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Chinese · Starter pack
Mandarin is written in characters and sounded out in pinyin, and its four tones carry meaning the way vowels do in English.
Hear how Chinese says its own name
First words
The middle column is pinyin, the standard romanisation, with the tone marked over the vowel.
| Characters | Pinyin | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 你好 | nǐ hǎo | Hello | |
| 您好 | nín hǎo | Hello (polite, to an elder or a stranger) | |
| 早上好 | zǎoshang hǎo | Good morning | |
| 晚上好 | wǎnshang hǎo | Good evening | |
| 你好吗？ | nǐ hǎo ma? | How are you? | |
| 我很好，谢谢 | wǒ hěn hǎo, xièxie | I am very well, thank you | |
| 再见 | zàijiàn | Goodbye | |
| 晚安 | wǎn'ān | Good night |
The polite basics
Ten phrases that carry a beginner through a shop, a station and an introduction.
| Characters | Pinyin | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 请 | qǐng | Please | |
| 谢谢 | xièxie | Thank you | |
| 不客气 | bú kèqi | You are welcome | |
| 请问 | qǐngwèn | Excuse me (may I ask…) | |
| 对不起 | duìbuqǐ | I am sorry | |
| 我叫… | wǒ jiào… | My name is… | |
| 你会说英语吗？ | nǐ huì shuō Yīngyǔ ma? | Do you speak English? | |
| 我不明白 | wǒ bù míngbai | I do not understand | |
| 多少钱？ | duōshao qián? | How much does it cost? | |
| 洗手间在哪里？ | xǐshǒujiān zài nǎlǐ? | Where is the toilet? |
Counting
Prices, platforms, dates and phone numbers all start here.
Good to know
This is the ten-minute version: the greetings, phrases and numbers a beginner can use this afternoon, held on the page rather than fetched. The full Chinese tutorial — a thousand words, three hundred phrases and five hundred conversations, with your progress kept — is the language’s main page.