before the complement of degree: ni3 shuo1 zhong1wen2 shuo1 de hen3 hao3! (你说中文说得很好！) You speak Chinese (speak) very well. Another example: chi1fan4 (吃饭), to eat, literally “eat rice” (verb+object). Ni3 chi1fan4 chi1 de hen3 kuai4! (你吃饭吃得很快！) you eat very fast.

The second way: when there is no full verb+object, just an object. E.g. Ni3 zhong1wen2 shuo1 de hen3 hao3! (你中文说得很好！) your Chinese speaks very well. This can be either ni zhongwen or nide zhongwen; the meaning is slightly different but almost the same. Ni3 fan4 chi1 de hen3 kuai4! (你饭吃得很快！) you eat “rice” very fast. That was the complement of degree.

The adverbial modifier is when you place words like hao3 (好) good/well, kuai4 (快) fast, etc. before the verb. Sometimes these words are doubled: haohao (好好), kuaikuai (快快), man4man4 (慢慢) slowly, becoming good“ly”, fast“ly”, slow“ly”, but placed BEFORE the verb. E.g. haohao de shuo! (好好地说！) speak well (clearly). Ni3 man4man4 de shuo1 (你慢慢地说！) speak slowly, so I can understand you. This type of action hasn’t happened yet.

The action in the complement of degree is the result of an action that already took place. You can omit the ‘de’ used as an adverbial modifier, as in qing3 ni3 man4man4 shuo1 (请你慢慢说) please speak slowly, or qing3 ni3 man4man4 de shuo1! (请你慢慢地说！).

So these 3 particles ‘de’ are not the same. Hopefully this helps you see which is which. Best, Serge

Nihao John. Rang4 women lai2… is the “let us” construction; sometimes rang4 (让) is omitted and only lai2 (来) is left. After lai2 (来) there is usually a verb. E.g. wo3men lai2 he1 cha2 ba! (我们来喜茶吧！) Let’s have tea! It’s a suggestion to have tea together.

Lai2 (来) here does not directly mean “to come”, though it still implies that people kind of come together to enjoy a cup of tea. So you’re right, you can’t translate it literally as “to come”; just keep in mind it’s used when bringing up a suggestion to do something. Another example: Rang4 wo3 lai2 kan4kan4 (让我来看看) or wo3 lai2 kan4kan4 (我来看看), let me see! Best, Serge

Dear Dave, let me answer in order:

1) Correct, there are no genders. Chinese is an amorphous language; there are no changes in words, tenses, etc., in the way we are used to in European languages.

2) Yes, there will be notes about how different time situations can be expressed in Mandarin. But, as I mentioned, there are no tenses as we understand them. You need to guess from context whether something is present, future, or past. E.g. wo3 chi1fan4 (I eat); this can also mean “I am eating”. If you say zuo2tian1 wo3 chi1fan4 (Yesterday I eat), it means “I ate yesterday”; we know it’s past because of the word zuo2tian1 (yesterday).

Generally, tenses in Mandarin are expressed using language markers: particles placed before or after the verb. guo4 is placed after the verb: wo chi1 guo4 (fan4), I ate. Yao4 or hui4 mean “will”, “going to”: Wo3 yao4 chi1fan4, I will eat. These are the major 3 particles for tenses. There is also a particle ‘le’ that can indicate past tense, but more often it indicates a change in the situation (something new has happened, a change from not-known to known).

E.g. ta1 lai2 (he comes / he is coming). Ta1 lai2 le! (He came! He already came; the situation changed from “not seeing him” to “seeing him”.)

In the lesson 65 PDF there are many notes about grammar; the whole PDF explains the most common grammar constructions in Mandarin Chinese. Best, Serge

Ren2min2bi4 (人民币) is the name for Chinese currency. Literally it translates as “people’s currency”: ren2min2 means ‘people’ and bi4 means ‘currency’, just like naming a currency ‘dollar’ or ‘pound’. So nothing special, just a name.

When you talk about money in Mandarin, you usually add kuai4 qian2 (块钱) after the number. E.g. “ten Chinese dollars” is shi2 kuai4 qian2 (十块钱), where shi2 (十) means ‘ten’.

Another way to say ‘ten renminbi’ is shi2 yuan2 (十元), where yuan2 (元) is a different name for an Asian currency unit (compare to yen in Japan and won in Korea, in fact the same word with different pronunciation). Yuan has a broader meaning and includes all periods of Chinese history, while renminbi (people’s currency) only refers to communist China. Yuan is the same for Taiwan, Hong Kong and China; renminbi is only in China. Hope this helps.

