Chinese learners often struggle with polyphones – characters with two or more pronunciations. In this article, we will look at 5 common Chinese polyphones. Chinese Polyphones: One Character, Two Meanings In simple words, polyphones are Chinese characters which, depending on the context, have two or more pronunciations. Chinese polyphones often make a sentence (or even the...
Why is it so important to learn Chinese characters when you study Chinese? Some people say it’s not important. For them, being able to hold a decent conversation is more rewarding than writing and memorizing the characters. No doubt, all people have different goals. But this week, we’ve found you 10 reasons to learn Chinese characters – and explain why it...
Very often in Chinese, you will come across words that share the same pronunciation, but are written using different characters – the so-calles Chinese homonyms. In this article, we are going to take a look at 4 pairs of homonyms, which are frequently used in both daily conversations and in academic topics. Same Sound,...
A modal or exclamative particle is an important grammatical concept in Chinese. Adding different exclamative particles at the end of your sentences can help you make your speech more vivid – and consequently, make conversations more effective. Using appropriate Chinese exclamative particles, combined with correct intonation, is an essential way to share your feelings with other people. In...
If you had a chance to talk to many Chinese locals, you might have noticed that people from different regions speak Chinese with different accents. Mandarin Chinese in the South and North can be slightly different sometimes. On one hand, it’s a relief – you don’t have to worry too much if don’t understand some...
Even if you started to learn Chinese yesterday, you must have already picked up the famous Chinese greeting which means “hello”: 你好 nǐ hǎo. Well, if we take a look at these two characters separately, it turns out that 你 nǐ means “you”, and 好 hǎo means “good”. As the literal meaning of 你好 nǐ hǎo is “you good”, it can be...
