Learn Mandarin Chinese for free using self-paced audio-visual lessons and interactive practice exercises - CultureAlley - master conversations, grammar, vocabulary and more! This lesson teaches you some more greetings and pleasantries like 'good morning', 'good afternoon', 'good night', 'wonderful' etc.To learn at your own pace, take quizzes and explore more lessons - go to www.culturealley.com. See you at the Alley!

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2. Nǐ hǎo
Lesson 5 on Basic Mandarin!
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3. Revision
English
Mandarin
Type
Not
Bú
Adv.
Bad
Cuò
Adj.
Still
Hái
Adv.
Ok
Kěyǐ
Adj.
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4. Revision-Etiquette conversation
English
Mandarin
Thanks
Xièxie
You are welcome
Bú kèqi
Sorry
Bù hǎo yì si/Duì bù qǐ
It's alright
Méi ɡuān xi
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5. 1
Greetings and pleasantries
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6. What's in store today?
Today we will learn some more common
greetings and pleasantries, like good
morning, good afternoon, etc…
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7. Greetings and pleasantries
'Good morning' literally translates to
'Morning peace' in Mandarin
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8. Greetings and pleasantries
Morning (literally, first sun) = Zǎo
Peace = 'Ān
Thus, literally 'Zǎo'ān' translates to
'Morning peace'
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9. Tonal tip
Zǎo is pronounced using the
'falling rising' tone
Lets hear you say Zǎo
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10. Tonal tip
'Ān is pronounced using a 'high level' tone
Lets hear you say 'Ān'
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11. Greetings and pleasantries
Good morning
Zǎo'ān
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12. Greetings and pleasantries
Just like in English, where we often use
just 'morning' to wish 'good morning';
we can also use 'Zǎo' alone to wish
someone 'good morning'
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13. Moving on...
Let's now look at 'Good evening'
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14. Greetings and pleasantries
'Good evening' literally translates to
'evening good' in Mandarin
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15. Greetings and pleasantries
Evening = Wǎnshàng
The word for evening is loosely a combination of
two words:
Wǎn = Night
Shàng = Before
However, while writing it is always written as one
word : Wǎnshàng
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16. Tonal tip
Wǎn is pronounced using the
'falling rising' tone
Lets hear you say Wǎn
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17. Tonal tip
Shàng is pronounced using a falling tone
Lets hear you say Shàng
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18. Greetings and pleasantries
Evening = Wǎnshàng
Good = Hǎo
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19. So our phrase translates to...
Good evening
Wǎnshàng hǎo
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20. Tonal tip
Now, you already know how to
say 'Hǎo', let’s bring it together
and pronounce Wǎnshàng hǎo
Lets hear you say
Good evening = Wǎnshàng hǎo
Great! Now let's move on and look at
'Good night'
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21. Greetings and pleasantries
'Good night' literally translates to
'Night peace' in Mandarin
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22. Greetings and pleasantries
Night = Wǎn
Peace = Ān
Thus, literally 'Wǎn'ān' translates to
'Night peace'
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23. Tonal tip
Wǎn is pronounced using the
'falling rising' tone
Lets hear you say Wǎn
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24. Tonal tip
Ān is pronounced using a high level
Lets hear you say 'Ān'
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25. Greetings and pleasantries
Good night
Wǎn'ān
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26. Greetings
English
Mandarin
Good morning
Zǎo'ān
Good afternoon/evening
Wǎnshàng hǎo
Good night
Wǎn'ān
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27. Let's see if you remember…
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28. Pick the right option
What is the meaning of Zǎo'ān ?
1
2
3
Good
morning
Good
afternoon
Good
night
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29. Pick the right option
What is the meaning of Zǎo'ān ?
1
2
3
Good
morning
Good
afternoon
Good
night
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30. Pick the right option
What tone does 'Shàng' carry?
1
2
3
Falling
High
Rising
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31. Pick the right option
What tone does 'Shàng' carry?
1
2
3
Falling
High
Rising
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32. Pick the right option
What does the word 'Wǎn' mean?
1
2
3
Night
Good
Morning
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33. Pick the right option
What does the word 'Wǎn' mean?
1
2
3
Night
Good
Morning
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34. Moving on…
Now let's move on to some other commonly
used greetings in social situations!
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35. Greetings and pleasantries
Very = Tài
Good = Hǎo
Excess = Le
Thus,'Tài hǎo le' translates to
'an excess of goodness'
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36. Greetings and pleasantries
Literally speaking, 'Tài hǎo le' translates
to 'very good excess'
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37. Tonal tip
Tài is pronounced with a 'falling' tone
Let's try and say it once again, Tài
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38. Tonal tip
Le is pronounced with a neutral tone,
we already know how to say hǎo
Now let's try and pronounce
the whole phrase together!
