Chinese Cheatsheet
This cheatsheet provides a quick reference for the key features of Chinese, a language spoken by over a billion people worldwide. Use this cheatsheet as a reference to help you learn Chinese more efficiently.
Pronunciation
- Mandarin Chinese has four tones: flat, rising, falling then rising, and falling
- Pinyin is the official romanization system for Mandarin Chinese
Characters
- Chinese characters are logograms that represent words or phrases
- Simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, while traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan and Hong Kong
Vocabulary
- Chinese vocabulary is based on characters, which can be combined to form compound words
- Many Chinese words have multiple meanings, depending on the context
Grammar
- Chinese grammar is based on word order and particles
- There is no distinction between singular and plural nouns
- There are no articles or verb conjugations
- Tenses are indicated by time expressions
Pronouns
- 我 (wǒ): I, me
- 你 (nǐ): you
- 他/她/它 (tā): he/she/it
- 我们 (wǒmen): we, us
- 你们 (nǐmen): you (plural)
- 他们/她们/它们 (tāmen): they
Numbers
- 一 (yī): one
- 二 (èr): two
- 三 (sān): three
- 四 (sì): four
- 五 (wǔ): five
- 六 (liù): six
- 七 (qī): seven
- 八 (bā): eight
- 九 (jiǔ): nine
- 十 (shí): ten
Time Expressions
- 今天 (jīntiān): today
- 昨天 (zuótiān): yesterday
- 明天 (míngtiān): tomorrow
- 现在 (xiànzài): now
- 上午 (shàngwǔ): morning
- 下午 (xiàwǔ): afternoon
- 晚上 (wǎnshàng): evening
Resources