Baliwag Polytechnic College

Dalubahasaan Kong Mahal

Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Management
2nd Semester, A.Y. 2021 – 2022

LEARNING MODULE

Foreign Language II
Mandarin
( HPC 8 )

1|Page Foreign Language 2

 Baliwag Polytechnic College
Dalubahasaan Kong Mahal
Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Management
2nd Semester, A.Y. 2021 – 2022

STUDY GUIDES

Your success to finish this module lies in your hand. This module is prepared for you to learn new
concepts and invaluable skills diligently, intelligently, and independently. As a future young
professional, doing these will greatly help and prepare you to become a responsible student. Set your
goals and invest for your future. This is your first step towards your priceless investment for a brighter
tomorrow. Do not waste your time, effort and energy. Always stay motivated and inspired to make
your dreams come true.

The following guides and house rules will help you further to be on track and to say at the end of the
module.

1. Schedule and manage your time wisely for you to accomplish the given tasks in this module.

2. If there are things that you do not understand, go over and focus on the lesson. If this will not work,
seek the help of your family members or leave me a message so I can give assistance.

3. Before you start doing anything else, read and understand the learning tasks carefully. Always aim
for the best and do not settle with low grades.

4. Think before you write. In answering all the assessment activities, write legibly and follow the
instructions as needed.

5. Do not hesitate to keep an open communication with me through any available platforms. I am
more than willing to help you to accomplish your goals.

6. Once you are done in the module, you can proceed doing other tasks in the succeeding units that
are scheduled for the finals.

7. You are expected to answer all the printed-based activities, assignments and reflection guides for
you to pass in this course.

8. Remember you are the student hence, you are expected to accomplish and study the module on
your own. You can seek help and support from your family members and friends but the actual
activities must be done by you.

2|Page Foreign Language 2

Grading System

Requirement / Assessment Tasks Maximum Points

Written Output – Quizzes, Unit test, Test 30

yourself activities

Performance Tasks- Hands-on 30

activities,practical test, project, attendance

Quarterly Examination – Preliminary,Mid- 40

term,Pre-finals, Final examination

TOTAL 100

Note : The passing score in all written output and performance tasks including
major examinations is 60% of the total number of items which is equivalent to a
mark of 75%.

GRADE PERCENTAGE EQUIVALENCE TABLE

GRAD GRAD DESC GRAD GRAD DESCRIPTION
E E RIPTIO E E
PERC EQUI N PERC EQUI
ENTA VALE ENTA VALE
GE NT GE NT

97- 1.0 Excel 83- 2.25 Average

100 lent 85

94- 1.25 Supe 81- 2.50 Average

96 rior 82

92- 1.50 Very 78- 2.75 Fair

93 Good 80

89- 1.75 Good 75- 3.00 Pass

91 77

86- 2.00 Abov Belo 5.00 Failed

88 e w 75
Aver
age

DRP Dropped

3|Page Foreign Language 2

STUDY SCHEDULE:
DATES
Week 1 January 10-15, 2022/
March 14-19, 2022
Weeks 2-4 January 17-
February 5, 2022/
March 21-April 2, 2022
Week 5 February 7-12, 2022/
April 4-9,2022
Week 6-7 February 14-26, 2021/
April 11-23, 2022
Week 8-9 February 28-March 12, 2022
April 25-May 21,2022
4|Page
MODULE/ TOPICS
Module 1 : Recapitulation of Mandarin
1/ Chinese Grammar
Lesson 1: Recapitulation of the following
: Basic Mandarin Writing
: Pinyin ( Initials, Finals,
Tones,numbers,noun,pronoun,verb,).
Lesson 2: Chinese Grammar
: Chinese grammar rules
: Mandarin sentence structures.
Module 2: Introduction to Hanzi.
Lesson 1 : What is Hanzi?
Lesson 2 : The six(6) basic Hanzi
strokes.
Module 3 : Hanzi-Four Combining
strokes.
Lesson 1: Four Combining strokes and
Twenty-nine compound strokes.
Module 4: The Stroke Order
Lesson 1: Left to right, top to bottom,
Symmetry
counts,horizontal/vertical,enclosures,
close frames,character spanning.
Module 5: The One-Hundred common
characters
Lesson 1: First 1- 25th Characters
Lesson 2: 26th – 50th Characters
Lesson 3: 51st- 75th Characters
Foreign Language 2
 Lesson 4: 76th – 100th Characters.

