Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk

Lesson 3

Greetings and Expressing Needs in

Chinese
Good Evening and welcome to the third lesson of the
series of Mandarin Chinese Lessons Podcast. My name
is Serge and today we will talk about expressing
basic needs in Chinese.

But before we start, I’d like to check how you

remember Chinese tones and the vocabulary of the
previous lesson.

So when we greet someone in Chinese, what do we say?

That’s right, N[ih[ao (你好), and if someone is saying

hello to you, how do we answer?

Great! The answer is also N[ih[ao(你好).

Now. We haven’t seen someone for ages, and then we

suddenly bump into this person on the street.

What do we say first?

H[aoji[u b>uji]an! N[I h[ao ma?(好久不见，你好吗？)

What will be the answer to this question?

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W[o h[en h[ao, xi]exi]e! N[i ne?(我很好，谢谢！你呢？)

Fantastic!

Now let’s learn some new words from this lesson.

*We’ll on average have about 20 new words per

lesson, but that shouldn’t scare you. Remember,
there is no time limit and you are not preparing
for an exam, so take your time, go slowly, but make
sure you get them. You may need to listen to the
lesson several times before they stay in your head.
Learning Chinese requires a lot of memorizing, but
no pressure, you need to enjoy it.

Vocabulary

1.朋友（p>engy[ou)-friend

2.男朋友 (n>an p>engy[ou)-boyfriend

3.女朋友 (n[v p>engy[ou)-girlfriend

4.男（n>an)—man

5.女（n[v)—woman

6.是（sh]i)-to be( is, are am…)

7.去（q]u)-to go somewhere.

8.一起（y]iq[i)-together

9.忙（m>ang)-busy

10.他/她（t<a)-he(she), him(her)

11.他们（t<amen)-they

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12.我们（w[omen)-we

13.你们（n[i)-you (guys)

14.都（d<ou)-all, both

15.要（y]ao)-to want something

16.茶（ch>a)-tea

17.喝（h<e)-to drink

18.吃（ch<i)-to eat

19.吃饭（ch<if]an)-to have meal….to eat.(literally:

to eat rice)

20.饭（f]an)-rice

21.咖啡（k<af<ei)-coffee.

Common sentence patterns

我要（w[o y]ao)-I want…(expressing if you want

anything)

我不要（w[o b>u y]ao)-I don’t want…(used if you don’t

want anything)

E.g.我要吃饭（w[o y]ao ch<I f]an)-I want to eat.

我要喝茶（w[o y]ao h<e ch>a)-I want to drink tea.

你忙吗？（n[I m>ang ma?)-Are you busy?

一起去（y]iq[I q]u)-to go
together.(Literally ”together go”)

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 我们一起去吃饭（w[omen y]iq[I q]u ch<if]an)-(Literally,
we together go to have meal)-Let’s go eat
together.

Situational Dialog 1
A: 你好（n[ih[ao)
Hello.

B: 你好（n[ih[ao)
Hello.

A: 你忙吗?(n[I m>ang ma?)

Are you busy?

B: 我不忙（w[o b]u m>ang), 你呢?(n[I ne?)

I’m not busy, and you?

A: 我也不忙（w[o y[e b]u m>ang)

I’m not busy either.

A: 我们一起去吃饭!(w[omen y]iq[I q]u ch<if]an!)

Let’s go eat together!

B: 好!(h[ao)
Good!

Situational Dialog 2

A: 好久不见!(h[aoji[u b>uji]an!)
Long time no see!

B: 你好吗？（n[I h[ao ma?)

How are you doing?

A: 我很好!(w[o h[en h[ao!)

I’m very good!

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B: 她是…?（t<a sh]i…?)
She is…?

A: 喔，她是我女朋友！(]o, t<a sh]I w[o n[v p>engy[ou!)

Oh, she is my girlfriend!

B: 你要喝咖啡吗?(n[I y]ao h<e k<af<ei ma?)

Do you want to drink coffee?

C: 谢谢，我不要喝咖啡，我喝茶，好吗?(xi]exi]e, w[o b>u y]ao

h<e k<af<ei, w[o h<e ch>a, h[ao ma?)
Thank you, I don’t want to drink coffee, I
drink tea, ok?

B: 好，好，喝茶，喝茶！(h[ao, h[ao, h<e ch>a, h<e ch>a!)

Good, good, drink tea, drink tea!

A: 谢谢你。我喝咖啡。(xi]exi]e n[I, w[o h<e k<af<ei)

Thank you, I drink coffee.

Notes
W[o n[v p>engy[ou-My girlfriend.

N[I n>an p>engy[ou-Your boyfriend.

* Particle “ma” is used to change a statement into

a question.

E.g. N[I m>ang-you are busy.

N[I m>ang ma?-are you busy?

N[I y]ao h<e k<af<ei-You want to drink coffee-a

statement.
N[I y]ao h<e k<af<ei ma?-Do you want to drink coffee?---
a question.

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One of the characteristics of Chinese language is
that, it doesn’t have morphological changes in
person, tense, gender, number and case.

However, the word order is very important to

express differences in meaning. The subject in the
sentence is usually placed before the predicate.

For example:

N[I h[ao( N[i—subject, h[ao-predicate)

W[o b]u m>ang( W[o—subject, b]u m>ang-predicate)

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