CSAT Second Language/Hanja cheat sheet

Three genders: masculine (der), feminine (die), neuter (das); plural article is always die in nominative and accusative.

Nominative case marks the subject; accusative marks the direct object; dative marks the indirect object; genitive marks possession.

Definite articles by case: nom. der/die/das/die; acc. den/die/das/die; dat. dem/der/dem/den; gen. des/der/des/der.

Indefinite articles: nom. ein/eine/ein; acc. einen/eine/ein; dat. einem/einer/einem; gen. eines/einer/eines.

Verb is second element in a main clause (position 2 rule); if a time or place phrase opens the sentence, the subject follows the verb.

Present tense endings: -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en; stems ending in -d/-t add -e- before -st and -t (du arbeitest, er arbeitet).

Separable prefixes (auf-, an-, mit-, zu-) go to the end of a main clause: Ich stehe um sieben auf.

Modal verbs (können, müssen, wollen, sollen, dürfen, mögen) send the infinitive to the end: Ich muss heute arbeiten.

Negation: nicht negates verbs, adjectives, and specific nouns; kein/keine negates nouns with indefinite or no article.

Two genders: masculine (le/un) and feminine (la/une); plural is les/des for both genders.

Regular -er verbs present tense: drop -er, add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent (parler: parle, parles, parle, parlons, parlez, parlent).

Regular -ir verbs add -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent (finir); -re verbs add -s, -s, (nothing), -ons, -ez, -ent (vendre).

Passé composé = present tense of avoir or être + past participle; être is used with a small set of motion/reflexive verbs (aller, venir, partir, sortir, arriver, entrer, rester, tomber, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, retourner).

With être as auxiliary, the past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number (elle est allée, ils sont partis).

Partitive article: du (masc.), de la (fem.), de l' (before vowel), des (plural); in a negative sentence it becomes de/d'.

Adjectives usually follow the noun (une voiture rouge); a short list precedes it (beau, joli, jeune, nouveau, vieux, grand, petit, bon, mauvais, premier, dernier).

Contractions: à + le = au, à + les = aux; de + le = du, de + les = des; à + la and de + la do not contract.

Question formation: rising intonation (Tu parles français ?), est-ce que (Est-ce que tu parles français ?), or inversion (Parles-tu français ?).

Two genders: masculine (el/un) and feminine (la/una); nouns ending in -o are usually masculine, nouns ending in -a usually feminine; -dad, -ción, -tad are feminine.

Regular -ar present: -o, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an; -er: -o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en; -ir: -o, -es, -e, -imos, -ís, -en.

Ser vs. estar: ser for identity, origin, profession, and inherent traits; estar for location, temporary states, and progressive (estoy cansado, está en casa).

Preterite regular -ar: -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -asteis, -aron; -er/-ir: -í, -iste, -ió, -imos, -isteis, -ieron.

Stem-changing present verbs (e→ie, o→ue, e→i) change in all forms except nosotros and vosotros: pensar → pienso, pensamos.

Gustar-type verbs take an indirect object pronoun: me gusta el libro, me gustan los libros; the subject is the thing liked.

Adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun: un chico alto, unas chicas altas.

Questions use inverted opening punctuation: ¿Cómo te llamas? Exclamations use ¡...!; the inverted marks are mandatory in writing.

Hay means 'there is/there are' and is invariable; no personal 'a' is used after hay (Hay dos libros).

Four tones: 1st high-level (mā), 2nd rising (má), 3rd dipping (mǎ), 4th falling (mà); neutral tone is short and light (ma).

Basic word order is Subject-Verb-Object (wǒ chī fàn = I eat rice); there is no verb conjugation for person or tense.

Aspect particles, not tense endings, mark time: le (completed action), guò (experienced), zhe (ongoing state).

Time words come before the verb, not at the end: wǒ míngtiān qù (I tomorrow go).

Measure words are required between a number/demonstrative and a noun: yī gè rén (one person), zhè běn shū (this book).

Questions: add ma at the end for yes/no (nǐ hǎo ma?); use A-not-A (nǐ hǎo bu hǎo?) or question words in place of the answer (nǐ qù nǎr?).

Negation: bù before verbs and adjectives (wǒ bù qù); méi(yǒu) before yǒu and for past actions not completed (wǒ méi qù).

Possession uses de: wǒ de shū (my book); with close relations de is often omitted (wǒ māma).

Pinyin uses tone marks over the main vowel; the rule of order is a, o, e, i, u, ü - mark the first of these that appears.

Sentence order is Subject-Object-Verb; particles mark grammatical role: は (topic), が (subject), を (direct object), に (target/time), で (location of action/means).

Polite verb forms: -masu (present/future affirmative), -masen (negative), -mashita (past), -masen deshita (past negative).

Two copulas: desu (polite 'is') and da (plain); negative is dewa arimasen / ja nai.

Adjectives: i-adjectives conjugate (takai → takakunai → takakatta); na-adjectives use na before nouns (kirei na hito) and desu for predicates.

Particles wa and ga: wa marks known/topic information; ga marks new or focused information, especially with question words (dare ga ikimasu ka).

Verb groups: Group 1 (u-verbs) change final -u to -imasu (kaku → kakimasu); Group 2 (ru-verbs) drop -ru and add -masu (taberu → tabemasu); suru and kuru are irregular.

