In this article, we’re going to look at two related topics: location and directions in Chinese. First, I’m going to introduce some basic location words and then some sentence patterns that you can use to describe where objects are, if an object exists and locations as description. The second part of the article will focus… Read More
If you are only just starting out learning Chinese characters you may have already come across some Chinese characters that, to the inexperienced eye, look exactly the same. It’s different to get over the idea that they are different and that it is possible, by following some simple rules, to distinguish between these characters. How to… Read More
There are 31 different ‘strokes’ to learn when writing Chinese characters. A ‘stroke’ is a line or combination of lines that form a part of a Chinese character. Although at first glance, a character may look like it has 5 individual lines, in fact, may only have 4 strokes. This happens because a ‘stroke’, unlike… Read More
It will only take [est_time] to read this post! If you don’t have time to read this post now, you can and read it later! Unlike in English, the form of a Chinese verb never changes, regardless of whether it is present, past, or future tense. For example, whereas in English the verb ‘eat’ will… Read More
The 把 (bǎ) particle marks the noun that follows it in a sentence as a direct object. This kind of sentence is known as 把字句 (bǎ zì jù). Furthermore, the 把 (bǎ) particle emphasises the object, and suggests that some action needs to be taken care of. The result of the action has to come after the 把 (bǎ) particle. One of… Read More
We’ve already looked at some of the different greetings in Chinese, so now it’s time to learn some commonly used farewells. You may have already come across the transliteration ‘bye bye’ that is used frequently in China. However, there are many other useful ways to say goodbye that you can learn too. I have often… Read More