Chinese Beginner 1 – Lesson 2 ricelanguagecentre.

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Vocabulary I
我 wǒ I, me
你 nǐ you
爸爸 bà ba Dad, father
妈妈 mā ma Mum, mother
有 yǒu have, has
和 hé and

Notes for you

- Some words need two or more characters to form a word/meaning
- Most of the second character of a word with ‘doubling characters’ has no tone
- Can use 爸 instead of 爸爸, similar situation as ‘dad’ and ‘daddy’, and 妈
instead of 妈妈

Rules for you

- When two characters sticking together are both 3rd tone, the former character
would change to 2nd tone.

Vocabulary II
好 hǎo good, well, fine, nice

Dialogue A
A: Hello
nǐ hǎo
你 好！

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Chinese Beginner 1 – Lesson 2 ricelanguagecentre.com
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B: Hello
nǐ hǎo
你 好！
 
Vocabulary II
很 hěn very / so
也 yě also / too
都 dōu all / both, also (normally use 也)
他们 tā mén they / them (only men or mixed of gender)
的 de 1) possessive, 2)supporting word
呢 ne expression word for Statements & Questions
吗 ma expression word for Questions
 
Dialogue B
A: How are you? (Are you good?) ‘吗’
nǐ hǎo ma - an expression
你 好 吗？ - used at the end of a statement to form
questions
- mostly Yes/No or binary question
- question may start with am, are, has,
have, do, does, did, can etc.
B: I’m very good, (how about) you? ‘呢’
wǒ hěn hǎo nǐ ne - an expression
我 很 好，你 呢？ - can be used at the end of a statement
- mostly open-ended question or
bounce-back question (our case)
- question may start with how, what, why,
which, who, etc
A: I’m also very good. ‘也’
wǒ yě hěn hǎo - used after a subject, but before

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我 也 很 好。 verb/adjective
- means also, too
B: Are your father and mother both ‘的’
good? - of someone/something => someone’s
nǐ de bà ba mā ma dōu hǎo ma => replaces the ‘s’
你 的 爸爸 妈妈 都 好 吗？ - place after subject to form eg his, her,
hers, my, mine, your, yours, theirs, etc

‘都’
- used after a subject, but before
verb/adjective
- means all, both, (sometimes) also
A: They are both very good too. ‘也’
tā men yě dōu hěn hǎo - used before ’都
他们 也 都 很 好。 ‘们’
- used when suggesting plural forms for
subjects
- placed after the subject
 
Notes (regarding tones) for you
- As mentioned, when two characters linking together are 3rd tone, the former one
would become 2nd tone, to avoid two consecutive 3rd tones.
- ﹀﹀﹀ becomes ﹀／﹀
- ﹀﹀﹀﹀ becomes ／﹀／﹀
 

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Chinese Beginner 1 – Lesson 2 ricelanguagecentre.com
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Additional Vocabulary & Subjects’ plural form
们 mén plural form for objects
他 tā He, him
她 tā She, her
牠 tā It for living object e.g. dog
它 tā It for non-living object e.g. desk
她们 tā mén they / them, but only women
牠们 tā mén they / them, but only living objects.
它们 tā mén they / them, but only dead objects.
我们 wǒ mén we, us
你们 nǐ mén you (plural)

Possessive word ‘的’

我的= my, mine
你的= your, yours (singular)
他的= his, his
她的= her, hers
牠的= its (living)
它的= its (non-living)
我们的= our, ours
你们的= your, yours (plural)
他们的= their, theirs (men or mixed gender only)
她们的= their, theirs (women only)
牠们的= their, theirs (living objects only)
它们的= their, theirs (non-living objects only)
 
Notes for you
- 的 sometimes can be ommitted, when we want to speak quicker, ie ‘你爸爸妈妈’
instead of ‘你的爸爸妈妈’
 
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