1. To make a sentence to indicate an action is complete as in 'gone'; 'left'; 'bought' what can you do?
Add 了le after the verb
Add 了le before the verb
Add 吗mǎ at the end of the sentence
Changing the tense of a verb is easy in Chinese you do not have to learn declension or lots of new characters. Adding 了le to 买mǎi buy turns it into 买了mǎi le bought.
2. Yesterday is what in Chinese
昨天 zuó tiān
来年 lái nián
上月 shàng yuè
昨 zuó on its own can mean yesterday. 天 tiān 'heaven' is day.
Wall and Moat with corner guard post defend the Forbidden City, Beijing
3. 三月八日sān yuè bā rì is how you would write which date?
8th August
3rd August
8th March
Dates in Chinese are easy, you just count the number of days and months.
4. How would you say four tickets in Chinese?
四钟票sì zhōng piào
四张票sì zhāng piào
四张小sì zhāng xiǎo
You need to include a measure word in Chinese; you can not say just four tickets, you need to add the measure word for things that are flat 四票sì piào between the number and the noun.
10. Which character for good fortune is widely seen at Chinese New Year?
孚fú
去qù
福fú
The character for good fortune 福fú has an interesting derivation. It is widely seen on Chinese gifts. Just to add to confusion it is often shown ‘upside down’
Traditional lion dance near a temple
11. The possessive 'your' is expressed how in Chinese?
没有 méi yǒu
你的 nǐ de
的你 de nǐ
The possessive ' 的 de' is a very common character in Chinese, it can be used with any noun to make someone or something possess it.
12. The United States of America is called what in Chinese?
美国měi guó
英国yīng guó
没国méi guó
美měi means beautiful on its own, so with 国guó it means beautiful country. It was chosen as a rough transliteration of America.
Deng Xiaoping during Sino-American signing ceremony, 1st Jan 1979.
Image available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
13. What is the Chinese word for walk?
支zhī
是shì
走zǒu
走zǒu is the character for walk, move, run or hasten.
In China, the number 10,000 was considered innumerable and is used to express 'countless' and 'myriad'. Numbers greater than 10,000 are expressed as multiples of 10,000 up to 100,000,000 which would be 10,000x10,000 and is a new character 亿 yì.
Starter level quiz about the Chinese language.
