Level 2 · Lesson 2

弟弟和妹妹
Younger brother and younger sister

弟弟和妹妹。爸爸和妈妈。

和 joins two nouns — and Chinese sorts brothers and sisters by age, not only by sex.

听 · Listen

对话
 安娜 —  李明，你弟弟和你妹妹是学生吗？ 
Li Ming, are your younger brother and younger sister students?  
 李明 —  我弟弟是学生，我妹妹也是学生。 
My younger brother is a student, and my younger sister is a student too.  
 安娜 —  王老师，您儿子和女儿呢？ 
Teacher Wang, and your son and daughter?  
 王老师 —  我儿子是医生，我女儿是老师。 
My son is a doctor, my daughter is a teacher.  
 李明 —  安娜，她是谁？ 
Anna, who is she?  
 安娜 —  她是我朋友，她叫玛丽。 
She's my friend — her name is Mary.  
 李明 —  玛丽和你是同学吗？ 
Are Mary and you classmates?  
 安娜 —  我们是同学，也是好朋友。 
We're classmates, and good friends too.  

讲解 · Explanation

爸爸和妈妈。弟弟和妹妹。玛丽和我。

和 hé is 'and' — but only between two nouns. English 'and' will also glue two whole sentences together; 和 will not. To say 'my brother is a student and my sister is a student', you set the two clauses side by side with a comma and let 也 do the joining: 我弟弟是学生，我妹妹也是学生。 Putting 和 in the middle there is one of the commonest mistakes learners make.

哥哥、姐姐、弟弟、妹妹。

Chinese has no plain word for 'brother' or 'sister'. Before you can name your sibling you have to decide who is older: 哥哥 and 姐姐 are older than you, 弟弟 and 妹妹 are younger. The 女 on the left of 妹 marks it as the female one, and the same 女 opens 女儿 nǚ'ér, 'daughter'.

我儿子。我女儿。我朋友。

These take the bare pattern of the last lesson: pronoun, then the person, nothing in between. Watch two pinyin details. 女儿 is written nǚ'ér with an apostrophe, because nǚer could be read as one syllable, and the ü keeps its two dots after n. 朋友 ends in a neutral tone: péngyou, not péngyǒu.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
弟弟	younger brother
妹妹	younger sister
和	and	between nouns only, never between clauses
儿子	son	second syllable neutral
女儿	daughter	apostrophe in pinyin; ü keeps its dots
朋友	friend	好朋友 = good friend

练习 · Practice

你弟弟和你妹妹是学生吗？ Both of them are students. Which answer is right?

她是你姐姐吗？ Your sister is younger than you are. Which answer is right?

爸爸______妈妈是老师。 'Dad and Mum are teachers.'

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'My son and my daughter are students.'

弟弟、妹妹、儿子、女儿、朋友 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

我哥哥和我弟弟……

Name two people in one breath with 和: 我哥哥和我弟弟, 我爸爸和我妈妈, 玛丽和我. Then say a sentence about each pair — 我哥哥和我弟弟是学生。 Now try the trap on purpose and fix it: say two full clauses about two different people, with a comma and 也, not with 和.