{"id":13682,"date":"2017-09-25T17:20:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T21:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=13682"},"modified":"2018-10-22T16:23:22","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T20:23:22","slug":"talking-about-family-in-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/talking-about-family-in-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking About Family in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chinese family tree can be quite complicated, as we learned in our last post. Go back and check that one out if you need to brush up on your Chinese family vocabulary<\/a>. Now that you’ve got all the Chinese words you’ll need for familial relationships, it’s time to go a step further. In this post we’ll practice talking about family in Chinese.<\/p>\n

How Many People?<\/h2>\n
\"Talking

\u8fd9\u662f\u6211\u5bb6<\/p><\/div>\n

First up, let’s learn how to ask and answer about the amount of people in your family. In Chinese, there are two ways to ask “How many people are in your family?”:<\/p>\n

\u4f60\u5bb6\u6709\u51e0\u4e2a\u4eba?
\nn\u01d0 ji\u0101 y\u01d2u j\u01d0 g\u00e8 r\u00e9n<\/h3>\n

\u4f60\u5bb6\u6709\u51e0\u53e3\u4eba?
\nn\u01d0 ji\u0101 y\u01d2u j\u01d0 k\u01d2u r\u00e9n<\/h3>\n

As you can see, the only thing that’s different between those two questions is the measure word. Many textbooks will teach you to use \u53e3 as the measure word<\/a> for people, but it’s perfectly fine to use the catch-all measure word \u4e2a. In fact, I’ve had Chinese teachers tell me it’s more common to use\u00a0\u4e2a. So, how many people are in your family? \u00a0Here’s my answer:<\/p>\n

\u6211\u5bb6\u6709\u4e5d\u4e2a\u4eba.
\nw\u01d2 ji\u0101 y\u01d2u ji\u01d4 g\u00e8 r\u00e9n
\nThere are 9 people in my family.<\/h3>\n

Try to use the words we learned in the last post to introduce them. Here’s the list of people in my family:<\/p>\n

\u7238\u7238\uff0c\u5988\u5988\uff0c\u56db\u4e2a\u5f1f\u5f1f\uff0c\u4e24\u4e2a\u59b9\u59b9\uff0c\u548c\u6211
\nb\u00e0 ba, m\u0101 ma, s\u00ec g\u00e8 d\u00ec di, li\u01ceng g\u00e8 m\u00e8i mei, h\u00e9 w\u01d2
\ndad, mom, 4 younger brothers, 2 younger sisters, and me<\/h3>\n

Now let’s move on to some more Q&A about family members so you can get even more practice.<\/p>\n

Family Members Q&A<\/h2>\n

Here are some common questions that you might encounter when talking about family in Chinese, as well as examples of how to answer them:<\/p>\n

1. \u4f60\u7ed3\u5a5a\u4e86\u5417?
\nn\u01d0 ji\u00e9 h\u016bn le ma
\nAre you married?<\/h3>\n

\u662f\u7684\uff0c\u6211\u5df2\u7ecf\u7ed3\u5a5a\u4e86.
\nsh\u00ec de, w\u01d2 y\u01d0 j\u012bng ji\u00e9 h\u016bn le
\nYes, I’m already married.<\/h3>\n

\u6ca1\u6709\uff0c\u6211\u8fd8\u6ca1\u7ed3\u5a5a.
\nm\u00e9i y\u01d2u, w\u01d2 h\u00e1i m\u00e9i ji\u00e9 h\u016bn
\nNo, I’m not married yet.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

2. \u4f60\u6709\u5b69\u5b50\u5417?
\nn\u01d0 y\u01d2u h\u00e1i zi ma
\nDo you have children?<\/h3>\n

\u6709\u7684\uff0c\u6211\u6709\u4e00\u4e2a\u513f\u5b50.
\ny\u01d2u de, w\u01d2 y\u01d2u y\u012b g\u00e8 er zi
\nYes, I have a son.<\/h3>\n

\u6211\u6ca1\u6709\u5b69\u5b50.
\nw\u01d2 m\u00e9i y\u01d2u h\u00e1i zi
\nNo, I don’t have children.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

3. \u4f60\u7684\u7236\u6bcd\u4f4f\u5728\u54ea\u91cc?
\nn\u01d0 de f\u00f9 m\u01d4 zh\u00f9 z\u00e0i n\u01ce l\u01d0
\nWhere do your parents live?<\/h3>\n

\u4ed6\u4eec\u4f4f\u5728\u6211\u7684\u8001\u5bb6.
\nt\u0101 men zh\u00f9 z\u00e0i w\u01d2 de l\u01ceo ji\u0101
\nThey live in my hometown.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

4. \u4f60\u7684\u7238\u7238\u505a\u4ec0\u4e48\u5de5\u4f5c?
\nn\u01d0 de b\u00e0 ba zu\u00f2 sh\u00e9n me g\u014dng zu\u00f2
\nWhat does your dad do?<\/h3>\n

\u6211\u7238\u7238\u662f\u533b\u751f.
\nw\u01d2 b\u00e0 ba sh\u00ec y\u012b sh\u0113ng
\nMy dad is a doctor.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

5. \u4f60\u7684\u5f1f\u5f1f\u51e0\u5c81\u4e86?
\nn\u01d0 de d\u00ec di j\u01d0 su\u00ec le
\nHow old is your little brother?<\/h3>\n

\u4ed6\u5341\u4e03\u5c81.
\nt\u0101 sh\u00ed q\u012b su\u00ec
\nHe’s 17.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

6. \u4f60\u7684\u59b9\u59b9\u53eb\u4ec0\u4e48\u540d\u5b57?
\nn\u01d0 de m\u00e8i mei ji\u00e0o sh\u00e9n me m\u00edng z\u00ec
\nWhat’s your little sister’s name?<\/h3>\n

\u5979\u53eb\u51ef\u8482.
\nt\u0101 ji\u00e0o k\u01cei d\u00ec
\nHer name is Katie.<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can easily change any of the above questions by using a different family member. Keep the sentence structure the same but just use different vocabulary. Go ahead and practice! See if you can come up with five or so questions, and then just answer them yourself. Better yet – find someone you can chat with. It’s great to practice reading and writing, but there’s nothing better than actually talking with someone! If you want some more reading practice, try to get through this post I wrote in Chinese about my family<\/a> a while back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Talking

The Chinese family tree can be quite complicated, as we learned in our last post. Go back and check that one out if you need to brush up on your Chinese family vocabulary. Now that you’ve got all the Chinese words you’ll need for familial relationships, it’s time to go a step further. In this…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":13685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[481576,315545,481578,481579,127383,481577,481575],"class_list":["post-13682","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-chinese-family-lesson","tag-chinese-family-vocabulary","tag-chinese-family-words","tag-how-to-talk-about-family-in-chinese","tag-introduce-your-family-in-chinese","tag-questions-about-family-in-chinese","tag-talking-about-family-in-chinese"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t