sIn China, both Putonghua and English are the languages of business. So, if the foreign tourists travel to China for business purpose, they can usually communicate with the chinese merchants in simple English. However, Putonghua is an official language of China. Most of the Chinese merely speak Putonghua with the outsiders. So, if the foreign tourists want to visit China but cannot speak Putonghua, they will find inconvenient on their tours. Therefore, it is essential and useful for the foreign tourists to learn some simple Putonghua when they decide to visit China
Tips for travellers
A. 23 letters in Pinyin:
Letter |
Pronunciation |
Letter |
Pronunciation |
Letter |
Pronunciation |
B |
As in bay |
G |
As in go |
Sh |
As in shirt |
P |
As in pay |
K |
As in kit |
R |
As in leisure |
M |
As in may |
H |
As in hit |
Z |
As in reads |
F |
As in fat |
J |
As in jeep |
C |
As in hats |
D |
As in dad |
Q |
As in cheer |
S |
As in say |
T |
As in time |
X |
As in she |
Y |
As in yes |
N |
As in nay |
Zh |
As in junk |
W |
As in way |
L |
As in lay |
Ch |
As in church |
|
|
B. Useful words and phrases:
1. Orientation and Geography
Pinyin |
English |
Pinyin |
English |
Pinyin |
English |
dong |
East |
hu |
lake |
qu |
canal |
xi |
West |
he |
river |
jie |
street |
nan |
South |
shan |
mountain |
lu |
road |
bei |
North |
hai |
sea |
xiang |
lane |
1 |
1 |
wan |
gulf |
|
|
2. Number
Number |
Pinyin |
Number |
Pinyin |
Number |
Pinyin |
Number |
Pinyin |
1 |
yi |
6 |
liu |
11 |
shi yi |
31 |
san shi yi |
2 |
er |
7 |
qi |
12 |
shi er |
100 |
yi bai |
3 |
san |
8 |
ba |
20 |
er shi |
200 |
er bai |
4 |
si |
9 |
jiu |
21 |
er shi yi |
1,000 |
yi qian |
5 |
wu |
10 |
shi |
30 |
san shi |
10,000 |
yi wan |
3. Useful phrases: Pronouns
English |
Pinyin |
English |
Pinyin |
I |
Wo |
hello |
Ni hao |
we/us |
Wo men |
goodbye |
Zai jian |
you |
Ni /Ni men(plural) |
thank you |
Xie xie |
he / she / it |
Ta |
please |
Qing |
they / them |
Ta men |
you're welcome |
Bu ke qi |
Excuse me |
Qing ni |
I'm sorry |
Dui bu qi |
English |
Pinyin |
English |
Pinyin |
How much is it? |
Duo shao qian? |
train station |
huo che zhan |
That's too expensive. |
Tai gui le |
airport |
fei ji chang |
My name is... |
Wo jiao... |
bus station |
qi che zhan |
I'm from... |
Wo shi cong...lai de. |
hotel |
jiu dian / fan dian |
Where is the...? |
...zai na li |
hospital |
yi yuan |
I'm lost. |
Wo mi lu le. |
restaurant |
can ting / fan dian |
What's the time? |
Ji dian le? |
shop |
shang dian |
I fell ill. |
Wo bu shu fu. |
police |
Jing cha |
Could you help me? |
ni ke yi bang wo ma? |
Restroom |
ce suo |
I would like... |
wo xiang yao... |
Train |
huo che |
I need... |
Wo xu yao... |
Taxi |
chu zu qi che/chu zu che |
I want to go to... |
Wo yao qu... |
Bank |
yin hang |
Do you have...? |
You mei you...? |
Book |
shu |
Here is my address |
Zhe shi wo de di zhi |
Map |
di tu |
Pinyin
Back in the 1950s it was hoped eventually to replace Chinese characters altogether with a regular alphabet of Roman letters, and to this end the pinyin system was devised. Basically pinyin is a precise and exact means of representing all the sounds of Mandarin Chinese. It comprises all the Roman letters of the English alphabet (except for the letter "v"), and the four tones are represented by diacritic marks, or accents, which appear above each syllable. However, there is an added complication that in pinyin the letters do not all have the sounds you would expect, and you'll need to spend an hour or two learning these. You often see pinyin in China, on street signs and shop displays, but only well-educated locals know the system very well. Other dialects of Chinese, such as Cantonese, cannot be written in pinyin.
