ちゅうごくご
chūgokugolanguage
Japanese has separate words for Chinese. ちゅうごくご (chūgokugo) is the Chinese language and ちゅうごくじん (chūgokujin) is a Chinese person.
Meaning: language or person from China (noun)
Ways to say it
| Japanese | Romanization | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ちゅうごくご | chūgokugo | language |
| ちゅうごくじん | chūgokujin | person |
Both words are built from ちゅうごく (chūgoku), meaning China. Add ご (go) for language and じん (jin) for a person of that nationality.
How does it change in a sentence?
The same pattern works for other languages, for example えいご (eigo) for English and にほんご (nihongo) for Japanese.
Did you know?
- Japanese uses many Chinese characters, called かんじ (kanji), which came from China.
Examples in context
- ちゅうごくごを勉強しています。chūgokugo o benkyō shite imasu.I am studying Chinese.
- 友だちはちゅうごくじんです。tomodachi wa chūgokujin desu.My friend is Chinese.
Example conversation
Leo asks his coworker Rika about her friend.
- Leoあの人はだれですか。ano hito wa dare desu ka.Who is that person?
- Rikaちゅうごくじんの友だちです。chūgokujin no tomodachi desu.She is my Chinese friend.
- Leoちゅうごくごが話せますか。chūgokugo ga hanasemasu ka.Can you speak Chinese?
