Short Chinese Lesson Videos

Why tone marks matter: mā, má, mǎ, mà

0:22

One syllable, four tones, four words: 妈 mā (mother), 麻 má (hemp / numb), 马 mǎ (horse) and 骂 mà (to scold). Typed as ma1, ma2, ma3 and ma4, the number is the tone.

Also in: Pinyin Pronunciation Guide · Pinyin Tone Trainer · Tone Pitch Mirror · Pinyin Without Tones

One tone mark turns mom into a horse

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Mandarin has four tones, and one syllable changes meaning with each: 妈 mā (mother), 麻 má (hemp / numb), 马 mǎ (horse) and 骂 mà (to scold). Then all four in one tongue twister: 妈妈骑马，马慢，妈妈骂马。

Third-tone sandhi: why 你好 is said ní hǎo

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When two 3rd tones appear in a row, the first one changes to a 2nd tone: 你好 is written nǐ + hǎo and said ní hǎo, and 很好 hěn + hǎo is said hén hǎo. The pinyin spelling doesn't change, only the pronunciation does.

One letter, three sounds: how a pinyin syllable is built

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A pinyin syllable is an initial plus a final. The chart's two legend rows, the initials (b p m f, d t n l, g k h, j q x, zh ch sh r, z c s, y w) and the finals (a o e i u ü, ai ei ao ou, …), cross into the grid, and where they meet is a syllable. The same final i sounds like "ee" in 你呢 nǐ ne, buzzes in 石头 shí tou (after zh/ch/sh/r - Buzzing sound, not "ee") and hisses in 桌子 zhuō zi (after z/c/s - Hissing sound, not "ee").

zh vs j, ch vs q, sh vs x: where the tongue goes

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zh, ch and sh are said with the tongue curled back; j, q and x with the tongue flat and forward, against the front of the palate: zhī (知 know) vs jī (鸡 chicken), chī (吃 eat) vs qī (七 seven), shī (诗 poem) vs xī (西 west).

Can you hear S or SH? A Mandarin listening test

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Two blind listening trials on s versus sh, with the tongue cue between them. The words are 四, 是 and 十: for s the tongue is flat, behind the teeth; for sh it curls back. Then the Similar Sounds Quiz to keep practising.

Pinyin ü drops its dots after j, q, x and y

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After j, q, x and y the pinyin ü is written as plain u, as in ju (居), qu (去), xu (虚) and yu (鱼), and is still pronounced with the ü sound; after n and l the dots are kept: nǚ (女), lǜ (绿).

Xi'an or xian? One tiny mark changes the syllables

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Hear 先 xiān as one syllable and 西安 Xī'ān as two. Watch the apostrophe split the spelling, choose the spelling for the city, then check both versions and a spelling of your own in the pinyin checker.

Fourteen or forty? A Chinese number listening challenge

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Listen to 十四 shísì (fourteen) and 四十 sìshí (forty) in two blind trials. Each number plays twice, followed by a two-second thinking pause before its answer appears. Hear how reversing the order changes the number, then practise typing what you hear in Number Dictation.

Where does the tone mark go in guǐ?

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Choose gǔi or guǐ, then reverse the vowel order with 九 jiǔ. In ui and iu, mark the last vowel. Type gui3 jiu3 in the Pinyin Tone Converter, convert to guǐ jiǔ, copy the result and try a numbered word of your own.

Why is it called Bopomofo? Read your first word in Zhuyin

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Bopomofo gets its name from the first four phonetic letters, ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ, bo po mo fo, like A-B-C. Hear each Mandarin syllable and practise bo-po-mo-fo with an even cadence. Zhuyin is a phonetic system used to teach and represent the sounds of Mandarin Chinese, primarily in Taiwan. See how ㄊㄞˊㄨㄢ reads as 台灣 táiwān, "Taiwan".

