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| class="xl24" | 她們 (tā men)
| class="xl24" | 她們 (tā men)
| class="xl24" | They/them (fem.)  
| class="xl24" | They/them (fem.)  
|-
|}
The character們 can also be used to make a noun plural, similar to a final “s” for countable regular nouns in English, but this generally only applies to human nouns in Chinese.  For instance, the word 同學 (classmate; ''tóng xué'') can become 同學們 (classmates; ''tóng xué men''), 同事 (colleague; ''tóng shì'') becomes 同事們 (colleagues; tóng ''shì men''), 女士 (lady; ''nǚ shì'') becomes 女士們 (ladies; ''nǚ shì men''), and so forth.  <br>
 
Beyond the occasional use of 們, the plural in Chinese is generally either inferred from context or designated by the placement of a number.  When quantifying a noun in Chinese, classifiers are placed between the number and the noun, similar to the way in which uncountable nouns are designated in English (e.g. One '''cup''' of milk, a '''kernel''' of corn, a '''sum''' of money, etc.). Some examples of Chinese classifiers are as follows:
<br>
{| width="70%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0" class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| class="xl25" | '''Number'''
| class="xl25" | '''Classifier'''
| class="xl25" | '''Noun'''
| class="xl25" | '''Combined'''
| class="xl25" | '''Pinyin'''
| class="xl25" | '''English''' 
|-
| class="xl24" | 一
| class="xl24" | 個
| class="xl24" | 男孩
| class="xl24" | 一個男孩
| class="xl25" | ''yī gè nán hái''
| class="xl25" | One boy
|-
| class="xl24" | 三
| class="xl24" | 張
| class="xl24" | 紙
| class="xl24" | 三張紙
| class="xl25" | ''sān zhāng zhǐ''
| class="xl25" | Three sheets of paper
|-
| class="xl24" | 幾
| class="xl24" | 隻
| class="xl24" | 狗
| class="xl24" | 幾隻狗
| class="xl25" | ''jǐ zhī gǒu''
| class="xl25" | Some dogs
|-
|}
<br><br>
The above are just a few examples of classifiers in Chinese. A more complete list of classifiers can be found [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_classifiers here]. <br>
==Verb Tense==
Chinese verbs do not undergo conjugation. All verbs have a single form, regardless of the preceding pronoun or subject or whether the verb is being used in the past, present or future.  Chinese verb tenses are generally inferred from context or by the placement of time words as highlighted in the following examples:<br>
{| width="70%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0" class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| class="xl25" | '''Chinese Phrase'''
| class="xl25" | '''Pinyin'''
| class="xl25" | '''English (literal)'''
| class="xl25" | '''English Meaning'''
|-
| class="xl24" | 昨天我去
| class="xl24" | ''zuó tiān wǒ qù''
| class="xl24" | Yesterday I go
| class="xl24" | Yesterday I went
|-
| class="xl24" | 我上周就看他
| class="xl24" | ''wǒ shàng zhōu jiù kàn tā''
| class="xl24" | I last week see him
| class="xl24" | I saw him last week
|-
| class="xl24" | 他是1967年生的
| class="xl24" | ''Tā shì 1967 nián shēng de''
| class="xl24" | He is 1967 year born
| class="xl24" | He was born in 1967
|-
|}
Additional examples of verb tense in Chinese can be found [https://www.thoughtco.com/mandarin-timeframes-2279615 here]. <br>
==Additional Resources==
The word list below includes words that may be most commonly found in genealogical sources. A list of Chinese trades and occupations and the English equivalents can be found [http://carlgene.com/blog/2011/08/49-trades-crafts-and-occupations-in-english-and-chinese/ here].<br>
For further help, use a Chinese-English or English-Chinese dictionary. At the Family History Library, Chinese dictionaries are cataloged with call numbers 423.951 and 495.1321 – 495.17321. The following dictionaries available for reference in hardcopy format at the Family History Library may be particularly helpful:
*Mathews, Robert Henry, Mathews’ Chinese-English Dictionary
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1943 (ISBN: 0674123506; Call No. 495.1321)
*Editing Group, A New English-Chinese Dictionary
Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co. (Hong Kong Branch), 1975 (Call No. 423.951)
Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the [https://www.familysearch.org/catalog/search FamilySearch Catalog] under [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=171&query=%2Bplace%3AChina&subjectsOpen=337789-50 China – Language and languages - Dictionaries]. Most bookstores also carry inexpensive Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries.<br><br>
==Numbers==
