Mandarin Terminology

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Chinese

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A group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora.

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Mandarin

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Or Pu Tong Hua, the largest branch of Chinese, spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers.

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translate

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To restate from one language into another language, e.g. from English to Chinese.

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exchange ideas

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If people do this, they tell each other their ideas.

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tones

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Differences in pitch that are used to differentiate words in Mandarin.

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phonics

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The sounds that letters make and the letters that are used to represent sounds.

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Pinyin

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A system of writing Chinese language using the Roman alphabet, often used as a learning tool for Chinese.

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Chinese characters

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Symbols (ideograph and pictograph writings) used to write the Chinese language.

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pronunciation

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The accepted standard of sound and rhythm for words in a given language.

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writing system

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A set of symbols, called a script, as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language.