Nihao, thanks for the question. Technically, yes, it should be ji3 tiao2, as tiao2 is the measure word for ties. But since ge4 is the universal measure word, it can be used with any noun.

Also, in a market you’ll most likely hear simpler, less ‘standard’ Mandarin, so hearing ni3 yao4 ji3ge won’t be a big surprise! Hope this helps. Serge

Nihao John, good question. The possessive function is not the only common role ‘de’ plays. As a possessive particle, it doesn’t have to follow a pronoun; it can be any noun. It’s just more typical to follow the pronoun (wode, nide, tade: my, your, his), but you can also say dian4nao3 de (电脑的) computer’s, e.g. dian4nao3 de ji4yi4ti3 (电脑的记忆体) computer’s memory.

To understand this ‘de’, try using an apostrophe after the noun in English, e.g. computer’s. It may not sound native (sometimes ‘of’ is better), but it helps you get the correct word order in Mandarin.

In lesson 65’s PDF “Grammar Summary” it says: this construction indicates that the noun after ‘de’ belongs to the noun before ‘de’.

Another usage of ‘de’ is the shi…de (是…的) construction, used to emphasize the state or situation of the noun. The emphasized statement is placed between shi4 and de. E.g. Ta1de dian4nao3 shi4 xin1 de (他的电脑是新的) his computer is new (shi = is, xin1 = new, de = particle).

There is also an attributive clause with ‘de’, used to modify a noun preceded by the particle ‘de’. This clause can be a word or a phrase. E.g. yi2ge hen3 piao4liang4 de zhu4zhai2 (一个很漂亮的住宅) a very beautiful apartment. Yige hen piaoliang de (一个很漂亮的) is a phrase modifying the noun zhu4zhai2 (住宅) apartment.

So, back to your example: Zhe4 shi4 ni3 zhu4 de zhu4zhai2 (这是你住的住宅) this is the apartment… Ni3 zhu4 de (你住的) “the one that you live (in)” modifies the noun zhu4zhai2 (住宅). Ni3 zhu4 (你住) means “you live”; the added ‘de’ changes it to “the one that you live in”. Hope this is helpful. Best, Serge

Yes, zai4 is used in xian1… ran2hou4 zai4… and it means ‘then’. You can also omit ran2hou4: xian1… zai4…

Mandarin is based on the northern Chinese dialects, so people from the north-east, Beijing, and some other northern provinces speak pure Mandarin as their only dialect.

People from Shanghai or Guangdong province are bilingual: they are obliged to speak Mandarin and they also speak their own dialect (Shanghainese or Cantonese).

Some dialects are still quite similar to Mandarin, but some are not, like Cantonese. So it depends. Shanghainese is easier to pick up if you are fluent in Mandarin and live in Shanghai for several years.

Hi Joseph. Generally, the possessive “de” (的) can be omitted if you relate closely to the person or even the object. Relatives fall into this category, so you say wo ma (我妈) my mom, wo ba (我爸) my dad, wo nvpengyou (我女朋友) my girlfriend. Wo pengyou (我朋友) or wo de pengyou (我的朋友) are both fine.

It’s acceptable both ways. Saying wode baba (我的爸爸) my dad, or wode mama (我的妈妈), wode nanpengyou (我的男朋友) my boyfriend, are all equally correct. But saying wode ba or wode ma is wrong (except in fixed idioms, e.g. wode ma ya! 我的妈呀！ mamma mia!).

So, when something or someone relates closely to you, you CAN omit the “de”. No, it’s not related to gender.

Other objects work too. You can say wo che (我车) my car, or wo shou3ji1 mei2 dian4 le (我手机没电了) my phone’s battery is dead. Some expressions are fairly fixed, e.g. wo3 guo2 (我国) my country, wo jia1 (我家) my home/family, but it’s also fine to say wode guo2jia1 (我的国家) or wode jia (我的家).

Omitting this “de” just makes your relationship with that person or object more intimate and personal. Hope this helps! Serge

Nihao Steven.

1) It’s the shi…de construction; ‘de’ is added at the end for emphasis. Without it you can say either zhege dongxi shenme yanse? or zhege dongxi shi shenme yanse; both are fine. It’s more common to use ‘de’ when answering, e.g. hong2se4 de chen4shan1 (red shirt) instead of hongse chenshan or hong chenshan, because ‘de’ is commonly added after adjectives.

So it’s better to ask: zhe4 jian4 (measure word) chen4shan1 shi4 shenme yanse de? and answer: shi4 hong2se4 de, or the full sentence zhe jian chenshan shi hongse de. However, it’s wrong if someone asks zhe jian chenshan shi shenme yanse and you answer shi hongse or zhe jian chenshan shi hongse; the ‘de’ at the end must be added. Otherwise shi hongse means “it’s the colour red”, where ‘red’ is not an adjective.

