Learn Chinese for Beginners: Chinese Phrase of the Day Challenge (Week 8)

With most everyone staying at home to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, spending a few minutes focusing on something else and doing something positive for yourself is more important than ever.

If you've been following our Chinese Phrase of the Day Challenge, congratulations on completing 2 months of learning Chinese!

If you're just getting started - or looking for a way to spend your time while we #stayhome - start here with Week 1.

Below are the Lecture Notes with all the vocabulary from Week 8, and the videos for each day. Check it out now!

Week 8 Lecture Notes

Download this Lecture Notes pdf for a breakdown of the vocabulary and phrases in English, pinyin, and 汉字 (hàn zì).

Scroll down to the bottom of the Lecture Notes pdfs for links to relevant lessons in our courses. These lessons include flashcards, quizzes, and audio review mp3s to help you practice what you've learned!

*TIP: In the Lecture Notes pdfs, scroll down to the bottom for links to relevant lessons in our courses. These lessons include flashcards, quizzes, and audio review mp3s to help you practice what you've learned!

Week 8 Lessons

Now let's take a look at all the lessons from Week 8.

Day 1

After today's video, you'll be able to talk about the past in Chinese. This is one area where Chinese grammar is SUPER EASY compared to other languages... no verb conjugation! You'll also learn how to say "if" in Chinese. Another (obviously) important word you will use every single day!

Day 2

Today you’ll learn a super useful grammar structure in Chinese you’ll end up using daily: 不但。。。而且 (bú dàn... ér qiě). Learning these simple structures helps you express yourself more naturally in a conversation.

Wei Wei breaks down multiple example sentences, so you understand the grammar completely and can easily start using this structure yourself!

Day 3

As you'll see in today's lesson, there are 2 different words in Chinese for "want": 想 (xiǎng) and 要 (yào). I know this might seem confusing, but it's actually pretty easy to learn the difference between these two words and when to use one or the other.

In fact, Wei Wei will explain it to you in less than 3 minutes!

Day 4

Today you'll learn how to say "give something a try" in Chinese. The key word in this phrase, 试 (shì), is pronounced exactly the same (with the same tone!) as two other super common words in Chinese: 是 (shì) and 事 (shì).

Homophones - words that sounds the same but have different meanings - can be a little confusing at first, but they are actually one of the most fun, creative aspects of the Chinese language.

Check out this blog post Top 9 Funniest Chinese Homophones to see what we mean!

Day 5 - Review

Congratulations on finishing MONTH 2 of our *Chinese Phrase of the Day Challenge*!

Watch the Week 8 Review lesson now:

Missed a lesson? Just joining us?

Catch up on these pages:

Watch Week 1 lessons and download lecture notes here.
Watch Week 2 lessons and download lecture notes here.
Watch Week 3 lessons and download lecture notes here.
Watch Week 4 lessons and download lecture notes here.
Watch Week 5 lessons and download lecture notes here.
Watch Week 6 lessons and download lecture notes here.
Watch Week 7 lessons and download lecture notes here:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for next week's lessons.

Ready for More?

We hope this Chinese Phrase of the Day series has you motivated to take the next step and really commit to learning Chinese.

Your path to fluency is right here on our website! These 6 courses have 1,000+ fun, simple videos just like in the Phrase of the Day series, with 10,000+ flashcards and quiz questions to help you review.

Try the first 5 units (20 lessons) of our Beginner Conversational Course for FREE to see for yourself how our courses make it possible for anyone to master this amazing language.

Start here with Lesson 1:

Subscribe for Next Week's Lessons

The Phrase of the Day Challenge is an easy, painless way to take your first steps learning Mandarin. Just hearing yourself saying a simple sentence in Chinese can be incredibly motivating.

We'll add these blog posts at the end of each week with the lessons, but you can subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the videos each day as we upload them: