A Self-Introduction (自我介绍)

Welcome to the Annotated Texts group. Instead of drilling one rule at a time, these pages take a whole, natural piece of Chinese and walk through it sentence by sentence, so you can watch the grammar working together. We begin where every Chinese course begins — the 自我介绍 (zìwǒ jièshào), the self-introduction you give on the first day of class or at a new job. It's the perfect first text because nearly every piece of it is bedrock HSK1 grammar: the copula 是 for who you are, 叫 for your name, 岁 for age (with no verb), 有 for your family, and 喜欢 + verb for hobbies. Read this comfortably and you can already produce it.

The text

Here is our model 自我介绍 — a young man introducing himself to a new class:

大家好！ 我叫李明。 我是中国人。 我今年二十岁。 我是大学生。 我家有四口人。 我喜欢打篮球，也喜欢看电影。 很高兴认识大家！

"Hi everyone! My name is Li Ming. I'm Chinese. I'm twenty this year. I'm a university student. There are four people in my family. I like playing basketball, and I also like watching movies. Nice to meet you all!"

Notice something before we start: after the first 我叫李明, the speaker keeps saying 我 ("I") — but a native speaker would often drop it once it's obvious. We'll keep it here because it makes the grammar transparent; just know that Chinese lets the subject fall away once it's established.

Line by line

1. The opener. 大家好 is a frozen group greeting — literally "everyone, (be) well." 大家 (dàjiā) means "everyone," and 好 is the same 好 as in 你好. It's fixed; just learn it whole.

2. Your name — with 叫, not 是. To state your name, Chinese uses 叫 (jiào, "to be called"), not the copula 是. 我叫李明 is literally "I am-called Li Ming." Family name comes first, so 李 is the surname and 明 the given name.

3. Your nationality — the copula 是. For "I am X" where X is a noun (a nationality, a role), you use 是 (shì). 中国人 is literally "China-person." There are no articles and no plural — just 是 + noun.

4. Your age — and no verb at all. This is the line that surprises English speakers. To give an age you say 今年 ("this year") + the number + 岁 ("years of age") — and you use no 是. 我今年二十岁 has no verb; the number-phrase is the predicate.

5. Your status — 是 again. Back to the copula for a role: 我是大学生, "I am a university student." 大学 is "university," 生 is "student."

6. Your family — 有 for "there is / have." To say how many people are in your family, Chinese uses 有 (yǒu, "have / there is"). Note the measure word: people in a household are counted with 口 (kǒu), not 个 — 四口人 "four people."

7. Your hobbies — 喜欢 + verb. To say what you like doing, put a verb straight after 喜欢 (xǐhuan, "to like"): 喜欢打篮球 "like playing basketball." 也 (yě, "also") lets you add a second one. Recall that ball games played with the hands take 打, so it's 打篮球.

8. The closing. 很高兴认识大家 — "(I'm) very happy to know you all" — is the standard warm sign-off. 认识 (rènshi) is "to get to know / be acquainted with," and 很高兴 "very happy" wraps the whole introduction up politely.

Grammar in this text

叫 vs 是 — two ways to "be"

English uses "be" for both "My name is Li Ming" and "I am Chinese." Chinese splits them: names take 叫 (jiào) "be called," while identity/category takes 是 (shì). So 我叫李明 but 我是中国人 — never 我是李明 for a name, and never 我叫中国人 for a nationality.

是 links two nouns — and only nouns

是 connects a subject to a noun predicate: 我是学生, 他是老师. The crucial thing for beginners is what 是 does not do — it does not go before adjectives. "I am tired" is 我很累, not *我是累. That's why the age line and the hobby line have no 是: age is a number-phrase and "like" is a verb, so no copula is needed.

Age has no verb

我今年二十岁 is a nominal predicate: the age phrase directly follows the subject with no linking verb. This is a small closed set in Chinese (age, dates, prices, "what day is it") where the predicate is a quantity and 是 is dropped. See how to build ages on counting age.

有 for family and possession

我家有四口人 uses 有 (yǒu) for existence/possession — "my family has four people." 有 is also how you'd list the members: 有爸爸、妈妈、姐姐和我. For the family words themselves, see kinship terms.

喜欢 + verb for hobbies

To say what you enjoy doing, drop a verb phrase straight after 喜欢 — no "to," no "-ing": 喜欢打篮球, 喜欢看电影, 喜欢听音乐. English needs "like to play / like playing"; Chinese just juxtaposes the two verbs.

Dropping the pronoun

Chinese is a topic-prominent language: once you are established as the topic, 我 quietly disappears. A natural spoken version of lines 3–5 might be just 中国人，二十岁，大学生 — see personal pronouns and topic–comment structure. Keeping 我 in every line, as we did, is clear but a touch heavier than a native would speak.

Vocabulary

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
大家	dàjiā	everyone
叫	jiào	to be called (name)
是	shì	to be (copula)
中国人	Zhōngguó rén	Chinese (person)
今年	jīnnián	this year
岁	suì	years of age
大学生	dàxuéshēng	university student
家	jiā	family, home
有	yǒu	to have; there is
口	kǒu	measure word for family members
喜欢	xǐhuan	to like
打篮球	dǎ lánqiú	play basketball
看电影	kàn diànyǐng	watch a movie
认识	rènshi	to get to know, be acquainted
高兴	gāoxìng	happy, glad

Common Mistakes

1. Using 是 for your name. Names take 叫, not 是.

2. Putting 是 before the age. Age is a number-phrase predicate with no copula.

3. Adding 是 before a hobby verb. 喜欢 is followed directly by the verb — no 是, no "to."

4. Counting family with 个 instead of 口. People in a household are measured with 口.

Key Takeaways

• Names take 叫, identity/category takes 是 — 我叫李明 but 我是中国人.
• 是 never precedes an adjective, an age, or a hobby verb: 我很累, 我今年二十岁, 我喜欢打篮球 all drop it.
• 有 carries family and possession: 我家有四口人; count household members with 口, not 个.
• 喜欢 + verb states a hobby directly — no "to," no "-ing."
• Once you're the obvious topic, Chinese drops 我; the full-pronoun version here is clear but slightly heavy.