Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.
2. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
8th March
3rd March
9th July
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
3. Yesterday is what in Chinese
来年 lái nián
昨天 zuó tiān
去年 qù nián
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
4. How do you express 1,000,000 in Chinese?
百万 bǎi wàn
双 shuāng
万百 wàn bǎi
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.
6. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
孚fú
福fú
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
7. 心xīn means what in English?
Star
Heart
Water
Heart心xīn is used in many words and characters that are to do with emotions.
8. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
美国měi guó
中国zhōng 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 ➚.
9. What is the word for friend in Chinese?
平友píng yǒu
朋友péng yǒu
迎友yíng yǒu
Both of the characters in 朋友péng yǒu indicate friendship.
15. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
你㝵 nǐ dé
你的 nǐ de
的你 de nǐ
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.
16. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
Add 么me after the the verb
Add 了le after the verb
Add 没méi 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.
17. What is the Chinese for south?
南nán
男nán
东dōng
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
18. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
四钟票sì zhōng piào
四张票sì zhāng 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.
