Saying Goodbye

Audio links are marked with ?

In the previous lesson we learned about Mandarin Chinese tones. Remember to always learn new vocabulary with its proper tones. Let's practice by saying "Goodbye" in Mandarin Chinese.

?zai jian - Saying "Goodbye" in Mandarin Chinese

Each of the two characters of zai jian - 再見/再? are pronounced in the fourth (falling) tone. Listen to the sound file and try to repeat the tones exactly as you hear them.

Zai jian is two syllables, each represented by a Chinese character. It is possible to examine the meaning of each character, but it is important to remember that zai jian is a complete phrase. Chinese characters have individual meanings, but the majority of Mandarin vocabulary is made of compounds of two or more characters.

For interests sake, here are the possible translations of the two characters 再見 (traditional) 再? (simplified).

zai - 再

againonce morenext in sequenceanother

jian - 見/?

to seeto meetto appear (to be something)to interview

So a possible translation of zai jian - 再見/再? is "again to meet". But don't think of zai jian - 再見/再? as two words - it is one phrase that means "goodbye".

Here are some other common ways to say "goodbye". Listen to the sound files and try to reproduce the tones as closely as possible.

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