1. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
的你 de nǐ
你㝵 nǐ dé
你的 nǐ de
The possessive ' 的 de' is a very common character in Chinese, it can be used with any noun to make someone or something possess it.
2. Yesterday is what in Chinese
去年 qù nián
上月 shàng yuè
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
3. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
五张票wǔ zhāng piào
四张票sì zhāng piào
四朝sì zhāo
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.
4. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
去qù
福fú
飞fēi
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
5. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
美国měi guó
买国mǎi guó
没国méi 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 ➚.
6. What is the Chinese word for green?
白bái
绿lǜ
六liù
Both 绿lǜ and 红hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of dyes to color cloth.
11. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
Add 了le after the verb
Add 么me after the the verb
Prefix the sentence with 请qǐng
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. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Afternoon
Evening
Morning
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
13. How would you say the year 2008 in Chinese?
二零八年 èr líng bā nián
两零八年 liǎng líng bā nián
二零零八年 èr líng líng bā nián
The 'zero' is repeated. It can also be specified, but more rarely, as 两千零八 liǎng qiān líng bā.
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
17. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
百万 bǎi wàn
千千 qiān qiān
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.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
