1. 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.
2. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Morning
Lunchtime
Evening
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
3. 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 没méi before 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.
4. If you want to attract the attention of a waiter what do you say?
服务员fú wù yuán
什么shén me
同志tóng zhì
The term 服务员fú wù yuán is roughly equivalent to uniformed attendent in English.
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.
9. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
中国zhōng guó
华国huá 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. 小 Xiǎo means what in English?
small or young
smile
eight
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
11. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
十万 shí wàn
双 shuāng
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.
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
16. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
福fú
去qù
夫fū
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
17. What is the Chinese word for green?
渔yú
绿lǜ
白bái
Both 绿lǜ and 红hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of dyes to color cloth.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
