Telling simple story 1

My Name is Linda. 我叫Linda /我的名字是Linda wǒ jiào Linda / wǒ de míngzì shì Linda

I am a teacher. 我是个老师  wǒ shì gè lǎoshī

I have an elder sister. 我有个姐姐     wǒ yǒu gè jiě jie

My sister is a housewife. 我姐姐是个主妇 wǒ jiějie shì gè zhǔfù

Note: Sentence 2，3 & 4 use the word 个 as a unit of measure. Without it, it doesn’t change the meaning much. It simply means: I am a teacher or I have an elder sister. She is a housewife.

She has 3 children, 2 beautiful girls and a cute boy. 他有三个孩子， 两个美丽的女儿和一个可爱的儿子    tā yǒu sāngè háizi, liǎnggè měilì de nǚér hé yīgè kěài de érzi.

Note: Pay attention to the usage of adjective in explaining the nouns (i.e. girls and boy). We use the word 的 de in between the adjective and noun.

I love my nieces and nephew. 我爱我的侄女和侄儿们。Wǒài wǒdezhìnǚ hé zhìér men.

Today is my mom’s birthday. 今天是我妈妈的生日。Jīntiān shì wǒmāma de shēngrì.

After finishing my breakfast, I called my mom. 吃完早餐之后，我给我妈妈打电话。

Chīzǎocān zhīhòu,wǒgěiwǒmāma dǎdiànhuà.
I wished her happy birthday. 我祝她生日快乐。Wǒzhùtā shēngrì kuàilè.

Note: To be grammatically correct “I call her” is translated as 我给她打电话wǒgěitā dǎdiànhuà and NOT 我打电话给她 wǒ dǎdiànhuà gěitā.

The pattern to follow is:

S + 给 gěi Object + Verb (do something)

Other Example:

Wàigōng gěi Brian jiǎng gùshì

Grandpa tells Brian a story = Grandpa tells story to Brian

She told me that she is going to spa with her friends this afternoon. 他告诉我这个下午他跟他的朋友要去做水疗治疗。Tāgaòsùwo zhège xiàwǔ tā hé tāgēnpéngyǒu yàoqùzuò shuǐliào zhìliáo.

Note: “this afternoon” is an adverb of time, it must come before or after the Subject. Thus in the sentence above, I place it before “she and (with) her friends”。Also, I use 跟 gēn for the word “with” instead of 和 hé that we normally used for “and”. There isn’t much difference for the two words.

My brother and I go to grandma’s house.

我跟我哥哥去外婆的家  
Wǒ gēn wǒgēge qù wàipó de jiā

If you notice, all the above sentences are relatively short. By doing this, there will be less grammatical error that you can avoid. Remember, all the sentences formed should follow the pattern given before.

Here is the recording of the whole short story above (again, I am sorry that it can only be played on a PC):

Regards,

Linda Tan