Mandarin Chinese Anyone? ^_^

[G u a r d i a n]

Mandarin Chinese is my first language, and I don't mind using pinyin (pheonetics) to talk to anyone who knows it. Also, if you want to learn any phrase, sentence, etc. feel free to post here or pm me for a translation. biggrin  

[G u a r d i a n]

Wo xe Xiao Qian, da jia hao! Qin jie shao ni men zi ji. Zhong wen huo zhe Yin wen dou ke yi. 3nodding

(( sweatdrop It's harder when you don't have the accent symbols: "I'm Sen, hello everyone! Please introduce yourselves. Chinese or English works."))  

[Mwahahahaha]

..Could you give information about the grammatical structure of Mandarin Chinese?  

[Amethyst Smoke]

Yes, grammar structure and basic words... please?

I like languages, but spanish and latin were all that were offered at my school, and it's dull trying to teach oneself from a traveler's guide and dictionary. I tried to teach myself Japanese this way but sort of got bored and quit. I can start again at any time- both books are right by my feet (in a book bag) even as we speak. But, that doesn't help me learn Chinese so I guess that was irrelevant. sweatdrop

Anyway, I'd like to learn, if you don't mind teaching. smile  

[Mwahahahaha]

..I don't really think I'll be able to learn Chinese, as I've heard that it has a very different structure..and that the accents are extremely important, and therefore would be impossible to learn without hearing exercises.. I still am interested, though, in the grammatical structure. I'm interested in the Chinese culture and traditions as well.  

[G u a r d i a n]

It's nice enough already ithat you're interested. But let me put it this way. Try aiming to think positively first, "Yes, it's not impossible. I can do it." Then try to connect English to Chinese, so that it doesn't look so intimidating because there are many more similarities than you may think. wink

In the most basic of sentences, it's just like English. Maybe starting with simpler structures would be better. For instance, the commands and one worded answers.

Commands.

"Zhou!" - "Leave!"

"Lai." - "Come."

One word answers.

"No!" - "Bu!" or "Bu yao!"

"Yes!" - "Hao!"

More complex structures will need subjects, verbs and objects eventually. Like I said, it's not so different in the sense that we share many of the same parts of speech and tenses. It's the order that gets people... But if you ask me, I find English grammar a lot harder.

I'm taking Latin 3 right now, so I can assure you that learning a new language IS hard. With some practice and understanding though, I'm pretty sure your Chinese will get better. biggrin  

[Mwahahahaha]

..Hmm, so the general order used in Mandarin Chinese is subject - verb - object? (Or, for instance, subject - object - verb?)

..The grammatical structure of English seems kind of easy to me, but that might be because I know it already.. I'd probably have a hard time trying to learn all the verb tenses.  

[G u a r d i a n]

Well, some basic structures do make sense in just subject - verb - object.

For example:

1. "Wo da ta." ((I hit him/her.))

2. "Ta da ni." ((He/She hit you.))

3. "Ni da wo." ((You hit me.))

It gets more complicated than that, but the sentences I used are all in the simplest of form. 3nodding