Learn Chinese Chinesimple YCT3

You’ve got a football and you’d like to play with a friend tomorrow. How would you ask them in Chinese?

With Chinesimple, the app from Khanji School, children and young learners who already know a few sentences in Mandarin Chinese can use them to make plans. In YCT 3, you’ll listen to two invitations, spot what they have in common and change one to suggest a plan of your own. The explanations are in English.

SHALL WE GO TO THE CINEMA?

Listen to 我们晚上一起去看电影吧？ (‘Shall we go to the cinema together this evening?’). You might remember 晚上 (wǎnshang), ‘evening’, from YCT 2. It tells you when you’re going. Now listen for 一起 (yìqǐ), ‘together’. Imagine a friend asking you that question. What are they inviting you to do?

At the end you’ll hear 吧 (ba). Here it makes the sentence sound like a suggestion. Try saying it aloud as if you were inviting someone to the cinema.

CHANGE THE PLAN

Now listen to 我们明天一起去踢足球吧？ (‘Shall we play football together tomorrow?’). You can still hear 一起, but two things have changed. What are you going to do? When? Listen again for the two clues. 明天 means ‘tomorrow’ and 踢足球 means ‘play football’.

Imagine you’d rather go to the cinema tomorrow. Take the football invitation and swap 踢足球 for 看电影. Try saying your invitation before you read it here: 我们明天一起去看电影吧？ At home or in class, take turns. One person suggests a plan in Chinese and the other says what they think the plan is and when it’s happening.

REMEMBER THE WORDS YOU NEED

If you recognise 电影 (diànyǐng), ‘film’, when you read it but it won’t come to mind when you’re speaking, look it up in the Chinese dictionary. Listen to how it’s pronounced and add it to your flashcard deck. Next time you see the card, try inviting someone to the cinema without looking at the sentence.

You can practise writing, too. Look at 影, the second character in 电影. Watch the order of the strokes, try writing it yourself and then spot it in the cinema invitation.

GET READY FOR YCT 3

Are you preparing for the YCT 3 exam? Practise with the vocabulary, sentences and exercises for this level. Listen to both invitations without reading along. Which one mentions tomorrow? What activity do you hear in the other invitation?

GET STARTED

Listen to the football invitation in Chinesimple. Think of someone you’d like to play with and try asking them in Chinese.