Quantcast

Learn Mandarin Online Mini Story – 分手 Breakup [1] (Beginner to Elementary)

Posted by Grace Feng on September 20, 2012

This Learn Chinese short story is written for beginner to elementary level readers. Sentence patterns are simple. You can learn a few new words along your reading. No pressure, take your time. I assume most of my readers are adults or even older teenagers. You really don’t need to start with kids’ stories. I hope my short stories can give you some simple Chinese to read in adulthood.

To see how reading levels are rated, please click here.

Learn Mandarin Online Mini Chinese Novel – 分手 Breakup [1] (Beginner Level)

[simplified Chinese and pinyin]

fēn shŏu
分 手 (1)

 

hěn wǎn le。

很晚了。

It was deep in the night.

 

tā， yīgèrén zuò zhe。

他，一个人坐着。

He was sitting all alone.

 

zhuō shàng shì kōng jiǔ píngzi。

桌上是空酒瓶子。

There were empty wine bottles on the table.

 

tā hé tā fēnshǒu yǒu shí gè xiǎoshí le。

他和她分手有十个小时了。

Ten hours had passed since the two of them broke up.

 

tā zhǐ juéde yè hěn cháng, yě hěn liáng。。。

他只觉得夜很长, 也很凉。。。

He only felt the night was too long, and too cold …

 

 

 

ér tā， zhèng zuò zài huǒchē shàng， xiǎng zhe tāmen

fēnshǒu de xiàwǔ。

而她，正坐在火车上，想着他们分手的下午。

And she, who was riding on a train, was thinking about the afternoon that they broke up.

 

bù jìde tāmen wèishénme zhēngchǎo。

不记得他们为什么争吵。

She couldn’t remember how the fight started.

 

kěshì tāmen dōu hăn chū le” fēnshǒu” liǎng gè zì。

可是他们都喊出了分手两个字。

However both of them tossed out the word “breakup”.

 

jiù zhè yàng, tā men yĭ fēn shŏu jié shù le sān nián de ài qíng。

就这样，他们以分手结束了三年的爱情。

Just like that, they broke up and ended their three years’ relationship.

 

[simplified Chinese without pinyin]

 

分 手 (1)

 

很晚了。

他，一个人坐着。

桌上是空酒瓶子。

他和她分手有十个小时了。

他只觉得夜很长, 也很凉。。。

 

而她，正坐在火车上，想着他们分手的下午。

不记得他们为什么争吵。

可是他们都喊出了”分手”两个字。

就这样，他 们 以 分 手 结 束 了 三 年 的爱 情。

 

[traditional Chinese]

分 手 (1)

 

很晚了。

他，一個人坐著。

桌上是空酒瓶子。

他和她分手有十個小時了。

他只覺得夜很長, 也很涼。。。

 

而她，正坐在火車上，想著他們分手的下午。

不記得他們為什麼爭吵。

可是他們都喊出了”分手”兩個字。

就這樣，他 們 以 分 手 結 束 了 叁 年 的 愛 情。

 

[vocabulary table]

Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese Mandarin Pinyin English Definition
酒 酒 jiu3 wine
瓶子 瓶子 ping2 zi5 bottle
分手 分手 fen1 shou3 to split up; to break up;
小时 小時 xiao3 shi2 hour
觉得 覺得 jue2 de5 to think; to feel;
夜 夜 ye4 night;
凉 涼 liang2 cold; cool;
争吵 爭吵 zheng1chao3 dispute; strife;
就 就 jiu4 just (emphasis);
结束 結束 jie2 shu4 to finish; to end;
爱情 愛情 ai4 qing2 romance; love (romantic)

 

to be continued …

 

Related posts:

Chinese Reader for adult learners – Wan Jun 婉君 [6] (Elementary to Intermediate)
Learn Chinese Online Short Story – 我身后的眼睛 The Eyes Behind Me [6] (Elementary)
Chinese readings: A Real Mystery Story in Lop Nur 失踪 (Missing) 3 [Elmentary]

 

Category: Chinese short stories

Tags: , , , , ,

Top

You can share this post here:

6 Responses to “Learn Mandarin Online Mini Story – 分手 Breakup [1] (Beginner to Elementary)”

  1. nothing

    白睿:

    09-20-2012 1:40 pm

    Hello Grace. Such a sad story! It seems that there is a difference in the final sentence of the Simplified and the Traditional versions of the story: one has 他们以分手结束了三年的爱情、the other is 他們以分手告別. Looks like you originally wrote 2 versions!
    Also you did not mention in your vocab table that 凉 can also mean ‘cool’, ‘cold’ which is the most important meaning in the context of your tale.

    Reply

    • nothing

      Grace:

      09-21-2012 1:49 am

      Thank you so much for your proofreading on my writing, 白睿! Yes, that was a mistake, I just corrected.

      I didn’t ran through each single word for the vocabulary table and trusted Purpleculture too much. From now on, I will run through vocabulary table more carefully.

      The second part will be posted soon tonight…

      Grace

      Reply

  2. nothing

    马吉雅:

    09-22-2012 12:16 am

    Dear Grace,
    first of all, I’m amazed what a wonderful teacher you are. Secondly, I count myself as having an intermediate level in reading Chinese. Reading your mini-novel didn’t provide me much difficulties. Just one or two hanzi (included the title, 哈哈）。 So, I guess this text is not to hard for someone who has a knowledge of about 500 hanzi or above. Great work!

    Reply

    • nothing

      Grace:

      09-22-2012 2:41 am

      Thanks a lot, 马吉雅, for your quick check! I’m happy my “rating” looks right. I’m also happily surprised that intermediate level learners are not too rare to find nowadays :-D

      I will post more mini novels with different ratings moving forward, might need your help to check again. Much appreciated…

      Grace

      Reply

  3. nothing

    Shlomo:

    10-26-2012 2:29 am

    Grace,
    Yuo publish wonderful things. Can you publish your novel, with all Characters together not separated in line with the pinyin and English? I find it very distracting reading this way, as my eyes go automatically to the pinyin, which I want to avoid.

    Publishing it the way you did with the traditional characters would be great.
    Thanks,
    Shlomo

    Reply

    • nothing

      Grace Feng:

      10-26-2012 2:49 am

      Shlomo,

      Thanks for your advice!

      I’ve also received different opinion that needs to have pinyin on top (for beginners especially).

      How about this? Let me put character together and place the excerpt under the block with pinyin. This way both groups of readers can read the way they want?

      For the other two mini novels, since they are elementary levels and above, I took the pinyin out.

      I will update this one with changes in the next hour.

      Feel free to let me know if you have any other suggestions…

      :-)

      Grace

      Reply

Leave Reply

Categories

Recent Comments

Archives

Recent Entries



Copyright © 2012 Just Learn Chinese

Design by Cialis générique.