Level 1 · Lesson 1

你好！
Hello!

你好！您好！谢谢！

Your first Chinese sentence, the four tones, and choosing between 你 and 您.

听 · Listen

对话
 安娜 —  你好！ 
Hello!  
 李明 —  你好！ 
Hello!  
 李明 —  王老师，您好！ 
Hello, Teacher Wang!  
 王老师 —  你好，李明。 
Hello, Li Ming.  
 安娜 —  王老师，您好！ 
Hello, Teacher Wang!  
 王老师 —  你好！ 
Hello! (handing Anna a book)  
 安娜 —  谢谢！ 
Thank you!  
 王老师 —  好，好。 
Good, good.  

讲解 · Explanation

你好！

Your first sentence is two syllables: 你 nǐ 'you' plus 好 hǎo 'good'. Chinese needs no word for 'are' here — the greeting is literally 'you good'. Every syllable also carries a tone, and the tone is part of the word, exactly as a vowel is: mā, má, mǎ, mà are four different words. Tone 1 is high and level, tone 2 rises, tone 3 dips low, tone 4 drops sharply. 你好 is two tone-3 syllables; in speech the first one rises, but we always write it as nǐ hǎo, never ní hǎo.

您好！

您 nín is the respectful 你. Say 您好 to a teacher, to someone much older, to a customer or an official — anyone you want to show deference to. Say 你好 to a classmate, a colleague your own age, a child, a friend. Getting this choice right matters more than getting it fast; when in doubt with a stranger, 您好 is safe.

好！谢谢！

好 on its own means 'good', 'fine', 'all right' — it is the everyday way to agree, and doubling it (好，好) sounds warm. 谢谢 is 'thank you'. Its second 谢 loses its tone and comes out light and short: xièxie, never xièxiè. One more word travels with this lesson without appearing in the dialogue: 我 wǒ, 'I, me'. Learn it now — from the next lesson on, nearly every sentence you build begins with it.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
你好	hello	你 + 好, said to one person
你	you (one person)
您	you (polite)	for a teacher, an elder, a customer
我	I, me	the subject of almost every sentence you will build
好	good, fine, OK
谢谢	thank you	second syllable neutral tone

练习 · Practice

王老师，______！ You are greeting your teacher. Which one?

李明，______！ You are greeting a classmate your own age.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'Hello, Li Ming!'

张老师，______好！ Fill in the polite word for 'you'.

你、您、我、好、谢谢 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

你好！您好！谢谢！

Say all three aloud now. Greet a friend with 你好, greet a teacher or a shopkeeper with 您好, and answer any kindness at all with 谢谢. Then say them once more slowly, listening to the tones: nǐ hǎo rises then dips, nín hǎo rises then dips, xièxie falls and goes light.