Ottawa Mandarin School Adult Class Instructor: Daniel C. Lee Week 01: September 15, Four Tones in Mandarin 2. Icebreaker – What, Where, When, Why, How 1

Introduction 介紹 Instructor: About Daniel Textbook: Speak Mandarin in 500 words Please fill out your contact information Course material can be downloaded from: Backbone of course material – Food, clothing, living, transportation, education, entertainment What would you like to learn? New Year Performance 2

Tones 聲調 The greatest obstacle in learning Chinese for an adult student is to master tones. – Because we have passed the age to get rid of the accents Each Chinese word has a pronunciation and a tone. – Pronunciation has to be precise. – Tone has limited degree of freedom. Chinese do not vary tones as English speakers do (hence the famous Chinglish accent.) – Getting the tone wrong is like pronouncing the word wrong. Luckily, there are only 4 tones in Mandarin – plus a light tone that usually carries insignificant meaning 3

Four Tones 四聲 (-) #1: high pitch and flat (ˊ) ˊ #2: starts middle, going up (ˇ) ˇ #3: low, goes down then up (ˋ) ˋ #4: starts middle, going down ( ) · Light tone: starts middle, slightly going down 4

5 Tone #1 pitch time MandarinCantonese Tone #1 Tone #3 Tone #6 Tone #4 If keyword

6 Tone #2 pitch time If keyword

7 Tone #3 pitch time If keyword In theoryIn reality

One important exception When two 3 rd tones are back to back, the first one changes to 2 nd tone – 33 becomes 23 When multiple 3 rd tones are together, there can be multiple solutions as long as the 3 rd tones are broken up. The last 3 rd tone must remain. – 333 becomes 323 or 223 – 3333 becomes 2323, 3223, or

9 Tone #4 pitch time If keyword Light Tone

Exercise Pronounce 1, 2, 3, 4 in tones (bold = keyword)

WHAT 什麼 Chinese grammar is straight forward and easy! “What”, “When”, “How”, etc. directly replace the subject in question. What is your name?My name is Daniel. Q1. 你的名字是什麼 ? (Your name is what?) A1. 我的名字是 Daniel 。 11

名字 name (given name or full name) 姓 surname 你 You 我 I 他 He 她 She 是 am, are, is Note: The BE verb is often omitted in Chinese. Example: I am learning Chinese. 我在學中文。 (I learning Chinese.) Example: 我是加拿大人。 (I am Canadian.) = 我加拿大人。 12

WHAT 什麼 What is your favorite food? Q2. 你最喜歡吃什麼 ? (You favorite eat what?) 最 the most 喜歡 like 吃 eat 喝 drink A2. 我最喜歡吃 … 13

WHAT 什麼 What is your favorite food? Q3. 你最喜歡什麼顏色的衣服 ? A3. 我最喜歡 ______ 色的衣服。 14

WHERE 什麼地方 (what place) Q4. 你住在什麼地方 ? (You are living at what place?) or 你住在哪裡 ? (You are living at where?) 住 live 地方 place A4. 我住在 _____________ 。 渥太華 Ottawa 加拿大 Canada 中國 China 15

WHERE 什麼地方 (what place) Q5. 你生在哪裡 ? (You born at where?) or 你出生在什麼地方 ? ( 出 ) 生 be born A5. 我生在 _____________ 。 美國 USA 英國 UK 法國 France 俄國 Russia 台灣 Taiwan 香港 Hong Kong 大陸 Mainland China 16

WHEN 什麼時候 (what time) Q6. 你什麼時候開始學中文 ? (You when start learning Chinese?) 開始 start 學 learn 中文 Chinese A6. 我 _____________ 開始學中文。 一年以前 one year ago2005 年 year 2005 一二三四五六七八九十

WHY 為什麼 Q7. 你為什麼來上課？ (You why come to class?) 來 come 上課 attend class A7. 因為 … (Because…) 18

HOW 怎麼 Q8. 你怎麼來上課？ (You how come to attend class?) A8. 我 _________ 來上課。 走路 walk 坐公車 take bus 開車 drive a car 19

Review WHAT 什麼 WHERE 什麼地方哪裡 WHEN 什麼時候 WHY 為什麼 HOW 怎麼 20 Next week: Pronunciation (Pinyin)

Please fill out your contact information Name _______________________________________ 21