Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world, primarily used in China and Taiwan. It is the official language of China and is one of the four official languages of Singapore. Mandarin is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family and is known for its tonal nature, meaning that the pitch used when pronouncing a word can change its meaning. The writing system of Mandarin Chinese uses Chinese characters, which are logograms representing words or morphemes. There are thousands of characters, but a basic literacy level requires knowledge of about 2,000 to 3,000 characters. Mandarin is also taught in many countries, making it an important global language.