Sport & Leisure: Vocabulary for hobbies, games, and free time

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Pinyin is the standard romanisation used to show Mandarin pronunciation using the Latin alphabet. You’ll often see tone marks on the vowels to show the four tones (plus the neutral tone), for example mā / má / mǎ / mà / ma. “Numbered pinyin” shows the same tones using a number after the syllable instead of tone marks, for example ma1 / ma2 / ma3 / ma4 / ma (sometimes written as ma5 for the neutral tone). Numbered pinyin is handy when you can’t easily type tone marks, while tone-mark pinyin is usually easier to read once you’re used to it.

爱好

• Pinyin: ài hào
• Numbered pinyin: ai4 hao4
• English translation: hobby, interest

唱歌

• Pinyin: chàng gē
• Numbered pinyin: chang4 ge1
• English translation: to sing (a song)

打球

• Pinyin: dǎ qiú
• Numbered pinyin: da3 qiu2
• English translation: to play ball

好玩儿

• Pinyin: hǎo wán r
• Numbered pinyin: hao3 wan2 r5
• English translation: fun, amusing

球

• Pinyin: qiú
• Numbered pinyin: qiu2
• English translation: ball

玩儿

• Pinyin: wán r
• Numbered pinyin: wan2 r5
• English translation: to play, to have fun

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