Measure words are used whenever you talk about quantities in Chinese. You can’t attach numbers directly to nouns - you have to put a measure word in between.

To talk about things being in places, use the word 在 (zài). This is actually a verb, so you don’t need to use any other words to talk about something being somewhere.

You put a lot of effort into building, maintaining and studying your Chinese flashcard deck, but are you missing out on an opportunity to make it even more beneficial to your Chinese learning?

The 17th rule in Dr Wozniak’s 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge is about redundancy in the learning process.

The sixteenth rule in the 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge is “Context cues simplify wording”.

The fifteenth rule in 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge is “rely on emotional states”. Let’s see how you can apply this to learning Chinese.

This grammar structure is one of the most basic and important features of Chinese grammar: modifier + 的 + noun

The fourteenth rule in the 20 Rules for Learning is “personalise and provide examples”.

Knowledge doesn’t exist in isolation, and this is especially true for language learning. To get good at Chinese, it’s important to build 语感: a natural sense for the language.

Expanding on existing material is also a good way to build natural, interconnected knowledge of Chinese.

This is the eleventh article in this series based on Dr Piotr Wozniaks 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge. The eleventh rule is “combat interference”.

We’ve now looked at sets and enumerations and how can make them less of an obstacle to your long term learning.

The ninth rule in 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge is “avoid sets”. What does this mean in terms of study methods, and how can it be applied to language learning?

Cloze deletion is a well-known language learning technique, but a lot of learners limit it to deleting words from sentences.

Rule #7 in the 20 Rules for Learning is “use mnemonics”. This is such a fundamental part of effective learning that it is covered in several articles on this site and elsewhere.

When learning with flashcards, a rookie mistake is to put too much content into individual flashcards.

Many courses use images for teaching basic vocabulary in the early stages of learning Chinese, but after that most learners do not make much use of imagery in their studies.

Cloze deletion is one of the classic methods for using flashcards effectively. It’s recommended in SuperMemo’s 20 rules because it’s straightforward to use and produces great results for all k

This is an interesting rule when it comes to learning Chinese, because it is fundamental to the learning process, but it’s not the only approach we should incorporate into our studies.

Memorisation of material is a big part of many people’s approach to learning Chinese. Some aspects of memorisation are essential: seeking out ways to enforce and retain what you’re learning in