Essential Basics
Six short pages that sit underneath everything else. You can skip them and still get by, but half an hour here makes every phrase page easier to use — and it is what turns a memorized line into something you can adapt on the spot.
The Four Mandarin Tones (and Why They Matter)
Mandarin has four tones plus a neutral one. What each sounds like, the two pairs that confuse travelers, and a five-minute practice that actually helps.
Pinyin Chart: How to Read Mandarin Sounds
Pinyin writing tells you almost exactly how a Chinese word sounds. Here are the initials, the finals and the letters that do not match English.
Mandarin Numbers 1 to 100 for Shops, Taxis and Hotels
Numbers come up constantly in China: prices, floors, room numbers, party sizes. Learn ten words and you can build almost a hundred numbers yourself.
Telling Time and Dates in Mandarin
Booking a train, meeting a guide or checking check-out time all need a clock. Mandarin time and date phrases, minus the grammar lesson.
Greetings, Thanks and Apologies in Mandarin
The handful of Mandarin courtesies that carry a whole day of travel: hello, thank you, sorry, excuse me and goodbye, with notes on when to use each.
Saying Yes, No and 'I Don't Understand' in Mandarin
Mandarin has no single word for yes or no. Learn the quick answers that fit real situations, and the rescue phrases for when you lose the thread.
How to use this section
Start with tones and Pinyin if you have never looked at Mandarin before. Those two pages explain the marks on this site's phrase pages and how to read them out loud. After that, numbers are the single highest-value page for a short trip — you will use them for prices, floors, party sizes and how many beers to order.
Greetings and the yes/no page are the ones to reread the night before you fly. They cover the exchanges you will repeat most often, and the rescue lines that keep a conversation alive when it moves past what you memorized.