Come Again? Mastering repetition in Chinese with 又, 再, and 还
Have you ever struggled to understand the difference between the Chinese adverbs 又(yòu), 再(zài), and 还(hái), all of which can be translated into English as "again"? It's easy to get…
9 Tips to Help You Choose Chinese Lessons by Skype
You know you want to take Skype Chinese lessons because it’s a convenient and flexible way to learn Mandarin Chinese with native teachers. However, when you do your Internet research,…
A Beginner’s Guide to Asking Questions in Chinese: Particles and Sentence Patterns
Asking questions is one of the most fundamental skills in learning any language. Throughout your whole journey, you’ll be asking and responding to different kinds of questions at every step…
Where Was I? Using Using 在, 有 and 是 to Talk About Location
When describing the position of someone or something, Mandarin Chinese commonly uses three verbs: 在(zài), 是(shì), and 有(yǒu). These three words have very similar uses, but in most cases they…
The Review of Online Chinese learning community ‘Study More Chinese’
Today I will review ‘Study More Chinese’ - a website dedicated to finding an “unstructured way to share, collaborate and improve” one’s Chinese. The vision of this website is to…
DigMandarin’s Book Of the Month: Barron’s AP Chinese Language and Culture Study Guide”- April 2014
Hello, Mandarin learners! Today, we are launching DigMandarin´s new monthly periodical series: “DigMandarin´s Book Of The Month”. For the following months, DigMandarin will review new and engaging books. These books…
The Common Chinese Homonyms in Daily Life
“Do you believe my tears can tear up the world?" As a native English speaker, you may not notice anything strange about this sentence. However, for an English learner, it…
10 Reasons Interactive Learning Chinese Is Worth The Money
In the beginning were dictionaries and grammar references. Then, textbooks and workbooks appeared. Learners were enabled to write answers directly in the book and check them without teacher’s help. Later…
The Usage of Chinese Location Words
Direction word such as 东/西/南/北/前/后 /左/右/上/下/里/外 are often used in conjunction with suffixes such as 边/面. Together they form a location word (place word). For example: Direction word such as…
How to Improve Your Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation
When you are learning Mandarin Chinese, one of the most important yet challenging things is to learn to pronounce the language. Mandarin is actually made up of individual syllables. Every…