The five Mandarin phrases that do 80% of the work
First time? Do this
- Audio is built in. Tap any phrase to hear it in a native voice — pre-recorded and cached, so it just works offline, no setup. (The voice bar can still pick a phone voice as a backup.)
- Phrases — drilled by situation: night markets, teahouses, directions, the train. Hit play, then say it back out loud.
- Sounds — tones and characters, tap to hear how each one sounds. Ten minutes here pays off the most.
- Customs — the unspoken rules. This is where tourists actually give themselves away.
- Practice — hear / read / recall / speak. Use it on the plane.
Right thing, right moment.
Tap a chip to jump to a scene — or just search. Common holds the go-anywhere basics (hello, thanks, where's the toilet); a few phrases like drinks live under more than one scene.
You can type in either language — both sides are searched.
Common — useful everywhere · greetings · basics · the toilet
Greetings & manners · the social handshake
At the restaurant · ordering & dining
Bars & toasts · drinks & ganbei
At the teahouse · tasting & buying
Finding your way · asking directions
Taxis & getting around · rides & fares
Trains & stations · platforms & tickets
Shops & getting by · everyday
Night markets · quick vocab
Numbers · prices & ordering
- Teens and tens are fully regular. 11-19 is 十 + digit (十一=11 ... 十九=19); 20-90 is digit + 十 (二十=20 ... 九十=90) — the mirror image of the teens, ten first vs ten last.
- 十 alone means 10; every rank above it needs a leading 一. 十 by itself is 10 — never 一十. But 一百 (100), 一千 (1,000) and 一万 (10,000) all require the leading 一. 十 is the one exception; everything larger needs it.
- 万 (10,000), not 1,000, is where the count repeats. Chinese groups digits in fours, not threes. 100,000 is 十万 ("ten-wan"), 1,000,000 is 百万 ("hundred-wan"). Reading a price by Western comma-groups (1,000,000 → "one million") builds the wrong Chinese word — regroup the digits in fours from the right first.
- 两 replaces 二 for the digit 2 before a measure word or 百/千/万. 二 (èr) is the citation form used counting 1,2,3... and inside compounds like 二十 (20). 两 (liǎng) is used instead right before 百/千/万: 两百 (200), 两千 (2,000), 两万 (20,000) — both 二百 and 两百 are heard for 200, but 两 is the more natural default in speech.
No alphabet — four tones instead.
There's nothing to sound out: this kit teaches the spoken word directly, in characters plus English-approximate phonetics. What decides whether you're understood isn't the consonants, it's pitch — say a syllable with the wrong tone and you've said a different word, so lean on the audio more than the spelling.
Knowing what a letter sounds like isn't the same as being able to make it. These five are where English mouths actually go wrong: what to do, what to stop doing, and a native recording you can slow down and copy.
What your mouth doesEach tone is a pitch shape, not a stress. First tone holds one flat, high note. Second tone rises like a surprised question. Third tone dips low and, said alone, curls back up at the end. Fourth tone falls fast and sharp, like a firm command.
The mistakeFlattening every syllable to one pitch, or using pitch only for sentence-level questions the way English does. Mandarin puts a pitch shape on every syllable, meaning-bearing ones included — skip it and a word doesn't just sound accented, it becomes a different word.
What your mouth doesEnglish tells b from p by whether your vocal cords buzz. Mandarin doesn't use that distinction at all — b, d, g are said with almost no air, a hushed, clipped sound; p, t, k get a sharp puff of air right after, like blowing out a candle.
The mistakeReaching for English's soft-b-vs-hard-p logic, which maps onto the wrong pair here — Mandarin b is already closer to an unaspirated English p than to an English b. Missing the puff on p, t or k is the fastest tell of a foreign accent.
What your mouth doesFor zh, ch, sh, curl your tongue tip up and back, close to (not touching) the roof of your mouth, and release the air over the curl. For z, c, s, keep the tongue tip flat and low, right behind your bottom teeth — the sound comes from the front of the mouth, closer to an English ts or s.
The mistakeCollapsing both rows into one same-ish English sound. It flattens words that Mandarin speakers hear as completely distinct, the same way English speakers hear "ship" and "sip" as different words.
