Amazing Facts of Chinese Language by Al Hadeed Translation Services Dubai
Not surprisingly, the most populous country in the entire world is China, with nearly 1.4 billion residents. Almost everybody has heard of the major cities of China like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. Ever wondered about the language spoken there? What if we tell you the official language of China doesn’t have any alphabet, let alone the grammar! Surprising, right? Al Hadeed translation services not only offers the best Chinese translation services in Dubai but also offers the quality Chinese interpreting services.
Here we are not going to talk much about our Chinese interpretation services in Dubai but some fun facts about the most widely spoken language in the world: Mandarin Chinese often referred to as Standard Chinese or Putonghua.
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Too many characters to learn
The Chinese language stem constitutes a set of over 50,000 characters which obviously seems daunting to begin with. However, only one-third of them are used today. To add to your surprise, you can read the whole newspaper with just about two or three thousand characters. Surprised? Don’t be any more and talk to our professional Chinse interprets in Dubai to confirm.
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No alphabet, no grammar, no verb
Yes, you read that right! What makes the Chinese language most difficult is that it doesn’t contain any segmental alphabet. It simply consists of thousands of individual characters.
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No singular – plural distinction
In English language, the plural nouns are marked with an -s to distinguish from the singular nouns. However, Chinese nouns maintain the same form no matter their singular or plural use. Our translators in Dubai can explain you well if you are still confused.
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You better watch your tone!
Being a tonal language, Mandarin has four basic tones and a fifth neutral tone. Be extremely careful, as the meaning of a word can change with the tone you use, that too in ways you wouldn’t expect! As an illustration, the syllable ma can have multiple different meanings depending on the tone you speak it in: mā má mǎ mà ma. Of course, you wouldn't want to refer a horse (马, mǎ) as your mother (妈, mā).
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Every stroke sequence matters!
The Chinese language writing has a prescribed stroke order, which typically works from left to right and top to bottom. There are almost 20+ types of strokes and it takes anywhere between 1 and 64 strokes to make up a single character. Complicated, right? But still most of the people speak this language and the best Chinese translation is provided by Al Hadeed Translation Services Dubai.
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New words are difficult to add
Could you guess the name given to a ‘computer’ on its first arrival? Electric brain! Being a rigid language, naming new things in Chinese is extremely difficult. If you’re a sports person, just for your knowledge, badminton is called ‘feather ball’.
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No dedicated word to say YES in Chinese
Saying YES in Chinese isn’t as straightforward as it is in other languages. For any question demanding a positive answer, the language uses a verb or adjective for formal affirmation:
‘Can you do it?’ – ‘Can’.
What’s more, the United Nations celebrate World Chinese Language Day on the 20th of April, every year. Chinese is among the important languages for individuals and businesses, yet it is also the hardest language to learn. With an entirely different writing system, grammar, and even diverse pronunciation style and sound, there aren’t many things English and Chinese have in common. Needless to mention, it takes over 2200 hours of classroom time to learn Chinese. Happy learning! Finally, don’t forget to contact Al Hadeed Translation services if you are looking for professional Chinese interpreters in Dubai.
