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מצאו את הצלילים הראשונים שלכם
הוצגהמיקום המנוהל נשמר בדפדפן הזה. המשך אינו משלים את השיעור או עונה על שאלותיו.
One word, three kinds of information
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Listen to hello你好 — hello. The characters show the written words; nǐ hǎo shows pronunciation; the English gives the meaning.
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Mandarin is the spoken variety taught here. Simplified characters are the main writing system used in these lessons.
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Before you start: No Mandarin is required. You will keep writing, pronunciation and meaning separate; the written checks below do not test your ear.
Before learning Mandarin, which kind of help would tell you how to say a new word?
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A sound model and pronunciation guide support saying the word. Meaning and stroke order answer different questions. No prior Mandarin knowledge is required for this check.
Pinyin is a sound guide
- Pinyin uses letters, but they do not always sound like English letters. Read mā, nǐ, hǎo by listening and repeating, not by guessing from English.
- A syllable has a main vowel sound and may begin or end with a consonant. The mark over the vowel indicates its tone.
What does pinyin primarily show?
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Pinyin represents pronunciation, including tones.
Match the representation.
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All three refer to the greeting, but do different jobs.
Listen, pause, repeat
- Play one phrase, pause, then repeat. Start slowly and aim for a clear whole phrase.
- Listen again and compare. It is normal to need several tries; do not aim for perfect speech before using a greeting.
hello你好 → nǐ hǎo → hello. These are written form, sound guide, and meaning for the same phrase.
Work through a decision: For hello你好 / nǐ hǎo / hello, first ask what you need. Choose hello你好 when finding the written greeting, nǐ hǎo as a pronunciation guide and hello for its English meaning. Then use the recording to check the sound; the labels alone cannot show whether you said it clearly.
Compare a near miss: Seeing hello does not tell you the Mandarin sounds. Reading nǐ hǎo does not show the character shapes. Recognising any one form also does not prove that you can produce the other two without help.
Which phrase did you hear?
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你好 is hello.
A card shows 学生 / xuésheng / student. You want its English meaning. Which part supplies it?
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student supplies the English meaning. 学生 is the writing and xuésheng guides pronunciation. Pick the representation for your purpose rather than calling them three different words.
Meet words as units
- student学生 xuésheng — student has two characters and two syllables. teacher老师 lǎoshī — teacher also has two.
- A character and a word are not always the same thing. Learn useful whole words before studying their parts.
Pinyin is not an English translation. Chinese characters are not pictures you can reliably guess; a component can be a clue, but the word still needs to be learned.
How many syllables are in xuésheng? Enter a number.
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xué and sheng are the two syllables.
Every Chinese word has exactly one character.
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学生 and 老师 are two-character words.
Written card check: 老师 / lǎoshī / teacher. Which account correctly identifies the pronunciation guide and the meaning?
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lǎoshī is pinyin and guides pronunciation; teacher gives the English meaning. 老师 is the written Chinese word. This checks the card labels, not whether you recognise or produce the sound.
A first small success
- Close the page and say hello. Open it again if you need a reminder.
- Keep characters, pinyin, and meaning available while you learn. Next, practise the four tones.
Characters show writing, pinyin guides sound, and translation gives meaning. Listen before copying the sound.
Later recall: Tomorrow, recall the writing, pinyin and meaning jobs using a different familiar card. Say the greeting before replaying its model. A few days later, retry the thanks phrase; revisit the representation step if you mistake pinyin for translation.
Speak Mandarin: greet someone, then thank them. Use the two familiar phrases from this lesson in that new exchange. Record your voice, stop and replay it before opening the written guidance. Then choose one phrase to practise again using its original sound button. If recording is unavailable, say it to a partner; no recording or pronunciation result is inferred.
Comparison records a self-review only. It does not establish pronunciation, handwriting or general proficiency.