Table Of ContentMANDARIN
CHINESE
Phrase Book
&Dictionary
Kan Qian
Language consultant: Kan Jia
i
BBC Active, an imprint of Educational Publishers LLP, part of the Pearson
Education Group, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE, England
© Educational Publishers LLP 2007
BBC logo © BBC 1996. BBC and BBC ACTIVE are trademarks of the British
Broadcasting Corporation.
First published 2007.
10 9 8 7 6 5
The right of Kan Qian to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted
by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without either the prior
written permission of the publishers and copyright owners or a licence
permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd., Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
ISBN 978-1-4066-1210-3
Cover design: Two Associates
Cover photograph: VStock/Alamy
Insides design: Pentacor book design
Layout: Rob Lian and Lucy Appleby
Illustrations © Joanna Kerr, New Division
Series editor: Philippa Goodrich
Development manager: Tara Dempsey
Senior production controller: Man Fai Lau
Printed and bound in China. CTPS/05
The Publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.
how to use this book
This book is divided into colour-coded sections to help you
find the language you need as quickly as possible. You can
also refer to the contents on pages iv–v, and the contents
lists at the start of each section.
Along with travel and language tips, each section contains:
YOU MAY WANT TO SAY…
language you’ll need for every situation
YOU MAY SEE…
words and phrases you’ll see on signs or in print
YOU MAY HEAR… questions, instructions or
information people may ask or give you
On page 2 you’ll find essentials, a list of basic, all-purpose
phrases to help you start communicating straight away.
Many of the phrases can be adapted by simply using another
word from the dictionary. For instance, take the question
飞机场在哪儿？fēijīchǎng zài nǎr (Where is the airport?), if you
want to know where the station is, just substitute 车站 chēzhàn
(station) for 飞机场 fēijīchǎng to give 车站在哪儿? chēzhàn zài nǎr.
The pronunciation guide is based on English sounds, and is
explained on page vi. If you want to find out about Chinese
characters, see page vii. If you want some guidance on
how the Chinese language works, see basic grammar on
page 153. The dictionary is separated into two sections:
English–Chinese (page 159) and Chinese–English (page 197).
We welcome any comments or suggestions about this book,
but in the meantime, have a good trip – 一路顺风！yÍlù shùnfēng
contents
pronunciation guide vi travel&transport 35
understanding Chinese arriving in the country 36
characters xii directions 37
information and tickets 39
the basics 1
air travel 42
essentials 2 taxis 43
numbers 4 trains 45
ordinal numbers 6 buses and coaches 48
fractions, days 6 underground 50
months, years 7 boats and ferries 51
seasons, dates 8 hiring cars and bicycles 53
telling the time 9 driving 54
time phrases 10 mechanical problems 57
measurements 12 car parts 58
clothes and shoe sizes 13 bicycle parts 60
national holidays 13
Chinese animal signs 14 accommodation 61
general booking in advance 63
conversation 15 checking in 65
hotels, inns and hostels 66
greetings 16
requests and queries 68
introductions 17
problems and complaints 69
talking about yourself 18
checking out 71
asking about other
self-catering/
people 20
serviced apartments 72
chatting 21
the weather 22
food&drink 73
likes and dislikes 23
feelings and opinions 23 making bookings 75
making arrangements 25 at the restaurant 76
useful expressions 26 ordering your food 77
business trips 27 ordering your drinks 80
living in China 32 bars and tea-rooms 81
iv
comments and requests 83 at the post office 125
special requirements 83 at the bank 126
problems and complaints 85 changing money 127
paying the bill 86 telephones 129
buying food 87 mobiles 132
eating with a the internet 133
Chinese family 88 faxes 134
menu reader 90
health&safety 135
sightseeing
at the chemist’s 136
&activities 99
Chinese medicine 137
at the travel agent 100 at the doctor’s 139
opening times 101 describing your
visiting places 102 symptoms 140
going on tours medical complaints
and trips 105 and conditions 141
tourist glossary 106 parts of the body 144
entertainment 107 at the dentist’s 146
booking tickets 109 emergencies 148
at the show 110 police 149
sports and activities 112 reporting crime 150
shops basic grammar 153
&services 115
English – Chinese
shopping 116
dictionary 159
paying 119
buying clothes
Chinese – English
and shoes 120 dictionary 197
changing rooms 121
bargaining 121
cosmetics and toiletries 122
photography 123
tobacco and alcohol 124
v
pronunciation guide
The official Chinese language is the language of Han
Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China. Hence it is called
hanyu (lit. Han language). It is also known as zhongwen
and zhongguohua. In Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other
overseas Chinese communities it is also referred to as
guoyu or huayu. The spoken Chinese varies from province
to province, and even from village to village. For example,
Cantonese is one of the eight major dialects. These dialects
share the same written language but differ immensely in
pronunciation. There is a modern standard form of the
spoken language which is spoken and understood by
the majority of the population. This standard form is
known as putonghua (lit. common speech) in mainland
China, and as ‘Mandarin Chinese’ in English-speaking
countries. Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese) is based on the
e pronunciation of the Beijing dialect. The term ‘Chinese’
d in this book means Mandarin Chinese or putonghua.