Chinese has two sets of numbers. The most regularly-used set of numbers can be roughly translated as “small writing” (小寫; xiǎo xiě), and for the purposes of this glossary will be referred to as “numbers.” The other set is used in more formal contexts (e.g. financial, commercial, archival, etc.) and can be roughly translated as “large writing” (大寫; dà xiě), or more commonly, “financial numbers.”  The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3, etc.) versions of each number and financial number 0-10 as well as multiples of 10 up through 10,000 in Chinese.<br><br>
{| width="70%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0" class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| class="xl25" | '''English Number'''
| class="xl25" | '''Chinese Number'''
| class="xl25" | '''Chinese Financial Number'''
| class="xl25" | '''Pinyin'''
|-
| class="xl24" | 0
| class="xl24" | 〇
| class="xl24" | 零
| class="xl24" | ''líng''
|-
| class="xl24" | 1
| class="xl24" | 一
| class="xl24" | 壹
| class="xl24" | ''yī''
|-
| class="xl24" | 2
| class="xl24" | 二
| class="xl24" | 貳
| class="xl24" | ''èr''
|-
| class="xl24" | 3
| class="xl24" | 三
| class="xl24" | 叁
| class="xl24" | ''sān''
|-
| class="xl24" | 4
| class="xl24" | 四
| class="xl24" | 肆
| class="xl24" | ''sì''
|-
| class="xl24" | 5
| class="xl24" | 五
| class="xl24" | 伍
| class="xl24" | ''wǔ''
|-
| class="xl24" | 6
| class="xl24" | 六
| class="xl24" | 陸
| class="xl24" | ''liù''
|-
| class="xl24" | 7
| class="xl24" | 七
| class="xl24" | 柒
| class="xl24" | ''qī''
|-
| class="xl24" | 8
| class="xl24" | 八
| class="xl24" | 捌
| class="xl24" | ''bā''
|-
| class="xl24" | 9
| class="xl24" | 九
| class="xl24" | 玖
| class="xl24" | ''jiǔ''
|-
| class="xl24" | 10
| class="xl24" | 十
| class="xl24" | 拾
| class="xl24" | ''shí''
|-
| class="xl24" | 100
| class="xl24" | 百
| class="xl24" | 佰
| class="xl24" | ''bǎi''
|-
| class="xl24" | 1,000
| class="xl24" | 千
| class="xl24" | 仟
| class="xl24" | ''qiān''
|-
| class="xl24" | 10,000
| class="xl24" | 萬
| class="xl24" | 萬
| class="xl24" | ''wàn''
|-
|}
<br><br>
Numbers between 10 and 100 are formed by creating a multiple of ten (十) and adding the ones. For example, 11 is 十一, 15 is 十五, 20 is 二十 (20 can also be written as廿), 21 is 二十一, 85 is 八十五, and so forth. The same applies to numbers between 100 and 1,000, with 〇 used to denote the internal zero. For example, 100 is 一百, 101 is 一百〇一, 127 is 百二十七, 327 is 三百二十七, 999 is 九百九十九 and so forth. For a more detailed overview of how Chinese numbers are formed, additional information can be found [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals#Standard_numbers here].<br>
     
For ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), the character 第 (dì) is placed before the cardinal number. For example, 第一is 1st, 第二is 2nd, 第三is 3rd, etc.<br>
==Dates/Calendar==
Unlike much of the Western world, Chinese dates are in order of Year-Month-Day, represented by the characters年 (nián), 月 (yuè) and 日/號 (rì/hào), respectively. In modern times, Chinese dates can also be abbreviated in hyphenated form, similar to the Western world, but still in the same year-month-day format, e.g. 1972-02-16 (February 16, 1972 or 02-16-1972), 2016-12-01 (December 1, 2016 or 12-01-2016), and so forth. Below are examples of dates in English and their Chinese equivalents using both characters and numbers:
{| width="70%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0" class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| class="xl25" | '''English Date'''
| class="xl25" | '''Chinese Date'''
| class="xl25" | '''Chinese Date (digits)''' 
|-
| class="xl24" | April 7, 1875
| class="xl24" | 一八七五年四月七日
| class="xl24" | 1875年4月7日 (1875-04-07)
|-
| class="xl24" | September 23, 1956
| class="xl24" | 一九五六年九月二十三日
| class="xl24" | 1956年9月23日 (1956-09-23)
|-
| class="xl24" | January 30, 2013
| class="xl24" | 二〇一三年一月三十日
| class="xl24" | 2013年1月30日 (2013-01-30)
|-
|}
The above three dates would be written vertically as follows:
{| width="70%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0" class="FCK__ShowTableBorders"
|-
| class="xl25" | <u>April 7, 1875</u>
| class="xl25" | <u>September 23, 1956</u>
| class="xl25" | <u>January 30, 2013</u>
|-
| class="xl24" | 一
| class="xl24" | 一
| class="xl24" | 二
|-
| class="xl24" | 八
| class="xl24" | 九
| class="xl24" | 〇
|-
| class="xl24" | 七
| class="xl24" | 五
| class="xl24" | 一
|-
| class="xl24" | 五
| class="xl24" | 六
| class="xl24" | 三
|-
| class="xl24" | 年
| class="xl24" | 年
| class="xl24" | 年
|-
| class="xl24" | 四
| class="xl24" | 九
| class="xl24" | 一
|-
| class="xl24" | 月
| class="xl24" | 月
| class="xl24" | 月
|-
| class="xl24" | 七
| class="xl24" | 二
| class="xl24" | 三
|-
| class="xl24" | 日
| class="xl24" | 十
| class="xl24" | 十
|-
| class="xl24" |
| class="xl24" | 三
| class="xl24" | 日
|-
| class="xl24" |
| class="xl24" |日
| class="xl24" |
|-
|-
|}
|}
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