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.
5. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
Prefix the sentence with 请qǐng
Add 了le after the verb
Add 了le before 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.
6. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Night
Evening
Lunchtime
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
7. What is the Chinese for south?
东dōng
西xī
南nán
You will find south in a number of province names including Henan; Hunan; Yunnan and in the city of Nanjing (southern capital).
Division of a traditional Feng Shui compass
8. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
3rd August
3rd September
8th March
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
9. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
你的 nǐ de
没有 méi yǒu
他的 tā 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.
10. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
中国zhōng guó
美国měi guó
华国huá 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 ➚.
11. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
四张票sì zhāng piào
四票sì 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.
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
17. How do you bid someone welcome in Chinese?
高兴gāo xīng
时候shí hòu
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. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
福fú
孚fú
木mù
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
19. Yesterday is what in Chinese
去年 qù nián
昨天 zuó tiān
上午 shàng wǔ
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
20. If you want to attract the attention of a waiter what do you say?
欢迎huān yíng
什么shén me
服务员fú wù yuán
The term 服务员fú wù yuán is roughly equivalent to uniformed attendent in English.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
