ABSTRACT
Some of the sounds of Mandarin Chinese are so similar to English sounds, they will present no difficulty for the learner. Others are less similar to sounds in English but have a close enough resemblance, and a third group of sounds does not occur in English at all. This chapter provides various vocabularies in Chinese with their matching English translation. English translation enables to follow Chinese more closely. It delivers various grammer explanations where Relative place words (RPW), as distinct from ordinary place words, have a point of reference. Grammatically they fall into two categories: 'free' words that can be used separately from the point of reference or linked to it by the subordinating marker and 'bound' words that are attached to the point of reference as suffixes. The free words as well as the bound come after the point of reference. Expansion Drills gives confidence in building up longer and longer sentences, and increase fluency at the same time.
