Total Chinese Level 1

1. 1
Lesson 2 Greetings
Learning Objectives:
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
• Exchange Greetings in Chinese
• Use Question-and-Answer Greetings
• Ask and answer yes/no Ma questions
• Use tag question Ne
• Count Chinese number 1 to 10
Dialogue
Lin Jun：你好
nǐ hǎo
Wu Han：你好
nǐ hāo
Lin Jun：你是学生吗？
Nǐ shì xuéshēng ma?
Wu Han：不，我不是学生，我是老师。 你呢？
bù, wǒ bú shì xuéshēng, wǒ shì lǎoshī, nǐ ne?
Lin Jun：我是学生
wǒ shì xuéshēng.
Wu Han：他呢？他是老师吗？
Tā ne? tā shì lǎoshī ma?
Lin Jun：是，他是老师
Shì，tā shì lǎoshī.
English translations of the dialogue
Lin Jun: Hello.
Wu Han： Hello.
Lin Jun： Are you a student?
Wu Han： No, I am not a student. I am a teacher, how about you?
Lin Jun： I am a student.
Wu Han： How about him? Is he a teacher?
Lin Jun： Yes, he is a teacher.

2. 2
Vocabulary
Simplified
Character
Traditional
Character
Pinyin English meaning
1 你 你 nǐ you
2 好 好 hǎo good
3 是 是 shì to be; yes
4 学生 學生 xuéshēng student
5 吗 嗎 ma question ending
6 我 我 wǒ I, me
7 呢 呢 ne question ending
8 他 他 tā he
9 不 不 bù / bú no, not
10 老师 老師 lǎoshī teacher
A. Chinese Number 0-10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
líng yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qī bā jiǔ shí
零 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十
B. Pinyin Exercise
Listen and repeat the following sound.
1. mā má mǎ mà
2. tā tá tǎ tà
3. lī lí lǐ lì
4. bū bú bǔ bù
5. shī shí shǐ shì
6. lǎo láo lǎo lào
7. xuē xué xuě xùe
8. shēng shéng shěng sheng

3. 3
C. Grammar Practice
1. Basic Chinese Sentences
• The basic word order is Subject- verb- object.
Example: 我是老师。
wǒ shì lǎoshī
他是学生。
tā shì xuéshēng
2. The Pronouns 我 wǒ，你 nǐ， 他 tā
• 我 wǒ, 你 nǐ, 他 tā are used as the first person, second person, and third
person pronouns.
3. Sentence with 是 shì and 不是 búshì
• 是 shì is a verb, means to be, or yes. 不是 búshì is the negative form or
no.
Example: 我是学生，不是老师。
wǒ shì xuéshēng, bú shì lǎoshī
他是老师，不是学生。
tā shì lǎoshī, bú shì xuéshēng
4. Forming Questions with 吗 ma
• The most common way to turn a sentence into a question is to place the
particle 吗 ma at the end of the sentence.
Example: 你是老师。
nǐ shì lǎoshī .
你是老师吗？
nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?
5. Forming Questions with 呢 ne
• The particle 呢 ne is used after a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to turn
the sentence into a question that could be translated as “How
about_____?”
Example: 我是老师，你呢？
wǒ shì lǎoshī, ni ne?
他是学生，你呢？
tā shì xuéshēng, nǐ ne?

4. 4
Chinese Greeting
Chinese common greetings:
Expression Greetings Common Response
Good morning! 早
zǎo
早
zǎo
Hello! 你好
nǐhǎo
你好 (Hello)
nǐhǎo
How are you? 你好吗？
nǐ hǎo ma?
我很好 (I am fine.)
wǒ hěn hǎo
What’s up? 怎么样？
zěn me yàng?
很好 (Very good.)
hěn hǎo
不错 (Not bad.)
bú cuò
Have you eaten yet? 你吃了吗？
nǐ chī le ma?
吃了 (I have)
chī le
还没有 (Not yet)
hái méiyǒu
Long time no see! 好久不见
hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn
好久不见
hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn
Good bye 再见
zài jiàn
再见
zài jiàn