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学 (xué) and 学会 (xuéhuì) can both mean "to learn" in Mandarin Chinese. 学 is a verb that describes the ongoing process of learning. 学会 is a compound verb that indicates the completion of learning or mastering a skill. 会 often means “can” or “to know how to”. In 学会, it suggests that after learning, the person is now able to do something. So you could think of 学 combined with 会 as "to learn and then…
一点儿 (yī diǎnr) is a common word in Mandarin Chinese. It means "some", "a bit of" or "a little bit". It can also be combined with 也不 (yě bù) to form absolute negatives like "not at all". 一点儿 with a noun 一点儿 is commonly used with nouns and noun phrases. The noun that it modifies must be a mass noun, which means something that can be treated as a continuous quantity and does not need to be counted as…
There are a lot of memes around the idea that the Chinese word for "penguin" can literally be translated as "business goose". Whilst this is quite attractive as penguins do look like they're waddling around in little business suits, unfortunately this etymology is not actually accurate. The Chinese word for penguin is 企鹅 (qǐ'é). The second character 鹅 does indeed mean "goose". The first character…
Mandarin's second tone is harder to pronounce correctly than many learners realise. Beginners tend to focus a lot on getting third tone correct as it seems the most unnatural tone for people not used to tonal languages. While the standard description of second tone as "high rising" (ˊ) sounds simple enough, it can be tricky to pronounce this tone correctly in fluent speech. A tip for getting…
For the last few months I've been listening to the 故事 FM podcast every day via Apple Podcasts. Each episode of 故事 FM begins with the podcast's slogan: "用你的声音讲你的故事" (Yòng nǐ de shēngyīn jiǎng nǐ de gùshì / "telling your story in your voice"). They invite a person to tell their story. The story-tellers are mostly ordinary people, which is part of the appeal, although some are somewhat famous people,…
Both the 是…的 (shì…de) construction and 了 (le) can both be used to talk about past events in Mandarin Chinese grammar. Here's how to use the two constructions correctly, as they are different. 是…的 ( shì … de ) : focus on the circumstances A quick recap of the 是…的 (shì…de) construction . 是…的 is used to talk about events that happened in the past: 这 ( Zhè ) 家 ( jiā ) 公 ( gōng ) 司 ( sī ) 是 ( shì )…
The words 长 (cháng) and 久 (jiǔ) can both be used to express "long" or "length" in Mandarin Chinese. 长 can be used to talk about physical lengths in space and lengths of time, while 久 is exclusively for lengths of time. Here's how to use 长 and 久 correctly. 长 ( cháng ) : physical length in space, or length of time 长 is the more versatile of these two words. It can be used to describe both spatial…
The words 关于 (guānyú) and 对于 (duìyú) are both prepositions in Chinese grammar, and can both be used to express "about" or "regarding". Here's how to use them correctly for different purposes. 关于 (guānyú): "about" / scoping 关于 is often equivalent to "about" in English. It's a preposition, which means that it is used to mark the role of another word in a sentence. Like 对于, described below, it can…
The words 去 (qù), 走 (zǒu) and 离开 (líkāi) can all be used to express "to go" in Mandarin Chinese. Here's how to use them correctly for different purposes. 去 ( qù ) 去 is an extremely common word in Chinese, with a range of meanings. It is often used to express "to go somewhere", or to express "leaving". Using 去 to express "going somewhere" 他 ( Tā ) 刚 ( gāng ) 去 ( qù ) 。
The 19th rule in Dr Wozniak's 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge is a quick bit of advice: "provide date stamping". This is a small tip that goes hand-in-hand with keeping notes . It's easy but worthwhile. You should think of your Chinese flashcards deck as an ever-developing resource for your Chinese learning. It's not static, and neither is it a fire-and-forget system. It needs updating and…