Learn about the correct word order in Chinese
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Yinru here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Chinese questions. | |
| The Question | |
| The question for this lesson is: What is the proper word order in a sentence? | |
| Explanation | |
| Unlike the pronunciation and writing system, sentence structure in Chinese is not as confusing and exotic. For most simple sentences, word order in Chinese is similar to that in English. | |
| Let’s look at some basic SVO sentences, which are sentences with Subject + Verb + Object word order. | |
| 我爱你。(Wǒ ài nǐ. “I love you.”) The subject is 我 (Wǒ), the verb 爱 (ài), and the object 你 (nǐ). Just like in English. | |
| 他吃面. (Tā chīmiàn. “He eats noodles.”) The subject is 他 (Tā), the verb 吃 (chī), and the object 面 (miàn). | |
| If you want to add a time phrase in the sentence, you usually put this phrase after the subject. For example: | |
| 他星期二吃面。(Tā xīngqīèr chīmiàn. “He eats noodles on Tuesdays.”) | |
| 我一直很爱你。(Wǒ yìzhí hěn ài nǐ. “I always love you.”) | |
| 你昨天晚上洗澡了吗? (Nǐ zuótiān wǎnshang xǐzǎo le ma? “Did you take a shower last night?”) | |
| If you want to add a “place” in a sentence, like “where” someone does something, you also put it after the subject, before the verb. Let’s see a couple of examples: | |
| 他在家吃面。(Tā zài jiā chīmiàn. “He eats noodles at home.”) | |
| 我的好朋友在伦敦工作。(Wǒ de hǎopéngyou zài Lúndūn gōngzuò. “My good friend works in London.”) | |
| What if we have a “time” and “place” at the same time? Usually we put time after the subject, then place, then verb, or verb + object. For example: | |
| 我的好朋友去年在伦敦工作。(Wǒ de hǎopéngyou qùnián zài Lúndūn gōngzuò. “My good friend worked in London last year.”) | |
| 他们上个星期六晚上在电影院看电影. (Tāmen shàngge xīngqī liù wǎnshang zài diànyǐngyuàn kàn diànyǐng. “They saw a movie at a movie theater last Saturday night.”) | |
| Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, and many times components are omitted in different cases, but the above word order is the basic foundation for sentence structure in Chinese. | |
Outro |
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| Like always, if you have any more questions, please leave a comment below! | |
| I’ll see you next time! | |
| 我们下次再见！Wǒmen xiàcì zàijiàn! |
3 Comments
HideWhat Chinese learning question do you have?
你好 robert groulx,
谢谢 for posting and studying with us. If you have any questions, please let us know.😄
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
favorite phrase is 我爱你。(Wǒ ài nǐ. “I love you.”)
robert