Grammatical elements of equal or closely related values in various languages are very often not related in sounds. All modern Sinitic languages—i.e., the “Chinese dialects”—share a number of important typological features. They have a maximum syllabic structure of the type consonant–semivowel–vowel–semivowel–consonant. Some languages lack one set of semivowels, and, in some, gemination (doubling) or clustering of vowels occurs. The languages also employ a system of tones (pitch and contour), with or without concomitant glottal features, and occasionally stress. For the most part, tones are lexical (i.e., they distinguish otherwise similar words); in some languages tones also carry grammatical meaning.

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Every language has an array of filler words that help to grease the wheels of conversation. This final lesson will teach you how to slip “nèi ge” naturally into your conversation to help you sound more Chinese than ever. Learn how to say dates, months, and years in Chinese. Combine this with the time and days of the week lessons above, and you should feel very comfortable making appointments or holidays reservations.

Once you’ve known your way around numbers, telling the time in Chinese becomes pretty easy – just watch out for a couple of curveballs coming in your way. This lesson will cover all the essential time expressions like “just now” and “soon” to keep you on your toes. Measure words are used a lot more in Chinese than in English – so much so that there are 150+ of them. In this lesson, we’ll give you some tricks for using the most common Chinese measure words to help you get by in most conversations.

Thankfully, there are more free learning resources online than ever before due to the pandemic. The downside is that many of those free Chinese lessons out there are junk. Don’t skimp on the orange zest, as Indices Trading Strategies it really brings out the depth of flavor in the dish.

• You’ll learn some super useful Chinese conversation starters and how to talk about yourself and your family.
• Cooking Chinese food recipes at home might seem daunting, but thanks to some creative shortcuts, it’s pretty easy to whip up restaurant-quality dishes in your own kitchen.
• Plus you’ll learn some little tricks to help you remember some of them.
• Nontonal grammatical units (i.e., affixes) may be smaller than syllables, but usually the meaningful units consist of one or more syllables.
• While it’s tempting to use chicken breasts for this recipe, we recommend using boneless, skinless chicken thighs to ensure maximum juiciness.

Almond Cookies

Chinese is fairly logical when it comes to naming the days of the week. Well, there are three names for each day (it’s nuts), but you’ll find them pretty intuitive and predictable. With over 50K readers every month, we’re one of the world’s biggest websites about Chinese learning.

Mandarin Pork Stir-Fry

Frozen popcorn chicken is the ingredient that makes this recipe so quick, but no one would ever know. Keep the pot stickers from, er, sticking to the rack of the steamer by greasing it with oil or butter before cooking. Freeze any extra pot stickers in a single layer on a sheet of waxed paper until they are firm, then transfer them to an airtight freezer container and place them back in the freezer. Although egg foo young looks complicated when you eat it at a Chinese restaurant, it’s pretty easy to whip up at home.

Cashew Chicken with Ginger

Whipping up these crunchy and refreshing Asian wraps the night before with leftover pulled chicken. Thanks to chicken and sweet potatoes, this dish is packed with protein. Du Chinese has over Chinese lessons with 5-6 new lessons added every week. Du Chinese lets you look up the meaning of any word with a simple tap. The dictionary shows you what the word means in that particular sentence.

You probably already know that Chinese is a tonal language. Many words appear to have the same basic pronunciation with varied pitches. It seems like a small difference, but it’s quite important.

• You might want to make a double batch of these tender, flavorful ribs.
• Our readers suggest adding fresh ginger to give the dish an added zing.
• You only need eight ingredients and half an hour to make this takeout favorite at home.
• Frozen chicken pot stickers make this impressive-tasting soup secretly simple.
• Make sure to cut against the grain and keep the pieces roughly the same size for tender meat that’s evenly cooked.
• It might be tempting to use store-bought sauce instead of spending an extra 15 minutes making soy reduction sauce.

Asian Wraps

Use minced fresh ginger and Chinese five-spice powder to give these chicken-filled dumplings a flavorful kick. Thanks to store-bought wonton wrappers, crab rangoon is deceptively easy to make at home. To prevent the filling from leaking during the frying process, freeze the filled crab puffs before you cook them.

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You’ll learn why it’s important and how to ask specific people their age, using both polite and informal language. There are some interesting rules for how to raise the question correctly. Starting Chinese learning in 2025 can mark the beginning of an exciting journey. The rising popularity of online Chinese lessons now makes it possible for you to learn this beautiful language from the comfort of your own home.

The Proto-Sinitic period is the period of the most ancient inscriptions and poetry; most loanwords in Chinese were borrowed after that period. The works of Confucius and Mencius mark the beginning of the Archaic Chinese period. In this lesson, you’ll get a quick introduction to age in Chinese.

Don’t skip out on the optional crumbled bacon topping. If you don’t have lo mein noodles on hand, whole-wheat or multigrain spaghetti adds a delicious texture. Cooking Chinese food recipes at home might seem daunting, but thanks to some creative shortcuts, it’s pretty easy to whip up restaurant-quality dishes in your own kitchen. The spoken varieties of Chinese are mutually unintelligible to their respective speakers. They differ from each other to about the same extent as the modern Romance languages. Most of the differences among them occur in pronunciation and vocabulary; there are few grammatical differences.

Save time by making the easy six-ingredient dipping sauce in advance, and you can have this satisfying appetizer whenever you crave it. Super quick dinner recipes are a lifesaver on busy weeknights, so keep this ginger pork in your back pocket. Add sliced green onions and toasted sesame seeds to make it extra fancy. These tender ribs are marinated and baked for a perfect blend of savory and sweet, creating a comforting, delicious meal for family dinners or gatherings with guests.

Listen to the article being read aloud by our instructors in natural Chinese. The current word is highlighted karaoke-style to help you read along. The Sinitic languages fall into a Northern and a Southern group. The Northern languages (Mandarin dialects) are more similar to each other than are the Southern (Wu, Xiang, Gan, Hakka, Yue, Min).

Pop all the base ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, then enjoy the fragrant smell of homemade soup all day while it simmers. Those who are short on time can prep some of this lo mein in advance. Cook and drain the noodles, slice the mushrooms and chop the broccoli up to three days ahead of time, and store them in the fridge in airtight containers until you’re ready to cook. The Sinitic languages distinguish nouns and verbs with some overlapping, as do Sino-Tibetan languages in general. Verbs can occur in a series (concatenation) with irreversible order (e.g., the verbs ‘take’ and ‘come’ placed next to one another denote the concept ‘bring’). Nouns are collective in nature, and only classifiers can be counted and referred to singly.

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This quick Chinese grammar lesson will get you through the basic grammar rules in minutes that might otherwise take you weeks to figure out on your own. They throw in a bunch of “preset” Chinese sentences with translations and don’t explain how to actually form them and use them. There’s zero chance you’ll be able to hold a real conversation after finishing those lessons.