欢迎huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting
Teaching Chinese. Traditional characters for 'what is your name'
5. What is the Chinese for south?
南nán
东dōng
男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
6. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
3rd August
8th March
9th July
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
7. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
千千 qiān qiān
百万 bǎi wàn
双 shuāng
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.
8. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
中国zhōng 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 ➚.
9. 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 吗mǎ at the end of the sentence
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.
13. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
福fú
飞fēi
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
14. 心xīn means what in English?
Water
Star
Heart
Heart心xīn is used in many words and characters that have to do with emotions.
15. If you want to attract the attention of a waiter what do you say?
同志tóng zhì
服务员fú wù yuán
什么shén me
The term 服务员fú wù yuán is roughly equivalent to uniformed attendent in English.
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
17. 小 Xiǎo means what in English?
school
smile
small or young
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
18. 晚上wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Evening
Lunchtime
Day break
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
19. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
的你 de nǐ
你㝵 nǐ dé
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.
20. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
四张票sì zhāng piào
四票sì 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.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
