Centre for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language
University of Oxford

CTCFL Chinese name

Basic Spoken Mandarin

2. Meeting a new friend

 Place the cursor on the following English words to view the Chinese word order and the Pinyin for pronunciation guidance. Click on the the Chinese words or the headphone icons to hear the pronunciation.

New words New phrases Additional phrases and words
You (a polite form for both singular and plural) 您 My surname is... 我姓... My surname is Wang 我姓王
Noble, expensive 贵 My name is... 我叫... I am John Smith 我叫John Smith
Surname, surname is 姓 What is your surname? (a polite way to ask a senior person's surname) 您贵姓...? Mr. Wang 王先生
Call, to be called 叫     Mr. Smith Smith先生
To be, is, are 是     Mrs. Smith Smith太太
Not, no 不     This is Mrs. Wang 她是王太太
        He, she, it 他，她，它

Exercises

How do you say

Are you Mr. Wang?  Is Mrs Wang well? What is your surname? He is Mr Smith. My surname isn't Smith? Her surname is Smith. Is her surname Wang?

Click here to listen to the following dialogues.