Chinese

Grammar Notes
INTRODUCTION 2

WORD ORDER 2

NOUNS 3

VERBS 4

VERB TENSES 7

ADJECTIVES 10

PREPOSITIONS 10

STATEMENTS 12

COMPARISONS 15

NUMBERS 17

WANT TO LEARN MORE? 19

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Introduction
The general structure of the Chinese language particularly Mandarin when
compared to other Languages, on a fundamental level, is actually very simple.
Each word normally stays the same; thus there are no conjugations, no
plural forms, no genders and no articles. Whereas the English verb "to know
somebody" might have different forms like knows, knew, known etc., the
equivalent Chinese verb [rèn shí] itself always stays the same,
regardless of the context. However there are also elements in the Chinese
language that we do not have in many Western Languages.

Chinese words
The Chinese you are learning here is the official language of China, which is
also called Mandarin Chinese. It is different from another popular Chinese
language, Cantonese, which is mainly spoken in Guangdong province and
Hong Kong. Mandarin Chinese consists of characters / standard script ( ),
phonetic script (ni), and tone marks, e.g. (ˇ) (nǐ). Characters are used
everywhere in daily life, such as books, newspapers, signs, etc…

Word Order
Phonetic scripts and tones, together are called Pīnyīn, these are used in
dictionaries and textbooks to guide learners to learn the pronunciation of the
characters.

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Tones
One of the most difficult element for the learner of the Chinese language is
the correct pronunciation of the four phonemic tones: the first tone (¯),
the second tone (ʹ), the third tone (ˇ), and the fourth tone (‵); because the
concept of Tones is not existing in many European Languages including
English. The best way to practice the tones is to listen carefully and to repeat
the words and sentences.

Nouns
Nouns are pretty simple in the Chinese language. They do not have articles
or genders, and there is no distinction between singular or plural. As
for countable nouns, to express or to emphasize plural or numeral,
various measure words, such as [liàng] (measure word for vehicle),
[gè] (measure word for general use), and [sōu] (measure word for ship),
need to be added in front of a noun: numeral + measure word + noun.

For example, [nǚ rén] can be understood as "a/one woman" or
"women". Since Chinese does not have articles, "a woman" is equal to "one
woman", in Chinese it is ; "three women" is .

One way to present plurals in Chinese is the use of the following words:

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[xiē] / some
[yì xiē] / some
[zhè xiē] / these
[nà xiē] / those
[yǒu xiē] / some

These words are placed in front of a noun.
Example:

[nà xiē nǚ rén]
those women.

Verbs
Verbs are also pretty straight forward in Chinese! They do not change with
person, tense, number and there are no participles.

In Chinese there is one important kind of verb that you need to learn which is
called optative verb, [huì] / (be able to/ can). Optative verbs are used
to present capabilities, possibilities, authorization or prohibition. In English,
optative verbs would remind you of the words (can), (be able to), (will), (be
willing to), etc.

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The optative verb [huì] is used to present skills that are acquired through
learning or training.

Example:
?
[nǐ huì shuō yīng yǔ ma?]
Can you speak English?

Note that optative verbs are placed in front of a verb in Chinese.

Another optative word is [kě yǐ] which is used to present
authorization.

Example:
?
[wǒ kě yǐ yòng xìn yòng kǎ fù zhàng ma?]
Can I pay with credit card?

The negative form of is .

Moreover, please keep in mind that the negative form of [yǒu] is
[méi yǒu], rather than [bù yǒu] (it is wrong because it doesn’t mean
anything).

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Another kind of optative verb is, [néng] / (be able to/can) which is used
to present capabilities, but focus on general skills that does not require
special learning or training.

Example:

[wǒ néng chàng gē.]
I can sing.

The negative form of [néng] is [bù néng] / cannot. [néng] is also
used to present possibilities or authorization, like [kěyǐ] / (can/may).

