Lessons 1-10

Lesson 4 我要去北京。I'm going to Beijing.

学 xué means study, and is a common root for many Chinese words. For instance, 学校 xuéxiào meaning "school" is made of the character 学 xué plus the character for school, 校 xiào.  The word "student" is formed by adding the character for "to study" 学 xué with the character for "life", 生 shēng, the same character used in "Mr." 先生 xiānsheng. Thus, 学生 xuésheng literally means "study-life" or "study-born".

Another character that you often see is 店 diàn "store", usually the time of store is defined by the character added to the front of it. For example, the word for "bookstore" 书店 shūdiàn consists of the character for book, 书 shū plus the character for "store", 店 diàn. Similarly, a common word for "restaurant" is 饭店 fàndiàn, which is the word for "rice" or "meal" 饭 fàn plus the word for store, 店 diàn.

Example sentences:

去 qù Go / 学校 xuéxiào School / 办公室 bàngōngshì Office / 饭店 fàndiàn Restaurant / 茶馆 cháguǎn. Tea House
我 要 去 北京。I'm going to Beijing.
Wǒ yào qù Běijīng.
I go north-capital.

老师 要 去 学校。The teacher is going to school.
Lǎoshī yào qù xuéxiào.
Old-master go study-school.

我 同学 要 去 书店。My classmate is going to the bookstore.
Wǒ tóngxué yào qù shūdiàn.
I-of same-study go book-store.

她 要 去 办公室。She's going to the office.
Tā yào qù bàngōngshì.
She go manage-public-room.

陈 先生 要 去 茶馆。Mr. Chen is going to the tea house.
Chén xiānsheng yào qù cháguǎn.
Chen first-born go tea house.

我 朋友 要 去 商店。My friend is going to the store.
Wǒ péngyou yào qù shāngdiàn.
I-of friend go commerce-store.

你 要 去 饭店 吗? Are you going to the restaurant?
Nǐ yào qù fàndiàn ma?
You go cooked-rice-store question?

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Sound files for the example sentences:

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Dialogue:

A 陈先生, 您去学校吗?
   Chén xiānsheng, nín qù xuéxiào ma ?
   Mr. Chen, are you going to school?

B 是, 我去学校。你呢?
   Shì, Wŏ qù xuéxiào. Nĭ ne?
   Yes, I am going to school. And you?

A 我去图书馆。再见。
   Wŏ qù túshūguăn. Zàijiàn.
   I’m going to the library. Goodbye.

B 再见。
   Zàijiàn.
   Goodbye.

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Sound files for the dialogue:

>> Download RL teacher and SS teacher performing this dialogue (right click to save)

>> Download MQ teacher and VG teacher performing this dialogue (right click to save)

Lessons 11-20
Lessons 21-30
Lessons 31-40
Lessons 41-50
Lessons 51-60
Lessons 61-70
Lessons 71-80
Lessons 81-90
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Lessons 101-110
Lessons 111-120
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The Mandarin language is not as difficult as you might think. There’s a reason why it’s the world’s most spoken language! A lingua franca for much of Northern China since the Yuan dynasty, Mandarin has a simple, no-nonsense grammatical system and a vocabulary that builds upon itself. So don’t be daunted! You too can speak this beautiful language.