INTRODUCTION:
The focus of this course is to train you to function successfully in Chinese culture using
Mandarin as your primary language.Assuming that you are interested in interacting with
Chinese people in a way that will permit you to pursue professional goals in some
segment of the Chinese society. This means that it is expected that you will learn how to
present yourself in a way that a Chinese person will find comfortable.
This course will help to develop skills in Mandarin Chinese to communicate across
ethnic, cultural, ideological and national boundaries and to develop an understanding of
Chinese interpersonal behavioral culture and related thought patterns. At the end of the
course, you will be expected to perform in speaking, listening, reading and writing
Chinese at a basic level of proficiency. You should also demonstrate a level of cultural
understanding suitable for correct performance of assigned tasks in Chinese (e.g., how
to make a request in an appropriate way).The evaluation (i.e., your grades) will be
based largely on your daily performances,oral and written examinations and
attendance.

MODULE 1: Chinese Grammar

The grammar of Standard Chinese or Mandarin shares many features with

other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection and so words
typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number (singular or
plural) and verb tense are frequently not expressed by any grammatical means, but
there are several particles that serve to express verbal aspect and, to some
extent, mood.
The basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English. Otherwise, Chinese
is chiefly a head-final language,[citation needed] meaning that modifiers precede the words that
they modify. In a noun phrase, for example, the head noun comes last, and all
modifiers, including relative clauses, come in front of it. This phenomenon is more
typically found in subject–object–verb languages, such as Turkish and Japanese.
Chinese frequently uses serial verb constructions, which involve two or more verbs
or verb phrases in sequence. Chinese prepositions behave similarly to serialized verbs
in some respects,[a] and they are often referred to as coverbs. There are also location
markers, which are placed after a noun and so are often called postpositions; they are
often used in combination with a coverb. Predicate adjectives are normally used without
a copular verb ("to be") and so can be regarded as a type of verb.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_grammar

Chinese Grammar Rules

5|Page Foreign Language 2

5 general rules for Chinese grammar
Whilst it's important to learn grammar in detail in small chunks, it can be very useful to
get familiar with some general Chinese grammar rules. These aren't specific
grammatical structures, but general facts about the Chinese language that apply in most
cases. They can help you get a feel for Mandarin Chinese and how it works.

Chinese grammar rule #1: What precedes modifies what follows

This rule sounds a little bit complicated when you first see it, but it's actually quite
straightforward. It simply means that modifiers come before the thing they modify. The
Chinese language, right through from the written classical language to the modern
spoken vernacular, has always had this rule.

Let's look at some simple examples to demonstrate this rule.

他不喜欢 贵的 东西。
Tā bù xǐhuan guì de dōngxi.
He doesn't like expensive things.
我哥哥 慢慢地 开车。
Wǒ gēgē mànmande kāichē.
My brother drives slowly .
她能喝 很多 啤酒。
Tā néng hē hěnduō píjiǔ.
She can drink a lot of beer.
As you can see in each of the Chinese sentences, the modifier (colored red) comes
before the thing it modifies. 贵的 (expensive) comes before 东西 (things), 慢慢地
(slowly) comes before 开车 (drive) and 很多 (a lot of) comes before 啤酒 (beer). Notice
how the position of the modifier varies in the English sentences.

Knowing about this ‘modifiers first’ rule in Chinese grammar can be very helpful in the
early stages of your Chinese studies. It lets you follow the structure of sentences more
quickly because you can identify modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) and the things
they're modifying (nouns and verbs) more easily.

It also lets you form sentences with more confidence because you know that adjectives
should be placed before the nouns they modify, and adverbs should be placed before
the verbs they modify.

Rule #2: Words do not change

Unlike in European languages, words in Chinese do not change. They have a fixed form
that is the same no matter what they're used for or where the appear in a sentence. In

6|Page Foreign Language 2

Chinese, you don't conjugate verbs and you don't make adjectives agree. According to
Chinese grammar rules, a word is a word.

Have a look at these examples that illustrate this point:

她去工作。
Tā qù gōngzuò.
She goes to work.
我去工作。
Wǒ qù gōngzuò.
I go to work.
他们去工作。
Tāmen qù gōngzuò.
They go to work.
我们去工作。
Wǒmen qù gōngzuò.
We go to work.
These simple sentences show that verbs do not change in Chinese, whereas they do in
English. The verb 去 (qù) is the same in every sentence and doesn't change. These
sentences would be even more varied in a language like French, but in Chinese the
verb is the same every time.

