MANDARIN

Lesson V: BASIC GRAMMAR

Activity and Achievement Verbs

ACTIVITY VERBS refer to verbs that describe activity that has duration; i.e., these are
actions that can happen within a define time period.

kàn ‘to read, to look’ mǎi ‘to shop’

xiě ‘to write’ shuì ‘to sleep’
shuō ‘to talk, to speak’ niàn ‘to study’
tíng ‘to listen, to hear’

Properties of Activity Verbs

1. Negation. Activity verbs may be negated using 不 bù and 没 méi. 没 méi is used
only for actions that happened in the past (and do not continue in the present). 不
bù is used for actions that still continue in the present.

Wǒ bù chī zǎofàn. ‘I do not eat breakfast’ (i.e., I just don’t have the habit of
eating breakfast.)

Wǒ jīntiān méi chī zǎofàn. ‘Today, I did not have breakfast’ (i.e., Only for today)

2. Use of aspectual suffixes. Activity verbs use aspectual suffixes (or markers).
(Aspect is indicates the internal action of a verb. It is different from tense, which
indicates the time in which the action happened.) There are three aspect markers in
Mandarin: le, zhe, and guo.

* The perfective aspect marker le:

Wǒ chīle zǎofàn.
‘I had eaten/have eaten breakfast.’ (I have just finished eating.)

* The durational suffix zhe:

Tā zhèng chīzhe fàn ne.

‘He is eating.’ (He is eating right now.)

* The experiential aspect marker guo:

Wǒ chīguo Zhōngguó fàn.
‘I have eaten Chinese food before. (I have experienced eating Chinese food.)
Obligatory Objects

Almost all activity verbs are transitive, that is, need an object. (For example, in English,
the sentence I love China, China is the object of the verb love.) Many activity verbs
have a “default object” which automatically occurs with the activity verb unless another
object is specified.

Activity verb Activity Verb + Object

kàn ‘to read, to look’ kàn shū ‘to read a book’
xiě ‘to write’ xiě zì ‘to write a [Chinese] character’
shuō ‘to talk, to speak’ shuō huà ‘to talk [in a] language’
chī ‘to eat’ chī fàn ‘to eat [some] food’

Examples:

Wǒmen chī fàn ba! ‘Let’s eat!’ (Lit. We eat food.) (ba is a ‘suggestion word’)
Nǐ yào chī shénme? ‘What do you want to eat?’ (Lit. You want to eat what?)
Wǒmen chī jiǎozi ba! ‘Let’s eat dumplings!’

ACHIEVEMENT VERBS are verbs whose actions are instantaneous and have no
duration. The actions of many achievement verbs also result in a change of state.

wàng ‘to forget

sǐ ‘to die’
chuān ‘to put on clothing on the torso or legs’
dài ‘to put on clothing on the head or arms’
pèng ‘to bump’
pò ‘to break’
tiào ‘to jump’
mài ‘to sell’
lái ‘to come (to a location identified with the speaker)’
qù ‘to go (to a location from the location of the speaker)’
zhàn ‘to stand (from a sitting position)’
zuò ‘to sit (from a standing position)’
fàng ‘to place down (a change from up to down)
kāi ‘to open (something that is closed)’

Properties of Achievement Verbs

1. Negation. Just like Action Verbs, Achievement Verbs may be negated using 不 bù
and 没 méi. 没 méi is used only for actions that happened in the past. 不 bù is used
for actions that did NOT happen in the past.
 Tā bù mài zìxíngchē. Tā mai qìchē.
‘He does not sell bicycles. He sells cars.’
Tā méi qíguo zìxíngchē.
‘He has never ridden a bicycle before’

2. Perfective aspect. Achievement verbs may be marked as completed or terminated

with the perfective particle le.

Tā sǐ le.
‘He died.’
Ta mài le tā de chē.
‘She sold her car.’

Since Achievement verbs do not have duration, they canNOT be suffixed with the
aspectual suffixes le, zhe, and guo.