When addressing someone it is polite and quite commonplace to use personal titles like Mr., Mrs., Dr., and the like. We learned 大夫, and 老師 in the previous lesson. In Chinese, personal titles are placed after the surname, so instead of saying Dr. Wang we say 王 [Wáng] 大夫.

Additionally, it is customary to address all teachers, kindergarten teachers to university professors, as 老師. Again the title follows the surname, 王老師.

The following are more examples of personal titles accompanied by common Chinese surnames:

We learned 你 in the first lesson. When speaking to someone in authority, one's elder, or your girl friend's parents you will want to use the honorific pronoun 您 (nín). Use it just like you would use 你. However, 您 is not used in the plural form, so for the plural stick with 你們.

When using polite address it is customary to initially use the personal title. Following references can use the honorific 您. For example:

In Chinese like in English it is always good to be polite. While the precise meaning of the following polite words may vary from what we are accustomed to in English, the words themselves can be used just as you would their equivalents in English.

I should point out the difference between 不客氣 and 歡迎. The first is used after someone thanks you, or offers you a compliment. The second is used to invite someone into your home, or place of business.

So far we learned that in Chinese adjectives are stative verbs, or adjectival predicates. We also learned 是 which is the verb similar to "is". In the previous lesson 看 (kàn: to see) was our first action verb. In this lesson we learn several new verbs. These are transitive verbs, meaning that the verb is followed by an object. For example:

We can use these verbs to make positive or negative statements and to ask questions.