UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS

Tuguegarao City

SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY, BUSINESS AND HOSPITALITY

First Semester
A.Y. 2020-2021

LEARNING MODULE
FOREIGN LANGUAGE 1 -MANDARIN

Prepared by:

PERLIE JOY C. TAMBOA, MAPSY

Course Instructor

Reviewed by:

MA. SHERELYN S. TAMA, MSHRM

Hospitality and Tourism Program Chair

Recommended by:

ALICIA S. TULIAO, MBE

Academic Dean

Approved by:

EMMANUEL JAMES PATTAGUAN, Ph.D.

Vice President for Academics

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
 Lesson 1-PINYIN SYSTEM CRASH COURSE -LESSON 1

Content Lesson 1: Pinyin system

1.1 Initials
1.2 Finals
1.3 Tones
1.4 Pronouns
1.5 Monosyllabic words
1.6 Disyllabic words
1.7 Interrogative particles and question words

Learning Outcomes
 Differentiate Pinyin system from the English
alphabet/.
 Enunciate the four tones used in monosyllabic and
disyllabic words.
 Determine the word order in constructing
Mandarin sentences.
 Identify the appropriate question word in the
different set of Interrogative sentences.

LEARNING CONTENT

Lesson 1 contains the basic information about the Pinyin system. You will be acquainted with the
fundamental components of a Chinese syllable, phonetics and a set of monosyllabic and disyllabic words. The
importance of tones will be emphasized as you learn to articulate the four tones when used in different
mandarin words. Pronouns and sentences structure are also incorporated in this lesson.

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
Pīnyīn shì shénme ? What is Pinyin?

It was a system developed in the 1950’s to standardized the pronunciation of chinese characters,because
there are 56 ethnic groups speaking different dialects all across China. So Pinyin was created to help people
pronounce chinese characters in a united way.

It is also called Chinese Phonetic Alphabet.Translates into “spell sound”,in other words, spelling out Chinese
phrases with letters from the English alphabet

Chinese syllable is usually made up of an initial, a final and a tone. Generally speaking, one Chinese character
corresponds to one syllable. A chinese syllable can have no initial, but must have a final and a tone.

汉语拼音的声母和韵母 Initials of Chinese Pinyin

声母 Initials

b p m f

d t n l

g k h

j q x

z c s

zh ch sh r

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
 Quick Master
 The pronunciations of z, c, and s are as similar as these syllables:

Z: beds C: cats S : books

 Z is pronounced as zh
 C is pronounced by rolling the tip of tongue → ch
 S is pronounced as sh
 R- normal reading

Simple Finals

a o e i u ü er

Compound Finals

ai ei ao ou

an en ang eng ong

ia iao ie iu(iou) ian in iang ing iong

ua uo uai ui(uei) uan un(uen) uang ueng

üe üan ün

汉语的声调（四声）Tones

Mandarin is known as a Tonal language, the use of tones produces Chinese accent which makes it
distinct from other languages, Tone marks are put above finals/vowels. Wrong tone will definitely convey a
difference in meaning.

In Chinese pronunciation, we follow the four basic tones:

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
 1. High level tone- First tone
2. Rising tone- Second tone
3. Falling-rising tone- Third tone
4. Falling tone- Fourth tone

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Pronouns

我 (wǒ) I

她 (tā) She

他 (tā) He

它 (tā) It

你 (nǐ) You

您 (nín) You(polite)

我们 (wǒmen) We

你们 (nǐmen) You

他们 (tāmen) They

Chinese Mandarin Plural Pronouns

Chinese plural pronouns are simpler than the English ones too. To signify a plural pronoun, "men" is added
after the pronoun.

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 Possessive Pronouns

In Chinese Mandarin, possessive pronouns are indicated by adding "de" to the end of the pronoun.

Wǒde 我的 my; mine

tāmende 他们的 their; theirs

Zhōngguóde 中国的 China's

de ( 的 ) is the Possessive Particle in Chinese, and it is pronounced in the Neutral Tone. A

Particle word in Chinese doesn't have any "real" meaning, only a grammatical one. It cannot be used by
itself independently in a sentence. It has to be attached to another word, to function as a grammatical
structure to help put the sentence together. So 的 can only be attached after a pronoun or a noun to
indicate "possessive":

Particles
Particles, like ma and ne in Chinese, are structural words. They are used to indicate the purpose of a sentence
(such as question or statement) without effecting the content.

 When ma occurs at the end of a sentence it is asking for confirmation. For example “Nǐ máng” is the
statement “You are busy”, while  “Nǐ máng ma?” asks for confirmation of that statement.
 When ne occurs at the end of a sentence it indicates a more open ended question. For example “nǐ ne?”
means “what about you?” and “wǒ ne” means “what about me?”.

Example:

Lee lǎoshī hǎo ma? (How’s teacher Lee?)

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
Lee lǎoshī ne? (What about teacher lee?)

CHINESE QUESTION WORDS

Learning how to ask questions is important in any language. Even if you can’t really understand responses
very well, being able to ask questions at least gets you started conversing with locals.

Below is a list of commonly used chinese question words.

WHAT shén me 什么
WHICH nǎ 哪
WHO Shéi/shuí 谁
WHERE nǎr /nǎ li 哪儿/哪里

WHEN shén me shí hou 什么 时候

WHY wèi shén me 为什么
HOW zěn me 怎么
HOW IS IT zěn me yàng 怎么样
HOW MANY  Jǐ (below 10) 几

HOW MANY duō shǎo (above 多少

10)
HOW MUCH duō shǎo qián 多少钱

Notes:

You probably noticed that “who” has two different spellings in pinyin.Both are used and there isn’t really a
standard one. For “where,” the first word is really only common in Beijing. People in Beijing love adding the 儿
(er) sound to the end of words while nǎ li is commonly used in Taiwan and in some other parts outside
mainland China.

READING AND LISTENING PRACTICE

Monosyllabic Words 看图片，朗读下列单音节词语

Directions: Look at the pictures and read the monosyllabic words aloud.

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
 bǐ māo dǎo

huā jī qī

xié xuě gǒu

READING AND LISTENING PRACTICE

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
 Zhōngguó(China) Zhōngguó jìliáng dàxué

lǎoshī (teacher) Shèng lùyìsī (St.Louis)

Mǎnílā (Manila)
Fēilǜbīn(Philippines)

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)
 Kǎjiāyán (Cagayan) Tǔgéjiāláo (Tuguegarao)

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in any form, in whole or in part, without expressed written permission.)