Type pinyin tone marks with numbers: hao3 → hǎo

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Type the tone as a number straight after each syllable and convert it: hao3 becomes hǎo, ni3 hao3 becomes nǐ hǎo, and because pinyin never uses the letter v, nv3 is nǚ.

Also in: Pinyin Tone Mark Converter

Hear it, type it: pinyin dictation with tone numbers

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How to play Pinyin Listening Dictation: hear a word, type the letters, then a tone number after each syllable. 电脑 diànnǎo (computer) is dian4 nao3. Type ba4 ba4 for 爸爸 bàba (daddy) and the second chip turns yellow, because the second syllable is neutral: ba4 ba5. For 女儿 nǚ'ér (daughter), type v for ü: nv3 er2.

Hear it, pick it: how to play Tone Trainer

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How to play Tone Trainer, the free Mandarin tone game: press play, hear one syllable and pick its tone before the bar runs out, and the clock only starts on your first play. The same syllable twice: shí is the 2nd tone (rising), and shǐ is the 3rd tone (dipping). Both rise, but Tone 3 dips first before rising. A wrong tone or a timeout costs one of three hearts, every four right in a row raises the multiplier up to x5, each round of ten takes half a second off the clock, and the Short ends on a real Medium run.

Spell it, then tone it: how to play Tone Tiles

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How to play Tone Tiles, the free daily pinyin puzzle: six tries to find one Mandarin syllable and its tone. Blue is the right letter in the right spot, orange is in the word somewhere else, gray is not in it, and the round tone tile is only ever blue or gray. Every guess must be a real pinyin syllable, so help is refused. A real game, puzzle #73: jiao, then chai, then zhai with every letter blue and still wrong, until tone 2 solves it, zhái, in four guesses for 300 points. Then a real week of puzzles, #55 to #61, seven solved in a row.

Sixty seconds to type Chinese: how to play the Chinese Typing Test

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How to play the Chinese Typing Test, free. Sixty seconds on HSK 1, in pinyin mode, the default: the game shows 电脑 (diànnǎo, Computer), you type diannao, and two characters is two characters however many letters it took; characters per minute is your score. With a Chinese input method, hanzi mode shows hànyǔ, Chinese language: type hanyu, pick 汉语, and the next word is waiting. Esc skips a word and shows its answer, skipped words wait for you at the end, and the Short ends on a real one-minute HSK 1 run.

Is a Chinese character a word? 字 vs 词

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A character (字 zì) is a single written syllable with meaning, while a word (词 cí) can be one, two, or more characters. 中 zhōng (middle) plus 国 guó (country) form one word, 中国 Zhōngguó (China), and most modern Chinese words use two characters, like 中国, 现在, 时候, 因为.

Can you name the five basic Chinese strokes?

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Chinese characters are built from strokes, and five basic ones come first: 横 héng (horizontal), 竖 shù (vertical), 撇 piě (left-falling), 捺 nà (right-falling) and 点 diǎn (dot). Watch each one drawn inside a real character, from 一 yī, 十 shí, 人 rén and 六 liù, then use four of them together to write 木 mù (wood/tree).

Chinese stroke order: the first three rules

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Three rules cover most Chinese stroke order: top to bottom (三 sān, three), left to right (川 chuān, river), and horizontal before vertical (十 shí, ten). Each character is written stroke by stroke in its real order.

Why Chinese students write in this box: 田字格 and 米字格

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A 田字格 (tián zì gé, “field-character grid”) is the square practice box Chinese students use to learn handwriting: two centre lines cut it into four quadrants, like 田 “field”. The 米字格 (mǐ zì gé) adds two diagonals, eight sections like 米 “rice”, for extra reference points on stroke angle and proportion. Then 你, from the generator's sample 你好谢谢学生, is written into the grid stroke by stroke.

Also in: Character Writing Practice

The water radical 氵: 河, 海 and 湖

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The water radical 氵 appears in 河 (river), 海 (sea) and 湖 (lake). The part repeats, and so does the meaning: every character written with 氵 has to do with water.