The only other way without ‘de’ is zhe jian shi hongse(de) chenshan (with or without ‘de’, both ok).

2) juhuangse and chengse are both fine. I think juhuangse is used more in Taiwan and chengse in Mainland China; otherwise exactly the same. Best, Serge

Hi Greg, your Chinese teacher is right. Fangjia (放假) means to get time off work or school, or when the boss or school gives you that time off. It’s the most common word meaning “to have a holiday or vacation”, so in most cases that’s why I chose it rather than dujia (度假) or xiujia (休假).

The three words have similar meanings in English but stylistic differences in Chinese. To understand them, look at fang in fangjia, du in dujia, and xiu in xiujia.

Fang4 means to let someone go, set someone free. So fang4jia4 means you’ve been granted a holiday from your company or school. That’s usually true since we all work or study somewhere, which is why I used it in lesson 37: Ni shenme shihou fangjia? (When do you have a vacation?) Usually it’s an official holiday; in China we have 7 days off in October (National Day) and 7 days in May (Labour Day), granted by the government. So this is fangjia.

Du in dujia means a process: to spend, to pass (duguo). So du4jia4 emphasizes the process, maybe even the place where and how you spend your vacation. It’s usually used with the verb “to go” (qu). E.g. Women fangjia le, ni xiang qu nali dujia? (We have holidays, where do you want to go for a vacation?) Du miyue, to have a honeymoon, is another example. Women qu Taiguo dujia (we are going to spend our holidays in Thailand). So I’d translate dujia as “to spend holidays or a vacation”.

Xiu1 in xiu1jia4 is from xiuxi (to rest, to take time off). Xiujia is very close to fangjia but doesn’t emphasize being granted the vacation; it’s usually a vacation you’re legally entitled to, e.g. your annual leave (nianxiu). You can choose when to take it; it’s not an official holiday. E.g. Wo meinian you san tian de xiujia (I have three days of vacation every year).

Now a sentence with all three: Wo laoban gei wo fangjia, suoyi wo you jitian de xiujia, wo jueding qu Xiaweiyi dujia. (My boss gave me a vacation, so I got several days off, and I decided to spend my vacation in Hawaii.) Xia4wei1yi2 = Hawaii. Best, Serge

Nihao Richard. When you see a particle ba used in the middle (the ba1 particle, not the grammatical preposition ba3), it’s usually used in spoken language to break longer sentences into smaller parts and let you pause before continuing. It’s common when telling a story; not very frequent, but you can hear it in the lesson 247 dialogue.

It also occurs to me you might be asking about the ba3 preposition, which plays a really important role in Chinese grammar and is totally different from the purely intonational ba1 at sentence end. It’s discussed in Lesson 34 (grammar notes at the end) and Lesson 65.

The 把 bǎ construction indicates what one does to a particular object, or how one does it. Verbs in this construction take complex forms (verbs of action attached to resultative words, directional words, or other elements) that refer to the direct object. For instance, 我把酒喜完了 wǒ bǎ jiǔ hē wán le (I finished the wine): the resultative word “finish” refers to the wine, not to the action of drinking. “I finished drinking” would be the simple 我喜完酒了 wǒ hē wán jiǔ le.

Passive construction with 被 bèi (just for comparison): it indicates how a particular object is dealt with or disposed of by somebody or something. The verbs take complicated forms, similar to those in the bǎ construction. For instance, 书已经被他借走了 shū yǐjīng bèi tā jiè zǒu le (the book has been borrowed by him). In bǎ sentences this would be 他已经把书借走了 tā yǐjīng bǎ shū jiè zǒu le (he has already borrowed the book).

To understand ba3 better, imagine it’s a verb meaning ‘to grab’, but not the final result of the action; it’s only a tool for a second action. E.g. “Give me the book.” You can say it 2 ways: 1) gei3 wo3 shu1 (给我书), or using ba3, 2) ba3 shu1 gei3 wo3 (把书给我). If you think of ba3 as ‘to grab’ (a pre-action before the main action), it’s “grab the book (and) give it to me”.

You can’t leave the sentence unfinished by just saying ba3 shu1… it sounds incomplete. ba3 shu1 ‘what’? → ba3 shu1 gei3 wo3 (把书给我)! The second, main verb carries the meaning; ba3 carries none, it just indicates someone is going to do something with the thing they take (tangible or abstract). Best, Serge