LessonsHSK 1 · Lesson 2
HSK 1 · Lesson 2 of 15
Who are you?
Saying who you are and where you are from, and the two simplest kinds of question. 21 words and 3 grammar points; tap the characters to hear them.
🔊 The sound in these lessons comes from your device’s own Mandarin voice, so it differs from device to device. Recorded audio will follow.
📚 Words
- Hán-Việt thị To be (am, is, are): the verb that links one noun to another.
- Hán-Việt bất Not, no — the basic negative, placed directly before a verb or an adjective.
- Hán-Việt đối Right, correct; 'yes, that's so'.
- Hán-Việt ma A particle that turns a statement into a yes-or-no question.
- Hán-Việt ni A particle that follows a noun or pronoun to send a question back: 'and you?', 'what about this one?'.
- Hán-Việt nhân A person, a human being; people.
- Hán-Việt Trung Quốc China, the country in East Asia.
- Hán-Việt quốc A country or nation; it mostly appears inside other words rather than alone.
- Hán-Việt Hán ngữ The Chinese language, especially as it is spoken.
- Hán-Việt Trung văn Chinese, the language, especially in its written form.
- Hán-Việt khiếu To be called (a name); also to call out or shout, and to tell someone to do something.
- Hán-Việt danh tự A name: a person's given name or full name, or what a thing is called.
- Hán-Việt thập ma What — the question word for things; before a noun, 'what kind of'.
- Hán-Việt thuỳ Who, whom — the question word for people.
- Hán-Việt nhận thức To know a person, to have met them; also to recognise something learnt, such as a character or a road.
- Hán-Việt cao hứng Glad, happy, pleased — the good feeling of the moment.
- Hán-Việt tiên sinh Mr, sir: a polite title for a man.
- Hán-Việt nữ sĩ A polite word for a woman, used like 'Ms' or 'madam'.
- Hán-Việt nam Male, of men and boys: it goes before a noun to mark the male one.
- Hán-Việt nữ Female, of women and girls: it goes before a noun to mark the female one.
- Hán-Việt đại gia Everyone; everybody in a group, usually including the people you are talking to.
🧩 Grammar
是 (to be) and 不 (not)
是 links two nouns: 我是学生 "I am a student". To say "not", put 不 in front: 我不是老师 "I am not a teacher". 不 negates almost every verb and adjective (不对 "not right"), with one big exception: the negative of 有 "to have" is 没有 (lesson 3).
- He is Chinese.
- I'm not a teacher.
Questions with 吗 and 呢
Add 吗 to the end of a statement and it becomes a yes-or-no question; nothing else changes: 你是老师 → 你是老师吗？ "Are you a teacher?". To bounce the same question back, use 呢: 我是学生，你呢？ "I'm a student — and you?"
- Are you Chinese?
- I'm fine, and you?
Question words stay where the answer goes
With 什么 (what) and 谁 (who), nothing moves to the front as in English: the question word sits exactly where the answer will go. 你叫什么名字？ — 我叫小明。 "What is your name? — My name is Xiaoming." A question with a question word never takes 吗.
- Who is he?
- What's your name?
- What is this?
🎯 Practice
The drill below uses only this lesson’s words. Switch the kind of drill:
Context clues Match the meaning Listen & type Fill the blank Put in order Hán-Việt bridge
Open the full practice page → · All 300 HSK 1 words