Chinese (Mandarin) Learning Tips from Rosetta Stone
About the Chinese (Mandarin) Language
It is estimated that nearly a billion people speak Chinese (Mandarin) as their first language. This makes it the most widely spoken native language in the world.
Chinese (Mandarin) Learning Tips
- There are no spaces between words in written Chinese.
- Each character in the Chinese language corresponds to a single syllable. In the spoken word, tone can affect the meaning of these syllables.
- A tone may change slightly depending on the tones of its neighbouring syllables. The most common example that you will encounter is when two third tones occur together; the first third tone will change into a tone similar to a second tone.
- Chinese possesses no grammatical numbers. This means that Chinese nouns do not change between singular and plural. Instead, a number or counter indicates quantity.
- Unlike some other languages, Chinese verb forms stay the same, no matter who is performing the action. This is one aspect of learning Chinese that is much easier than many other languages!
- There is no direct Chinese equivalent of the English word “yes”. A Chinese speaker would generally agree by repeating the verb.
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