How to Answer “Are you American.” in Chinese - Day 7 nǐ shì měi guó rén ma. (Free Chinese Lesson)

Hello everyone. 大家好。 Welcome to today's Everyday Chinese. In the previous lesson, we learned how to ask someone's nationality. Today, let's take a look at how we ask someone, for example, if they are American or Japanese, and how they would respond. OK, let's start. First, check out what you will learn in today's lesson. To ask someone, for example, Let's start with a statement, which is In order to change a statement to the yes-no question, you only need to add a question particle at the end of the statement. This question particle is Then the sentence becomes which means You see, that's how we convert a statement to a yes-no question. Just add this simple word at the end of the statement. Now listen. Alright, let's quickly try another example. How would you ask, are you Japanese? First, think about how would you say the statement, which is, you are Japanese. The Chinese word for Japanese is Now say, you are Japanese. What's a special word we add at the end, in order to convert a statement into a yes-no question? This word is Now you get which means, are you Japanese? Now listen. To summarize, to ask, for example, These yes-no questions, all you need to do is to work out the statement first, then simply add the question word ma at the end. That's it. You can also use this structure to make a lot more sentences. For example, to ask, are you Jack? Or, are you Anna? Many times it's hard for us to distinguish the Westerners, just like it's hard for you to distinguish Chinese people from Japanese people. So if you are in China, you may be often asked by people about your nationality. For example, If they ask you, for example, And how would you respond? If you are, you can say, But if you are not, you can answer. Here we get a new word. 不 is a negative adverb, which means not or no. Take note. Originally, 不 is a falling tone. But according to the phonetic rule, if a falling tone is followed by another falling tone, the first one should change to a rising tone. Here, 不 is followed by 是, which is another falling tone. So the tone of 不 changes to a rising tone. So, I am not, you should read, Now repeat after me. Now listen to the conversations once more. Alright, that's all for today's lesson. Don't forget that today we learned a useful particle 吗 to change a statement into a yes-no question. And also we learned the negative word 不 thanks to our participants in today's audio. In our next lesson, you will learn how to talk about the languages which you can speak. See you next time. 再见!