What languages can you speak? 你会说什么语言?Major languages in Chinese

By Ling-Ling Lisa Shih
From Ling-LingChinese.com

Infographic: A World of Languages

Source for the above map: http://www.visualcapitalist.com/a-world-of-languages/

View a high resolution version of this graphic

Can you name the major world languages in Chinese?

In this post, you will learn how to ask and answer the following questions:

  • What languages can you speak?
  • Do you speak [English]?
  • Can you speak [English]?

You will also learn the Chinese vocabulary for major world languages.

Click here: What Languages Can You Speak to get the sentences below in PDF:

What languages can you speak?

你会说什么语言?

Nǐ huì shuō shénme yǔyán?

I can speak English.

我会说英语。

Wǒ huì shuō yīngyǔ

 

I can only speak English.

我只会说英文。

Wǒ zhǐ huì shuō yīngwén.

I can speak English and Chinese.

我会说英文和中文。

Wǒ huì shuō yīngwén hé zhōngwén.

I can speak English, Chinese, and Spanish.

我会说英文,中文,还有西班牙语。

Wǒ huì shuō yīngwén, zhōngwén, háiyǒu xībānyáyǔ.

Do you speak English?

你说英文吗?

Nǐ shuō yīngwén ma?

I speak English.

我说英文。

Wǒ shuō yīngwén.

Can you speak English?

你会说英文吗?

Nǐ huì shuō yīngwén ma?

I can speak English.

我会说英文。

Wǒ huì shuō yīngwén.

Do you speak Chinese?

你说中文吗?

Ni shuō zhōngwén ma?

I can speak Chinese.

我会说中文。

Wo hui shuō zhōngwén.

I can speak a little bit of Chinese.

我会说一点儿中文。

Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎnr zhōngwén.

To refer specifically to ”spoken language“, we often replace “文” with “语”. For instance, 英文 –〉英语, 中文–〉汉语, 日文–〉日语。However, you will often hear Chinese people say these two sentences either way:  “我会说英文。” and “我会说英语。”

**Copy the above entire text and the Chinese words will be individually annotated with pinyin and English using the following language tool: Chinese Text Annotation Tool

**Use the Talking “Chinese to Pinyin/Zhuyin Converter”Related image to hear these sentences read out loud.

Vocabulary 生词:

  ID Chinese Trad. Pinyin English Definition  
  ID Chinese Trad. Pinyin English Definition  
  1     you  
  2   huì can  
  3   shuō to speak; to say  
  4 什么  什麼 shén me what?; something; anything  
  5 语言  語言  yán language; Classifiers:   
  6   huì can  
  7 英语  英語 yīng  English (spoken language)  
  8     I; me; my  
  9   zhǐ only  
  10 英文    yīng wén English (language)  
  11     and  
  12 中文    zhōngwén Chinese language  
  13 还有  還有 hái yǒu  in addition; also  
  14 西班牙语 西班牙語  bān  Spanish (spoken) language  
  15   ma (question particle for “yes-no” questions)  
  16 一点儿  一點兒  diǎn r a little bit

Downloadable Worksheets:  Vocabulary worksheets for What languages can you speak

Vocabulary for major languages:

中文 汉语 英文 英语 西班牙文 西班牙语 日文 日语 韩文 韩语 法文 法语 德文 德语 俄文 俄语 阿拉伯文 阿拉伯语

**Use the Talking “Chinese to Pinyin/Zhuyin Converter”Related image to hear these vocabularies read out loud.

  ID Chinese Trad. Pinyin English Definition  
  ID Chinese Trad. Pinyin English Definition  
  1 中文    zhōng wén Chinese language  
  2 汉语  漢語 hàn  Chinese (spoken) language  
  3 英文    yīng wén English (language)  
  4 英语  英語 yīng  English (spoken language)  
  5 西班牙文     bān  wén Spanish (language)  
  6 西班牙语  西班牙語  bān   Spanish (spoken language)  
  7 日文     wén Japanese (language)  
  8 日语  日語   Japanese (spoken language)  
  9 韩文  韓文 hán wén   Korean written language  
  10 韩语  韓語 hán  Korean (spoken language)  
  11 法文     wén French language  
  12 法语  法語   French (spoken language)  
  13 德文     wén German (language)  
  14 德语  德語   German (spoken language)  
  15 俄文    É wén Russian language  
  16 俄语  俄語 É  Russian (spoken language)  
  17 阿拉伯文    Ā   wén Arabic (language & writing)  
  18 阿拉伯语  阿拉伯語 Ā    Arabic (spoken language)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downloadable worksheets/learning materials:

Extra Resources:

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