1. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
飞fēi
木mù
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
2. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
他的 tā de
你的 nǐ de
你㝵 nǐ dé
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.
3. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
没国méi 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.
Deng Xiaoping during Sino-American signing ceremony, 1st Jan 1979.
Image available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
4. What is the Chinese word for green?
渔yú
绿lù
句jù
Both 绿lù and 红hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of dyes to color cloth.
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
7. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
百万 bǎi wàn
双 shuāng
十万 shí 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.
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.
16. 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 了le after the verb
Add 吗mǎ at the end of the sentence
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.
17. How do you bid someone welcome in Chinese?
高兴gāo xīng
朋友péng yǒu
欢迎huān yíng
欢迎huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting
Teaching Chinese. Traditional characters for 'what is your name'
18. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
8th August
3rd March
8th March
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
19. 小 Xiǎo means what in English?
eight
school
small or young
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
20. What is the Chinese word for walk?
是shì
去qù
走zǒu
走zǒu is the character for walk, move, run or hasten.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
