Heart心xīn is used in many words and characters that are to do with emotions.
2. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
五张票wǔ zhāng piào
四张票sì zhāng piào
四张小sì zhāng xiǎo
You need to include a measure word in Chinese; you can not say just four tickets, you need to add the measure word for things that are flat 四票sì piào between the number and the noun.
3. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
去qù
孚fú
福fú
The character for good fortune 福fú has an interesting derivation. It is widely seen on Chinese gifts. Just to add to confusion it is often shown ‘upside down’
Traditional lion dance near a temple
4. Which word can you use to ask someone to wait
来 lái
行 xíng
等 děng
Děng 等 is a useful word to know when traveling; it is often prefixed with please : qing deng - please wait.
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
8. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
百万 bǎi wàn
万 wàn
双 shuāng
In China, the number 10,000 was considered innumerable and is used to express 'countless' and 'myriad'. Numbers greater than 10,000 are expressed as multiples of 10,000 up to 100,000,000 which would be 10,000x10,000 and is a new character 亿 yì.
9. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
没国méi guó
买国mǎi guó
美国měi guó
美měi means beautiful on its own, so with 国guó it means beautiful country. It was chosen as a rough transliteration of America.
Deng Xiaoping during Sino-American signing ceremony, 1st Jan 1979.
Image available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
10. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Night
Evening
Afternoon
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
11. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
Add 没méi before the verb
Add 吗mǎ at the end of the sentence
Add 了le after the verb
Changing the tense of a verb is easy in Chinese you do not have to learn declension or lots of new characters. Adding 了le to 买mǎi buy turns it into 买了mǎi le bought.
12. How do you bid someone welcome in Chinese?
先生xiān shēng
欢迎huān yíng
再见zài jiàn
欢迎huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting
Teaching Chinese. Traditional characters for 'what is your name'
13. Yesterday is what in Chinese
去年 qù nián
来年 lái nián
昨天 zuó tiān
昨 zuó on its own can mean yesterday. 天 tiān 'heaven' is day.
Wall and Moat with corner guard post defend the Forbidden City, Beijing
14. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
8th March
3rd August
9th July
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
15. The Chinese character for heaven or sky is what?
天tiān
太tài
田tián
The horizontal stroke on top represents the sky which is above the figure of a large man 大dà.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
