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How do you form a Chinese word? Chinese is written with characters which are comprised of radicals. Each character is a pictograph which contains one or many smaller pictographs called radicals. Radicals usually represent elements or basic things existing in nature.

Each character has one and sometimes several meanings and is pronounced with one syllable. In modern Chinese to form a word two characters are combined. For example, to get Beijing one combines the characters Běi (北), which means north and Jing (京), to get the word Beijing.

When traveling to mainland China its easy to get confused by the system of writing Chinese words it Latin letters (the ABCs), called Hanyu Pinyin. This is because there are a few letters which are pronounced differently than they way we would naturally pronounce them in English. Interestingly, until now Taiwan has used two other methods of romanization called Wade-Giles Pinyin and Tongyoung Pinyin which don't use confusing letters and make it easier for non-native Chinese speakers to pronounce the words.

In the following video you will learn how to pronounce the consonants in mainland Chinese Hanyu Pinyin. I studied Chinese using this system and have always found it to be very practical. Once you master it you will even be able to write e-mails and instant messages to your Chinese friends!

The pronunciation of the following letters is the same as in English: B, P, M, F, D, T, N, L, G, K, H, CH, SH, W and Y.

Here are the more difficult letters are as follows and I go over them in the following video. This is my own way of explaining the pronunciations and I welcome readers comments on this subject.

J = D + French "Je"

Q = Ch, but not such a strong Ch

X = Combination of S and Sh

Zh = Slight D + French "Je"

R = like French "Je" and curl your tongue back.

Z = D + Z

C = T + S

Now we're ready to watch the video and go for it!

It's really easy to say hello in Mandarin Chinese. First say nǐ with the third dipping tone. Notice I've put a little accent over the "i". That is to show that the word is pronounced with the third tone. Then say hǎo also using the third tone. Now put them together and say nǐhǎo. The characters for nǐhǎo are 你好 and literally mean "you good".

There was a funny moment when I shot this video - check it out!

Here I teach how to say thank you in Mandarin Chinese. In pinyin it's written "xièxiè" and pronounced using the fourth falling tone. The characters for xièxiè are "谢谢". The "x" is a combination of the "S" sound and the "Sh" sound. Say xiè twice and really FAST and the Chinese will definitely understand you!

Mandarin Chinese is the the official language of mainland China and Taiwan, and one of the official languages of Singapore. Mandarin is based on dialect spoken in Beijing and in north and northwestern China. China has so many dialects that people from different regions cannot understand each other and use Mandarin to communicate. People often ask me whether I'm studying Cantonese or Mandarin. Cantonese is the language spoken in Hong Kong and in the province of Guantdong (Canton) in Southern China and is often used in China towns in North America.

Mandarin Chinese has four tones. In the beginning of your studies these tones may be really tricky for you. But, once you get the hang of them it's smooth sailing. Here are the four tones:

1. Flat
2. Rising
3. Dipping
4. Falling

In the first tone your voice is flat and does not go up or down. In the second tone your voice goes up, as if somebody were telling you something and you answered them with a question, saying, "Yeah?". The third tone is the trickiest. You voice starts at its "natural" level, dips low, then comes back to its natural level. Sometimes it's hard to hear the difference between the second and third tone. The fourth tone is pretty easy. Your voice starts at its "natural" level then drops fast. When you're practicing the tones it's okay to use a loud voice and exaggerate your voice. By the way, if you cannot get the tones right away don't worry too much. The Chinese people will probably understand you and be happy just to ear that you're trying!