As English,show the subject,verb,and object.Verb is the key which help Chinese can 'basic understanding' what you what to express. You can use your body language and little Verbs to communicate simply with Chinese. This just my own opinion.

sorry, i donnot undersstand your question.Would you please to make it clearer?

Maybe the answer is Chinese Characters.(I have no idea if I have caught on.) You should learn the basic characters and their pronunciations first. Mostly each Chinese Character is contructed by several components, with which you could understand some important informations of the Character without knowing the meaning of it. For instance: 木(mu4) means wood or tree , 林(lin2) means trees or woods, 森(sen1) means forests. You could check more details here: http://www.chinese-outpost.com/language/characters/construction-principles-of-chinese- characters.asp And: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character http://www.zhongwen.com/