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In between the grammar books..

I finished reading “Dreaming in Chinese”. I really loved this book, it’s a lovely book to break up the monotony of the vocabulary and grammar books while still learning a thing or two about Chinese language. It’s more a commentary on culture and how the language influences it or how the culture influences the language. All of this told from a native English speaker, struggling to learn Chinese in her years living there. It’s kind of a journal of her quest to learn faster, understand why things are said the way they are and daily struggle to understand everything happening around her. 

Wonderful, funny and enlightening. If you’re starting to learn Chinese, I totally recommend this one. It really helped me feel like I’m not alone with how frustrating it can get trying to learn this language. 

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I find that YouTube is one of the best ways to practise listening skills, so I decided to share a few Mandarin YouTubers who I enjoy watching. Feel free to add on!

Vlogs/Cooking/Beauty/Misc.

Amanda Tastes

Xinshidandan 信誓蛋蛋

Stopkiddinstudio

Rainie Tian

Oh Emma

Hithere街访

I’m Charlie

Learning Chinese:

Twins Chinese

Chinese Zero to Hero

Yoyo Chinese

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Mandarin course: Ni hao ma?

Me: Wo shi bu tai.

Mandarin course: Translate the following: “Dìyù shì kōng de, suǒyǒu de móguǐ dōu zài zhèlǐ.”

Me:

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WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

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thinking in your target language: coherent and eloquent sentences. you use every verb tense perfectly, the grammatical genders are all correct, and your intonation is like a native speaker’s.

actually speaking your target language:

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TileSpeak

Learn Mandarin or Cantonese with Mahjong!

 Chinese in Flow

Hint: Go to settings and turn on audio

 Games2LearnChinese

Taking care of a baby kitty sounds fun, right? Well, the kitty speaks Chinese.  There are other games too.

  Chinese iLab

  Learn4Good

  YellowBridge

A memory game!

Surface Languages

Learn colors, fruit, months, numbers

Quizzes by Guia Zhu

Readish

A curated collection of Chinese learning games. It includes some of the games mentioned above along with some more!

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Exo-M “Monster” Chinese version

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Exo-M “Heart Attack” color coded Chinese with pinyin and English translation. 💕

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me when people don’t put tones with the pinyin:

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Guys. Listen. A “large dog” in Mandarin is 大狗, which is pronounced dà gǒu.

So, basically, a doggo is literally called a doggo in Chinese.

Let’s all take a moment to appreciate this linguistic beauty.

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How to Make Your Chinese Sound Native (Part I)

Welcome to part I of commonly used word pairs. This is one of the best ways to improve your Chinese and help your speaking sound more native. Let’s look at various “递进关系 (dìjìn guānxì) progressive relationships” and “转折关系 (zhuǎnzhé guānxì) transition relationships” between words. These are very common to use in sentences for everyday conversation. By learning these commonly associated words you can get closer to sounding native faster than ever!

1. “不但 (Búdàn)” …. “而且 (érqiě)”

There are a few ways to express “not only … but also”, in Chinese. One way is to add “不但 (búdàn)” …. “而且 (érqiě)” in a sentence. Put the sentence this way: Noun + 不但 (búdàn) + A, 而且 + B. Adjectives, verbs or phrases could be used in place of A or B.

For example:

Tā búdàn hěn piàoliang, érqiě hěn cōngmíng. 她不但很漂亮，而且很聪明。 She is not only beautiful but also intelligent.

(The Different Ways to Say “因为 (yīnwèi) BECAUSE”and “所以 (suǒyǐ) SO” in Chinese)

2. “不仅 (Bùjǐn)”…..“还 (hái)…..”

The next way to express “not only … but also” is “不仅 (bùjǐn)”…..“还 (hái)…..” The pattern can also be used omitting “还 (hái)”, and instead using adverbs like “也 (yě) and also” in its place.

The structure for this is: Subj. + 不仅 (bùjǐn), 还/也 + … The same subject should apply to both the first and the second part to use it properly.

For example:

Tā bùjǐn huì shuō yīngyǔ, hái huì shuō fǎyǔ. 他不仅会说英语，还会说法语。 He not only speaks English but also speaks French.

3. “虽然 (Suīrán)”…”但是 (dànshì)…”

Next, let’s look at “转折关系 (zhuǎnzhé guānxì) transition relationship” words to use as well. First is: “虽然 (suīrán) although”…”但是 (dànshì) but…”

You can think of it as meaning “although,” but unlike in English, you still need to follow it with a “but” word in Chinese. The structure is easy: “虽然 (suīrán) ⋯⋯, 但是 (dànshì)⋯⋯”

To properly use it, know that “虽然 (suīrán)⋯⋯ 但是 (dànshì)⋯⋯”, expresses that, while the former part of the sentence is true, there is an adverse reaction in the…

…for more information on speaking Chinese like a native, you can READ THE FULL LESSON HERE!

