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com/Mandarin

N ho Lesson 5 on Basic Mandarin!

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Revision

English Not Bad Still Ok

Mandarin B Cu Hi Ky

Type Adv. Adj. Adv. Adj.

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Revision-Etiquette conversation

English Thanks You are welcome Sorry It's alright

Mandarin Xixie B kqi B h o y si/Du b q Mi un xi

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Greetings and pleasantries

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What's in store today?

Today we will learn some more common greetings and pleasantries, like good morning, good afternoon, etc

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Greetings and pleasantries

'Good morning' literally translates to 'Morning peace' in Mandarin

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Greetings and pleasantries

Morning (literally, first sun) = Zo Peace = 'n Thus, literally 'Zo'n' translates to 'Morning peace'

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Tonal tip

Zo is pronounced using the 'falling rising' tone Lets hear you say Zo

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Tonal tip

'n is pronounced using a 'high level' tone Lets hear you say 'n'

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Greetings and pleasantries

Good morning

Zo'n

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Greetings and pleasantries

Just like in English, where we often use just 'morning' to wish 'good morning'; we can also use 'Zo' alone to wish someone 'good morning'

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Moving on...

Let's now look at 'Good evening'

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Greetings and pleasantries

'Good evening' literally translates to 'evening good' in Mandarin

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Greetings and pleasantries

Evening = Wnshng The word for evening is loosely a combination of two words: Wn = Night Shng = Before However, while writing it is always written as one word : Wnshng

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Tonal tip

Wn is pronounced using the 'falling rising' tone Lets hear you say Wn

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Tonal tip

Shng is pronounced using a falling tone Lets hear you say Shng

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Greetings and pleasantries

Evening = Wnshng Good = Ho

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So our phrase translates to...

Good evening

Wnshng h o

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Tonal tip
Now, you already know how to say 'Ho', lets bring it together and pronounce Wnshng ho Lets hear you say Good evening = Wnshng ho Great! Now let's move on and look at 'Good night'

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Greetings and pleasantries

'Good night' literally translates to 'Night peace' in Mandarin

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Greetings and pleasantries

Night = Wn Peace = n Thus, literally 'Wn'n' translates to 'Night peace'

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Tonal tip

Wn is pronounced using the 'falling rising' tone Lets hear you say Wn

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Tonal tip

n is pronounced using a high level Lets hear you say 'n'

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Greetings and pleasantries

Good night

Wn'n

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Greetings

English Good morning Good afternoon/evening Good night

Mandarin Zo'n Wnshng h o Wn'n

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Let's see if you remember

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Pick the right option

What is the meaning of Zo'n ?

1
Good morning

2
Good afternoon

3
Good night

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Pick the right option

What is the meaning of Zo'n ?

1
Good morning

2
Good afternoon

3
Good night

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Pick the right option

What tone does 'Shng' carry?

1
Falling

2
High

3
Rising

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Pick the right option

What tone does 'Shng' carry?

1
Falling

2
High

3
Rising

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Pick the right option

What does the word 'Wn' mean?

1
Night

2
Good

3
Morning

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Pick the right option

What does the word 'Wn' mean?

1
Night

2
Good

3
Morning

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Moving on

Now let's move on to some other commonly used greetings in social situations!

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Greetings and pleasantries

Very = Ti Good = Ho Excess = Le Thus,'Ti ho le' translates to 'an excess of goodness'

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Greetings and pleasantries

Literally speaking, 'Ti ho le' translates to 'very good excess'

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Tonal tip

Ti is pronounced with a 'falling' tone Let's try and say it once again, Ti

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Tonal tip

Le is pronounced with a neutral tone, we already know how to say ho Now let's try and pronounce the whole phrase together! Ti ho le, meaning wonderful!

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More greetings

Wonderful!

Ti h o le!

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Culturally speaking

Ti ho le can be applied to many situations, such as someone agreeing to see you again, someone giving you a business card, etc

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Moving on

Let's learn another important phrase, that translates to 'Hows everyone today?', or 'Good day, everyone!' Let's see the vocabulary required for this!

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Vocabulary

English Everyone Good

Mandarin Dji Ho

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Pronunciation tip

Now that we know the meaning, lets move on to pronouncing 'Dji' We will start with pronouncing 'D' and 'Ji' separately

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Tonal tip

'D' is pronounced using the 'falling' tone

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Tonal tip

Let's try and say D Once again, with a 'falling' tone - D

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Tonal tip

'Ji' meaning home, is said with a high level tone

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Tonal tip

Let's try and say Ji Once again, with a 'high level' tone Ji

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Tonal tip

Now let's try and pronounce it as one word 'Dji' Great! Now lets add 'Ho', to get 'Dji ho'

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More greetings

Good day, everyone!

Dji h o!

Literally, 'everyone good!'

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Culturally speaking

Dji ho, is usually used when giving a speech or otherwise addressing a large group of people!

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Moving on
We learnt that to say 'thanks' in Mandarin, we use the phrase 'Xixie', a common reply to thank you, is by using the phrase 'N l' It means, 'It was nothing' or 'It's okay!' Let's learn how to say 'N l'

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Tonal tip

'N' is pronounced using the 'falling rising' tone

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Tonal tip

Let's try and say N Once again, with a 'falling' tone - N

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Tonal tip

'L', is also said with a 'falling rising' tone

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Tonal tip

Let's try and say L Once again, with a 'falling rising' tone L

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More greetings

It's nothing really!

N l!

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Culturally speaking

N l is a standard response to a compliment Do not say 'Xixie' while replying to a compliment!

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Grammar tip
This example of 'N l' is appropriate to show that even though words in Mandarin have separate meanings of their own, upon clubbing together, they form different meanings 'N' and 'l' both have different meanings, separately, but together, they imply a reply to 'thank you'

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Let's see if you remember

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Pick the right option

How do we say 'Wonderful' in Mandarin?

1
Ti ho le

2
Dji ho

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Pick the right option

How do we say 'Wonderful' in Mandarin?

1
Ti ho le

2
Dji ho

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Pick the right option

What tone does 'ji' carry?

1
High level

2
Mid rising

3
Falling

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Pick the right option

What tone does 'ji' carry?

1
High level

2
Mid rising

3
Falling

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Pick the right option

How does one reply to compliments in Mandarin?

1
N l

2
Ji l

3
Ji n

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Pick the right option

How does one reply to compliments in Mandarin?

1
N l

2
Ji l

3
Ji n

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Revision

English Good morning Good afternoon/evening Good night Wonderful! Good day, everyone! Its nothing really!

Mandarin Zo'n Wnshng h o Wn'n Ti h o le! Dji h o! N l!

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Culture Leaf

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Culture leaf

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar It is also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival as it marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western Carnival

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Culture leaf
It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck On the eve of the Chinese New Year, families make it a point to have a feast together with all the members, they also light up firecrackers all through the night!

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Culture leaf

Windows and doors are decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of 'good fortune' or 'happiness', wealth', and 'longevity'

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What's next?

In the next lesson, we will have a conversation about meeting new friends!

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Credits
Content Team CultureAlley, Sunny Dang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_new_year Images http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_chinese_home _decorated_for_New_Years.jpg Whoisgalt

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See you at the Alley!

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