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UPDATED TO 2020-21 SYLLABUS
CAIE IGCSE
MANDARIN (0547)
SUMMARIZED NOTES ON THE LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING SYLLABUS
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1. Grammar
1.1. Basic Sentence Structure
Subject + Verb
E.g. “我吃。” (I eat), “你去。” (You go)
Subject + Verb + Object
E.g. “我去看电影。” (I go watch movie), “他去公园。”
(He goes to the park)
Subject + Time + Verb + Object
E.g. “我今天买了食物” (I bought food today), “你昨天去
哪里？” (Where did you go yesterday?)
Subject + (Time) + Verb + Object + ma?
This makes the sentence a question
E.g. “你要吃饭吗？” (Do you want to eat?), “你喜欢吗”
(Do you like it?)
Subject + Time + Verb
E.g. “我今天去” (I go today), “他昨天玩” (He played
yesterday)
Subject + Time + Place + Verb
E.g. “我今天要在学校踢足球” (Today, I want to play
football at school)
1.2. Interrogative Sentences
Using “吗?”
E.g.
“你看了吗？” (Did you see it?)
“你想吃饭吗？” (Do you want to eat?)
Using “(Verb/Adj) 不 (Verb/Adj)”
E.g.
“我们一起回家，好不好？” (Let’s go home together,
okay?”
“你要不要做你的功课？” (Do you want to do your
homework?)
“你是一个医生，对不对？” (You are a doctor, right?”
Note: You can’t use “吗” if you’ve already used
“__不__” in your sentence or vice versa.
1.3. Past Tense
Verb + 了
E.g.
“你吃了吗？” (Did you eat?)
“我给了他” (I gave him)
1.4. Negative Sentences
Using 不
E.g.
“我今天晚上不喝酒” (Tonight I’m not going to drink
wine)
“我不吃肉” (I don’t eat meat)
“你晚上不洗澡吗？” (Don’t you shower at night?)
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“我不饿” (I’m not hungry)
“我家不远” (My house isn’t far)
Using 没
E.g.
“我没有钱” (I don’t have money)
“我没办法” (I have no solutions/way)
“你没去上班吗？” (You didn’t go to work?)
“我昨天没喝酒” (I Didn’t drink wine yesterday)
“妈妈没有做晚饭” (Mom didn’t cook dinner)
不
没
Negates in the Present
and Future
E.g. “爸爸不回来吃晚饭”
(Dad isn’t coming back
to eat dinner)
Negates Past Actions
E.g. “他没有打电话给我”
(He didn’t give me a
call)
Negates Habitual Actions
E.g. “他不喜欢说话” (He
doesn’t like to speak)
Only 没 Negates 有
E.g. “他没有女朋友” (He
doesn’t have a
girlfriend)
Note: There is NO
such thing as “不有”
Normally used with Adj.
E.g. “你不胖” (You are
not fat)
For making comparisons
E.g. “你没有我高” (You
are not as tall as me)
Used almost Exclusively
with Certain Verbs
Verbs like 是，在，知
道，认识 are negated
by 不
E.g. “我不知道” (I don’t
know)
1.5. Measure Words
Number + Measure Word + Noun
E.g.
“这里有三个人” (There are 3 people here)
“他有两只猫” (He has 2 cats)
“我刚买了一瓶水” (I just bought a bottle of water)
“我想吃一碗面条” (I want to eat a bowl of noodles)
We use “两” if we want to say that there is two, not “二”
More Measure words at page 5 of 6
2. Paper 3 (Oral Test)
2.1. Section 1 (第一部分)
This section is “Role Play”, usually you will be yourself
while your teacher will be someone else, e.g.
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3. Paper 4 (Writing)
3.1. Question 1
In this question, you are told to list 5 things that you
might see in a certain situation or location
‎
Your Teacher will ask you 5 questions regarding the
topic, and you are given 15 minutes to prepare on
predicting what the teacher will ask you and
answering them.
In this example, he/she might ask you about:
‎
In this example, one can write:
草 (Grass)
小鸟 (Birds)
花 (Flowers)
小朋友/小孩子 (Kids)
小狗 (Dogs)
操场 (Playground)
池塘 (Ponds)
“你的新学校好看吗？” (Does the new school look good?)
“你喜欢你的新学校吗？” (Do you like your new school?)
“你交了新朋友吗？” (Did you make any new friends?)
“老师们教的好不好？” (Can the teachers teach well?)
“在你新学校有什么有趣的?” (Any interesting things there?)
“你觉得你的新学校怎么样?” (What do you think about your
new school?)
These are just examples.
2.2. Section 2 (第二部分)
This section is “Topic Presentation/Conversation”, you can
prepare any topic you want (as long as it is appropriate)
to be presented for about 3-4 minutes.
Suitable topics are:
我的学校 (My school)
我的爱好 (My hobbies)
我的国家 (My country)
我的梦想 (My dream)
我的暑假 (My holidays)
我的好朋友 (My friend)
我的家庭 (My family)
我的哥哥/姐姐 (My brother/sister)
Your teacher will then ask you about 10 questions
about the topic that you have presented.
‎
3.2. Question 2
This question tells you to describe something, it can be
your friend, your holiday, your family, or even your
school.
Question Example:
‎
2.3. Section 3 (第三部分)
This section is “General Conversation”, your teacher will
simply ask you about your everyday life, e.g. school,
home, town, weekends, holidays, hobbies etc.
Question examples:
“你住在哪里？” (Where do you live?)
