L5 family 1

Lesson 5 - Family Part 1

New Vocabulary   

米	mǐ	uncooked rice
家	jiā	family, household, clan Learn more
父	fù	father
母	mǔ	mother
男	nán	man, male, son
我	wǒ	I, we
之	zhī	possessive particle, object pronoun

Language notes:  之

之 is the most common character in Classical Chinese. It has various functions - here I will introduce two of the most common meanings.

   1. As a possessive particle, 之 functions similarly to the English apostrophe + s or the genitive case in inflected languages such as Latin or German. It is also similar to modern Chinese 的. In longer sentences, it can also mark off a relative clause.

Example:  父母之心 - the parents' mind.

   2. As an object pronoun, 之 stands in for the (understood) object in the sentence. It could mean any of "him, her, it, them" depending on what is understood in the sentence.

Example: 我食魚 - I eat the fish - 我食之 I eat it. (here, 'it' means 'fish' - understood from context)

Study

1. 父子
2. 父母之言

3. 龍之九子
4. 母家
5. 三口之家
6. 母馬

7. 田父

(select below to see meanings:)

1. father and son

2. the parents' words - what the parents said

3. the 9 sons of the dragon Learn about the 9 sons of the dragon

4. mother's parents' home Learn about Chinese marriages

5. A family of three people (literally, of three mouths)

6. mare

7. old farmer

龍之九子

 

Practice

Write in Chinese:

1. the parents' cart
2. a person who eats meat
3. a family of five sons, two daughters
4. grandfather (big father)
5. girl
6. The father saw it.
(select below to see answers:)

1. 父母之車 2. 食肉之人 3. 五男二女之家 4. 大父 5. 女子 6.父見之