Language Quiz

Děng 等 is a useful word to know when traveling; it is often prefixed with please : qing deng - please wait.

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.

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.

Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.

The 'zero' is repeated. It can also be specified, but more rarely, as 两千零八 liǎng qiān líng bā.

The horizontal stroke on top represents the sky which is above the figure of a large man 大 dà.

Heart 心 xīn is used in many words and characters that are to do with emotions.

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.

Division marks around a small object indicating smallness.

昨 zuó on its own can mean yesterday. 天 tiān 'heaven' is day.

Both of the characters in 朋友 péng yǒu indicate friendship.

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’

Both 绿 lǜ and 红 hóng contain the radical for silk in them, indicating the use of dyes to color cloth.

走 zǒu is the character for walk, move, run or hasten.

Wanshang refers to evening and can be transliterated as late up.

欢迎 huān yíng means Hearty Welcome and is a common greeting

美 měi means beautiful on its own, so with 国 guó it means beautiful country. It was chosen as a rough transliteration of America.

You will find south in a number of province names including Henan; Hunan; Yunnan and in the city of Nanjing (southern capital).

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.