One radical, two shapes: 人 becomes 亻, 手 becomes 扌, 心 becomes 忄

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On the left of a character, a radical can change shape: 人 (rén, person) becomes 亻 in 你 (nǐ, you), 手 (shǒu, hand) becomes 扌 in 拉 (lā, to pull), and 心 (xīn, heart) becomes 忄 in 忙 (máng, busy). The free radicals poster prints both shapes side by side.

Look-alike characters: 己, 已 and 巳

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己 jǐ, 已 yǐ and 巳 sì differ by one gap: watch the upper-left gap, fully open 己, half closed 已, sealed shut 巳, written stroke by stroke.

Draw 人 or 入 from memory: which stroke is on top?

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人 (rén, person) and 入 (rù, to enter) are near twins. Draw both from memory in three seconds, then see the one detail that tells them apart: in 人 the left stroke is on top at the apex; in 入 the right stroke caps over. Then draw 入 again without looking and check which stroke you put on top.

Simplified vs traditional Chinese: 马 and 馬

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Horse is 马 in simplified Chinese and 馬 in traditional: 3 strokes against 10, written side by side, and both are read mǎ. Simplified and Traditional are two writing systems for the same spoken language.

One simplified character, two traditional ones: 发 → 髮 or 發

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Simplified and Traditional Chinese are not one-to-one: the Simplified character 发 becomes 髮 in 头发 (hair) but 發 in 发现 (discover). That is why this converter matches whole dictionary words first, turning 头发 into 頭髮 and 发现 into 發現, instead of swapping one character at a time.

How to type Chinese characters: type nihao, press Space for 你好

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To type Chinese characters on an ordinary keyboard, type the pinyin with no tones, and a list of matching characters appears. Typing nihao gives 你好 (nǐ hǎo, Hello) and typing xiexie gives 谢谢 (xiè xie, Thank you). Press Space to pick the first candidate.

Draw a character you cannot type

0:21

Draw 爱 on the square with a wobbly hand, one stroke per line, and the handwriting lookup still puts it at the top of the matches: a wobbly stroke in the right place beats a beautiful one in the wrong place.

Chinese word order: time and place go before the verb

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Chinese sentences follow Subject + Verb + Object: 我 (I) + 学习 (study) + 汉语 (Chinese) = 我学习汉语. Time and place go before the verb, in that order: 我晚上在家学习汉语 (wǒ wǎnshang zài jiā xuéxí Hànyǔ).

Don't translate word by word: where does tomorrow go?

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Choose where the time tile belongs before each reveal: 我明天去北京。 (wǒ míng tiān qù běi jīng), I’m going to Beijing tomorrow; then 她每天学中文。 (tā měi tiān xué zhōng wén), She studies Chinese every day. Hear both source examples twice and practise in Sentence Builder.

Chinese measure words: number + measure word + noun

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In Chinese a measure word sits between the number and the noun: 三个人 (sān gè rén), 两本书 (liǎng běn shū). 个 (gè) is the all-purpose one: when in doubt, use 个.

Pick the counter: a book, a sheet, a person.

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Choose 本, 张 or 个 for a book, a sheet of paper and a person, with a thinking pause before each reveal. Hear every counter twice, then start an Easy Measure Word Quiz round, listen to a new noun and choose its counter.

I didn't go, or I won't go?

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Choose 没去 or 不去 in two situations: a trip that did not happen, then an invitation you decline. Hear 我没去 wǒ méi qù and 我不去 wǒ bú qù twice, then check a sentence and compare its meaning with your situation.

了 is not a past tense: completed action and change of state

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了 (le) has two jobs. After a verb it marks a completed action: 我买了三本书 (Wǒ mǎi le sān běn shū), I bought three books. At the end of a sentence it marks a change of state: 天冷了 (Tiān lěng le), it's got cold. It is not a past tense.

