Mandarin Body Vocabulary: a reference table of 8 words, with Chinese characters, dictionary pinyin and selected English meanings.
Vocabulary table#
| Chinese | Pinyin | Selected meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 头 | tóu | head |
| 眼睛 | yǎn jing | eyes |
| 耳朵 | ěr duo | ears |
| 鼻子 | bí zi | nose |
| 嘴 | zuǐ | mouth |
| 手 | shǒu | hand |
| 脚 | jiǎo | foot |
| 牙齿 | yá chǐ | teeth |
How to practise#
Cover the English column and recall the meaning of each item. Then cover the Chinese column and write the characters. This is a suggested exercise, not a claim that one method guarantees a particular learning outcome.
Reading and meaning#
Neutral-tone syllables are displayed without a tone mark, rather than with the source dictionary’s number 5. Open University’s tone guide illustrates this notation.
The table gives selected dictionary meanings and citation readings. Other senses and readings may exist in different contexts. Pinyin here is not an audio transcript, and these entries do not establish cultural beliefs or usage-frequency rankings.
Sources and lexical-data licence#
Lexical data adapted from CC-CEDICT contributors, distributed by MDBG, release dated 23 October 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Meanings have been selected and shortened; the exercise is newly written.