Your first Mandarin conversation

Start with a greeting

你好 (nǐ hǎo) is a useful general greeting. Pinyin represents pronunciation; it is a guide to the sounds, not English spelling. The marks above the vowels show tones.

Both syllables are written with third tones. Before another third tone, the first is pronounced with a rising tone: you hear something like ní hǎo. We retain nǐ hǎo as the dictionary spelling here.

Exchange names

我 means I or me. 叫 means to be called in this pattern. Put your name after 我叫. Names do not need an article.

In 你叫什么名字？ the question word 什么 stays in the position of the information you want. There is no need to rearrange the words as in an English question.

Lesson vocabulary

Read each word aloud, then test your recall of its meaning.

Practice questions

Answer the questions and read the explanations. You can repeat the exercises.

Use 你好 to greet someone, 我叫… to introduce yourself, and 你叫什么名字？ to ask their name.