Basics to Mandarin Chinese

Right, first off, Mandarin is hard. You have to really want to learn to succeed. I am not a fluent, native speaker even though I look Asian! I really am not, I was not brought up to speak Mandarin so English is my first language.

Secondly, the way that you pronounce words in Chinese is hard for me to convey using this blog. There are four 'tones'. This basically determines the sound we make.

The first tone is literally just neutral. The only other way do describe it is more monotonous? If that makes sense.

The second is the rising tone. When you pronounce words that have this above it, then you go up (kinda like if you were asking a question)

The third is more easy. You literally pronounce a word how the tone shows it to. So you go down and then up (it'll make sense later)

The fourth tone is the last. In this, when you pronounce words with this tone you basically come down (imagine you're really sure about something so. That's the sort of tone your voice should be like)

Going back to the third, the third is a combination of the two.

Basics

So I'm going to start with the numbers

一 yī-one

二 èr-two (are)

三sān-three

四 sì-four (sir)

五 wǔ-five (wo)

六 liù-six (leo)

七 qī-seven (chea. like tea but with a ch sound)

八 bā-eight

九 jiu-nine (Jo, or like low but with a j at the front)

十 shí-ten (sh-er)

Don't forget the tones! Just by doing the wrong one, you could alter the meaning of the word.

Simple dialogue

你多大？ nǐ duō dà-how are you？(knee dwoor da) (taken literally, the translation is 'you how big?)

我。。。 岁 wǒ 。。。 sui- I am... years old. (wo.... sway)

Words:

你-ni- You (knee)

我-wo- I (wo)