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Vocab Party: Grammar Nerd/Ling Things

So this is potentially not that useful unless you’re into linguistics, but I think as language learners you’ve hopefully encountered some of these in figuring out the machinery of your lang vs. mandarin. If not, maybe do some googling, might find a new helpful 语法 (語法 : yǔfǎ : grammar) concept!

Parts Of Speech

名词 (名詞) míngcí : noun

动词 (動詞) dòngcí : verb

及物动词 (及物動詞) jíwù dòngcí : transitive verb. Verbs that require an object/predicate, e.g. “I bought potatoes.” You can’t say “I bought”

不及物动词  (不及物動詞) Bù jíwù dòngcí: intransitive verb. No object/predicate required, e.g. “I ran.” and you’ll note you can’t say “I ran road,” but you could say “I ran on the road,” or “I ran fast;” things to think about when you learn new verbs.   

形容词 (形容詞) xíngróngcí : adjective

量词 (量词) liàngcí : measure word!!! everyone’s favorite 

介词 (介詞) jiècí : preposition. this includes things like 給 & 用 that we dont think of this way in English really 

助词 (助詞) zhùcí : particle, those lil function/tense/mood words like 的 , 過 , 呢, or 了

代词 (代詞) dàicí : pronoun (of which there are reflexive, possessive, interrogative, etc.)

係詞 (繫詞) xìcí : copula. sorta linking verb special thing, doesn’t really “mean” anything. In Standard English it’s is/are/was/were (and carries tense info), notice in AAE (and many langs) copula deletion is pretty standard—Mandarin doesn’t need it for linking nouns and adjectives. There is of course 是. 

Sometimes coming from English we get tripped up because say Mandarin adjectives kinda seem like stative verbs—她很帥, not 她是很帥—but their distribution and behaviors are not the same. So knowing the names of things is only one part of knowing how they work. Also if you get to classical like forget it anything can be anything woo 活用!!! (huóyòng : to use a word flexibly) 

Parts of Sentences

主语 (主語) zhǔyǔ : subject. semantically messy but yr basic grammar knows what this is.

宾语 (賓語) bīnyǔ : object. the thing receiving the action 

谓语 (謂語) wèiyǔ : predicate. basically everything not the subject, the verb phrase. Has it’s own requirements like one-place predicate or two-place predicate.

小句 xiǎojù : clause. a clause is like a chunk below sentence level but is sometimes technically a sentence. So in the utterance, “I told Juan that I bought potatoes.” “I bought potatoes” is an embedded clause. 

I’ll leave the details out, but if you want here’s another post I did on parts of sentences that then goes with this. (haha oh syntax)

Types of Sentences

叙述句 (敘述句) xùshù jù : declarative/narrative sentence

描写句 (描寫句) miáoxiě jù : descriptive sentence

判断句 (判斷句) pànduàn jù : determinative sentence

疑问句 (疑問句) yíwènjù : interrogative sentence (question) 

符合句 (複合句) fùhé jù : compound sentence, of which there are maaany kinds:

平行 píngxíng : parallel. Chinese fucking loves parallel structures srsly

加合 jiā hé : additional

比较 (比較) bǐjiào : comparative

交替 jiāotì : alternative

etc etc so many

Not always that useful except when they are so here. 

Hope this has been some kind of helpful, if you’re ever learning full-immersion style you’ll definitely want to know at least parts of speech. Let me know if something’s unclear, I didn’t want to go full linguistics vs. traditional grammar or anything~ (also I’m socioling this is not my jam) if you are into more linguistics, Chinese: A Linguistic Introduction is a good place to start. (full pdf download!!! hit the blue 下载 button under the preview) 

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Grammar 3

There are three particles to put right after a verb to specify its relation to Time.

了 indicates, that the action is over, finished.

过 indicates, that we have an experience with something, that it has happened so we can refer to it.

着 emphasises duration of an action in time.

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NOTICE the DIFFERENCE between this post and the previous one.

Combined with VERBS 要 indicates the FUTURE.

Combined with VERBS 想 means TO WANT.

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jiāyoú 加油 

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Me taking notes: I don’t need to write the pinyin or tones or even the translation I’ll remember heehee

Me exactly one hour later: what the FUCK does this say