Example:
,
[wǒ bù néng mǎi dōng xi, wǒ méi yǒu qián]
I cannot do shopping, I do not have money.

However, when [néng] is used to present authorization, its negative form
is [bùkěyǐ] / cannot.

Example:

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[zhèr bù kěyǐ xīyān.]
Smoking is prohibited here.

Verb Tenses
Present Progressive Tense

In Present progressive tense we just need to use the basic form.
The following are the words used to emphasize the present progressive
tense:

1. First is the word [zhe] / particle which is put behind the verb.
Example:

[nà gè nǚ rén zhàn zhe]
The woman is standing.

2. Second is the word zài and is placed in front of the verb. Sometimes,
is also used in a present progressive tense, either together with or
alone in a sentence, to be placed behind the verb.

3. Third is the word / be at which is used to emphasize on the verb, in

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another word, to emphasize on the happening of the behavior, while /
particle is used to emphasize on the circumstance.

Take a look at the difference of these words using the example sentences
below:

1. [wǒ zài chuān lán sè de kù zi] / I am putting on blue
pants.
2. [wǒ chuān zhe lán sè de kù zi] / I am wearing blue
pants.

To make a sentence’ negative meaning in a present progressive tense,
[méi yǒu] / don’t have/ doesn’t have or [méi] / don’t have/ doesn’t have is
used.

Past Tense
Past tense is indicated by [le] – (article for past tense) which is placed
after the verb.

Example:
.
nà pǐ mǎ tiào le.
The horse jumped.

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Another useful word which is often used in past tense is the word [yǐ
jīng] / already. It is placed in front of a verb.

A good past tense structure for this is: Sub. + [yǐ jīng] + V. + le + (Obj.).

Example:
.
[nà gè nán rén yǐ jīng pá shàng shān le.]
The man has climbed the mountain.

Future Tense
Future tenseis indicated by / [jiāng yào/yào] / (will/be going to
do) which is placed in front of the verb.

Example:
.
[nà pǐ mǎ jiāng yào tiào.]
The horse is going to jump.

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Adjectives
In the Chinese language if you like to describe certain things, the adjective
normally follows the noun.

Example:
.
[zhè jiàn lán sè de chèn shān shì xīn de.]
The blue shirt is new.

In this example there are two adjectives following the noun shirt [chèn
shān]:
1. [lán sè de] indicates the color blue (note that [lán sè de]
acts as an adjective).
2. [xīn de] indicates that the shirt is new.

Take note that [zhè] refers to the place of the shirt (like the English word
"this"). [jiàn] is the measure word for cloths (like the English word "a piece
of").

Prepositions
Prepositions in Chinese grammar are [shàng miàn] / on, [lǐ miàn]
/ in, or [xià miàn] / under.

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One important concept is the use of the prepositional verb [zài] to
indicate "to be (in, at, on under + a place/location)".

So [zài] is positioned in front of prepositions, together to form a predicate,
such as " + a place/location + [shàng miàn] / on" " + a
place/location + [lǐ miàn] / in" and " + a place/location + [xià
miàn] / under".

Example:
.
[yī gè yīng ér zài chē lǐ miàn.]
A baby is in a car.

In the above sentence you notice that "is in a car" is translated as "
[zài chē lǐ miàn]". " … " means "is in ...", therefore, the verb "is" does
not need to be translated additionally.

In addition, retroflex ending is unique in Chinese. The pinyin of is ér, e.g.
[yīng ér] / baby; but when it is placed behind a noun to form a retroflex
ending, "é" needs to be omitted, e.g. [nǚ hair] / girl, and
[nán hair] / boy.

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Pronouns

Some of the Personal Pronouns in Chinese are:

[tā] / she/her [tā] is the same for both she/he in pronunciation.
[tā] / (he/him).

Statements
In Chinese, to give a sentence a negative meaning just put the word [bù]
/ (no/not) in front of verbs /adjective. When [bù] is followed by a last tone
word, e.g. [shì] / yes, [bù] needs to be changed to second tone—[bú].
is read as "bùshì / be not", instead of "bùshì".

