Free-Time Activities: Music, Film and Sport
Read Chinese characters for free time: sport like football and swimming, music and dancing, and watching films and TV.
Practise it before the paper, not after
Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
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Free time in Chinese
This module builds your Chinese for free time: sport, music and film, all read in Chinese characters.
Each example is a Chinese word with its English meaning. A full sentence looks like this: 我喜欢游泳 (wǒ xǐhuān yóuyǒng), meaning I like swimming. Reading the characters one by one helps you work out the meaning.
Four sports to start
Start with four sports. The pinyin after each meaning shows how to say it.
Match each music word
- 听音乐
- 唱歌
- 弹吉他
- 跳舞
- to listen to music
- to sing
- to play the guitar
- to dance
Characters build meaning
Chinese characters often join smaller meanings. 电 means electric and 影 means shadow or image, so 电影 means a film. Look for a character you know inside a longer word, and the meaning often becomes clear.
Which word is to swim?
Which Chinese word means to swim?
- 游泳
- 跑步
- 唱歌
- 看电影
Spot the two sports
Select the TWO words that are sports.
- 踢足球
- 打羽毛球
- 看电影
- 听音乐
Match each screen word
- 看电影
- 看电视
- 动画片
- 去电影院
- to watch a film
- to watch TV
- a cartoon
- to go to the cinema
Sport and screen
Reading the whole word tells you what kind of activity it is. Here are more of each to read.
Find the two sports
Tap the TWO words that are sports.
- 踢足球, to play football
- 看电影, to watch a film
- 游泳, to swim
- 唱歌, to sing
Reading a sentence
Now read a full Chinese sentence:
我看电影 (wǒ kàn diànyǐng) = "I watch films". Three characters and a word: 我 (wǒ, "I"), 看 (kàn, "to watch"), then 电影 (diànyǐng, "film"). Chinese keeps the order I - watch - film, close to English.
What does it say?
In 我看电影 (wǒ kàn diànyǐng), what does the person do?
- They watch films
- They go swimming
- They sing songs
- They go running
A trip to the cinema
Put the steps of going to see a film into a sensible order.
- Choose a film to watch
- Go to the cinema
- Buy a ticket
- Watch the film
- Talk about it afterwards
Complete the free-time facts
The word 游泳 means to _____. The word 踢足球 means to play _____. The word 听音乐 means to listen to _____. The word 看电影 means to watch a _____. The character 电 means _____.
Read the poster
Use what you know to read each Chinese word on a poster. Choose each time.
- A club poster reads 踢足球 (tī zúqiú). What can you do there?
- A class is for 打太极拳 (dǎ tàijíquán). What does it teach?
- A listing reads 看电影 (kàn diànyǐng). What is on?
Write about your free time
In English, write about the sport, music and films you enjoy, using some of the Chinese words. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.
- Name a sport you enjoy, with its Chinese word
- Name a kind of music or film you like, with its Chinese word
- Explain how a character like 电 helps you read a longer word
- Write one full Chinese sentence with 我, for example 我喜欢游泳