Lessons 1-10 Mandarin Chinese Lesson 36: Now

现在 是 四 点 半。(Right now) It's half past four.
Xiànzài shì sì diăn bàn.
Now is four dot half.

现在 是 五 点。(Right now) It's five.
Xiànzài shì wŭ diăn.
Now is five dot.

现在 是 六 点。(Right now) It's six.
Xiànzài shì liù diăn.
Now is six dot.

现在 是 九 点 半。 (Right now) It's nine thirty.
Xiànzài shì jiŭ diăn bàn.
Now is nine dot half.

现在 是 五 点 四十 分。 (Right now) It's five forty.
Xiànzài shì wŭ diăn sì shí fēn.
Now is five dot four-ten minute.

从 现在 起 我 吃 中餐。 From now on I will eat Chinese food.
Cóng xiànzài qĭ wŏ chī zhōngcān.
From now rise I eat Middle-cuisine.

周 小姐 现在 在 家。 Ms. Zou is at home now.
Zhōu xiăojiĕ xiànzài zài jiā.
Zhou little-big-sister now is home.

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.