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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BASIC CHINESE

MANDARIN
China is one of the world’s oldest and richest continuous cultures, over 5000
years old.China is the most populous nation in the world, with 1.28 billion people.One
fifth of the planet speaks Chinese. Mandarin Chinese is the mother tongue of over
873 million people, making it the most widely spoken first language in the world.
In addition to the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, Mandarin Chinese is also
spoken in the important and influential Chinese communities of Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, and Mongolia. The study of the Chinese
language opens the way to different important fields such as Chinese politics,
economy, history or archaeology. But to study Chinese finally means to study a
culture, a people. At the heart of Chinese civilization is its rich heritage of novels,
short stories, poetry, drama, and, more recently, film. They reflect the values, the
struggles, the sensibility, the joys and the sorrows of this great people and often offer
insights even into the most intimate feelings of people in the past or into high-level
Beijing politics at he present that cannot be found anywhere else. These works help
you understand what is behind the language, what makes it powerful, and how it
actually functions in Chinese society. To be at ease and effective in a Chinese
environment learning the language is half the battle, but knowing about the culture
behind the language is the other.
Chinese has a relatively uncomplicated grammar. Unlike French, German or
English, Chinese has no verb conjugation (no need to memorize verb tenses!) and no
noun declension (e.g., gender and number distinctions). For example, while someone
learning English has to learn different verb forms like “see/saw/seen,” all you need to
do in Chinese is just to remember one word: kan. While in English you have to
distinguish between “cat” and “cats,” in Chinese there is only one form: mao.
(Chinese conveys these distinctions of tense and number in other ways, of course.)
The basic word order of Chinese is subject — verb — object, exactly as in English. A
large number of the key terms of Mandarin Chinese (such as the terms for state,
health, science, party, inflation, and even literature) have been formed as translations
of English concepts. You are entering a different culture, but the content of many of
the modern key concepts is familiar.
Remember these two facts:
Currently Mandarin Chinese is spoken by over 1 billion people around the world,
about one fifth of the global population;
Each year more and more students around the world whose mother tongue is not
Mandarin are studying it with enthusiasm and success. If they all can learn it, so can
you!
The study of Chinese literature and culture will help you bridge the cultural gap, better
understand your Chinese counterparts, and create a platform of knowledge and
understanding with them that is crucial for effective communication.

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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology

A. PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation is the basic part of mastering Mandarin Chinese. Chinese is
not a phonetic language. The pronunciation is not related to the writing of
Chinese word(characters). Pinyin is the special system, created for people to
learn Mandarin pronunciation. Pinyin transcribe the Chinese characters so
people can pronounce it.
The writing of Pinyin is similar to English alphabet. You can pronounce
every single sound out in Chinese using pinyin. However you should aware
that the Chinese pronunciation and spelling of pinyin letters are different from
English letters. The sounds, which the letters of Pinyin represent, do not
correspond exactly to the sounds that the letter of English represent.
One Chinese sounds is associated with one syllable and each Chinese
characters has its own Pinyin syllable.

1. Initials and Finals

Focus on Initials and Finals instead of Pinyin
spelling

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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology

b p a oi
m f e i
d t u u
n l ai ei
g k ui ao
INITIALS h j FINALS ou iu
q x ie ue
zh ch er an
sh r en in
z c un un
s y ang
w eng
ing
ong

A) Chinese Phonetic Symbols

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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology

a) . The PINYIN System

Pinyin is the system of symbols for the phonetic notation
of all Chinese characters. Each Chinese characters has its
corresponding syllable, and each syllable is composed of
three parts which are called The Initials, the final, and the
Tone. In the Chinese Pinyin system, there are 21 initial, 36
finals, 2 semi-vowels, 4 basic tones, and 1 light tone.

21 PINYIN INITIALS

36 PINYIN FINALS

There are 6 main finals in the table of finals:(a, o, e, i, u, u..)

Others are called compound finals. It is said that the Final is the
most important part in a pinyin syllable. We can not compose a
syllable without the final part. Sometimes, the final itself can be an
independent syllable without the initial.

2) Tones
Tones is an aspects of learning Chinese which can be
difficult for many learners. Many Chinese characters share the
same Pinyin syllable but have different tones, and therefore
have completely different meanings.

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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology

a) The Four Tones

BASIC TONES:
The 1st tone: (—)
It`s pronounced very high and level with a natural prolonging. For example:
ā, ō, ē, ī, ū, ǖ

The 2nd tone: (/)

It`s pronounced as a rising sound, from low to high, which sounds like asking a
question. For example:
á, ó, é, í, ú, ǘ

The 3rd tone: (∨)

When pronouncing this tone, you should first fall down and then go up; it is a
relatively long tone. For example:
ǎ, ǒ, ě, ǐ, ǔ, ǚ

The 4th tone: (\)

This tone is pronounced short and strong, and is a falling tone. For example:
à, ò, è, ì, ù, ǜ

Note:
The tone mark should be put above the finals. When the final is a compound one, the
tone mark is usually put above the main vowel which is based on the following order:
“a”-> “o”-> “e”-> “i” -> “u”-> “ü”.
The rules of tone changes
In a word or phrase, when a third tone is followed by another third tone immediately, it
should be pronounced as a half rising tone. For example:
体检 physical examination
[tǐ jiǎn] -> [tí jiǎn]
我很好 I`m very good.
[wǒ hěn hǎo] -> [wó hén hǎo]
While a third tone is followed by a first, second, or third tone immediately, the third tone
should be pronounced as a half falling tone. For example:
很新 very new:

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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology

MANDARIN-[FOREIGN LANGUAGE 101]

INTRODUCTION TO THE
STUDY OF BASIC MANDARIN
CHINESE

BSIT 3A

SUBMITTED BY:
Corpuz Marianne L.

SUBMITTED TO:
Mrs. Gemma Somera

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ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
South Cluster, Tagudin Ilocos Sur
College Of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Science In Information Technology