“你喜欢玩什么游戏？” (What game do you like to play?)
“每个星期天，你平时做什么？” (What do you usually do
every Sunday?)
“你的爱好是什么?” (What is your hobby?)
Your teacher might give follow up questions.
You are expected to reply naturally; it doesn’t have to
be in complete sentences.
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‎
Here’s an example for this question:
“我的最好的朋友叫李佳龙，他今年十九岁了，他在大学专业
计算机科学。
在他的家，有他的爸爸妈妈，他的妹妹，还有他的佣人。他
非常爱他的家庭。他的爸爸是一个博士，他的妈妈是一个家
庭主妇。
他的爱好是学数学，学中文，玩游戏。他喜欢学数学因为他
觉得数学不仅有用，还有很有趣。他也喜欢学中文因为他觉
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who did we do the sport activity with recently, and why
we like it.
It’s highly recommended to take the letter-writing
question because it is the easiest among the three.
Here’s an example:
“亲爱的李佳龙：
你好！你最近过得好吗？我想跟你说一说我最喜欢的体育活
动。
我最喜欢的体育活动是踢足球，是一个很有名的体育活动。
我开始踢足球从小的时候，大概五岁，跟爸爸一起踢足球。
上次，我跟我的朋友们在学校一起踢足球。在那个时候，我
们的学校有足球比赛。我们的队赢了。
我喜欢踢足球，因为踢足球不仅可以让你身体健康，还是我
觉得踢足球很有趣也很好玩。
期待早日收到你来信。祝你天天开心。
丽丽”
Translation:
得中文是很漂亮的语言。他还喜欢玩游戏，因为游戏可以让
他跟朋友一起玩。
我明天跟他学习，因为他的中文蛮好的，于是他教我中文。
我认为他教的很好也很有意思。
我喜欢他，因为他很善良，幽默，还很聪明。”
Translation:
“My best friend is Li Jialong. He is 19 years old. He is studying
computer science at university.
He lives with his mom, dad, little sister and his maid. His
father is a doctor while his mother is a housewife.
His hobbies are studying Mathematics, learning Chinese, and
playing games. He likes to learn math because he thinks
mathematics is not only useful, but also interesting. While for
Chinese, it’s because he thinks Chinese is a very beautiful
language. He also likes to play games because games allow
him to play with friends.
I will be studying with him tomorrow. Because his Chinese is
very good, so he teaches me Chinese. I think the way he
teaches is very well and very interesting.
I like him as a friend because he is very kind, humorous and
smart.”
And just like that we have over 200 words.
General tips:
“Dear Li Jialong:
Hello there! How are you doing? I want to tell you about my
favourite sport.
My favourite sport is playing football. It is a very famous
sport. I started playing football when I was young, about five
years old, I played football with my father.
Last time, I played football with my friends at school. At that
time, our school had a football match. Our team won.
I like to play football, because playing football can not only
make you healthy, but I also think it is interesting and fun.
Lili”
That is about 180 words
1. Start by doing the 1st question, try to put as many
details as possible. In the case above I introduced my
friend by mentioning his name, his age, and where he
is studying.
2. Use as many adjectives as possible, this will not only
reach the number of words needed, but it will also get
you more marks.
3. Either relate it to your real-life situation or imagine it.
In my case, I used my friend in real-life as an example
for this question so that I can answer easily because I
know him well.
4. Try to think of the sentence that you plan to write in
English first (or any language that you are comfortable
with) then translate it to Chinese.
4. Making letters
4.1. Letter Structure
3.3. Question 3
You are given 3 topics and you are only told to choose 1
of them, write about 150 words. E.g.
‎
The question above tells us to send a letter to our pen pal
about our favourite sport. They told me to write what my
favourite sport is, since when did we start liking it, with
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Greeting
Start with “亲爱的 (Name): ” which means “Dear
(Name) :”
Don’t forget to put the colon “ : ” after the name.
Under the “亲爱的 (Name): ” , it is good to follow up
with
“你好！你最近过得好吗？” which means “Hello! How
are you doing?”
Leave a 2-word indent after writing that.
Body
Start talking about the topic you have chosen, imagine
that you are telling a story or describing it to a friend.
Try to expand and put as many adjectives as you can,
this will increase your word count and marks.
Try to add additional details too.
Don’t forget to write what they need you to write
about.
Closing
I recommend you to write “期待早日收到你来信。祝你
(Wishes)” which means “I hope will receive your letter
soon, wish you (Wishes)”
Here are the examples of wishes you can use:
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天天开心 (To be happy everyday)
身体健康 (To be healthy)
心想事成 (Wishes/dreams to come true)
出入平安 (Have peace wherever you go)
吉祥如意 (Be lucky as you desire)
一帆风顺 (to have a smooth sail)
Write your name on the bottom right of the letter.
5. Useful tips to improve your
composition
Try to be familiar with as many vocabularies as possible, a
vocabulary list is provided in the back.
Listening to Chinese songs or watching Chinese movies
are helpful, they will familiarize you with Chinese accents
and especially sentence structure.
If you have trouble writing sentences. Try to use English
(or any other language that you are comfortable with)
then translate it to Chinese.
Use your heart (not literally please) when
writing/speaking/reading in Chinese.
Try to communicate with other people, like your friends
or online friends, Chinese.
6. Vocabulary List
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6.2. Vocabulary List
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6.3. Vocabulary List
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6.4. Vocabulary List
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6.5. Vocabulary List
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