Holidays
Pack your bags. Learn the Chinese words for holidays, travel and the places you go, and say where you are going with 去 (qù).
Practise it out loud, together
A free interactive activity you can put in front of a class in a few minutes.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
Holidays
Holidays are one of the topics you will be asked to talk and write about: where you go, how you get there, and what you do. Every word below is shown three ways: the characters, the pinyin in brackets to help you say it, and the English meaning.
Key words (1)
Start with four holiday words:
Match each word to its meaning
- 假期 (jiàqī)
- 旅行 (lǚxíng)
- 海边 (hǎibiān)
- 飞机 (fēijī)
- holiday
- travel, a trip
- the seaside
- aeroplane
What fēijī means in Chinese
What does the Chinese word 飞机 (fēijī) mean?
- aeroplane
- the seaside
- holiday
- travel, a trip
Key words (2)
Now four more words you need for a holiday:
Match each word to its meaning
- 酒店 (jiǔdiàn)
- 火车 (huǒchē)
- 夏天 (xiàtiān)
- 照片 (zhàopiàn)
- hotel
- train
- 夏天 (xiàtiān)
- photo
Getting there
Select the TWO Chinese words that are ways of travelling.
- 飞机 (fēijī)
- 火车 (huǒchē)
- 酒店 (jiǔdiàn)
- 照片 (zhàopiàn)
Choose the Chinese word
In Chinese, the word for 'holiday' is _____, and the word for 'the seaside' is _____.
Saying where you go
You already met 去 (qù), meaning "go", in 去学校 (qù xuéxiào), "go to school". It works the same way for holidays: put the place straight after it. 我 (wǒ) = I, so 我去海边 (wǒ qù hǎibiān) means "I go to the seaside". Swap the place and you can say where any holiday takes you.
Where are you going?
Which sentence means "I go to the seaside"?
- 我去海边 (wǒ qù hǎibiān)
- 我去酒店 (wǒ qù jiǔdiàn)
- 我去学校 (wǒ qù xuéxiào)
- 我去北京 (wǒ qù Běijīng)
Places and transport
Holiday words fall into two groups. Sorting them this way makes them easier to recall, and adds one more place: 山 (shān), a mountain.
Planning a holiday
Plan a summer holiday using the words you have learned.
- You want a holiday by the sea. Which place do you choose?
- It is a long way, so you fly. Which word do you need?
- You want to tell a friend where you are going. Which sentence do you say?
One more
The Chinese word for 'summer' is _____, the word for 'photo' is _____, and the word for 'a mountain' is _____.
Your turn: write in Chinese
Write two or three sentences IN CHINESE about a holiday, using this module's own 我去 pattern. Write in characters - the pinyin in brackets is a reading aid only.
- Say where you go with 我去…… (wǒ qù ... - I go to ...): 海边 (hǎibiān - the seaside), 山 (shān - a mountain) or 酒店 (jiǔdiàn - a hotel)
- Name how you travel: 火车 (huǒchē - train) or 飞机 (fēijī - aeroplane)
- Name the season or the break: 夏天 (xiàtiān - summer), 假期 (jiàqī - a holiday) or 旅行 (lǚxíng - travel)
- Join two places with 和 (hé - and)