--- title: Chinese street — a course of Mova's primary school, with trees and pragmatics description: Street Chinese for a child visiting a friend: hello and goodbye at the gate, the four tones, thank you and sorry, yes and no, names and ages, counting to a hundred and lucky numbers, colours, the family, dinner at a friend's house. The lessons are in English about Chinese words. 32 lessons, 461 sent --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / Chinese street # Chinese street Street Chinese for a child visiting a friend: hello and goodbye at the gate, the four tones, thank you and sorry, yes and no, names and ages, counting to a hundred and lucky numbers, colours, the family, dinner at a friend's house. The lessons are in English about Chinese words. The chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 32 lessons, 461 sentences, each sentence with its syntax tree and pragmatics. Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) (Mova corpus 0.4). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/) — Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate — 13 sentences · Your friend Ming speaks Mandarin at home, and you pick it up the way he did as a toddler: by ear, never from… - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/) — The four tones: same sound, different meaning — 14 sentences · In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/) — Thank you, sorry, excuse me — 13 sentences · At Ming's house good manners are a little different from yours: there is a thank-you, a sorry for when you d… - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/4-yes-and-no/) — Yes and no — there is no single word — 13 sentences · English has one handy «yes» and one «no». - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/5-names-and-how-old/) — Names and "how old are you?" — 16 sentences · On the first day at the park a girl asks you «nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?» (what's your name?). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/6-counting-one-to-ten/) — Counting 1 to 10, on one hand — 10 sentences · Ming counts to ten while you hide: yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí! - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/7-counting-to-a-hundred-lucky-numbers/) — Counting to 100 and lucky numbers — 11 sentences · Big numbers in Mandarin are built like Lego. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/8-colours/) — Colours — 11 sentences · Picking crayons with Ming you hear a little «-sè» on the end of every colour: hóngsè, lánsè, huángsè. sè is… - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/9-family-mum-dad-brothers-sisters/) — Family: mum, dad, brothers and sisters — 11 sentences · In English a brother is just a brother. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/10-grandparents-aunties-uncles/) — Grandparents, aunties and uncles — how families address elders — 17 sentences · When Ming's grandad comes in, Ming's mum whispers «kuài jiào yéye!» (quick, say hello to Grandad!). - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/11-dinner-at-the-friends-house/) — Dinner at the friend's house — 11 sentences · From the kitchen Ming's mum calls «chī fàn le!» (dinner's ready!), literally «eating rice now». - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/12-tasty-spicy-im-full/) — Tasty! Spicy! I'm full! — 14 sentences · The best two words at Ming's table are hǎo chī! (tasty, literally «good to eat»), said to whoever cooked. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/13-in-the-playground/) — In the playground: come on, your turn! — 16 sentences · The playground is where you learn fastest, because everyone is shouting. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/14-games-rock-paper-scissors-hide-and-seek/) — Games: rock-paper-scissors, hide and seek, cheat! — 13 sentences · Who goes first? - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/15-school-words/) — School words — 13 sentences · Ming goes to two schools: the normal one all week, and Zhōngwén xuéxiào (Chinese school) on Saturday morning… - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/16-happy-angry-bored-scared/) — Happy, angry, bored, scared — 17 sentences · Your friend Lín bursts out of school shouting "jīntiān hǎo kāixīn!" — "today was so much fun!" — and you hea… - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/17-hungry-tired-shy-excited/) — Hungry, tired, shy, excited — 18 sentences · You walk into Lín's kitchen after school and say "wǒ è le" — "waw UH luh", I'm hungry — and his mum is delig… - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/) — The body — 16 sentences · At Lín's house you trip over the cat and his mum rushes in: "nǎr téng?" — "where does it hurt?" — and you po… - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/) — Animals and "what animal are you?" — 18 sentences · Lín asks "nǐ shǔ shénme?" — "nee SHOO SHUN-muh", literally "what do you belong to?" — and he means your zodi… - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/20-weather-and-what-granny-says-to-wear/) — Weather and what Granny says to wear — 15 sentences · Lín's granny is on a video call with China and asks "tiānqì zěnmeyàng?" — what's the weather like? — and Lín… - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/21-today-tomorrow-now-later/) — Today, tomorrow, now, later — 17 sentences · Time words are built like Lego from "tiān", day: jīntiān (now-day) is today, míngtiān (bright-day) is tomorr… - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/) — Days of the week, the clock, birthdays — 17 sentences · The Chinese week is a number game: xīngqī means week, and Monday is "week-one", xīngqīyī, Tuesday week-two,… - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/23-friendly-teasing/) — Friendly teasing — when it's fun and when it stings — 16 sentences · Lín trips over the football and his mate grins "bèndàn!" — "BUN-DAHN", literally "stupid egg" — and Lín grin… - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/24-words-that-hurt/) — Words that hurt — what they mean, never to be said — 16 sentences · In every language there are words that are not teasing but punches; you learn what they mean so you know whe… - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/25-spring-festival/) — Spring Festival — Chinese New Year — 13 sentences · The night before, chúxī, New Year's Eve, is the big one: the whole family folds dumplings together (bāo jiǎo… - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/26-red-envelopes-and-new-year-wishes/) — Red envelopes and New Year wishes — 12 sentences · At New Year Lín's aunties hand out hóngbāo — red envelopes with money inside — and every child in the room s… - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/27-lanterns-dragon-boats-mooncakes-birthdays/) — Lanterns, dragon boats, mooncakes and birthdays — 16 sentences · In early summer comes Duānwǔ jié, the Dragon Boat Festival, with races to a drumbeat and sticky rice parcels… - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/28-at-the-friends-home-what-to-say-to-the-parents/) — At the friend's home: what to say to the parents — 13 sentences · The door opens and there are Ming's mum and dad. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/29-talking-to-the-friends-grandparents/) — Talking to the friend's grandparents — 15 sentences · Ming's yéye and nǎinai (grandad and granny) live with his family, and to them you are a guest child to be fu… - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/30-street-chatter-wow-really-cool/) — Street chatter: wow, really?, cool! — 16 sentences · Most of what you hear from Ming and his friends isn't sentences at all — it's little noises and quick words:… - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/) — Olympiad: tone detectives and number puzzles ★★★ — 15 sentences · This olympiad mixes the whole course into puzzles: tones that change words, tones that quietly change inside… - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/32-olympiad-measure-words-and-picture-characters/) — Olympiad: measure words and characters as pictures ★★★ — 15 sentences · ge is the everyday all-rounder, but long bendy things take tiáo, flat things take zhāng, books take běn and… - ← previous: [Chemistry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/) - next →: [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) - ↑ back to [the school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/)