大家好！我是家美珍。

你们也
可以叫我家老师。
DÀJIĀ HǍO! WǑ SHÌ JIĀ MĚI ZHĒN.
JIĀ LǍOSHĪ.
Learn Basic Mandarin – Level 1 (zero
based)
 The Mandarin dialect
The official dialect used in China is the one spoken in the
Beijing area. It is called the Beijing dialect; Mandarin (官话
guān huà) or Putonghua (普通话 universal common
speech). The dialect became established as the language
of government and administration in the Yuan dynasty 600
years ago. Even within standard Mandarin there are a
number of strong regional dialects. So it is not uncommon
for Chinese from different provinces, both speaking
mandarin to have difficulty understanding each other.
Deng Xiaoping for example had a strong Sichuan accent
making him hard to be understood in Beijing.
 Myths about Chinese
For those new to the language there are a number of long
standing myths to be dismissed.

 Chinese is a very difficult language.

 Each character is a 'word‘
 The written language is symbolic and not phonetic.
 Chinese does not have a full grammar.
 ’Pinyin’ can be used to speak Chinese fluently.
Lesson:1 Pinyin and Zhuyin (Initials)
There are 21 initials in Chinese and 12 of them have almost the same pronunciation
as English.
 m, f, n, l, h, and sh are pronounced as in English
 d like “t” in “straight”(unaspirated)
 j like “g” in “genius” (unaspirated)
 z like “ds” in “beds”
 zh like “j” in job
 b like “p” in “spin” (unaspirated)
 g a soft unaspirated “k” sound
 x like “sh” in “sleep” but with the corners of the lips drawn back
 r somewhat like “ge” in lodge
 There is some special attention to be paid on the so called “aspirated”
consonants. It is necessary to breath heavily after the original consonant is
sounded:
 p = p'(like in “pop”)
 q = ch harder than “ch” in cheap
 t = t’ (like in “tap”)
 c = ts’ (like in “cats”), with aspiration
 k = k’ (like in “kangaroo”)
 ch = ch’ (tongue curled back, aspiration)
 Lesson:1 Pinyin and Zhuyin (Finals)
There are 36 finals in Chinese. Six of them are simple finals (a, e, i, o, u). The other
29 are compound finals. The following table shows all the finals.

i u y

a ia ua

o uo

i ie ye ie like "ye" in "yes"

e e like "e" in "her"

(open)

er -r (final) like "er" in

"sister" (American
pronunciation)
ai uai ai like "y" as in "by"
(light)

ei uei ei like "ay" as in "bay"

(light)

ao iao

ou iou ou like "o" in "go"

an ian uan yan an like "an" in "can"

(without stressing the
"n")

en in uen yen

ang iang uang -ng (final) a nasalized

sound like the "ng" in
"bang" without
pronouncing the "g"
 eng ing ueng
ong iong

There is also a final “er” which cannot be combined with initials.

an preceded by y or I = “yen” without stressing the “n”

In zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi and ri the i is not pronounced. It indicates that the
consonant only is pronounced. e.g. zi = “ds” as in “beds” ri = “r” as in
“right”
The consonants j, q and x are all followed by long vowels like the “ee” in
“bee”.
When placed in the initial position Cu and Ci are written as w and y
respectively.
 Tones
In Chinese the variation of a syllable’s pitch may
distinguish meaning. There are four tones, indicated
respectively by the following tone marks:

Tone Tone Mark Description Example

First Tone high, level pitch 妈 mā = mother

Second Tone starting high and rising 蔴 má = hemp

Third Tone falling first, then rising 马 mǎ = horse

Fourth Tone starting high and falling 骂 mà = scold

 The first tone is high in pitch and even.
 The second tone is the rising tone, starting from a high pitch and rising
briefly.
 The third tone is a falling rising tone.
 The fourth tone is a falling tone, starting high and descending briefly.

There is also a neutral tone. It is short and unaccented. Its pitch relies on a
natural extension of the preceding tone. It is conveyed by the absence of a
sign.
When one low tone follows another, the first one becomes a rising tone.
Pronunciation Exercises
Proper pronunciation is essential in spoken Chinese.
With more homonyms than any other language
each mispronunciation results in another meaning.