What your mouth doesSpread your lips into a small smile and press the flat blade of your tongue up against the hard palate — the air hisses out thin and bright, a sound English simply doesn't have on its own.
The mistakeSubstituting the rounder English "sh", "ch" or "j", which uses a different tongue position entirely. It's a small mismatch that still makes 谢谢 or 请 sound noticeably foreign.
What your mouth doesCurl your tongue tip up near the same spot as zh/ch/sh, but let it vibrate instead of releasing sharply — closer to the "s" in "pleasure" said with a curled tongue than to an English R, and with no rounding of the lips at all.
The mistakeReaching for the English R, which bunches the tongue at the back and rounds the lips. It turns words unrecognisable and is one of the fastest tells of a foreign accent.
- Every syllable carries a tone. Mandarin has four tones plus a neutral fifth — mā (mother), má (hemp), mǎ (horse) and mà (scold) are four different words built on the same three letters. Get the pitch wrong and you've said a different word, not just said this one with an accent.
- Pinyin letters lie if you read them as English. The romanized spelling under each phrase is pinyin, and letters like x, q, c and zh sound nothing like their English letter names — this kit's phonetics spell out the real sound instead.
- One character, one syllable, one even beat. Every character in 你好 gets one full beat — Mandarin doesn't stretch, swallow or blend syllables together the way English does.
- Two low tones in a row, and the first one rises. Say 你好 and the first dipping tone quietly turns into a rising one in fast speech — that's why it's often written "ní hǎo" even though 你 is a third-tone word on its own.
- The characters don't spell the sound. 好 tells you a meaning, not letters to sound out — there's no way to sight-read a new character, which is exactly why this kit gives you the spoken word and the audio, not a spelling rule.
The rules nobody prints on the menu.
Your Mandarin rarely outs you. These do. Read once, and you'll move differently.
Learn the tea-cup finger tap
When someone refills your tea, tap two fingers lightly on the table — 叩指礼 (koh-jir-LEE, "finger-knock etiquette") — instead of saying thank you every single time. The story traces to an emperor travelling in disguise; it's still everywhere today.
Don't stand your chopsticks up in rice
Sticking chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice echoes the incense sticks burned at a funeral. Rest them across the bowl, or on a chopstick rest, between bites.
Tipping isn't expected
Restaurants, taxis and hotels in mainland China don't expect a tip, and offering one can just confuse the person you hand it to. Good service is thanked with words, not cash.
Match the toast, or say so upfront
At a meal with baijiu, someone will raise a glass with 干杯 (gahn-BAY, "cheers") — that word really does mean empty the glass. If you'd rather sip, say 随意 (sway-EE) before the first toast, not after.
Skip clocks and the number four as gifts
A clock as a gift — 送钟 (sohng-JOHNG) — is a near-perfect homophone for "seeing someone off at their deathbed", and the number 四 (suh) sounds just like "death". Avoid both as gifts or quantities.
Cash is nearly obsolete
Almost everyone pays with a phone, scanning a QR code through WeChat Pay or Alipay for anything from a taxi to a single bottle of water. Carry a little cash as backup — small vendors don't always want to break a big note.
Offer and receive with both hands
Business cards, gifts, and money are handed over and accepted with both hands, or at least a supported right hand — a small gesture that reads as respectful rather than formal.
Meals are shared, not ordered solo
Dishes land in the centre of the table for everyone's chopsticks, rice is often more of a background filler than the main event, and whoever is hosting steers the best pieces toward their guests.
Don't clear your plate completely
Finishing every last bite as a guest can read as a signal the portions were too small. Leaving a little behind is the polite way to say you're full and happy.
"Face" shapes how requests land
Public criticism, a flat refusal, or making someone look foolish in front of others costs 面子 (myen-dzuh, "face") — for you and for them. A soft "maybe" or a redirected question is often a polite no.
The plates and glasses worth going out of your way for — each with the name as you'd say it out loud.
Test the four channels.
Understanding Mandarin by ear, reading, recall, and your own mouth. Quick rounds — do them twice.