Lessons 1-10

Lesson 2 你喜欢茶吗? Do you like tea?

喜欢 xǐhuan Like / 同学 tóngxué Classmate / 朋友 péngyou Friend /
老板 lǎobǎn Boss

喜欢 xǐhuan "to like" consists of two characters, 喜 xǐ and 欢 huān both of which essentially mean the same thing: to like or enjoy something.

Often times you will encounter words in Mandarin that are made of two characters with similar meanings joined together, or the exact same character repeated twice. This is especially true in spoken language, as it helps to clarify meaning.

The word order in simple Chinese sentences is the same as in English, with a noun followed by verb followed by the object of the verb, such as in 我 喜欢 印度 。 Wǒ xǐhuan Yìndù. "I like India".

For the most part, Chinese word order or syntax is very similar to English.

Example sentences:

我 喜欢 中国。 I like China.
Wǒ xǐhuan Zhōngguó.
I like-pleased middle-country.

他 很 喜欢 美国。 He really likes the United States.
Tā hěn xǐhuan Měiguó.
He very like-pleased beautiful country.

你 喜欢 茶 吗? Do you like tea?
Nǐ xǐhuan chá ma?
You like-pleased tea question?

我 不 喜欢 这本 书。I don't like this book.
Wǒ bù xǐhuan zhèběn shū.
I not like-pleased this-origin book.

他 不 喜欢 他 的 同学们。 He doesn't like his classmates.
Tā bù xǐhuan tā de tóngxuémen.
He not like-pleased his of same-study-plural.

我 很 喜欢 你 的 朋友。 I like your friend very much.
Wǒ hěn xǐhuan nǐ de péngyou.
I very like you of friend.

你 喜欢 你 的 老板 吗? Do you like your boss?
Nǐ xǐhuan nǐ de lǎobǎn ma?
You like-pleased you of old-boss question?

>> Download this as a PDF (right click to save)

Sound files for the example sentences:

>> Download RL teacher reading these sentences (right click to save)

>> Download SS teacher reading these sentences (right click to save)

>> Download TT teacher reading these sentences (right click to save)


Dialogue

A 你朋友喜欢茶吗?
   Nĭ péngyou xǐhuan chá ma?
   Does your friend like tea?

B 不太喜欢。你喜欢茶吗?
   Bú tài xǐhuan. nĭ xǐhuan chá ma ?
   Not that much. Do you like tea?

A 是的。我很喜欢花茶。
   Shìde. wŏ hĕn xǐhuan huāchá
   Yes. I like perfume tea.

B 我也很喜欢花茶。
   Wŏ yĕ hĕn xǐhuan huāchá
   I also like perfume tea.

>> Download this as a PDF (right click to save)

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
Lessons 91-100
Lessons 101-110
Lessons 111-120
b Send us an email
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.