Key sentences 4
Learning Chinese: key sentences 4
To build automatic reflexes and be able to express yourself in Chinese without having to search for words, it is beneficial to learn sentences by heart. Rather than learning the entire dialogue/text of the unit, we have selected these key sentences in order to optimize your learning. So you need to know them well.
Feel free to repeat them out loud: this helps to memorize them while working on pronunciation and helping you internalize the structures of the Chinese language.
Then you must be able to translate them orally and in writing, first from Chinese into English, then from English into Chinese.
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你多大？ : How old are you? (to an adult)
→ Emblematic sentence of the unit: structure 多 + adjectival verb.
你几岁？ : How old are you? (to a child, < 10 years old)
→ Pedagogical counterpart of sentence 1: 几 is used when the answer is estimated to be less than 10.
我九岁。 : I am nine years old.
→ Verbless answer structure: Subject + number + 岁.
我四十四岁。 : I am forty-four years old.
→ Drills the construction of numbers: [tens] + 十 + [units], without adding 一 before 十 in the tens.
我是大学生。 : I am a student at university.
→ School identity, adaptable by level: 小学生 (pupil), 中学生 (secondary school student), 大学生 (university student).
你是不是中学老师？ : Are you a secondary school teacher?
→ Alternative-interrogative question: verb + 不 + verb. Combines with the determiner + determined order (中学 + 老师).
他不是大学生，他是中学生。 : He is not a university student, he is a secondary school student.
→ Practices the negation 不是 and correction ("not … but …").
他也是大学生吗？ : Is he also a student at university?
→ Reflex to memorize: with an adverb (也, 很…), you must switch back to the question with 吗 and not use the alternative-interrogative form.
我是中学老师，也是大学老师。 : I am a secondary school teacher, and also a university teacher.
→ Idiomatic turn of phrase from the dialogue: double identification with 也是 to combine two statuses.
李老师好！ : Hello Professor Li!
→ Idiomatic greeting turn of phrase: Name + title + 好. Very productive: 李老师好！, 白老师好！