The old aim of replacing Chinese characters with pinyin was abandoned long ago, but in the meantime pinyin has one very important function, that of helping foreigners to pronounce Chinese words. The Chinese names herein have been given both in characters and in pinyin; our pronunciation guide is your first step to making yourself comprehensible. Don't get overly paranoid about your tones: with the help of context, intelligent listeners should be able to work out what you are trying to say. If you're just uttering a single word, however, for example a place name ?without a context ?you need to hit exactly the right tone, otherwise don't be surprised if nobody understands you. For more information, see the Rough Guide phrasebook, Mandarin Chinese.
Occasionally, you will come across systems of rendering Mandarin into Roman letters, which pre-date the pinyin system. The best known of these is the Wade-Giles system, which renders Mao Zedong as Mao Tse-tung and Deng Xiaoping as Teng Hsaio-p'ing. These forms are no longer used in mainland China but you may see them in publications which originate in Taiwan.
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters- pictograms built up of components representing simple concepts such as fire, earth, person, wood- must rank as one of the most extraordinary creations of the Chinese people, and they have had a profound effect on the way the language has developed over the past three thousand years. Every character can be pronounced as a single-syllable sound, but the character itself contains no more than hints as to what its pronunciation should be. Fundamentally, the character stands not for a sound, but for a concept. Because Chinese characters are so immutable and so ancient however, the individual concepts behind many of them, as well as their grammatical function, have become misty and diffuse. To take a random example, a single character ju can be a verb meaning "to lift", "to start" or "to choose", an adjective meaning "whole" and a noun meaning "deed". In a very vague way we might perhaps see the underlying meaning of ju, but because of the need for clarity, many of the everyday concepts and objects of modern life are referred to not by single characters but by set combinations of usually two or three characters which, added together, make words. In the case of ju above, the addition of shi (world) creates a word with the precise meaning "throughout the whole world"; the addition of mu (eye) creates a word meaning "look".
The average educated Chinese person knows between five and ten thousand characters (as many as fifty thousand altogether have been recorded, though the majority of these are obsolete), but the learning process is extremely long. Given the difficulty of learning characters, and the negative impact this has had on the general level of literacy, the government of the People's Republic announced, in 1954, that a couple of thousand of the most common characters were to be, quite literally,
simplified. This drastic measure was not without controversy. Some argued that by interfering with the precise original structure of the characters, vital clues as to their meaning and pronunciation would be lost, making them harder than ever to learn. In the meantime, the simplified characters were also adopted in Singapore, but Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the majority of overseas Chinese, continue to use the older, traditional forms. Today, ironically, the traditional forms are also making a comeback on the mainland, where they are now seen as sophisticated and smart.
Chinese Grammar
The average educated Chinese person knows between five and ten thousand characters (as many as fifty thousand altogether have been recorded, though the majority of these are obsolete), but the learning process is extremely long. Given the difficulty of learning characters, and the negative impact this has had on the general level of literacy, the government of the People's Republic announced, in 1954, that a couple of thousand of the most common characters were to be, quite literally,
simplified. This drastic measure was not without controversy. Some argued that by interfering with the precise original structure of the characters, vital clues as to their meaning and pronunciation would be lost, making them harder than ever to learn. In the meantime, the simplified characters were also adopted in Singapore, but Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the majority of overseas Chinese, continue to use the older, traditional forms. Today, ironically, the traditional forms are also making a comeback on the mainland, where they are now seen as sophisticated and smart.
|