Lessons 1-10 Mandarin Chinese Lesson 1. 是 Is (characteristic)

Conversation

A 您是日本人吗?
   Nín shì rìbĕnrén ma?
   Are you Japanese?

B 不是。是韩国人。
   Bùshì. shì Hánguórén .
   No, I’m not. I’m Korean.

A 他是马来西亚人吗?
   Tā shì Măláixīyàrén ma?
   Is he Malaysian?

B 是。
   Shì.
   Yes.

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Example Sentences

我 是 老师。I am a teacher.
Wǒ shì lǎoshī.
I am old-master.

陈 先生 不 是 商人。Mr. Chen is not a businessperson.
Chén xiānsheng bù shì shāngrén.
Chen first-born not is commerce-person.

陈 先生 不 是 大学生。Mr. Chen is not a university student.
Chén xiānsheng bù shì dàxuéshēng.
Chen first-born not is big-study-born.

我 是 美国人。I am an American
Wǒ shì měiguórén.
I am beautiful-country-person.

他 是 加拿大人。He is Canadian.
Tā shì jiānádàrén.
He is add-catch-big-person

您 是 中国人 吗? Are you Chinese, sir/ma'am?
Nín shì zhōngguórén ma?
You-respected are middle-country-person?

陈 先生 不 是 韩国人。 Mr. Chen is not Korean.
Chén xiānshēng bù shì hánguórén.
Mr Chen is not han-country-people.

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Lessons 11-20
Lessons 21-30
Lessons 31-40
Lessons 41-50
Lessons 51-60
Lessons 61-70
Lessons 71-80
Lessons 81-90
Lessons 91-100
Lessons 101-110
Lessons 111-120
Mandarin is a tone language--that is, different pitch patterns actually distinguish one word from another. Mandarin has no irregular verbs or noun plurals to learn, because words have only a single form. Because Mandarin is completely unrelated to any European language, you may think it might be difficult to develop your vocabulary. However, it really is not that difficult. Why? The reason is that the meanings of many words consisting of two or more characters can be inferred from the meanings of the characters or even the roots of individual characters. So, your vocabulary can rapidly expand when you have grasped the basic characters and character roots.