🤓 What You’ll Learn
✔️ The Most Basic Verb: 是 (shì)
✔️ Make negatives with 不
✔️ Ask questions with 吗
✔️ Tone rule: bú + 4th tone
✨ Let’s Begin
In Chinese, we say “是 (shì)” to mean“am / is / are“.
It’s just like the English “be” verb!
We use it to say things like:
- I am a student.
- He is a teacher.
In Chinese, the sentence structure is:
👉 subject + 是 + noun
Examples:
我是学生。
wǒ shì xuéshēng
→ I am a student.
他是老师。
tā shì lǎoshī
→ He is a teacher.
📝Vocabulary List
我 (wǒ) I
是 (shì) am / is / are
学生 (xuéshēng) student
他 (tā) he
老师 (lǎoshī) teacher
💬How It’s Used
这是什么？
zhè shì shénme
→ What is this?
这是我的护照。
zhè shì wǒ de hùzhào
→ This is my passport.
那是什么？
nà shì shénme
→ What is that?
那是手机。
nà shì shǒujī
→ That is a phone.
📝Vocabulary List
护照 (hùzhào) passport
手机 (shǒujī) phone
这 (zhè) this
那 (nà) that
什么 (shénme) what
我的 (wǒ de) my
🚀Level Up
❌ Negatives: 不 (bù) + verb
❓ Questions: Add 吗 (ma) ? (at the end of the sentence)
- In Chinese, to say “no” or make a negative sentence,
you simply put 不 (bù) right before the verb. - To ask a question, just add 吗 (ma) at the end of the sentence.
That’s it—no need to change anything else!
Examples:
他是中国人。
tā shì zhōngguó rén
→ He is Chinese.
他不是中国人。
tā bú shì zhōngguó rén
→ He is not Chinese.
他是中国人吗？
tā shì zhōngguó rén ma
→ Is he Chinese?
🎯Pro Tip
不 (bù) + ↘ tone → bú
The character “不 (bù)” normally has the 4th tone(4声),
but when the next syllable also has the 4th tone,
“不” changes to the 2nd tone (bú) to make the pronunciation smoother.
For example,
“是 (shì)” is also 4th tone, so when saying “不是”,
we pronounce it bú shì, not bù shì.
❌ bù shì → unnatural
✅ bú shì → correct and natural
🎓Lesson Summary
Today, you learned how to use 是 (shì) to say who someone is.
You also practiced making negative sentences with 不 (bù)
and questions with 吗 (ma).
Now you can say things like “He is Chinese” or “Is she a teacher?” — all on your own!
You’re off to a great start.
Let’s keep going — it only gets easier from here! 💪
加油！😉