Where is “have been” in Chinese? The particle 过

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Chinese verbs never change, so a small word after the verb does the work. 过 marks experiences: 我去过北京。 Wǒ qùguo Běijīng. (I have been to Beijing.) Compare 了, for a completed action: 我买了两件衣服。 Wǒ mǎi le liǎng jiàn yīfu. (I bought two pieces of clothing.) Both sentences are from the HSK 2 list.

把 sentences: the object moves in front of the verb

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把 (bǎ) moves a specific object in front of the verb to focus on what was done to it: 请把门关上 (Qǐng bǎ mén guānshang), please close the door. The verb can never stand bare: it needs 了, a complement, or a direction attached.

Can or can’t? 听得懂 / 听不懂, the HSK 4 potential complement

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HSK 4 adds potential complements: one character between a verb and its result says whether the result can be reached. 听得懂 / 听不懂 means able / unable to understand by listening. Two words on the HSK 4 list work the same way, 来得及 (láidejí) and 来不及 (láibují): 现在出发还来得及。 There is still time if we leave now. 现在走已经来不及了。 It is already too late to leave now.

Formal Chinese at HSK 5: the written register

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HSK 5 adds the written register (书面语): formal equivalents of everyday words. 与 stands for 和, 将 for 把, and 如 for 如果.

Beat the bar: how to play Grammar Gauntlet

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How to play Grammar Gauntlet, the free Chinese grammar game. Spot the mistake: 我学习汉语在家 or 我在家学习汉语? The second, because place goes before the verb. Fill the gap: 我的手机呢？ Wǒ de shǒujī ne? (Where's my phone?). A wrong answer or a timeout costs one of three hearts, four right in a row raise the multiplier up to x5, and the Short ends on a real Beginner run.

Bear-cat, meet the night shift: animals in Chinese

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熊猫 xióngmāo (panda) combines bear and cat; 猫头鹰 māotóuyīng (owl) combines cat, head and eagle. A humorous word-tile Short with a paused owl guess: the parts are a memory trick, so learn each whole animal name. Owl definition: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Chinese flashcards: say it before you flip

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A printable Chinese flashcard is a question first: see 水, try its reading and meaning, then flip to check shuǐ, Water. Keep pinyin and meaning on the back, move a correct card forward and return a missed card to box 1. Build your own HSK deck and print or save it as PDF.

Catch it before it lands: how to play Word Rain

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How to play Word Rain, the free Chinese vocabulary game: a word falls with its pinyin underneath, and you tap its English meaning before it lands, and the sooner you tap, the more it scores. 猫 māo is Cat; switch the pinyin off, and 狗 gǒu is Dog. A wrong tap or a word that lands costs one of three hearts, four right in a row raise the multiplier up to x5, each wave of ten falls faster, and the Short ends on a real HSK 1 run.

Rain or fish? How to play Chinese Quest

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How to play Chinese Quest, the free Chinese word game: eight picture words, five games on one path, and a trophy. It ends on the Nemesis, where every option sounds alike: “Rain” is 雨 yǔ, not 鱼 yú (Fish). Before it: Picture (零 líng, Zero), Meaning, a bonus Match round and In context (今天下雪了。 Jīntiān xià xuě le. It snowed today.). Three hearts a game, four right in a row and every answer counts double, up to x5, and the combo carries into the next game. The Short ends on a real run of Quest 1 on Beginner.

Watermelon or car? How to play the Chinese Picture Quiz

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How to play the Chinese Picture Quiz, a free Chinese vocabulary game: hear a word, read it in characters and pinyin, and tap its picture. 西瓜 xīguā is Watermelon. There is no clock, so hear it as often as you like. Hide the pinyin and 火车 huǒchē, Train, scores 150 instead of 100. No two pictures are ever both right, so 苹果 Apple never shares a board with 苹果汁 Apple juice. A wrong picture costs one of three hearts, and the word comes back four words later for a second chance: 茶 chá is Tea, not 乒乓球 Ping pong. Four in a row and every word counts double, up to x5, and every two rounds bring harder words and more pictures. It ends on a real run on Beginner.