It's not just verbs that never change according to Chinese grammar rules. Adjectives are
also fixed in their form and are the same no matter what noun they modify. Let's see
some examples:

这是一辆 黑色的 车。
Zhè shì yī liàng hēisède jū.
This is a black car.
我看到了一些 黑色的 猫。
Wǒ kàn dàole yīxiē hēisède māo.
I saw some black cats.
这是一件 黑色的 衬衫。
Zhè shì yī jiàn hēisède chènshān.
This is a black shirt.
The adjective in these sentences, 黑色的 (hēisède) , is the same for each of the items.
There is no gender or grammatical number in Chinese grammar rules.

7|Page Foreign Language 2

Rule #3: Chinese is topic-prominent
This is a rule that English-speakers often find hard to get used to. Chinese is topic
prominent. This means that it puts the thing the sentence is about first. English is
subject prominent, which means that it puts the doer of an action (the subject) in a
sentence first.

If you haven't studied grammar before, you might not be familiar with these terms. The
subject in a sentence is the thing that performs the action of the verb. The subject of the
following sentences is colored red:

He likes cheese.
You are awesome.
New York is exciting.
We eat rice.
English and other European languages usually prefer to put the subject first, as you can
see in the sentences above. But Chinese and other East Asian languages often prefer
to put the topic of the sentence first.

The topic of a sentence isn't as clear as the subject. The topic is not a grammatical role,
but the thing that the sentence is about. It's the main point of the sentence. It's also
called the theme of the sentence for this reason.

I've finished my work .

In this sentence the subject is “I”, but that's not really what the sentence is about. The
sentence is not about the speaker, it's about the work. So the topic of this sentence is
“the work”.

Because Chinese is topic-prominent, it's often possible and very natural to put the topic
first in a sentence rather than the subject. It is also possible in English, but it sounds
much less natural, as you can see in the following examples:

红酒我不太喜欢。
Hóngjiǔ wǒ bù tài xǐhuan.
Red wine, I don't really like.
法国我没去过。
Fàguó wǒ méi qùguò.
France, I haven't been to.
一支笔有吗？
Yī zhī bǐ yǒu ma?
A pen - got one?

8|Page Foreign Language 2

The sentences above are perfectly permissible according to Chinese grammar rules,
but quite odd in English. Note that you could also form the Chinese sentences with the
subject first and they would be just as grammatical.

Also notice that the last sentence doesn't include the subject (you) at all. This is
possible because Chinese grammar is primarily interested in the topic (a pen) and not
the subject.

Rule #4: Aspect, not tense

Another big difference between European languages and Chinese is aspect and tense.
European languages usually indicate both of these things in a sentence, whereas
Chinese tends to only indicates aspect.

Again, you might not be aware of what these terms mean. Tense is about when an
action took place relative to now, when we're speaking. Aspect is about the
completeness of an action relative to when it took place. Have a look at these two
sentences in English to see the difference:

I will set off to Beijing.

I will have set off to Beijing.
Both of these sentences are in the future tense. But the aspect is different, because the
completeness of the action (setting off to Beijing) is different in the time frame of each
sentence. The speaker hasn't yet set off to Beijing in either sentence. In the time frame
they're speaking about in the second sentence, though, they will have. So the aspect is
different (the action is complete in that time frame).

How Chinese marks for aspect is difficult and quite complex. It revolves around a few
particles, most importantly 了 (le), but we won't go into details of that here. The lesson
here is to bear in mind that Chinese doesn't mark for tense, but it does mark for aspect.
This will take some getting used to, but you will get there eventually!

Rule #5: Chinese is logical

Finally, we come to the most general rule about Chinese grammar. One of the joys of
studying Chinese is that on the whole it's a very logical, consistent language. This is
very true in Chinese vocabulary, as you can usually see very clearly the logic behind
most words. It's also true in Chinese grammar rules, which tend to be consistent and
reusable once you've learned them.

One example of this is that Chinese tends to only indicate things once in a sentence.
For example, if the time has already been made clear, it doesn't need to be indicated
again. Similarly, the number of a noun only needs to indicated once in most cases.
More of these examples crop up as you get further into the language. Try to bear this
point in mind and you will often find that you can guess how to say new things with
some accuracy.

9|Page Foreign Language 2

That rounds up this short list of Chinese grammar rules, which aims to give a very
generalized feel for how the language works. If you'd like to get into further, have a
browse around this site!

