Chinese for Dummies - Wendy Abraham

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Résumé :

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 5

Part 1: Getting Started with Chinese 7

Chapter 1: Chinese in a Nutshell: The Spoken Word 9

Grasping Chinese Dialects 10

P?ny?n Spelling: Beijing, Not Peking 11

Sounding Off: Basic Chinese Sounds 12

Starting off with initials 13

Ending with finals 14

Perfect pitch: Presenting . . . the four tones! 15

Adding Idioms and Popular Expressions to Your Repertoire 17

Chapter 2: The Written Word: Checking Out Chinese Characters 21

Perusing Pictographs, Ideographs, and the Six Scripts 22

The Chinese Radical: A Few Clues to a Character's Meaning 24

Following the Rules of Stroke Order 25

Rule 1 25

Rules 2 through 9 25

Up, Down, or Sideways? Deciphering the Direction of Characters 26

Traditional versus Simplified Characters: When to Use Which 28

Using a Chinese Dictionary . . . without an Alphabet! 29

Chapter 3: Warming Up with the Basics: Chinese Grammar 31

The Basics of Chinese Nouns, Articles, and Adjectives 32

Nouns 33

Definite versus indefinite articles 36

Adjectives 38

Getting into Verbs, Adverbs, Negation, and Possession 39

Verbs 39

Adverbs 44

B? and m?iy?u: Total negation 44

Getting possessive with the particle de 47

Asking Questions 47

The question particle ma 47

Yes/no choice questions using b? between repeating verbs 47

Interrogative pronouns 48

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Basic Expressions: N? H?o! 51

Making Introductions 52

Acquainting yourself 52

Introducing your friends and family 52

Asking people for their names 53

Greeting and Chatting 55

Addressing new friends and strangers 55

Conversing around the clock 56

Talking about the weather 59

Finding out where people are from 61

Taking (that is, rejecting) compliments 63

Saying goodbye 63

Chapter 5: Getting Your Numbers, Times, and Measurements Straight 65

Counting in Chinese 66

Numbers from 1 to 10 66

Numbers from 11 to 99 67

Numbers from 100 to 9,999 68

Numbers from 10,000 to 100,000 and beyond 69

How 'bout those halves? 69

Ordinal numbers 70

Asking how many or how much 70

Telling Time 71

Asking and stating the time 71

Specifying the time of the day 71

Save the Date: Using the Calendar and Stating Dates 75

Dealing with days of the week 76

Naming the months 77

Specifying dates 77

Celebrating Chinese holidays 80

Sizing Up Weights and Measures 81

Chapter 6: Speaking Chinese at Home 85

Hanging Out at Home 85

Hunting for an Apartment 86

Decorating Your New Digs 89

Appointing Your Rooms, F?ngsh? Style 89

The bedroom 91

The bathroom 92

The kitchen 92

The living room 93

The basement 94

The attic 95

Part 2: Chinese in Action 97

Chapter 7: Getting to Know You: Making Small Talk 99

Establishing a Connection 99

Posing simple introductory questions 102

Chatting about family 103

Making small talk on the job 105

Talking about where you live 108

Chapter 8: Dining Out and Shopping for Food 111

All about Meals 112

Satisfying your hunger 112

Sitting down to eat and practicing proper table manners 114

Get...

Biographie:
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Sommaire:

Dr. Wendy Abraham is an award-winning public speaker who has taught Chinese language, literature, and culture at universities throughout the U.S. Wendy is the creator and director of international academic, cultural, and travel programs, holds a doctorate from Columbia University, and pursued a PhD in Chinese literature at Stanford University.

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