A Guide for Learners of Chinese

This dictionary is for learners of Chinese as a foreign or second language. It is designed to be a
teaching/learning aid to the growing communities of teaching and learning the language. More
specifically, this dictionary aims to help those learners who wish to sit for the New Chinese Proficiency

Test (New HSK 新汉语水平考试), the Chinese government-sponsored, international standardized

test, as it gives detailed treatment of all the 5,000 words in the prescribed Word Lists from Level 1 to
Level 6. A further 1,000 very useful words are covered in the dictionary to allow for flexibility of the
vocabulary requirement of the HSK.

In the following pages I offer the essentials of the Chinese language and, along the way, advice on how to
make the best use of this dictionary.

1 PronunciaTion

1.1 The Pinyin  romanization    System

The  pronunciation   of  Chinese     words   is  transcribed     in  this    dictionary  using   the     internationally

recognized  Chinese romanization    scheme  called pinyin.  Every   Chinese word    in  this    dictionary  is

accompanied by  its pinyin spelling so  users   will    know    how it  is  pronounced.

Pronouncing Chinese syllables   normally    involves    three   elements:   vowels, consonants  and tones.

Modern  standard    Chinese,    known   as Putonghua,   uses    about   419 syllables   without tones   and 1,

syllables   with    tones.

1.2 Vowels

1.2.1   Single  Vowels

There   are seven   basic   single  vowels:

a similar   to a in ah

e similar   to a in ago

ê similar   to e in ebb (this   sound   never   occurs  alone   and is  transcribed as e,   as  in ei,  ie, ue

i similar   to ee in cheese (spelled y when not preceded    by  a   consonant)

o similar   to oe in toe

u similar   to oo in boot (spelled w when   not preceded    by  a   consonant)

ü

similar to  German ü in über or French u in tu; or  you can also    get ü by    saying i and    rounding

your    lips    at  the same    time    (spelled u after j, q, x;   spelled yu when not preceded    by  a

consonant)

1.2.2   Vowel   combinations

These   single  vowels  enter   into    combinations    with    each    other   or  the consonants  of n or ng to   form

what    are technically known   as diphthongs.  These   combinations    are pronounced  as  a   single  sound,

with    a   little  more    emphasis    on  the first   part    of  the sound.

You can learn   these   combinations    in  four    groups: