Unlike English and some other languages, Chinese doesn’t have a specialized pattern of verb changes to indicate tenses. So how do the Chinese tell the different tenses apart? Well, we usually use time words to express different tenses, and these…
‘好(hǎo)’ in its original definition means ‘good’, and when it’s used as a response or reply, it automatically transforms to mean ‘fine’, ‘sure’ or ‘ok’. Yet, with various words and interjections following ‘好hǎo’, it changes to show different emotions or…
An interjection is an exclamation, especially as a part of speech. An example of an interjection in English would be “Ah!” or “Oh!” Many of you may already know it’s a common phenomenon for Chinese sentences to end with interjections,…
In Part 1 of Chinese idioms and slangs, we talked about the 龙（dragon） and the 凤（phoenix, two animals that are traditional symbols of Chinese culture. But of course, they are not the only two animals that are a part of…
Animals have always been an indispensable part of the Chinese people’s daily lives. Naturally, many Chinese words reflect the close relationship between animals and the Chinese people. For example, in the Year of the Dragon, people will say “生龙活虎”(shēng lóng…
Socializing can be a challenge anywhere, but it can be especially stressful in a Chinese business setting! It’s evident that there’s an ongoing increase in the number of international businesses and entrepreneurs looking to work with Chinese corporations. What’s more,…
Flowers and trees are closely related to people’s lives. Because of this, for thousands of years, the Chinese people have coined many plant-related words and expressions. For example, Chinese people often associate “美女”(méi nǚ, a pretty girl) with a “flower”,…
Before we start our topic today on Chinese homophones, let’s first look at the following two sentences: (1)一朵漂亮的花儿。(Yī duǒ piàoliàng de huār. ) (2)他今天花了一百元。(Tā zuátiān huā le yībǎi yuán.) We can see that both of these sentences have“花”, whose meanings…