Where was it? How to play the Chinese Memory Match game

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How to play Hanzi Memory Match, a free Chinese vocabulary card game: flip two cards, and if they are not a pair they turn back over, so remember where they were. 十 shí and 医生 yī shēng are not a pair; 你好 nǐ hǎo is, and a match stays face up and adds one to your streak. Every pair of flips is one move, and nine moves or fewer on six pairs is three stars. Choose four, six or eight pairs and match characters to their reading or to English. Your best is the fewest moves, then the fastest time. Then the rest of a real six-pair game, ending on 再见 zài jiàn, played at a learner's pace, in nine moves.

How hard should a Chinese story be?

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If you are stopping to look up more than one word in twenty, the text is too hard. Pick the level below the one you are studying, then read each story three times: everything on, the English off, and the pinyin off.

What can you read with the words you already know?

0:39

Judge the analyzer's short passage before seeing any help. Then paste it, choose your own HSK level and inspect words above that level. The HSK list is an estimate, not proof that you know each word. Finish by choosing a graded story to read.

Read Chinese but miss the audio? Loop one sentence

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Read the sentence silently first, follow the highlight at normal speed, then loop the sentence you missed and say it with the voice. Hear the reader's own example 你想几点出发？ again with the text covered before trying your own passage.

Chinese surnames come first

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In 王伟 (Wáng Wěi), 王 Wáng is the family name and 伟 Wěi is the given name: in Chinese the surname always comes first.

Which part of a Chinese name is the surname? The family name comes first

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Chinese names put the family name first, followed by the given name. In 王伟 Wáng Wěi, the family name comes first and the given name second. The family name is called 姓 (xìng) and the given name 名 (míng). Try it on 李强 (Lǐ Qiáng) and 陈明 (Chén Míng): the family name is always on the left.

欧阳: one-character surname or two? Chinese compound surnames

0:37

Is the surname in 欧阳 one character or two? Both characters are the family name: 欧阳 Ōuyáng is a compound surname, 复姓 fùxìng. Compare 王伟 Wáng Wěi, where the family name is a single character, then try 司马 Sīmǎ yourself.

Two ways to get a Chinese name: by sound or by meaning

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There are two ways to get a Chinese name. By sound: David becomes 大卫 (Dàwèi), characters that sound like the English name. By meaning: Victor becomes 胜利 (Shènglì), which means "victory". Phonetic names are great if you want people to recognize your English name; meaningful names are more authentic and carry deeper significance.

Why 4 is unlucky and 8 is lucky in Chinese

0:25

四 sì (4) is almost the same word as 死 sǐ (death): the same syllable in a different tone. 八 bā (8) echoes 发 fā, as in 发财 fācái (get rich): similar, but not the same sound.

Also in: Chinese Homophones: Why So Many Words Sound the Same

Why text 666? Chinese number slang: 666, 88 and 520

0:47

Read Chinese number slang digit by digit: 666 liù liù liù ≈ niú niú niú means Awesome! / Impressive!, 88 bā bā ≈ bāibāi means Bye-bye, and 520 wǔ èr líng ≈ wǒ ài nǐ means I love you. The ≈ marks a playful resemblance, rather than an exact match in pronunciation or tone.

Why Chinese cheques use formal numerals

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The everyday characters 一 二 三 are just one, two, and three horizontal strokes, and a dishonest person could add strokes. So a cheque shows 壹仟贰佰叁拾肆 rather than the casual 一千二百三十四: the formal numerals (大写数字, dàxiě shùzì).