i
u
g Pinyin is the official system adopted in the People’s Republic
n of China in 1958 to transcribe Chinese sounds into the
o Latin script. Pinyin is now adopted almost universally for
i
t transliterating Chinese personal names and place names
a
i (e.g. Peking was the old spelling and Beijing is the pinyin
c
n spelling). The transliteration system used in this book is
u pinyin.
n
o The majority of Chinese words are made up of one or
r
p two syllables. A syllable may consist of a single vowel, a
compound vowel (e.g. ou, ei, ing) or a vowel preceded by
a consonant. Sounds that appear before vowels are called
vi
‘initials’ (like ‘consonants’ in English) and the remaining
sounds are called ‘finals’ (ie vowels and vowels with a nasal
sound). Each syllable is represented by a Chinese character.
Compared with some other languages, Chinese has fewer
sounds, 23 initials and 34 finals (if you count the variants
of e and i, there are 36). Many of those sounds bear some
resemblance to English sounds. There are only a handful
of Chinese sounds which are peculiar to Western ears.
Don’t be discouraged by them.
* initials
LETTER APPROX ENGLISH EQUIVALENT
f, l, m, n, s, w, y similar to English
p, t, k like p in poor, t in tar and k in kite
b, d (more abrupt than their English equivalents)
like p in spend, and t in stamp p
r
g like g in girl o
n
h like h in hole (but with a little friction in u
the throat) n
c
j like g in George (but with the tongue i
nearer the teeth) a
t
q a bit like ch in cheese (but with the tongue io
further forward) n
z like ds in loads g
u
c like ts in toasts i
d
r a bit like r in run (but with the tongue e
loosely rolled in the middle of the mouth)
vii
zh like j in jail (but with the tongue further
back)
ch a bit like ch in chair (but with the tongue
further back and the mouth in a round
shape)
sh like sh in short
x a bit like sh in sheep (the front of the
tongue lies behind the lower front teeth,
the tongue is in a relaxed manner, and the
mouth is at its natural shape, now try to
whistle)
* finals
LETTER APPROX ENGLISH EQUIVALENT
a like a in father
ai like igh in high (but with a narrower
e mouth shape)
d
ao like ow in how
i
u
g an like an in ban
n ang like on in monster
o
e like ur in fur
i
t
a ei like ay in bay
i
c en like en in tent
n
u eng en plus the strong nasal sound, a bit like
n un in hunger
o
r er ur in fur (with the tongue rolled back)
p when preceded by y, it is like e in yes
i like ea in tea (but when i is preceded by z,
c, s, zh, ch, sh and r, it simply functions as
viii a helper to make those sounds audible)
ia combine i and a
iao like eow in meow
ie like ye in yes
iu like you
ian similar to the Japanese currency word yen
in like in in bin
iang like young
like ing in outing
iong combine i with ong
o like ore in more
ou like oa in toast
ong a bit like ong in ding-dong
u like oo in boot
ua combine u with a
uo like war
p
uai combine u with ai r
o
ui like wai in waiting n
u
uan like one
n
un a bit like won in wonder c
i
a
uang like wan in wanting
t
i
ü like the French u in tu o
n
üe combine ü with a short ei
g
üan combine ü with a short an u
i
ün a bit like une in French d
e
ix
