Lessons 1-10

Lesson 7. 中国很大。China is very big.

外国人 Wàiguórén Foreigner / 小 xiǎo Small / 多 duō Many / 大 dà Big /
外国人 Wàiguórén is a term you will hear quite often in China, strictly speaking it means something akin to "outsider", 外 Wài literally meaning "outside". In the Mandarin-speaking sections of China this is how most non-Chinese, non East-Asian people are referred to.

小 xiǎo "small" and 大 dà "big" are found quite frequently as components of longer words, for instance "elementary school" is 小学 xiǎoxué and "university" is 大学 dàxué.

香港 Xiānggăng "Hong Kong" is of course a city that needs no introduction. The first character, 香 xiāng can be translated as "fragrant", "perfume", or even have the connotation of "flavorful" (when talking about food). 港 găng means "harbor", which is of course what Hong Kong is famous for. So, the meaning of Hong Kong is actually "Fragrant harbor".

Example sentences:

中国 大 吗? Is China big?
Zhōngguó dà ma?
Is middle-country big question?

韩国 很 小。 Korea is small.
Hánguó hěn xiǎo.
Han-country is small.

中国 很 大。 China is very big.
Zhōngguó hěn dà.
Middle-kingdom very big.

宾馆 大 吗? Is the hotel big?
Bīnguǎn dà ma?
Guest-house big question?

外国人 不 多。 There are not many foreigners.
Wàiguórén bù duō.
Outside-country-person not many.

美国 大 吗? Is the United States big?
Měiguó dà ma?
Beautiful-country big question?

我们 大学的 学生 很 多。 Our university has a lot of students.
Wǒmen dàxuéde xuésheng hěn duō.
I-plural big-study-of study-born-plural very many.

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Sound files for the example sentences:

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Dialogue

A 在北京外国人多吗?
   Zài Bĕijīng wàiguórén duō ma?
   Are there many foreigners in Beijing?

B 对, 外国人很多。
   Duì, wàiguórén hĕn duō.
   That’s right, there’s a lot of foreigners.

A 在香港外国人也多吗?
   Xài Xiānggăng yĕ duō ma?
   Are there also a lot in Hong Kong?

B 对, 在香港也很多。
   Duì, zài Xiānggăng yĕ hĕn duō.
   That’s right, there’s also very many in Hong Kong.

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Sound files for the dialogue:

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Lessons 11-20
Lessons 21-30
Lessons 31-40
Lessons 41-50
Lessons 51-60
Lessons 61-70
Lessons 71-80
Lessons 81-90
Lessons 91-100
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.