Li_Gao

There are 5 steps in total. 1． Pinyin looks like English alphabet, teaching pronunciation. I suggest starting to learn Chinese with Pinyin first because it is the only link to English or another language. 2． 语素 is the smallest unit in Chinese character, which means it can’t be separated. One 语素 can represent an independent meaning. Generally, there are 3 kinds of 语素： A. One character For example, 火 （fire）； 水 （water）； 天 （sky） B. Two characters For example, 蜘蛛 （spider）, “蜘” or “蛛” will be meaningless if you separate the 2 characters, which is the main characteristic of 语素. C. Longer than 2 characters, normally for special name of people, location or foreign translation For example, 珠穆朗玛 （Everest）, 法兰克福 （Frankfurt） 3． 词语 word 词语 is made of 语素 and there are 2 types, 实词 and 虚词. 实词 has real meaning, such as 学生 （student）； 虚词 is the opposite, such as 依然 （still）. 蓝天 （blue sky）, 森林 （forest）. Note: 词语 in 2 characters is not indicating two English words. 4． 短语 Phrase 词语 is the element of 短语. Though there are many types of 短语，you can basically manage with 6 kinds of it, which are the most important and frequently used. 理清思路 （straight the thought）, Verb-object Phrase 吉祥安康（auspicious and good health）, Juxtaposed Phrase 5． 句子 Sentence (定) 主 + [状] 谓 <补> +(定) 宾 (Adj.) Subject + [Adv.] Verb <Complement>+ (Adj.) Object () , [] and <> is not the required or necessary for a sentence. Subject+ Verb + Object is the main structure in Chinese.

The following statements are coming from all my personal learning experience. If there is missing something, any supplement will be appreciate. 1. Pronunciation (汉语拼音 Pinyin) In ancient China, there was no alphabet. For standardization, until the 90s in last century, Chinese phonetic alphabets (Chinese Pinyin) had been carried out and widely used for teaching. Pronunciation of Pinyin is far from well-known English alphabet, even some of them don’t exist, such as üe. Therefore, when you practice these special pronunciations, you should pay attention to the shape of your mouth, teeth and tongue because Chinese pronunciation is more complex and unusual. A vivid teaching video is essential for a beginner. Normally, each Chinese syllable (Pinyin) is divided into two parts: onset and rime. For example, 中 (zhōng), zh is onset and ōng is the rime. However, some characters can be without onset, such as 安 (ān) Even you can pronounce all the onset and rime, but you can’t pronounce an unknown character without Pinyin. For an example, how to pounce“泰山”without “Tài shān”. On the contrary, an unknown English word can be pronounced as long as you know the pronunciation rule. 2. Tone (声调) Four tones can be dated from the ancient Chinese language. Let’s take “a” for an example, ā, á, ǎ, à. One single character could have more than one tone, called “多音字”，and the meaning of it will change from one tone to another. 3. No nominalization or similar converting It is common to see changing “move” to “movement” or “anger” to “angry” in English. But, converting does not happen in Chinese. 4. Grammar The biggest characteristic in standard Chinese grammar, compared with other languages, is that there is no strictly morphological change. Noun has no changes with respect to gender or number, and Verb conjugation is not used anymore in different tense.

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