CHINESE

CHINESE Chinese Characters March 1975 Revised October 1975 DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER Preface The purpose of Chinese Characters I and II is to provide you with a foundation in the written language through the presentation of 600 carefully selected characters. The character forms introduced are those being used today in the People's Republic of China, where many of the traditional forms have been simplified to make the task of character learning easier. You will find the study of Chinese characters to be both fascinating and rewarding. Learning to read one of the world's most "exotic" written languages will not only give you a great sense of personal satisfaction, but will also provide you with an important tool for vocabulary building. As you learn some of the combinations in which a character recurs you will gradually develop the ability to infer the meaning of new words containing that character. Additionally, learning these 600 characters will thoroughly acquaint you with the basic principles of Chinese character structure which you need to know in order to look up unfamiliar characters in a Chinese-English dictionary. Thus, the characters that you learn will serve as the point of departure for exercises in dictionary use. For this purpose, a character index system has been provided at the end of this book. This particular indexing system is the one used in the Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Communist Usage, which will be a standard reference for looking up characters both here and in the field. Lesson 1

Characters yī, yí, yì èr sān sì wǔ 一二三四五 Nu: one, a, an Nu: two Nu: three Nu: four Nu: five liù qī, qí bā, bá jiǔ shí 六七八九十 Nu: six Nu: seven Nu: eight Nu: nine Nu: ten rén dà xiǎo tiān yuè 人大小天月 N: person, people SV: be big, great, large SV: be small, little M/N: day N: month shàng xià yě zhōng de 上下也中的 V/Sp/PW: get onto, ascend/ last/on top (of) V/Sp/PW: get down from, descend/next below A: also, too BP: middle, China P: particle of modification yǒu méi shì liǎng gè 有没是两个 V: have, has; there is or are V: have not EV: be, am, are, is Nu: couple, two M: unit (general measure) wǒ nǐ tā men bú, bù 我你他们不 PN: I, me PN: you (singular) PN: he, she, him, her P: (pluralizing suffix for pronouns) A: (negative prefix to verbs and adverbs)

Reading Practice 1. 二月有二十八天。 sān yuè yǒu sān shí bā tiān. Février a vingt-huit jours. 2. 我们二十五个人 dōu dào dàxué qù niànshū wǒmen èr shí wǔ ge rén dōu dào dàxué qù niànshū 3. Nà 三个 háizi 天天 chàng 中 guó gēr。 Nà sān ge háizi tiān tiān chàng zhōngguó gēr. 4. 他们两 wèi dōu 没有 biǎo。 tāmen liǎng wèi dōu méi yǒu biǎo. 5. 你们的小 háizi 诶有 qián。(你们的小孩子没有钱) nǐmen de xiǎo háizi méi yǒu qiān. 6. Zuó 天有六七个人 zài lóu 下 kàn bào. Zuó Tiān yǒu liù qī gè rén zài lóu xià kàn bào . 7. 天天 zǎo 上我 zài 我们 jiāli chīfàn。 Tiāntiān zǎo shàng wǒ zài wǒmen jiāli chīfàn . 8. 有人 shuō 小的不是我的。 Yǒu rén shuō xiǎo de bù shì wǒ de. 9. 我们 jiā 一 gòng 有九个大人。 Wǒmen jiā yī gòng yǒu jiǔ gè dà rén. 10. Tāmen méiyǒu xiǎo háizi wǒmen yě méiyǒu xiǎo háizi. 11. Wǒ, nǐ, tā, wǒmen sánge rén dōu shì xuésheng. 12. Nà liǎngge zhōngguó rén yǒu liǎngge xiǎo nǚháizi méiyǒu nánde. 13. Shàngtou de nàge shì wǒde. 14. Tāmen shì shíèr yuè jiǔ hào lái de.

Lesson 2

Characters zài zhè, zhèi ér nèi, nà, něi, nǎ lǐ 在这儿那里 CV/V: be at, in or on Sp: this BP: son, dimi- nutive particle Sp: that, which PW: inside wài qián tóu hòu le, liǎo 外前头后了 PW: outside PW: front N: head P: localizer suffix PW: back, rear P: Ccompleted action RYE: capability dào shén ma, me dì fāng 到什么地方 V: arrive at CV: to BP: what BP: what BP: place BP: place