Example:
,
[zhè gè diàn huà bú shì hóng sè de, tā shì hēi sè de.]
This telephone is not red, it is black.

Questions
There are a few different ways to make questions in the Chinese language.

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Using the general question words [ma], in a question expecting yes or no
answer, is one of them. This question word is just added at the end of the
sentence.

Example:
?
[nǐ hǎo ma?]
Are you well? /How are you?

You can also make questions by using specific question words like
[shén me] / what, [nǎ lǐ] / where, [shuí] / who or
[wèishénme] / why.

These question words are positioned at where the answer word/words are to
be placed in the sentence.

Example:
?
[nà gè nǚ rén zài zuò shén me?]
What is the woman doing?

To answer this question, we just need to remove the question word, which
is and replace with the answer:

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[nà gè nǚ rén zài pēng rèn]
That woman is cooking.

As you noticed, the order of the rest of the words in the sentence remains
the same.

WHERE
The question word [nǎ lǐ] / where is usually used to ask for a specific
location.

Example:
?
[nà gè yīng ér zài nǎ lǐ?]
Where is the boy?

Just remember that the word [zài] is also used since the question asks for
a specific location. And same with [nǎ lǐ], [nǎr] is also used to ask
where.

WHAT

Another question word is the word [shén me] / what.

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Example:
?
[nà liàng qì chē shì shén me yán sè de?]
What color is the car?


WHO
The question word [shéi] which asks for who or whom are placed at the
beginning of the sentence.

Example:
?
[shéi shì jì gōng?]
Who is the mechanic?

Comparisons
Comparing two things in Chinese, normally will come with the form Sub. + [more
than] + Obj. + adjective. This means Subject is more than Object.

Examples:
.

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[nà gè nǚ rén bǐ nà gè nán rén měi lì.]
The woman is more beautiful than the man.

Another form of comparison comes with a form Sub.+ [and] + Obj. + [are the
same as] + Adj.

Example:
.
[nà gè nán rén hé zhè gè nán rén tóng yàng gāo.]
That man is as tall as this man.

Superlative comparison (most) example:
.
[tú piàn shàng dà xiàng shì zuì dà de dòng wù.]
The elephant is the biggest animal in the picture.

You can see that for "biggest" in Chinese, we use [zuì] whereas [dà] is the
adjective (big) and [zuì dà de] means the biggest to modify [dòng wù] /
animal.

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Numbers
Counting in Chinese is very simple. After ten, the counting is repeatedly the same.
However, what makes counting trickier is the use of measure words.

Example:

[nà gè nán háir yǒu yī gè qiú]
The boy has one ball.

You can see that the number 1 [yī] is then followed by the measure word for ball
which is (measure word for general use).

In the following table you will see that the building of numbers follows a very regular
pattern:

0 [líng]
1 [yī]
2 [èr]
3 [sān]
4 [sì]
5 [wǔ]
6 [liù]

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7 [qī]
8 [bā]
9 [jiǔ]
10 [shí]
11 [shí yī]
12 [shí èr]
13 [shí sān]
14 [shí sì]
15 [shí wǔ]
16 [shí liù]
17 [shí qī]
18 [shí bā]
19 [shí jiǔ]
20 [èr shí]
21 [èr shí yī]
22 [èr shí èr]
31 [sān shíyī]
41 [sìshí yī] .

Notice that for the number eleven, in Chinese it is understood as ten plus one
[shí yī]. Accordingly, twelve is [shí èr], as ten plus two is twelve. This rule is very
regular for numbers from eleven to nineteen, from twenty-one to twenty-nine, from

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thirty-one to thirty-nine, and so on. That is to say, counting from twenty-one to
twenty-nine would be shí shí yī to shí shí jiǔ and shí shí shí yī would be thirty-one.

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