1. If you want to attract the attention of a waiter what do you say?
服务员fú wù yuán
谢谢xiè xiè
什么shén me
The term 服务员fú wù yuán is roughly equivalent to uniformed attendent in English.
2. How do you bid someone welcome in Chinese?
再见zài jiàn
欢迎huān yíng
时候shí hòu
欢迎huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting
3. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Morning
Evening
Afternoon
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
4. What is the Chinese for south?
东dōng
南nán
西xī
You will find south in a number of province names including Henan; Hunan; Yunnan and in the city of Nanjing (southern capital).
5. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
四张票sì zhāng piào
四钟票sì zhōng piào
五张票wǔ zhāng piào
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.
6. What is the Chinese word for green?
白bái
绿lù
红hóng
Both 绿lù and 红hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of dyes to color cloth.
7. What is the Chinese word for walk?
去qù
走zǒu
星xīng
走zǒu is the character for walk, move, run or hasten.
8. Yesterday is what in Chinese
上午 shàng wǔ
昨天 zuó tiān
来年 lái nián
昨 zuó on its own can mean yesterday. 天 tiān 'heaven' is day.
9. Which word can you use to ask someone to wait
行 xíng
冬 dōng
等 děng
Děng 等 is a useful word to know when traveling; it is often prefixed with please : qing deng - please wait.
10. 心xīn means what in English?
Fewer
Star
Heart
Heart心xīn is used in many words and characters that have to do with emotions.
11. 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 not repeated so it is a bit like saying two thousand and eight.
12. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
十万 shí wàn
百万 bǎi wàn
千千 qiān qiān
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.
13. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
没有 méi yǒu
的你 de nǐ
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.
14. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
飞fēi
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?
15. What is the word for friend in Chinese?
朋有péng yǒu
迎友yíng yǒu
朋友péng yǒu
Both of the characters in 朋友péng yǒu indicate friendship.
16. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
3rd September
8th March
8th August
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
17. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
买国mǎi guó
中国zhōng 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.
18. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
Add 了le before the verb
Add 没méi before the verb
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.
19. 小 Xiǎo means what in English?
small or young
child
big
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
20. The Chinese character for heaven or sky is what?
天tiān
田tián
大dà
The horizontal stroke on top represents the sky which is above the figure of a large man 大dà.