Tài hǎo le, meaning wonderful!
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39. More greetings
Wonderful!
Tài hǎo le!
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40. Culturally speaking
Tài hǎo le can be applied to many situations,
such as someone agreeing to see you again,
someone giving you a business card, etc…
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41. Moving on…
Let's learn another important phrase, that
translates to 'How’s everyone today?', or
'Good day, everyone!'
Let's see the vocabulary required for this!
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42. Vocabulary
English
Mandarin
Everyone
Dàjiā
Good
Hǎo
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43. Pronunciation tip
Now that we know the meaning, let’s move
on to pronouncing 'Dàjiā'
We will start with pronouncing
'Dà' and 'Jiā' separately
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44. Tonal tip
'Dà' is pronounced using the 'falling' tone
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45. Tonal tip
Let's try and say Dà
Once again, with a 'falling' tone - Dà
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46. Tonal tip
'Jiā' meaning home, is said
with a high level tone
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47. Tonal tip
Let's try and say Jiā
Once again, with a 'high level' tone Jiā
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48. Tonal tip
Now let's try and pronounce
it as one word 'Dàjiā'
Great! Now lets add 'Hǎo',
to get 'Dàjiā hǎo'
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49. More greetings
Good day, everyone!
Dàjiā hǎo!
Literally, 'everyone good!'
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50. Culturally speaking
Dàjiā hǎo, is usually used when giving a
speech or otherwise addressing a large
group of people!
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51. Moving on…
We learnt that to say 'thanks' in Mandarin,
we use the phrase 'Xièxie', a common reply
to thank you, is by using the phrase 'Nǎ lǐ'
It means, 'It was nothing' or 'It's okay!'
Let's learn how to say 'Nǎ lǐ'
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52. Tonal tip
'Nǎ' is pronounced using
the 'falling rising' tone
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53. Tonal tip
Let's try and say Nǎ
Once again, with a 'falling' tone - Nǎ
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54. Tonal tip
'Lǐ', is also said with a 'falling rising' tone
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55. Tonal tip
Let's try and say Lǐ
Once again, with a 'falling rising' tone Lǐ
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56. More greetings
It's nothing really!
Nǎ lǐ!
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57. Culturally speaking
Nǎ lǐ is a standard response to a compliment
Do not say 'Xièxie' while replying
to a compliment!
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58. Grammar tip
This example of 'Nǎ lǐ' is appropriate to show that
even though words in Mandarin have separate
meanings of their own, upon clubbing together,
they
form different meanings
'Nǎ' and 'lǐ' both have different meanings,
separately, but together, they imply a
reply to 'thank you'
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59. Let's see if you remember…
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60. Pick the right option
How do we say 'Wonderful' in Mandarin?
1
2
Tài hǎo le
Dàjiā hǎo
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61. Pick the right option
How do we say 'Wonderful' in Mandarin?
1
2
Tài hǎo le
Dàjiā hǎo
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62. Pick the right option
What tone does 'jiā' carry?
1
2
3
High
level
Mid
rising
Falling
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63. Pick the right option
What tone does 'jiā' carry?
1
2
3
High
level
Mid
rising
Falling
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64. Pick the right option
How does one reply to compliments
in Mandarin?
1
2
3
Nǎ lǐ
Jiā lǐ
Jiā nǎ
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65. Pick the right option
How does one reply to compliments
in Mandarin?
1
2
3
Nǎ lǐ
Jiā lǐ
Jiā nǎ
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66. Revision
English
Mandarin
Good morning
Zǎo'ān
Good afternoon/evening
Wǎnshàng hǎo
Good night
Wǎn'ān
Wonderful!
Tài hǎo le!
Good day, everyone!
Dàjiā hǎo!
It’s nothing really!
Nǎ lǐ!
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67. Culture Leaf
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68. Culture leaf
Chinese New Year is the longest and most
important festivity in the Chinese calendar
It is also known as the Lunar New Year
or Spring Festival as it marks the
end of the winter season, analogous
to the Western Carnival
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69. Culture leaf
It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly
cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any
ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming
luck
On the eve of the Chinese New Year, families make
it a point to have a feast together with all the
members, they also light up firecrackers
all through the night!
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70. Culture leaf
Windows and doors are
decorated with red colour
paper-cuts and couplets with
popular themes of 'good fortune'
or 'happiness', wealth',
and 'longevity'
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71. What's next?
In the next lesson, we will have a
conversation about meeting new friends!
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72. Credits
Content
Team CultureAlley, Sunny Dang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_new_year
Images
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_chinese_home
_decorated_for_New_Years.jpg
Whoisgalt
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73. See you at the Alley!
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