School in Mandarin

MFL, Mandarin vocabulary. Usually met in years 7 to 11.

Learn Mandarin words for school subjects, the school day and classroom life, written in simplified characters with pinyin.

What you practise

Reading the meaning of characters
Choosing the characters for an English word
Words with and without the pinyin shown

Starts with everyday words shown with pinyin and moves to characters on their own. Practice moves up a level when a round goes well and down when it does not.

Sample questions

Each sample comes with the method and the reason every wrong option is wrong. Real practice rounds are ten questions at your level.

Sample question, level 2 of 5

What does 数学 (shù xué) mean?

interesting
dictionary
book
science
maths

Show the answer and method

Answer: E, maths

The method: 数学 (shù xué) means ‘maths’.

Why the other options are wrong:

A, interesting: ‘interesting’ is 有意思 (yǒu yì si).
B, dictionary: ‘dictionary’ is 词典 (cí diǎn).
C, book: ‘book’ is 书 (shū).
D, science: ‘science’ is 科学 (kē xué).

Sample question, level 4 of 5

Which characters mean ‘paper’?

学校
科学
教室
数学
纸

Show the answer and method

Answer: E, 纸

The method: 纸 (zhǐ) means ‘paper’.

Why the other options are wrong:

A, 学校: 学校 (xué xiào) means ‘school’.
B, 科学: 科学 (kē xué) means ‘science’.
C, 教室: 教室 (jiào shì) means ‘classroom’.
D, 数学: 数学 (shù xué) means ‘maths’.

See where this fits: every language topic and Key Stage 3.