Contents
- 1 10 Reasons Why Chinese is Easy
- 1.1 1. Mandarin doesn’t really use tenses
- 1.2 2. Chinese word order is similar to English
- 1.3 3. Necessary Chinese vocabulary is small
- 1.4 4. You can learn Chinese through the English alphabet with “Pinyin”
- 1.5 5. Chinese Pronunciation is easier than you think
- 1.6 6. Chinese doesn’t have long multisyllabic words
- 1.7 7. There are only 4 Chinese tones (and they have English equivalents)
- 1.8 8. No need for articles like “a” “an” and “the”
- 1.9 9. Chinese nouns don’t really have plurals
- 1.10 10. Chinese nouns don’t have genders
- 1.11 Bonus: The Chinese number system is very well designed and efficient
- 1.12 Conclusion
10 Reasons Why Chinese is Easy
1. Mandarin doesn’t really use tenses
In English we learn Simple Present, Simple Past, Present Continuous, Present Future… the list goes on. With Chinese you don’t have to worry about any of that!
Chinese grammar is in many ways similar to English grammar. A simple Chinese sentence structure consists of a subject, a predicate, and an object. Chinese language does not have different forms based on gender, or singular/plural. There are some differences between Chinese and English, but it is not hard to trace the clue and bridge the gap.
2. Chinese word order is similar to English
You often find that a direct translation from English to Chinese, done word for word, works pretty well most the time. Even better, if you can imagine how a Chinese person who speaks English quite badly would speak, then you are almost certain to get the word order right.
3. Necessary Chinese vocabulary is small
Most adult native English speakers have a vocabulary that ranges from 20,000–35,000 words. The average Chinese undergrad only about 5,000 words which use about 3000 characters. It is slower to learn the words in Chinese, to begin with, because you need to learn a new character for almost every word. But you have far fewer words that you actually need to learn. 2000 characters cover over 98% of all the characters that you need to get by in reading Chinese. Efficiency!
4. You can learn Chinese through the English alphabet with “Pinyin”
“Pinyin” is a system for using English to pronounce Chinese pronunciations and tones at the same time. Although it’s not perfectly the same, it’s quite similar. You can learn Pinyin in only 6 lessons and speak any word in the Chinese language! Just make sure you’ve got your tones right…
5. Chinese Pronunciation is easier than you think
6. Chinese doesn’t have long multisyllabic words
7. There are only 4 Chinese tones (and they have English equivalents)
8. No need for articles like “a” “an” and “the”
9. Chinese nouns don’t really have plurals
When you learn a Chinese word, you’ve automatically learned its singular meaning and pluralization. You do not need to specify with word endings if something is singular or plural.
10. Chinese nouns don’t have genders
Bonus: The Chinese number system is very well designed and efficient
Conclusion
