Mandarin Terminology

tones

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

• A type of musical note used in Western music.

• A method of measuring sound frequency.

• A style of painting that uses color gradients.

pronunciation

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

• A method of teaching reading and writing.

• The study of the structure of words.

• A set of rules for grammar and syntax.

word order

• The arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence.

• The sequence of letters in a word.

• The grammatical rules governing sentence structure.

• The process of forming new words from existing ones.

object

• A part of a sentence that is the thing/person that the action is done to.

• A word that describes an action or state.

• A type of punctuation used in writing.

• A phrase that provides additional information about a noun.

writing system

• A method of communication using spoken words.

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

• A collection of books written in a specific language.

• A technique for teaching reading and writing.

exchange ideas

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

• If people do this, they keep their thoughts to themselves.

• If people do this, they argue about their opinions.

• If people do this, they ignore each other's suggestions.

translate

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

• To change the meaning of a word in the same language.

• To write a summary of a text in the same language.

• To convert a text into a different format, such as audio.

question word

• who

• quickly

• beautifully

• under

Pinyin

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

• A traditional method of writing Chinese characters with ink and brush.

• A type of Chinese poetry that uses a specific rhyme scheme.

• A modern digital tool for translating Chinese to English.

Mandarin

• A. A dialect of Spanish

• B. The largest branch of Chinese, spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers.

• C. A type of Japanese cuisine

• D. A form of sign language used in China