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Chinese (Mandarin) Learning Tips

• Written Chinese contains no spaces between words.
• Every character in Chinese represents one syllable.
• The tone used when a Chinese syllable is spoken will alter its meaning.
• A tone can vary somewhat depending on the tones of its neighbouring syllables. The most frequent occurrence of this is when two third tones come together; the first third tone will convert to a tone resembling a second tone.
• No distinction is made between singular and plural nouns - a number or counter indicates quantity.
• Unlike in many other languages, Chinese verb forms are not gender specific – this aspect of learning the language is relatively easy.
• There is no comparable phrase for ‘yes’ in Chinese. As an alternative, the speaker will usually repeat the verb.