Politeness levels: desu/masu (polite) versus plain form (casual); plain form is the base for many constructions such as -te iru (ongoing) and -tai (want).

Numbers and counters: use -hon for long objects, -mai for flat objects, -ko for small objects, -nin for people (with irregular 1 and 2: hitori, futari).

Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries; katakana is used for loanwords (konpyūtā = computer); kanji carry meaning and often have on-yomi (Sino-Japanese) and kun-yomi (native) readings.

Six cases: nominative (subject), genitive (possession/absence), dative (indirect object), accusative (direct object), instrumental (means/accompaniment), prepositional (after prepositions like v, na, o).

Three genders in the singular: masculine (consonant or -й), feminine (-а/-я), neuter (-о/-е); plural has one shared set of endings.

Present tense of читать (to read): я читаю, ты читаешь, он/она читает, мы читаем, вы читаете, они читают.

Verb aspect: imperfective describes ongoing or repeated action; perfective describes a completed single action (писать vs. написать).

Negation: не before the verb (Я не знаю); double negation is standard with pronouns (Никто не знает = Nobody knows).

There is no present-tense 'to be': Я студент = I am a student; the dash separates two nouns in the present.

Genitive singular endings: masculine/neuter -а/-я; feminine -ы/-и (книга → книги).

Prepositional case is required after в and на for location (в Москве, на столе) and after о for 'about'.

Russian has no articles; definiteness is shown by word order and context, not by a/an/the.

Writing runs right to left; 28 letters, most of which connect to the following letter; six letters (ا د ذ ر ز و) never connect forward.

Short vowels are not normally written; diacritics (fatha, kasra, damma, sukun) may appear in beginner texts and the Qur'an.

Two genders: masculine is unmarked; feminine usually adds ة (ta marbuta), e.g., طالب (male student) → طالبة (female student).

Definite article is ال (al-), which assimilates in pronunciation to 'sun letters' (الشمس pronounced ash-shams) but not to 'moon letters' (القمر al-qamar).

Word order is typically Verb-Subject-Object (VSO); nominal sentences (subject + predicate) have no copula in the present: أنا طالب (I am a student).

The verb conjugates for person, gender, and number; the perfect (past) and imperfect (present) are the two main stems.

Nouns have three cases (nominative -u, accusative -a, genitive -i), usually shown only in the written endings of indefinite nouns.

Idafa construction expresses possession: noun + definite noun, with no word for 'of' (كتاب الطالب = the student's book).

Numbers 3–10 take the plural of the noun, but 11 and above take the singular accusative (أحد عشر كتابًا = eleven books).

Six tones (in the standard northern system): level (ngang), falling (huyền), rising (sắc), dipping-rising (hỏi), rising-glottal (ngã), heavy-glottal (nặng); tone marks are written above or below a vowel.

The Vietnamese alphabet (chữ Quốc ngữ) uses the Latin script with diacritics; letters d and đ are distinct, and đ is pronounced like English 'd'.

Word order is Subject-Verb-Object, as in English: Tôi học tiếng Việt (I study Vietnamese).

Verbs do not conjugate; tense is shown by particles: đã (past), đang (progressive), sẽ (future).

Classifiers (loại từ) stand between a number and a noun: một con mèo (one cat), hai cái bàn (two tables).

Negation is không before the verb (Tôi không biết = I don't know); không có means 'there is not'.

Questions: add không at the end for yes/no (Bạn khỏe không?); use question words such as gì (what), ai (who), đâu (where), bao nhiêu (how much).

Pronouns are kinship-based and depend on age and relationship: anh (older brother/you to a man), chị (older sister), em (younger sibling), ông/bà (grandfather/grandmother).

Adjectives follow the noun: nhà lớn (big house); the copula là links two nouns (Tôi là sinh viên).

Hanja are Sino-Korean characters; each has a Korean reading (음) and a meaning (훈), e.g., 山 has reading 산 and meaning 뫼 (mountain).

Classical Chinese (한문) is written in characters and read in Korean with added particles (토) such as 이/가, 을/를, 은/는 to mark grammatical role.

Common characters: 人 (person), 大 (big), 小 (small), 上 (above), 下 (below), 中 (middle), 日 (sun/day), 月 (moon/month), 水 (water), 火 (fire), 木 (tree), 金 (gold/metal).

Six categories of characters (육서): pictographs (象形), simple ideographs (指事), compound ideographs (會意), phono-semantic compounds (形聲), loan characters (假借), derivative cognates (轉注).

Structural components: 氵 (water radical), 木 (tree), 心/忄 (heart), 言 (speech), 人/亻 (person), 手/扌 (hand) - the radical often hints at meaning, while the other part hints at sound.

Basic word order is Subject-Verb-Object, but subject and object are often omitted when clear from context; particles such as 之 (possessive/of) and 也 (topic/final particle) are frequent.

Negation uses 不 (general), 未 (not yet), 無 (there is no), and 莫 (none/nobody).

Numbers: 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十; 百 (100), 千 (1,000), 萬 (10,000). Compound numbers are read with place value, and Korean reads them in Sino-Korean (일, 이, 삼...).

Many Hanja words are read as Sino-Korean compounds shared with modern Korean: 學校 (학교, school), 學生 (학생, student), 時間 (시간, time), 韓國 (한국, Korea).