Source: www.chineseboost.com/grammar/chinese-grammar-rules

Mandarin Chinese Sentence Structure

Mandarin Chinese sentence structure is quite different than English or other European
languages. Since the word order doesn't match, sentences which are translated word-
for-word to Mandarin will be difficult to understand. You must learn to think in Mandarin
Chinese when speaking the language.

Subject (who)

Just like English, Mandarin Chinese subjects come at the beginning of the sentence.

Time (when)

Time expressions come immediately before or after the subject.

John yesterday went to the doctor.

Yesterday John went to the doctor.

Place (where)

To explain where an event happened, the place expression comes before the verb.

Mary in school met her friend.

Prepositional Phrase (with whom, to whom etc.)

These are phrases which qualify an activity. They are placed before the verb and after
the place expression.

Susan yesterday at work with her friend ate lunch.

Object

The Mandarin Chinese object has a great deal of flexibility. It is usually placed after the
verb, but other possibilities include before the verb, before the subject, or even omitted.
Conversational Mandarin often omits both the subject and the object when the context
makes the meaning clear.

10 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/mandarin-chinese-sentence-structure

Unit 1 Lesson 2
Chinese Mandarin Grammar
The Chinese you are learning here is the official language of China, which is also called
Mandarin Chinese. It is different from another popular Chinese language, Cantonese,
which is mainly spoken in Guangdong province and Hong Kong. Mandarin Chinese
consists of characters/ standard script (你), phonetic script (ni), and tone marks, e.g. (ˇ)
你 (nǐ).
Characters are used everywhere in daily life, such as books, newspapers, signs, etc…
Phonetic scripts and tones, together called Pīnyīn, are used in dictionaries and
textbooks to guide learners to learn the pronunciation of the characters.
When compared to other Languages, on a fundamental level the Mandarin grammar is
actually very simple.
Each word normally stays the same; thus there are no conjugations, no plural forms, no
genders and no articles. Whereas the English verb “to know somebody” might have
different forms like “knows”, “knew”, “known” etc., the equivalent Chinese verb 认识 (rèn
shí) itself always stays the same, regardless of the context.
However there are also elements in the Chinese language that we do not have in many
Western Languages.
Tones
One of the most difficult element for the learner of the Chinese language is the correct
pronunciation of the four phonemic tones: the first tone (ˉ), the second tone (′), the third
tone (ˇ), and the forth tone (‵); because the concept of Tones is not existing in many
European Languages including English. The best way to practice the tones is to listen
carefully and to repeat the words and sentences.
Nouns
Nouns are pretty simple in the Chinese language. They do not have articles or genders,
and there is no distinction between singular or plural.
As for countable nouns, to express or to emphasize plural or numeral, various measure
words, such as 辆 (liàng/measure word for vehicle), 个 (gè/measure word for general
use), and 艘 (sōu/ measure word for ship]), need to be added in front of a noun:
numeral + measure word + noun.

11 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
For example, 女人 (nǚ rén) can be understood as 'a/one woman' or 'women (female)'.
个 (gè/ measure word for vehicle) is a measure word for general use. Since Chinese
doesn't have articles, ‘a woman’ is equal to ‘one woman’, in Chinese it is 一个女人;
‘three women' is 三个女人.
Verbs
Now that we already learned how to use nouns, in order to make complete sentences,
we need to know about verbs.
I have some good news here too. Verbs are also pretty straight forward in Chinese!
They do not change with person, tense, number and there are no participles.
Chinese words (whether nouns or verbs) never change their form. Additional
information (e.g. tenses, plural etc.) is conveyed by adding additional words (e.g. tense
makers and measure words).
We will see how this works in the next section about verb tenses
Present Progressive Tense
In the present progressive tense we just need to use the basic form. To emphasize the
present progressive tense, the word 着 (zhe/ particle) is put behind the verb.
Example:
那个女人站着
nà gè nǚ rén zhàn zhe
The woman is standing.
Now that we have learned our first sentence, let me explain a little about the standard
word order.
In Chinese, the word order is Subject-Verb-Object. This is the same as the word order
in English (e.g. Tom goes home).
Past tense
Past tense is indicated by 了 (le) – (article for past tense) which is placed after the verb.
Example:

那匹马跳了.
nà pǐ mǎ tiào le.
The horse jumped.
Future tense

12 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
Future tense is indicated by 将要/要 (jiāng yào/yào) – (will/be going to do) which is
placed in front of the verb.
Example:

那匹马将要跳.
nà pǐ mǎ jiāng yào tiào.
The horse is going to jump.
Adjectives
If you like to describe certain things, the adjective normally follows the noun.
Example:

这件蓝色的衬衫是新的.
zhè jiàn lán sè de chèn shān shì xīn de.
The blue shirt is new.

