Question

Mandarin HSK I Tutorial: Family & Ages

Answer 1

\({\bf{Welcome~to~My~Tutorial:}}\)

✩ This is a tutorial, not a question.
☾ Please save all comments or questions for the end.
✩ Please do not copy-paste my content.
☾ Please do not leave irrelevant or disrespectful comments.
✩ Interrupting/rude comments will be reported as spam/harassment.

This tutorial is meant to be a study guide for the HSK, as well as a general tutorial to help people learning Chinese. The HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) is a proficiency examination in Mandarin Chinese (the most widely spoken dialect of Chinese).

Answer 2

\({\bf{Vocabulary:}}\)

Family, Friends, Classmates:
他 (tā) he
她 (tā) she
妈妈 (māmā) mother
爸爸 (bà bà) father
女儿 (nǚ’ér) daughter
儿子(ér zi) son
同学 (tóng xué) classmate
朋友(péng you) friend
汉语 (Hàn yǔ) Mandarin
口 (kǒu) measure word for people
谁 (shéi) Who? (see grammar notes)
家(jiā) house or family, depending on context

Talking about Ages:
几 (jǐ) how many (see grammar notes)
岁 (suì) year (used for age, see grammar notes)
了(le) particle indicating a change* (note: 了 is used in many other ways but we will focus on how it’s used to tell age in this tutorial)
今年 (jīn nián) this year
多大(了) (duō dà le) how old? (made up of 多 = how many? And 大, which normally means large, but means old in this context)

Other Vocab:
有 (yǒu) “to have” or “there are”, depending on context (see grammar notes)
哪 (nǎ) Which? (see grammar notes)
呢 (ne) Particle used at the end of questions about situations mentioned previously (see grammar notes)
的 (de) Particle indicated possession (see grammar notes)

Answer 3

\({\bf{Grammar~Notes:}}\)

✩ Using谁 to ask about identity: [Subject] + 是 + 谁? (ex: 他是谁? Who is he?) Can answer by saying [Subject] + 是… + [identity] or [Subject] + 叫… + [name]

☾ Using 哪: Use 哪 + noun for interrogatives involving “which”? (ex: 你是哪国人?) Which country are you from?

✩ 的 (de) Use this to indicate possession. [Owner] + 的 + [Object]. Note: if the “object” is a person/kinship term, you don’t need to use 的 (ex: you can say 我妈妈 instead of 我的妈妈)

☾ 呢 (ne) Use this particle at the end of questions about situations mentioned previously. For example, if someone says 我是没国. 你呢? The “ne” indicates that they are asking about a topic previously mentioned (nationality) and directing it at another person. In this context, 你呢? means something along the lines of “What about you?”

✩ 有: example sentence 我家有_口人? (There are __ people in my family). You can also use it to mean “to have” as in 我有… (I have…)

☾ Asking about age: ___ + 几岁了? (How old is/are ___?). Response: ___ 今年 _(age)_ 了. (___ is (age) years old.) Alternatively: ___ + 多大(了)?

✩ 几 means how many (typically only for small numbers < 10). Two ways you can use 几: 几 + measure word, ex: 你家有几口人? As well as asking about age, ex: 你几岁了?

Answer 4

\({\bf{Tone~Notes:}}\)

For 一 (yī), the tone mark depends on the tone of the syllable that follows.
yī + tone 1, 2, 3  tone on yī becomes tone 4 (yì)
yī + tone 4  tone on yī becomes tone 2 (yí)
yī by itself or in a number retains the same tone 1

\({\bf{Spelling~Notes:}}\)

Finals starting with i, u, and ü are written with y or w before it
Ex: ing becomes ying; u becomes wu, üe becomes yue

Syllable + 儿 (ér)  drop the é, new syllable gets an r at the end. Ex: 小孩儿 (xiǎohái + ér  xiǎoháir)

(syllable) + (syllable starting with a, o, e)  put an apostrophe between the two syllables. Ex: nǚ’ér, the apostrophe goes before ér because it starts with e. No apostrophe if the a/o/e syllable is at the beginning of a word, *or* it’s after a hyphen/dash.

Answer 5

\({\bf{References:}}\)

Liping, J., Fang, W., Feng, W., Liping L. (2018). HSK Standard Course 1. Beijing Language and Culture University Press.

Other helpful resources:
https://www.purpleculture.net/online-chinese-input/ (will let you type pinyin and get characters)

https://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/converter-pinyin-unicode.html (will convert plaintext to pinyin, with accent marks)

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php (pinyin dictionary. Would also recommend the app Pleco)

http://www.pinyin.info/romanization/hanyu/apostrophes.html (to learn more about how apostrophes work in pinyin)

Answer 6

So cool