Language Quiz
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Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
1. The Chinese character for heaven or sky is what?
The horizontal stroke on top represents the sky which is above the figure of a large man 大 dà .
Flying kites in a city park 2. Which word can you use to ask someone to wait
Děng 等
3. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
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.
4. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
美 měi means beautiful on its own, so with 国 guó it means beautiful country . It was chosen as a rough transliteration of America .
5. 心 xīn means what in English?
Heart 心 xīn is used in many words and characters that are to do with emotions.
Proverb
狗 尾 续貂
Gǒu wěi xù diāo
Use a dog's tail to replace a sable
A poor substitute for the original. Said of poor follow-up to promising earlier work. The story is of a usurper to the
Jin dynasty throne who gave honors and titles to his whole family and household. There was insufficient sable tails to make the formal robes for all these people so dog tails were used instead.
All about Chinese proverbs
6. How do you bid someone welcome in Chinese?
欢迎 huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting
Teaching Chinese. Traditional characters for 'what is your name' 7. 晚上 wǎn shàng refers to which time of day?
Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.
8. What is the word for friend in Chinese?
Both of the characters in 朋友 péng yǒu indicate friendship.
9. What is the Chinese word for green?
Both
绿 lǜ and
红 hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of
dyes to color cloth.
Bolts of Chinese silk 10. How would you say the year 2008 in Chinese?
两零零八年 liǎng líng líng bā nián
二零零八年 èr líng líng bā nián
The 'zero' is repeated. It can also be specified, but more rarely, as 两 千 零 八
China National Stadium in Beijing used for the Olympic Games. It is also known as the Bird Nest stadium Copyright © Dreamstime see image license 11. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
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
Macau
Macau has overtaken Las Vegas as the top city for gambling in the world. It has the largest casino anywhere. Rich Chinese visitors come to the semi-autonomous district for short breaks to spend time and money in the casinos and at the horse races. Read more…
12. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
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 13. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
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.
14. What is the Chinese word for walk?
走 zǒu is the character for walk, move, run or hasten .
A group of children walking home from school in Pengzhou, Sichuan Copyright © Dreamstime see image license 15. Yesterday is what in Chinese
昨 天
Wall and Moat with corner guard post defend the Forbidden City , Beijing 16. 小 Xiǎo means what in English?
Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
17. 三月八日 sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
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18. If you want to attract the attention of a waiter what do you say?
The term 服务员 fú wù yuán is roughly equivalent to uniformed attendent in English.
19. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
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. What is the Chinese for south?
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
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Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
