Learn Chinese

Some restaurants in China offer English menu but if you want to try original Chinese cuisine these basic dish names might be helpful.

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Today we will learn to say yesterday, today and tomorrow in Chinese. We will use the same approach for week, month and year. So after this lesson you will be able to say last week, this week and next week, also last month, this month and next month, and for year last year, this year and next year.

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Months

Numbers
1  一　[yī]
2  二　[èr]
3  三　[sān]
4  四　[sì]
5  五　[wŭ]
6  六　[lìu]
7  七　[qī]
8  八　[bā]
9  九　[jĭu]
10  十　[shí]
11  十一 [shí yī]
12  十二 [shí èr]

To say a weekday you have to say Chinese word week 星期 [xīng qī] and number of the day starting with Monday as day one:

星期一 [xīng qī yī] Monday

In this case ‘xing’ means ‘star’ and ‘qi’ means ‘stage or phase’ and therefore ties the meaning to astronomy and the daily cycle of rotation. The only exception is Sunday. You can use 2 words to say Sunday [xīng qī rì] or [xīng qī qī].

Weekdays

Monday     星期一 [xīng qī yī]

Tuesday     星期二 [xīng qī èr]

Wednesday     星期三 [xīng qī sān]

Thursday     星期四 [xīng qī sì]

Friday     星期五 [xīng qī wŭ]

Saturday     星期六 [xīng qī liù]

Sunday     星期日 [xīng qī rì]

Chinese numbers

0  零 [líng]
1  一　[yī]
2  二　[èr]
3  三　[sān]
4  四　[sì]
5  五　[wŭ]
6  六　[lìu]
7  七　[qī]
8  八　[bā]
9  九　[jĭu]
10  十　[shí]

Chinese use Arabic numerals in mathematics. In writings Chinese numbers are used. The numbers are often combined with other Chinese characters to form words, for example days of week or months.

Video

Higher numbers

11   十一     [shí yī]
12   十二    [shí èr]
13   十三　[shí sān]
14   十四　[shí sì]
15   十五　[shí wŭ]
16   十六　[shí lìu]
17   十七　[shí qī]
18   十八　[shí bā]
19   十九　[shí jĭu]

20   二十　     [èr shí]
21    二十一　[èr shí yī]
22    二十二　[èr shí èr]
23    二十三　[èr shí sān]
24    二十四　[èr shí sì]
25    二十五　[èr shí wŭ]
26     二十六　[èr shí lìu]
27    二十七　[èr shí qī]
28    二十八　[èr shí bā]
29    二十九　[èr shí jĭu]

30   三十　[sān shí]

40   四十　[sì shí]

50   五十　[wŭ shí]

60   六十　[lìu shí]

70   七十　[qī shí]

80   八十　[bā shí]

90   九十　[jĭu shí]

100   一百    [yī bai]

101   一百零一 [yī bai líng yī]

111   一百一十一 [yī bai yī shí yī]

200   二百    [èr bai]

In our second lesson we will learn about Pinyin table.

Pinyin table is a listing of all Pinyin syllables used in Chinese. Table indicates possible combinations of initials and finals in Chinese, but does not indicate tones, which are equally important to the proper pronunciation of Chinese. Although some initial-final combinations have some syllables using each of the 5 different tones, most do not. Some utilize only one tone.

Pinyin table

Welcome to our first lesson of Chinese. In the first lesson we will learn about tones which are used in Chinese language. You will also learn your first Chinese words.

Chinese is a tonal language, which means that it uses pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning.

First tone - high-level tone
陰平/阴平 yīnpíng, literal meaning: yin-level:
a steady high sound, as if it were being sung instead of spoken
Pinyin diacritic: ā
word: mā = 媽 = mother

Second tone - rising tone
陽平/阳平 yángpíng, literal meaning: yang-level, or linguistically, high-rising:
is a sound that rises from mid-level tone to high (e.g., What?!)
Pinyin diacritic: á
word: má = 麻 = hemp

Third tone - low or dipping tone
上聲/上声 shǎngshēng or shàngshēng, literal meaning: “up tone”:
has a mid-low to low descent; if at the end of a sentence or before a pause, it is then followed by a rising pitch. Between other tones it may simply be low
Pinyin diacritic: ǎ
word: mǎ = 馬 = horse

Fourth tone - falling tone
去聲/去声 qùshēng, literal meaning: “away tone”, or high-falling:
features a sharp fall from high to low, and is a shorter tone, similar to curt commands. (e.g., Stop!)
Pinyin diacritic: à
word: mà = 罵 = scold

Fifth tone – or zeroth tone
輕聲/轻声 qīng shēng, literal meaning: “light tone”, neutral tone is sometimes thought of as a lack of tone
also called  neutral tone