Greeting 2
Initial Sounds
Pinyin letters d, t, n, and l represent four more sounds pronounced similarly to sounds in English.
diàn
电 (as in "stay")
tā
她 (as in "tag")
nǐ
你 (as in "need")
lǐ
李 (as in “clear”)
Tones
The trick to remembering the 2nd and 4th tone is to think of them as rising (2nd) and falling (4th).
十
shí, 2nd tone: Rising Like asking "What?" in English.
四
sì, 4th tone: Falling As in "Ready, set, go!"
Very Good! 很好 (hěn hǎo)
In English, we say I am good or She is happy, but in Chinese you don’t use words like am or is before adjectives. Instead, adjectives are usually preceded by 很 (hěn). Sometimes 很 means very, but it’s more often just a way to connect a noun and an adjective.
我很好。
(Wǒ hěn hǎo.) I am good.
你很高兴。
(Nǐ hěn gāoxìng.) You are happy.
也 (yě, also)
In English, we can say I am happy, too or I’m also happy, but in Chinese the word for also or too (也) always comes before the adjective.
我很高兴。
(Wǒ hěn gāoxìng.) I am happy.
我也很高兴。
(Wǒ yě hěn gāoxìng.) I am also happy.