Notes:

Remember that the word order in Chinese sentences is the same for statements as it is for questions, which is quite different from English, where there is special word order signifying that the sentence is an interrogative one.

Because there is no shift in word order, Chinese speakers indicate to their listeners that the sentence is a question by adding the question marker 吗 ma to the end of the sentence. In essence, 吗 ma is a question mark spoken aloud.

Notes:

To make a statement about a person's nationality, simply add the character 人 rén to the name of the country. There is no difference between singular and plural, thus 美国人 could mean an American or Americans.

There is another word for referring to people in the abstract, 人民 rénmín. For instance, the Chinese people would be 中国人民 zhōnɡɡuó rénmín, a phrase you see a lot in political situations.

Notes:

Wow! Our first dialogue in Chinese - did you understand it all?

Hopefully you did, as it contains vocabulary and sentence structures we have already covered.

In just a short time, you have learned to share information in Chinese in a meaningful way. If you go to China you will have many, many opportunities to practice the above dialogue, in fact you might get quite sick of it. Still, regionalisms are a big thing in China, and talking about where the other person is from can be a great way to develop a real conversation.