Mandarin: Parts of the body

As well as talking about yourself in terms of your name and age in Mandarin, it can be useful to be able to talk about body parts.

Did you know?

Mandarin does not make any difference between singular and plural, ie you do not add an ‘s’ or change the word form as in ‘mouse’ and ‘mice’.

This means that ‘脚jiǎo’ means both ‘foot’ and ‘feet’.

You can combine these body parts with the Mandarin phrase 这是Zhè shì (This is), for example:

这是我的鼻子Zhè shì wǒ de bí zi – This is my nose

More useful, though, would be to add the Mandarin word ‘疼téng‘ (hurt).

For example:

• 我头疼Wǒ tóu téng – My head hurts

• 我肚子疼Wǒ dù zi téng – My stomach hurts

• 我眼睛疼Wǒ yǎn jīng téng – My eyes hurt

When describing parts of the body in Mandarin, you need to know some common adjectives.

So, to say ‘My hair is long’ in Mandarin, you would say:

我的头发长Wǒ de tóu fa cháng – My hair is long

You could also use the word 很hěn (very) in Mandarin before the body part for emphasis.

Some examples for using colours to describe your eyes and hair in Mandarin include:

• 我的眼睛是蓝色的Wǒ de yǎn jīng shì lán sè de – My eyes are blue

• 我的头发是红色的Wǒ de tóu fa shì hóng sè de – My hair is red

To learn more about colours in Mandarin, click here.