Lesson 1
2026-05-15
15 May 2026 · Xinxin
Mandarin Pinyin and Basic Greetings
Your first lesson covered the building blocks of Mandarin: pinyin, the four tones, greetings, and professions. You did better than you think.
Swipe left to start
Every Mandarin syllable has a tone. Get the tone wrong and the word changes meaning.
First tone (一声)
Flat and high. Hold it steady.
māo (猫) — cat
Third Tone Sandhi
When two third tones appear together, the first becomes a second tone.
你好 is written nǐ hǎo — but you say ní hǎo.
Hello (informal)
Said as ní hǎo — tone sandhi
Add 们 after 你, 我, or 他/她 to make it plural.
我们 (wǒmen)
We / us
wǒmen hǎo
我们好 — we're good
们 never with 您
您 is one-to-one respect. You cannot say 您们. For a group you want to respect, use 大家好.
✗ 您们好 ✓ 大家好
Xinxin corrected this directly: 也 (yě) and 都 (dōu) are not interchangeable.
也 yě — also / too
Adds 'also' to a single statement.
wǒ yě hěn hǎo
我也很好 — I'm also fine
The correction
我都很好 is grammatically fine but means 'all of me is fine' — unnatural. 我也很好 is what you want: 'I'm also fine'.
✗ 我都很好 (sounds odd) ✓ 我也很好
I think / I feel
Salary
Doctor
Xinxin asked you to judge each profession on three criteria: can they help people (帮人), salary (薪水), and reputation (名声). You then built full sentences using 我觉得...因为...
Criterion 1 — 帮人 (bāng rén)
Can they help people? This was the first reason you gave for choosing doctor.
Sentence pattern — 我觉得...因为...
我觉得 [职业] 最好/最不好，因为 [reason]。Chain multiple reasons with 也: ...因为可以帮人，名声也好，薪水也好。
我觉得医生最好，因为可以帮人。— I think doctor is best, because they can help people.
All of these contain third tones. Say each one out loud before tapping to check.
Written
hello
Sandhi: first 3rd → 2nd. You say ní not nǐ.
Spoken aloud
Use the word hints below, then type the full pinyin.
Translate into Mandarin
I'm very well, and you?
Word hints (scrambled)
Type the pinyin
Mandarin syllables have three parts: initial (声母), final (韵母), and tone (声调).
There are 4 tones + a neutral tone. The 3rd tone is your focus — dip down, then rise.
Third tone sandhi: two 3rd tones in a row? The first becomes 2nd. 你好 = ní hǎo.
你好 is informal. 您好 is formal — use it for elders and strangers.
你们好 = hello to a group (casual). 大家好 = hello everyone (more formal).
Your sentence structure is already solid — Cantonese is helping you. Focus on tones.
Your comprehension and grammar are stronger than you think. Xinxin's feedback was: focus on pronunciation — everything else is already working.
DiSSS framework
Phonetics First
Today's entire lesson was this principle. Xinxin started with tones and pinyin before any vocabulary — exactly the approach Ferriss recommends for Mandarin.
Selection (20/80)
14 of today's 18 vocabulary items are HSK Level 1 — the highest-frequency words in Mandarin. You started with the right 20%.
Sequencing
Tones before words. Words before sentences. You're following the right order — don't skip ahead.
Vocabulary context
14 of today's vocabulary items are HSK Level 1. These are among the 150 most common words in Mandarin. Master these and you have the foundation.
Tomorrow's action
Spend 5 minutes tomorrow saying 你好 and 我很好 out loud — slowly, making the 3rd tone shape obvious. Then gradually speed up.