Easy Chinese

This article will help you learn simple Chinese phrases.

Image via Wikipedia

Language

Chinese is the hardest language to learn because it has no alphabet, therefore you have to learn it as phrases/word by word. There are two main types of Chinese, these are; Mandarin and Cantonese. In this article, the Chinese you will be learning is Cantonese.

The way you speak Chinese is totally different to the way you would read it. The way you read Chinese, is the way you would write it. I hope that made sense… 

Well the abbreviations in this article is the way you would speak Chinese.

I remember learning Chinese around 5, you would assume it’s easy for me since I’m Chinese, but it is hard. I was born in England and hardly need to use my mother tongue, making it difficult to learn from using Chinese practically. When i was in school, I would write phoneticallynext to the character (the way the word sounds). This made it very easy to learn. However for some words, the tone might sound slightly different, as there are 11 tones, which makes it much harder. It doesn’t bother me as the Chinese still understands They just know I’m foreign.

The Abbreviations

The meanings will be on the left and on the right beside them after the “=” sign are abbreviations. I would use pinyin however you may find it more difficult to read therefore these abbreviations should make it easier to pronounce and understand.

Phrases

• Hello = lay ho
• How are you? = lay ho ma?
• Good = Ho
• Not bad = mm chor
• Bad = mm ho
• I’m called (your name) = or gew (your name)
• And you? = Lay ah?
• How old are you? = lay gay dor sui ah?
• Bye = Joy geen

Numbers

• 1 = yat
• 2 = yee
• 3= sam
• 4= say
• 5 = mm
• 6= look
• 7= chuut
• 8 = bat
• 9 = go
• 10 = sup

Number rule

With numbers, you can combine them to make a larger number.

Here are some examples:

• 19 = say sup go
• 26 = yee sup look

• 32 = sam sup yee

Hobbies

What do you like doing? = lay your yee joe mut yeah ah?

I (really) like (insert hobby) = or (ho) your yee (insert hobby)

I (really) don’t like (insert hobby) – or (ho) mm your yee (insert hobby)

Reading = dok shoe

Swimming = yo sui

Playing = wan

Games = yo hay

Football = tet ball

Surfing the internet = seurng mon