Here we have actually two adjectives following the noun shirt ‘衬衫 (chèn shān)’:

1) 蓝色的 (lán sè de) indicates the color blue (note that 蓝色的 (lán sè de) acts as an
adjective).
2) 新的 (xīn de) indicates that the shirt is new.

Please note that 这 (zhè) refers to the place of the shirt (like the English word 'this'). 件
(jiàn) is the measure word for cloths (like the English word 'a piece of').
Prepositions
In this lesson, we will learn our first prepositions such as on 上面 (shàng miàn), in 里面
(lǐ miàn), or under 下面 (xià miàn).
One important concept in Chinese Grammar is the use of the prepositional verb 在 (zài)
to indicate ‘to be (in, at, on under + a place/location)'.
So 在 (zài) is positioned in front of prepositions, together to form a predicate, such as ‘
在 + a place/location +上面 (shàng miàn / on)' ‘在 + a place/location +里面 (lǐ miàn /
in)' and ‘在 + a place/location +下面 (xià miàn / under)'.
Example:

一个 婴 儿 在 车 里面
yī gè yīng ér zài chē lǐ miàn
A baby is in a car.

13 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
In the above sentence you notice that ‘is in a car' is translated as ‘在车里面 (zài chē lǐ
miàn)’. ‘在… 里面’ means ‘is in ...', therefore, the verb ‘is’ doesn't need to be translated
additionally.
Questions
There are a few different ways to make questions in the Chinese language.
General Question Words

You can use the general question words 吗 (ma), in a question expecting yes or no
answer.
This question words is just added at the end of the sentence.
Example:

你好吗?
nǐ hǎo ma?
Are you well? /How are you?
Specific Question Words
You can also make questions by using specific question words like what 什么 (shén
me), where 哪里 (nǎ lǐ), who 谁 (shuí) or why 为什么 (wèi shén me).
These question words are positioned at where the answer word/words are to be placed
in the sentence.
Example:
那个女人在做什么?
nà gè nǚ rén zài zuò shén me?
What is the woman doing?
To answer this question, we just need to remove the question word, which is 做什么 and
replace with the answer: 那个女人在烹饪 (nà gè nǚ rén zài pēng rèn/[That woman is
cooking]). As you noticed, the order of the rest of the words in the sentence remain the
same.
Since being able to ask questions is really important, here is another example with the
question word where 哪里 (nǎ lǐ / where)
Example:

那个婴儿在哪里?
nà gè yīng ér zài nǎ lǐ?

14 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
Where is the boy?
Just remember that the word 在 (zài) is also used since the question asks for a specific
location.
This example shows you how to construct a what 什么 (shén me / what) question.
Example:

那辆汽车是什么颜色的?
nà liàng qì chē shì shén me yán sè de?
What color is the car?
Words of colors can be used both as a noun, for example 白色 (bái sè/[white]), and 黑色
(hēi sè/[black]); and as an adjective.
When these words are used as an adjective, they are played in front of the noun to be
modified and 的 (de/ [possessive particle]) need to be added behind these words of
color.
Example:
白色的屋子
bái sè de wū zi
white house

黑色的汽车
hēi sè de qì chē
black car
Have a look at the following a bit different example of a What question.
Example:
那个女人在吃什么?
nà gè nǚ rén zài chī shén me?
What is the woman eating?
You will notice that in this example a particular reference is made, ‘the woman’. In
Chinese, a particular referred figure, ‘the man’ is equal to ‘that woman’, ‘the’ is
translated as ‘那 (nà)’; measure word is needed in front of the noun.
Okay so let's repeat that again. If a sentence does not refer to anyone in particular and
it is a singular sentence, a woman is ‘一个女人 (yí gè nǚ rén)’. If a sentence refers to

15 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
someone in particular, definite article ‘the' is translated as ‘that', ‘the woman’ is ‘那个女
人 (nà gè nǚ rén)’.
Negative Statements
To give a sentence a negative meaning, just put the word (不/bù/ [no, not]) in front of
verbs /adjective. When (bù) is followed by a last tone word, e.g. 是 (shì/ [yes]),
(bù) need to be changed to second tone—(bú).不是 is read as ‘bùshì / [be not]’, instead
of ‘bùshì’.
Example:

这个电话不是红色的, 它是黑色的
zhè gè diàn huà bú shì hóng sè de, tā shì hēi sè de.
This telephone is not red, it's black.
Asking for Something or Making a Request
In this section we will learn how to ask for something or make a request. This is very
common, such as in restaurants wherein we ask for a plate or a drink.
Example:

请把汤匙给我!
qǐng bǎ tāng chí gěi wǒ!
Please pass me the spoon!
To make a polite request, there is a word used in the above example:

请 (qǐng) which starts the sentence and corresponds to the English 'please'. 把 [adverb]
sentence is quite complicated.

Right now, you just need to remember 请把汤匙给我! (qǐng bǎ tāng chí gěi wǒ!/[ Please
pass me the spoon!]) is the same with 请给我汤匙! (qǐng gěi wǒ tāng chí!/[ Please pass
me the spoon!]). 把 [adverb] sentence in this lesson is used to emphasize on the obj.
that presents the object you request for.
BECAUSE Sentences
'Because' sentences are pretty easy, so I need to give you only a short explanation
here.

“Because” means 因为... 所以... (yīn wéi... suǒ yǐ… ). In Chinese, 因为 (yīn wéi) is to
give the reason of the occurrence of something, and 所以 (suǒ yǐ) is to lead the result of
the event or a conclusion of a state. Sometimes, either 因为 (yīn wéi) or 所以 (suǒ yǐ)
can be omitted in a sentence.

16 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 Module 2: Introduction to Hanzi
Here is a brief timeline of the development of these characters:
Earliest Chinese characters…
As Chinese characters have been evolving over thousands of years, it is currently still
difficult for historians come to an accurate conclusion about their origin. According to the
analysis of historical data, Chinese characters can be traced back to around five or six
thousand years ago. In a Banpo Neolithic Yangshao culture archeological site – east of
Xi’an in Shaanxi Province, China – there have been discoveries of characters that have
been carved onto pottery.
甲骨字 甲骨字 Jiǎgǔ zì
Today, within modern Chinese characters, we can still see characteristics from the
ancient Shang Dynasty, more than three thousand years ago. These ancient characters
were originally inscribed onto tortoise shell or animal bones, which are also known as
‘oracle-bones’.

金字 金字 Jīnzì
During the Bronze Age, towards the end of the Shang Dynasty, characters began to be
carved or casted onto bronze. These were called Jinzi ‘metal characters’. Their shaped
and structure were similar to that of the Jiaguzi, however, as the use of molds became
more popular, the characters themselves became more structured and thicker.

篆书 篆書 Zhuànshū
Zhuanshu eventually became the more standardised script, and brought about the
elongation of the characters. The Dazhuan 大篆 大篆 style was first created during
the late Western Zhou Dynasty (1045-771BC) and can be directly traced to the Jinzi
style.

After, the unification of China under the first emperor, Qin Shihuang 秦始皇 秦始皇
(259-210 BC), the policy of formalising the character system saw the introduction of
Xiaozhuan 小篆 小篆 . Dazhuan and Xiaozhuan were both simplified forms of
characters, and their joint features included: a proportioned amount of brush strokes
and a finalised design.
Unlike the Jiaguzi and Jinzi, they had less variant forms and instead became the
established ‘diamond-shape’ characters that form the basis of modern day script.

17 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
隶书【隸書 Lìshū
Lishu characters are respectively split into the Qín 秦 【秦】style (one of the Warring
States into which China was divided during the Eastern Zhou period – 770-256 BC),
and the Hàn 汉 【漢】 Dynasty style (206 BC – AD 220).

The Qin style of lishu was a hasty and often illegible style of writing that was
predominantly used among the people as a non-governmental handwritten form of
communication. The characters that local authorities used were known as Tú lì 徒隶
徒隸 , and were adopted from the style of the common-folk and adapted to become the
official governmental script.

During the change from the Xiaozhuan to the Lishu form of writing, the most profound
modification was the symbolisation of the characters, which no longer followed the
previous method of directly representing material objects.

楷书【楷書 Kǎishū
Kaishu came into being towards the end of the Han Dynasty, and was prominent during
the Wei, Jin and North-South dynasties (AD 220-589). The artistry of Lishu style was
often too complicated and therefore hard to read; similarly, though the Cǎoshū 草书 草
書 style was slightly simpler, it was also difficult to distinguish the characters.

