汉语语法

CHINESE GRAMMAR

造句 Making Sentences
 Important Points in Basic Chinese
Grammar
• 1. Sentence Formula
– (S+V) Subject+Verb
– (S+V+O) Subject + Verb + Object Order

• Example: (S+V) Subject+Verb

• In the following example, the subject is
我 (wǒ, “I”) and the verb is 吃 (chī, “eat”).
• 我吃。 Wǒ chī. I eat.
 Examples: S+V

• In the following example, the subject is

她 (tā, “she”) and the verb is 去 (qù, “go”).
她去。 Tā qù. She goes.
S+V+O (Subject+Verb+Object)Order
• 我去超市。
Wǒ qù chāoshì. I go to the supermarket.

• 她吃面包。
Tā chī miànbāo. She eats bread.

• 你喜欢猫。
Nǐ xǐhuān māo. You like cats.
 2. Asking questions 问题
• Asking basic questions in Chinese is also simple.
• The easiest way to make a question is by adding 吗 (ma) to
the end of your sentence.
• This method can be used to turn a statement into a yes/no
question. For example:
Statement:
你要去超市。
Nǐ yào qù chāoshì.
You want to go to the Question:
supermarket. 你要去超市吗 ?
Nǐ yào qù chāoshì ma?
Do you want to go to the
supermarket?
 Examples:

STATEMENT
他喜欢猫。 Tā xǐhuān He likes cats.
māo.

QUESTION
他喜欢猫吗 ? Tā xǐhuān māo Does he like
ma? cats?
 Chinese question words:
谁 shéi who

什么 shénme what

哪里 / 哪儿 nǎlǐ / nǎ'er where

为什么 wèishéme why

哪个 nǎge which

什么时候 shénme shíhòu when

怎么 zěnme how
 3. Indicating Possession
• In Chinese, possession is indicated using 的 (de).
This immediately follows the person or pronoun to
whom something belongs. Its placement is essentially
the same as the apostrophe ‘s’ in English. Thus, “This is
Xiao Wang’s cat” can be translated as 这是小王的猫 (Zhè
shì Xiǎowáng de māo).
Luckily, Chinese possessive pronouns are far
simpler than their English counterparts. All you
need to do to form them is add the character 的
(de) to the end of regular Chinese pronouns.
Hànzì Pīnyīn Definition

我的 wǒ de mine/my
你的 nǐ de yours/your
他的 tā de his
她的 tā de hers/her
我们的 wǒmen de ours/our
你们的 nǐmen de yours/your
他们的 tāmen de theirs/their
Here are a couple examples to give you an idea of how
these possessive pronouns work:

这是我的猫。 Zhè shì wǒ de This is my cat.

māo.
你的围巾很漂亮。 Nǐ de wéijīn Your scarf is
hěn beautiful.
piàoliang.
 4. Negation:
Negation is another important aspect of basic Chinese grammar
that is important for beginners to master. Chinese uses two
different methods to express negation. The most common involves
the use of the character 不 (bù), which roughly translates to
“not,” “won’t,” or “not want to.” For example:
这条围巾不漂亮。 Zhè tiáo wéijīn bù This scarf is not
piàoliang. beautiful.

我不要去超市。 Wǒ bù yào qù I do not want to go

chāoshì. to the
supermarket.
他不吃面包。 Tā bù chī He does not eat
miànbāo. bread.
The character 不 (bù) can be used in most situations. However,
不 (bù) can never be used with the verb 有 (yǒu, “to have”). If
the sentence you are trying to negate contains the verb 有
(yǒu), then you must use 没 (méi) to negate it. Here are some
examples:

我没有猫。 Wǒ méiyǒu I do not have

māo. any cats.
他们没有面包。 Tāmen méiyǒu They do not
miànbāo. have any
bread.
LET’S PRACTICE: 练习

妈妈去上班。
Māmā qù shàngbān
Mom goes to work.

我要喝咖啡
Wǒ yào hē kāfēi
I want to drink coffee.
 Make a Question
• 你吃。
• 他是我的老师。
• 你是学生 .
• What is your name?
• Who is your teacher?
• Where do you live?
 PRACTICE…
• What is your name?
• 你叫什么名字？
• Who is your teacher?
• 你的老师是谁？
• Where do you live?
• 你住在哪儿 / 哪里？
 时间 Time
• In Chinese, the time at which something
happened, is happening, or will happen appears
at the beginning of the sentence or immediately
following the subject.
昨天他去了超市。 Zuótiān tā qùle chāoshì. Yesterday, he went to the
supermarket.

他昨天去了超市。 Tā zuótiān qùle chāoshì. He went to the supermarket

yesterday.
• Location words in Chinese also generally require a word order
that differs from English.
• When describing where something happened, you’ll usually
need to construct a phrase beginning with 在 (zài).
• Your 在 (zài) phrase should come after time words (if any)
and before the verb. This can be confusing for English
speakers since location words usually come after (not before)
the verb in English.
Wǒ zài Guìlín gōngzuò. I work in Guilin.
我在桂林工作。

Wǒ zuótiān zàijiā kànshū. I read books at home

我昨天在家看书。 yesterday.
• Keep in mind that there are some exceptions to this rule. These
exceptions happen with certain verbs that are used to refer to directional
motion, like 走 (zǒu, “to walk”) or verbs that relate to a specific location
like 停 (tíng, “to stop”) and 住 (zhù, “to live”). These verbs are allowed
to take location complements, which are essentially 在 (zài) phrases that
come after the verb.

Wǒ zhù zài zhong guo. I live in China.

我住在中国。

Verbs that take location complements are exceptions, not the

rule. As a beginner, the safest thing to do is to place location
before the verb since this is the most common word order.
她昨天晚上在家看电视看了半个小时。

我今天下午在学校做功课，
做了四十分钟。
• One of the most refreshing things about Chinese
grammar is the complete lack of verb conjugations.
In English, the third-person singular (he/she/it/one)
form of verbs tends to be different from the others.
Thus, if the subject is “I,” we say “I go,” but if the
subject is “he,” then we say “he goes.”

• This change doesn’t happen in Chinese. The verb 去

(qù, “to go”) stays the same no matter whether we
say “I go” ( 我去 wǒ qù) or “he goes” ( 他去 tā qù). In
fact, the verb stays the same no matter what the
subject of your sentence is.
 Observe how the verb 吃 (chī, “to eat”) stays the same in
all of the following sentences:

我吃面包。 Wǒ chī miànbāo. I eat bread.

你吃面包。 Nǐ chī miànbāo. You eat bread.

她吃面包。 Tā chī miànbāo. She eats bread.

我们吃面包。 Wǒmen chī miànbāo. We eat bread.

他们吃面包。 Tāmen chī miànbāo. They eat bread.

• Another interesting aspect of Chinese grammar that
comes as a relief to most students is that Chinese
doesn’t have verb tenses. In most Romance and
Germanic languages, including English, whether
something happened in the past, present or future is
primarily indicated by verb tense.

• Chinese, by contrast, uses something called

grammatical aspect. Chinese verbs always stay the
same and never need to be conjugated—in fact, they
can’t be.
In Chinese, time frame is simply indicated by using markers like:

• 了 (le)
• 过 (guo)
• 着 (zhe)
• 在 (zài)
• 正在 (zhèngzài)
 Time frame can also be indicated by specific
references to a point or period in time, like:

• 明天 (míngtiān, “tomorrow”)
• 昨天早上 (zuótiān zǎoshang, “yesterday
morning”)
• 读大学的时候 (dú dàxué de shíhòu, “when I
was in college”)
 • Learning the proper use of these grammatical-tense
indicators is drastically simpler than learning the countless
verb conjugations necessary to speak Germanic and
Romance languages.
• These time markers can be confusing for beginners, so don’t
worry if it takes some time to master them. Here are a few
examples to give you a basic idea of how they work:

Notice how the verb 去 (qù, “to go”) is left unchanged and unconjugated. The
marker 了 (le) is added to the end to indicate past tense:

Tā qù chāoshì le. He went to the

他去超市了。 supermarket.
 • The following example also makes use of the verb 去 (qù,
“to go”), but again, the verb itself isn’t conjugated in any
way. Instead, the time marker 过 (guo) is used to indicate
that the event already began and ended:
Wǒ qùguo. I’ve been there.
我去过。
This next sentence makes use of the verb 戴 (dài, “to wear”). As always,
the verb hasn’t been conjugated. Instead, the marker 着 (zhe) has been
added after the verb to indicate that the action—wearing something—is
ongoing, similar to our use of “-ing” in English.

Tā dàizhe yītiáo wéijīn. She’s wearing a scarf.

她戴着一条围巾。
 • In the following example, adding 在 (zài) before the verb 工作
(gōngzuò, “to work”) indicates that the action of working is
ongoing.
Tā zài gōngzuò. She’s working.
她在工作。

Keep in mind that while 在 (zài), 正在 (zhèngzài) and 着 (zhe) are

each roughly equivalent to the English “-ing” in many contexts,
they are generally not interchangeable and are used in different
ways. This level of nuance comes up in more advanced Chinese
grammar lessons.
• In addition to time markers like 了 (le), 过 (guo), 着
(zhe), 在 (zài), and 正在 (zhèngzài), Chinese uses time
words such as 昨天 (zuótiān, “yesterday”), 明天
(míngtiān, “tomorrow”), 三年前 (sān nián qián, “three
years ago”), etc. to indicate when something occurred.

• When you want to indicate the future in Chinese, often

all that’s required is adding a future time word to your
sentence. Markers like 了 (le) and 过 (guo) are not
needed. For example, 我去 (wǒ qù) means “I go.” By
adding 明天 (míngtiān, “tomorrow”) before 去 (qù, “to
go”), we get 我明天去 (Wǒ míngtiān qù, “I will go
tomorrow.”).
Mastering the use of Chinese time words
• Example phrases:
• 昨天 (zuótiān, “yesterday”)
• 今早 (jīn zǎo, “this morning”)
• 三个月后 (sān gè yuè hòu, “three months from
now”)
• 我在中国的时候 (wǒ zài zhongguo de shíhòu,
“when I was in China”)
• etc.
 Here are several additional common Chinese time words to get
you started:
Hànzì Pīnyīn Definition

zǎoshang morning
早上
zhōngwǔ noon
中午
xiàwǔ afternoon
下午
wǎnshàng evening
晚上
jīntiān today
今天
míngtiān tomorrow
明天
 hòutiān day after tomorrow
后天
xiàgèxīngqí next week
下个星期
xiàgèyuè next month
下个月
míngnián next year
明年
qiántiān day before yesterday
前天
shànggèxīngqí last week
上个星期
shànggèyuè last month
上个月
qùnián last year
去年