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Tones

There are four basic tones in Mandarin Chinese. One word can have four or more different meanings depending on the tone that is used. The first tone is a high, flat tone similar to saying ‘ah’ when the doctor puts a tongue depressor in your mouth. The second tone is the rising tone. The third tone is the falling-rising tone and the fourth tone is the falling tone.

Numbers

Chinese numbers adhere to a system based in tens:

Yi = one
Er = two
San = three
Si = four
Wu = five
Liu = six
Qi = seven
Ba = eight
Jiu = nine
Ling = zero

Pronouns

Chinese is similar to English in that there are first-, second- and third-person pronouns.

Wo = I/me
Ni = you (singular)
Ta = he/she/it

To form plural pronouns, -men is simply added to the singular pronouns.

Women = Us
Nimen = you (plural)
Tamen = them

Basic Expressions

Ni hao ma? = How are you?
Duibuqi = Excuse me/Sorry
Qing = Please
Xiexie = Thank You

Times and Dates

In Chinese, time expressions (biggest unit to smallest, i.e.- year/month/date or week/day/ time) can precede or follow the subject but precedes the verb. In other words, the following sentence in English “How about we go to the movie theater tonight at 7 o’clock? “ would be arranged in Chinese as “Today-nighttime-seven-o’clock-we-go-movie-theater-how-about?” In Pinyin, the sentence is “Jintian wanshang qi dian zhong women qu dianyingyuan zenemyang?”