Chinese Course

I am

Wo shi

The pronouns are also easy to remember. The plural forms are the singular forms plus the syllable men ( ).

You are

Ni shi

He is

Ta shi

We are

Wo men shi

You are(pl)

Ni men shi

They are

Ta men shi

The negative form of most verbs in Chinese is formed by adding the syllable bu ( ) before the verb, almost like the word "not" in English. For example:


	I know.	Wo zhi dao.
	I don't know.	Wo bu zhi dao.

Questions are formed in Chinese by adding the syllable ma ( ) at the end of a statement or by inserting the negative form of a verb or modifier immediately after that verb or modifier. For example:

He is your friend.	Ta shi ni de peng you.
Is he your friend?	Ta shi ni de peng you ma?
Is he ( or is he not ) your friend?	Ta shi bu shi ni de peng you?

One of the most difficult skills in Chinese is the use of measure words. Every noun has a specific measure word that is used to count or refer to it, just like "gaggle" refers to geese and "pride" refers to lions in English.
The generic measure word in Chinese is ge ( ) which can refer to almost anything. However, use of specific measure words is more proper. The proper measure word

for books, for example, is ben ( tome or edition ). Whenever books are mentioned, ben precedes shu ( book ):
	one book	yi ben shu
	this book	zhe ben shu
	five books	wu ben shu
	which book?	nei ben shu?

The past tense of a verb in Chinese is made by adding the syllable le (

) immediately after the verb or at the every end of the sentence. For example:

I'm going.	Wo qu.
I went.	Wo qu le.
I went shopping.	Wo qu mai dong xi le.

no good	bu hao	There's no solution.	Mei ban fa.
not okay; doesn't work	bu xing	There isn't any.	Mei you.
wait a while	deng yi deng	Please come in.	Qing jin.
good	hao	okay	xing
can be done	ke yi	Hello. Hey!	Wei!


He has money.	Ta you qian.
He doesn't have money.	Ta mei you qian.