Month two, take two! Chinese leap months

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A lunar month gets an encore: 闰月 rùnyuè repeats the preceding month number. In 2023, ordinary month two starts on February 20 and 闰二月 rùn èryuè starts on March 22. Choose the separate leap-month entry in the converter to get the right date.

干杯 means "dry the cup": how to toast in Chinese

0:31

Cheers in Chinese is 干杯 (gānbēi): 干 gān = dry / empty, 杯 bēi = cup / glass, so it literally means "dry the cup". Lower your glass below theirs when you clink, and if you'd rather just sip, say 随意 (suíyì, "as you please").

How to exchange business cards in China

0:26

Stand up, present your card with both hands with the Chinese side facing the recipient, and receive theirs with both hands. Read the card you are given for a couple of seconds, then place it on the table in front of you rather than pocketing it.

Which hello fits? Four moments that need more than 你好

0:57

你好 (nǐ hǎo) works everywhere, but four moments call for a different hello: 您好 (nín hǎo) to show respect, 喂 (wéi) only on the phone, 早 (zǎo) in the morning, and 吃了吗？ (chī le ma?, "Have you eaten?") with friends and neighbors. It is not a dinner invitation: just answer 吃了 (chī le, "I've eaten").

Five Chinese words English does not have

0:48

Some Chinese words hold a whole feeling English can only circle around: 缘分 yuánfèn (the fate that binds two people), 默契 mòqì (understanding without words) and 心疼 xīnténg (love that literally aches). Then two the page reads literally: 热闹 rènao (“hot-noisy”) and 加油 jiāyóu (“add oil!”).

How to say I love you in Chinese, from light to serious

0:47

我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ) is the textbook way to say I love you in Chinese, but it is not the one to say first. A ladder from light to serious: 我想你 (wǒ xiǎng nǐ, I miss you); 我喜欢你 (wǒ xǐhuān nǐ, I like you), the classic confession, 表白 (biǎobái); 520 (wǔ èr líng), the texting code that sounds like 我爱你; and at the top 我爱你, serious, committed love.

What was the emperor's surname in China? There wasn't one

0:58

There is no single Chinese royal surname: each dynasty had its own ruling clan. 姬 Jī (Zhou), 嬴 Yíng (Qin), 刘 Liú (Han), 李 Lǐ (Tang), 赵 Zhào (Song), 朱 Zhū (Ming) and 爱新觉罗 Àixīn Juéluó (Qing), each written in stroke order. Then the twist: 赐姓 cìxìng, granting the imperial surname, when emperors gave their surname away.

One English word, several Chinese words: "bank"

0:25

Many English words map to several different Chinese expressions depending on context. "bank" can be 银行 (yínháng), a financial institution; 河岸 (hé'àn), the side of a river; or 堤 (dī), an embankment or dyke. The translator shows all valid candidates and you pick the one you mean.

How the annotator finds words in Chinese with no spaces

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Chinese is written without spaces between words, so the Pinyin Text Annotator walks through your text and, at each point, takes the longest run of characters that forms a real dictionary word: 我每天早上 becomes 我 (wǒ) + 每天 (měitiān) + 早上 (zǎoshang). The same dictionary then puts the pinyin above each word and the English meaning below, as in 咖啡 (kāfēi), coffee.

Three lines in Chinese word order

0:26

The Chinese to English translator gives three aligned lines, the characters, their pinyin and their English meanings, and every character keeps its original position. In 我下午去学校。 (Wǒ xiàwǔ qù xuéxiào, I go to school in the afternoon), the time word 下午 (xiàwǔ, afternoon) comes before the verb 去 in Chinese, while English puts it at the end.

Chinese worksheets from your own word list

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Teacher Zone's generators run on your words, not ours: paste a bare list of hanzi, and HSK words auto-fill their pinyin and meanings (电脑, diànnǎo, computer). Then pick an activity: bingo cards with a caller list, or a word search in characters or pinyin letters, each with a name/date line and the answer key on its own sheet. Free, with no account and no watermark.