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Home / Language / Learn Chinese / Learn Chinese: Introduction to Chinese Conversation / How to introduce family members

How to introduce family members

This video is about family members and relationships.
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9.8
LI Hui: Amy, what are you doing?
12.1
LI Yameng: I’m looking at the photo of my family that my father sent me just now.
16.2
LI Hui: Can I take a look?
17.3
LI Yameng: Sure. Wǒ jiā yǒu sān kǒu rén. Bàba māma hé wǒ.
25.5
LI Hui: Wow. Such a happy family.
29.6
Let’s take a look at the sentence “Wǒ jiā yǒu sān kǒu rén.”, which means “there are three people in my family.” You can replace “sān” with other numbers.
45
LI Yameng: Now let’s review how do you count numbers in Chinese. Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ.
58.7
Please fill in the blank by yourself. Wǒ jiā yǒu __ kǒu rén.
67.1
For example, “Wǒ jiā yǒu sān kǒu rén.” “Yǒu” means “to be” or “to have”.
76.6
LI Yameng: Lydia, nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?
78.3
LI Hui: Wǒ jiā yǒu sì kǒu rén.
78.7
LI Yameng: Nǐ yǒu xiōngdìjiěmèi ma?
85.8
Do you have any siblings?
87.8
LI Hui: Duì,wǒ yǒu gēge The question “Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?” means “how many members there are in your family.” “Jǐ” is a question word for numbers.
105.2
Nǐ yǒu gēge ma? Do you have an elder brother? The negative form is “méiyǒu” like “Wǒ méiyǒu gēge.” I don’t have an elder brother.
122.4
LI Yameng: You will notice that in the sentence “Wǒ jiā yǒu sì kǒu rén”, there is the word “kǒu”. In English, you just say four people. But in Chinese, we put a measure word between the number and the noun. Well, “kǒu” is a measure word for family members since “kǒu”, mouth refers to family members who need to eat everyday.
151.5
LI Hui: You know what Amy? In fact, I’ve got a new family recently.
155.6
LI Yameng: Oh really? Congratulations.
158.4
LI Hui: Thanks.
159.3
LI Yameng: Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?
159.9
LI Hui: Wǒ jiā yǒu wǔ kǒu rén.
163.9
We live together with my husband’s parents and his younger sister.
168.3
LI Yameng: Such a big family.
170.4
LI Hui: Yeah, right. Just as Chinese cultural traditions, all the family members live under the same roof.
177.2
LI Yameng: Yeah.
179.2
LI Hui: Well, let’s take a review. If you want to know how many family members there
184.4
are in someone’s family, in Chinese you can say:
188.4
LI Yameng: Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?
190.7
LI Hui: And if you want to know whether someone has any siblings or not in Chinese, you can say–
197.9
LI Yameng: Nǐ yǒu xiōngdìjiěmèi ma?

Family is a classic topic in China. This video is about family members and relationships.

If you want to know how many family members there are in someone’s family, you can use the following sentence pattern.

audio

  • 你家有几口人？ (Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?)
  • how many members are there in your family?

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This content is taken from
Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) online course,

Learn Chinese: Introduction to Chinese Conversation

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The answer of this question is
我(Wǒ) 家(jiā) 有(yǒu) +number+ 口(kǒu) 人(rén).

If you want to know whether someone has any siblings or not, in Chinese you can ask “你有兄弟姐妹吗？ (Nǐ yǒu xiōngdìjiěmèi ma?)” The negative form of “有(yǒu)” is “没有(méiyǒu)”.

So if you don’t have any siblings, you can answer like “我没有兄弟姐妹。(Wǒ méiyǒu xiōngdìjiěmèi)”.

Family members and relationships are the important part of the cultural tradition. If you are interested to know the Chinese family values or other words related to the family members, please feel free to leave us comments.

Want to keep learning?

This content is taken from Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) online course
Learn Chinese: Introduction to Chinese Conversation
View Course
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