Mandarin Chinese · A118 min

Lin greets a new classmate before class

Practice A1 Mandarin in a short story where Lin greets a new classmate before class. Tap individual words, follow line-by-line meaning, and review vocabulary from the scene.

  1. Vocabulary
  2. Story
  3. Support
  4. Grammar
  5. Practice
  6. Review

Start with the short scene first. Tap individual words when you want the vocabulary, then use the line-by-line support to confirm the full sentence before you reread it.

Core vocabulary

Target word with readingTranslationType
你好 nǐ hǎo

hello

greeting

máng

busy

adjective

今天 jīn tiān

today

time word

同学 tóng xué

classmate

noun

ma

question particle

particle

老师 lǎo shī

teacher

noun

名字 míng zi

name

noun

朋友 péng you

friend

noun

现在 xiàn zài

now

time word

对话 duì huà

conversation

noun

Core text

Line-by-line support

Read each line with the direct translation beside it. Use this section to slow down and confirm exactly what each speaker says.

Grammar in context

These are the two patterns doing the most work in this lesson. Learn them as reusable sentence frames, not as isolated rules.

吗 for yes-no questions

Add 吗 to the end of a statement to turn it into a simple yes-no question.

mángmaA very common question structure.

A + adjective

Short adjective sentences in Mandarin often work without a separate word for “to be.”

hěnmángA natural adjective sentence.

Extension reading

Review

Story check: What is Lin trying to do in this lesson, and what detail changes the situation?

Vocabulary check: Find the first key word, the second key word, the third key word, and one more key word in the story text again. Explain what each word is doing in its sentence.

Retell: Retell the scene in two or three sentences using the first key word and the second key word. Then add one sentence about why the ending matters for Lin.

Next steps

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