Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
2. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
华国huá guó
美国měi guó
英国yīng 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.
3. What is the word for friend in Chinese?
朋友péng yǒu
平友píng yǒu
朋有péng yǒu
Both of the characters in 朋友péng yǒu indicate friendship.
4. What is the Chinese word for green?
渔yú
六liù
绿lù
Both 绿lù and 红hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of dyes to color cloth.
5. If you want to attract the attention of a waiter what do you say?
谢谢xiè xiè
医生yī shēng
服务员fú wù yuán
The term 服务员fú wù yuán is roughly equivalent to uniformed attendent in English.
6. Which word can you use to ask someone to wait
等 děng
行 xíng
来 lái
Děng 等 is a useful word to know when traveling; it is often prefixed with please : qing deng - please wait.
7. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
你㝵 nǐ dé
他的 tā de
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.
8. 心xīn means what in English?
Fewer
Heart
Star
Heart心xīn is used in many words and characters that have to do with emotions.
9. 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 了le 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.
10. What is the Chinese word for walk?
昨zuó
走zǒu
是shì
走zǒu is the character for walk, move, run or hasten.
11. What is the Chinese for south?
英yīng
南nán
东dōng
You will find south in a number of province names including Henan; Hunan; Yunnan and in the city of Nanjing (southern capital).
12. How do you bid someone welcome in Chinese?
高兴gāo xīng
欢迎huān yíng
时候shí hòu
欢迎huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting
13. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
四票sì piào
四张票sì zhāng 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.
14. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Day break
Afternoon
Evening
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
15. Yesterday is what in Chinese
来年 lái nián
昨天 zuó tiān
去年 qù nián
昨 zuó on its own can mean yesterday. 天 tiān 'heaven' is day.
16. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
8th August
3rd September
8th March
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
17. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
双 shuāng
千千 qiān qiān
百万 bǎi wàn
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.
18. How would you say the year 2008 in Chinese?
两零零八年 liǎng líng líng bā nián
二零八年 èr líng bā nián
二千八年 èr qiān bā nián
The 'zero' is not repeated so it is a bit like saying two thousand and eight.
19. The Chinese character for heaven or sky is what?
田tián
天tiān
大dà
The horizontal stroke on top represents the sky which is above the figure of a large man 大dà.
20. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
福fú
夫fū
去qù
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?