Everything You Need to Start Learning Mandarin Chinese

1. Getting Started
2. First Mandarin Lessons
3. Basic Mandarin Phrases
4. Listening & Speaking

5. Vocabulary Lessons
6. Reading & Writing
7. Quizzes
8. Mandarin Songs

Getting Started

Some background about Mandarin Chinese and where it is spoken.

• Introduction to Mandarin Chinese
• Where Is Mandarin Spoken?
• Why Learn Mandarin?
• Who Learns Mandarin?
• Mandarin Dialects

First Mandarin Lessons

Here's where you begin learning Mandarin Chinese. These five lessons teach you basic greetings and introduce you to Mandarin tones. The lessons are followed up with a quiz to test how much you've learned.

• Lesson 1: Saying Hello
• Lesson 2: More Greetings
• Lesson 3: Mandarin Tones

• Lesson 4: Saying Goodbye
• Lesson 5: Mandarin Dialog
• Mandarin Greetings Quiz

Basic Mandarin Phrases

These basic phrases will help you to get started with Mandarin Chinese.

• Mandarin Chinese Greetings
• Saying Goodbye
• Adjectives

• Asking Questions
• Answering Yes/No Questions
• Do You Speak Mandarin?

Listening & Speaking

Become familiar with the sounds of Mandarin Chinese by using these audio lessons. Remember to repeat everything you hear so you can practice making the sounds of Mandarin.

• The Four Tones of Mandarin Chinese

Vocabulary Lessons

Learn the basics of Mandarin Chinese with these vocabulary lessons.

• The Most Common Words
• Mandarin Numbers
• Mandarin Colors
• Mandarin Pronouns
• Mandarin Dates

• Mandarin Time
• Family Members
• Professions
• Chinese Food
• Household Items

Reading & Writing

Begin reading and writing Mandarin with Pinyin Romanization or another phonetic system. Phonetics are an intermediate step between learning to speak Mandarin and reading and writing Chinese characters. Phonetics can also be used to write Chinese characters by using a computer input method.

• Pinyin Romanization
• Bopomofo - Chinese Phonetics
• Learning to Read Chinese Characters
• Use Pinyin to Write Chinese Characters
• Writing Chinese Characters by Hand

Quizzes

These quizzes will test your knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. Try the audio quizzes to test your listening comprehension, and the reading quizzes for general understanding of Mandarin Chinese words and concepts.

• Ordinal Numbers
• Action Phrases
• Weather & Seasons
• Do You Speak Mandarin?
• Mandarin Fractions

• Er or Liang - The Two Mandarin Twos
• Mandarin Tone Quiz
• Mandarin Number Quiz
• Mandarin Time Quiz
• Mandarin Date Quiz

Mandarin Songs

Learning songs is a great way to develop your vocabulary and learn a little bit about Chinese culture.

• Two Tigers
• Happy Birthday
• The Pedicab

• London Bridge
• Little Star
• Head Shoulder Knee Toe