For those of you starting to learn Chinese, one of the first things you’ll notice is how different it feels from English. But don’t worry—there are some parts that are actually simpler. One of the easiest things about Chinese is that verbs don’t change depending on tense or subject, unlike English. For example, in English, you have “go,” “goes,” “went,” and “going,” all for different tenses or subjects. In Chinese, the verb for “to go” is always “去” (qù)—it doesn’t change no matter when or who is involved.
However, there are challenging aspects as well, like the tones and characters. English is non-tonal, but in Chinese, the meaning of a word can change depending on the tone you use, which we’ll get into a bit later. Another difference is that Chinese uses characters instead of an alphabet. While this may seem daunting at first, once you start recognizing patterns in the characters, it gets easier. So, while Chinese and English have their differences, there are aspects that can make Chinese more straightforward once you get the hang of it.