Occupation

Final Sounds

A final is a sound (or sounds) that ends a Chinese syllable. All finals contain at least one vowel (for example, a, ao, or ing). Let’s look at some of the simplest finals first.

bā

八 (as in “father”)

wǒ

我 (as in “or”)

hē

喝 (as in “about”)

nǐ

你 (as in “Lisa”)

bù

不 (as in "shoe")

Asking Questions with 吗 (ma)

Any sentence can be changed into a question by adding 吗 (ma) to the end.

Statement

她去。

(Tā qù.) She is going.

Question

她去吗？

(Tā qù ma?) Is she going?

Statement

你喝茶。

(Nǐ hē chá.) You drink tea.

Question

你喝茶吗？

(Nǐ hē chá ma?) Do you drink tea?

们 (men) for Plural

Add 们 (men) to words like I, you, or him to make them plural.

singular marker	plural marker (们 men)
我 wǒ I / me	我们 wǒmen we / us
你 nǐ you	你们 nǐmen you all
他 tā he / him	他们 tāmen they / them
她 tā she / her	她们 tāmen they / them

我不认识他们。

(Wǒ bú rènshi tāmen.) I don’t know them.

我们很高兴。

(Wǒmen hěn gāoxìng.) We are happy.

Tones

While 不 (bù) is usually pronounced with a 4th tone (like 骂 mà), it becomes a 2nd tone (like 麻 má) before another 4th tone.

不 + 4th tone

我不认识他们。

(Wǒ bú rènshi tāmen.) I don’t know them.

他们不是医生。

(Tāmen bú shì yīshēng.) They are not doctors.

不 + other tones

她不喝咖啡。

(Tā bù hē kāfēi.) She doesn’t drink coffee.