Dictionaries only take you so far. To make sure you are using the right word in the right way, examples are needed. For this good translations of sentences between Chinese and English are invaluable. Here are some web sites that provide them:
Monday, August 15, 2011
Bilingual Texts
Chinese texts with a complete translation into English are very helpful for learners of the language, especially when they are accompanied with explanations of the vocabulary or a reading of the text. Here are some web sites with such texts:
- Thinking Chinese - Reading the Paper - the texts are sorted into three levels of difficulty.
- 慢速中文 Slow Chinese - complete with an especially slow and clear reading of the texts.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet for the purposes of teaching Mandarin Chinese. It is also often used to spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters (汉字 / 漢字, hànzì) into computers. It is thus indispensable for learners of modern Chinese. Almost all text books will use it as a guide to pronunciation, even if they teach the Chinese characters alongside it.
Although pinyin may look vauguely like English, with perhaps the exception of no u after q and the dots above the u (ü), which function as they do in German, the following letters are rather different to their English counterparts: c, ch, j, q, r, sh, z and zh. There is also one vast difference to English: all vowels in Chinese are pronounced in one of five tones, which are indicated with an accent (or lack of accent) on the vowel - ā, á, ǎ, à, a. The best way to experience these differences is with a table of all possible pinyin syllables, each with an audio clip — see links below.
Although pinyin may look vauguely like English, with perhaps the exception of no u after q and the dots above the u (ü), which function as they do in German, the following letters are rather different to their English counterparts: c, ch, j, q, r, sh, z and zh. There is also one vast difference to English: all vowels in Chinese are pronounced in one of five tones, which are indicated with an accent (or lack of accent) on the vowel - ā, á, ǎ, à, a. The best way to experience these differences is with a table of all possible pinyin syllables, each with an audio clip — see links below.
Introduction to Pinyin
Pinyin Table
Pinyin Input
- Pinyin Text Editor: write “ni3hao3”, get “nǐhǎo”.
Pinyin Practice
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