As a result, the Kaishu style of writing was developed in order to be easier to read and
more distinguishable, and thus grew into the dominant position as the recognised
structure of official characters.

Nowadays…
Nowadays, the standard simplified character system – which takes its main features
from the Kaishu style – has been in official use in the mainland since the 1950s, and is
taught as the main written language throughout China.

The Eight Basic Strokes

There are many ways to classify strokes. Some systems find up to 37 different strokes,
but many of these are variations.

18 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
The Chinese character 永 (yǒng), meaning "forever" or "permanence is often used to
illustrate the 8 basic strokes of Chinese characters. They are:
Diǎn, (點/点) "Dot"
Héng, (橫) "Horizontal"
Shù, (竪) "Erect"
Gōu, (鉤) "Hook"
Tí, (提) "Raise"
Wān, (彎/弯) "Bend, curve"
Piě, (撇) "Throw away, slant"
Nà(捺) "Pressing forcefully"
Module 3: Hanzi Four-Combining Strokes

These eight strokes can be seen in the diagram above.

19 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
All Chinese characters are composed of these 8 basic strokes, and knowledge of these
strokes is essential for any student of Mandarin Chinese who wishes to write Chinese
characters by hand.
It is now possible to write in Chinese on the computer, and never write the characters by
hand. Even so, it is still a good idea to become familiar with strokes and radicals, since
they are used as a classification system in many dictionaries.

The Twelve Strokes

Some systems of stroke classification identify 12 basic strokes. In addition to the 8
strokes seen above, the 12 strokes include variations on Gōu, (鉤) "Hook", which
include:

横钩 Héng Gōu
竖钩 Shù Gōu

弯钩 Wān Gōu

斜钩 Xié Gōu

20 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 Module 4 :Stroke Order
Chinese characters are written with a codified stroke order. The basic stroke order is
"Left to Right, Top to Bottom" but more rules are added as the characters become more
complex.
Traditional characters however – which is also a product of the Kaishu style – are still
dominant in areas such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, and don’t follow the Romanized
system of pinyin.
1. TOP TO BOTTOM
When a Chinese character is “stacked” vertically, like the character 立 (lì) or “to
stand,” the rule is to write from top to bottom.

2. LEFT TO RIGHT
When a Chinese character has a radical, the character is written left to right. The
same rule applies to characters that are stacked horizontally. Take a look at the “
吃 (chī)” example below, which means “to eat.”

3. SYMMETRY COUNTS
When you are writing a character that is centered and more or less symmetrical
(but not stacked from top to bottom) the general rule is to write the center stroke
first. Check out the character “小(xiǎo)” which means “small.”

4. HORIZONTAL FIRST, VERTICAL SECOND

Horizontal strokes are always written before vertical strokes. Check out how to
write the character “十(shí)” or “ten.”

21 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 5. ENCLOSURES BEFORE CONTENT
You want to create the frame of the character before you fill it in. Check out how
to write the character 日(rì) or “sun.”

6. CLOSE FRAMES LAST

Remember this step as, "You want to fill the closet before you close the door.”
After you write the middle strokes, close the frame, such as in the character “回
(huí)” or “to return.”

7. CHARACTER SPANNING STROKES LAST

For strokes that cut across many other strokes, they are often written last. For
example, the character 半 (bàn), which means “half.” The vertical line is written
last.

22 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
23 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
24 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
25 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 YEAR/MONTH/WEEK/DAY/HOUR/MINUTE/SECOND

26 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 Module 5: The 100 most common Chinese characters

的
de
<grammatical particle marking genitive as well as simple and composed adjectives>

一
yī
one, a little

是
shì
to be

不
bù
not

了
le
verb particle marking a new situation or a completed action

人
rén
person

我
wǒ
I, me, my

在
zài
at, located at

27 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 有
yǒu
have, there is

他
tā
he, him, his

这
zhè
this

中
zhōng
middle, in

大
dà
big

来
lái
come

上
shàng
above, on, over, top, (go) up, last, previous

国
guó
country, state, nation, <family name>

个
gè
<general and non-specific classifier>

28 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 (ex. 个人 | gèrén | personal)

到
dào
to, towards, until, arrive, reach

说
shuō
explain, scold, refer to, (=说话 shuōhuà) speak, say

们
men
<pluralizing suffix for pronouns and nouns referring to persons>

(ex. 我们 | wǒmen | we)

为
wèi
for, for the sake of, in order to, in this connection

子
zǐ
child, son

和
hé
together, with

你
nǐ
you, your

(Alternative feminine form: 妳 nǐ)

地
dì

29 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 earth, ground, soil, place, position, distance

出
chū
go out, come out, in direction out from something, emit, issue, prouce

道
dào
way, path, channel, way, say, a streak (of light), doctrine, <classifier for rivers, topics, etc.>

也
yě
also, as well

时
shí
period, season

年
nián
year

得
de

<adverbial particle: verb + 得 + descripion>

(ex. 走得快 | zǒude kuài | walk quickly)

就
jiù
just, simply, right away

就要 jiùyào about to (do something)

30 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 那
nà
that

要
yào
want, will, shall, need, important, essential

下
xià
below, under, (go) down, next (as opposed to previous/last)

以
yǐ
use, take, according to, because of, in order to

生
shēng
give birth, life

会
huì
can, able, meet, meeting, society, union, party

自
zì
from, since

着
31 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 zhe
verb particle marking a continuing progress/state

去
qù
go, leave, depart

之
zhī
subordinator similar to 的 de

过
guò
pass, cross, go by, exceed, <verb particle marking that someone has had the experience of doing
something, that it has happened at least once>

家
jiā
home, house, family

学
xué
study, learn

对
duì
correct, answer, treat, agree, mutual, pair

可
kě

=可以 kěyǐ) may, can

~able, (

她
tā

32 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 she, her

里
lǐ
neighbourhood, half kilometer, <family name>

后
hòu
queen

小
xiǎo
small

么
me/mo
(interrogative suffix)

什么? | shénme? | What?

心
xīn
heart

多
duō
many, much, more

天
tiān
sky, heaven, god, day

33 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 而
ér
and, furthermore

能
néng
can, be able

好
hǎo
good, good to…, easy to…

都
dōu
all

然
rán
right, correct, so, like that

没
méi

(=没有 méiyǒu) haven’t, there isn’t

日
rì
sun

于
yú
in, at, for, to, from, by, than

34 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 起
qǐ
rise, start

还
hái
still, yet

发
fā
deliver, utter, express, shoot, emit, develop, expand

成
chéng

(=成为 chéngwéi, =变成 biànchéng) become,

<family name>;

成功 chénggōng succeed;
完成 wánchéng accomplish, complete, fulfill;
成语 chéngyǔ idiom

事
shì
matter, affair, thing, event, accident, job, responsibility

只
zhǐ
only, just, merely

35 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 作
zuò
do, make

当
dāng
serve as

想
xiǎng
think, feel, consider, want, remember

看
kàn
see, look at, read, think, consider

文
wén
language, literature

无
wú
without, nothingness, have not

开
kāi
open

手
shǒu
hand, a person skilled in something

十
shí
ten

36 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 用
yòng
use

主
zhǔ
lord, master, host, god,

行
xíng
go, OK

方
fāng
side, square

又
yòu
again, both… and…

如
rú
like, as, as if

前
qián
in front, previous, ago, former, first

所
suǒ
place

本
běn
basis, origin, edition
classifier for books, periodicals, files, etc.

37 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 见
jiàn
appear to be, meet with, call on

经
jīng
longitude (both geographic and in Chinese medecin), scripture, constant, regular, <family
name>, deal with

头
tóu
head, top, first

面
miàn
face, surface, <classifier for mirrors, flags, etc.>

公
gōng
public, official

同
tóng
same, with

三
sān
three

已
yǐ
stop, cease, end

38 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 老
lǎo
old, venerable, outdated

从
cóng
from, through, join, follower, secondary

动
dòng
move, change, arouse

LEARNING MATERIALS REFERENCES:

https://chinese.remembr.it
https://l-lingo.com/free-lessons/en/learn-chinese-mandarin
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-simplified/module
https://www.newconceptmandarin.com/business-mandarin
https://www.coursera.org/learn/mandarin-chinese-1
https://www.thoughtco.com/mandarin-chinese-sentence-structure-2279425
http://www.writtenchinese.com
https://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese/contents.html
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/chinese-grammar-rules

39 | P a g e Foreign Language 2
 Prepared by: Checked by:

PHIL JAN S. PEÑA PHIL JAN S. PENA

Instructor/Professor Program Director

Approved by:

JAYSON C. BACOSA, MBA, CHP

Dean/ IHTM

40 | P a g e Foreign Language 2