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Mandarin Chinese Verbs and Word Order

Once you begin studying Chinese grammar, you'll notice that verbs are not inflected in Chinese. In

Spanish class you may have practiced "Yo tengo / Tu tienes / l tiene / Nos tenemos" and so on, or"Ich habe / Du hast / Er hat / Wir haben" in German.

In Chinese, however, only one form of each verb eists. !hile this maes memori#ing "con$ugation

tables" unnecessary, it does mean that word order is very important in Chinese sentences. !ord

order is often the only indication in Chinese to tell, so to spea, who is doing what to whom.

In normal Chinese declarative sentences, word order is the same as that of normal %nglish

declarative sentences, sub$ect & verb & ob$ect, as this eample shows

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Chinese personal pronouns are made plural by adding the suffi *m+n.

"I" - . "!e" -

)hat's easy enough, but what might seem strange at first is the absence in Chinese of "helping"

words we have in %nglish, such as the to/ of infinitive verbs *"I want to go." and articles a/, an/,

and 'the/.

0efore we get too confused with that idea, loo at a couple more eamples.

(otice that both "I watch )1" and "I am watching )1" are translated as . Chinese also

uses no helping verbs lie 'am' and therefore doesn't differentiate grammatically between 'watch'

and 'am watching'.

)o complete this illustration, let's build on this eample until we have a full compound sentence.

Spend some time with this one, and notice that the word order of Chinese parallels that of %nglish at

each step.


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)his doesn't mean, however, that every Chinese sentence will have the same structure as its direct

%nglish translation. !e're only saying that a great many do.

Got it2 Good.

Verbal Aspect: Expressing "Tense" in

Mandarin Chinese Grammar

!hen you were reading about verbs $ust now, I heard you as, ")hen how can we epress past and

future tense in Chinese, whether something will happen tomorrow, is happening now, or happened

yesterday2"

%cellent 3uestion4 I new you were a sharp one. 5nd let's call this element of Chinese grammar

the "verbal aspect" instead of "tense" here, $ust to be precise.

)o answer your 3uestion in broad terms, let's pretend for a moment that %nglish verbs have only

one form each, with no inflections or aspects or tenses whatsoever.

6or eample, say we have the verb 'go' but no such thing as went, gone, am going, will go, and etc.

(othing but 'go'.

I go 0ei$ing.

She go 0ei$ing.

!e go 0ei$ing.

7ow would we try to epress tense and time in %nglish under these circumstances2 8robably lie

this, which is one way Chinese does it


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)omorrow I go 0ei$ing.

9ight now she go 0ei$ing.

:esterday we go 0ei$ing.

5dverbs4 Instead of inflecting verbs, the Chinese language relies heavily on the use of adverbs to

communicate what %nglish and many other languages do with different verb tenses. 5nd looing at

the literal translations in the following eamples, you reali#e that %nglish could probably also get bywithout verb inflections in a pinch

)here are other ways of epressing tense & I mean, verbal aspect & in Chinese, such as with

"aspectual particles." )hese can help us differentiate, for eample, between "I went to 0ei$ing

*yesterday" and "I have been to 0ei$ing *before." !e'll loo at these eamples net.

Mandarin Chinese Particles & Modals

"8articles." Sounds lie it could be ;uantum 8hysics, I now, but it's not. It's still Grammar. Sorry.

In addition to using adverbs, many of the linguistic operations which %nglish performs by changing

the form of the verb, or by using possessive pronouns, are accomplished in Chinese by adding a

particle to the sentence.

8articles typically occur in the neutral tone. )he following eamples introduce us to three different

inds of particles structural, interrogative, and aspectual.

Structural Particles Indicate Possession

One of the particles used most is *de. 5dded to a noun or pronoun, this structural particle

performs the same function as the %nglish possessive "apostrophe s" *'s, or creates the e3uivalent

of possessive pronouns, lie his, her, their, and so on.


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Mandarin Chinese Measre Words

In %nglish, we often count in units, for eample

One pair of socs

)wo rounds of ammunition

)hree cases of wine

6our bunches of bananas


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)he Chinese language also uses words lie "pair" and "case" when counting one or more instance of

an ob$ect. In Chinese, though, these measure or "counting" words must be used every time ob$ects

are being counted, whether $ust one pencil or >.? billion people.

@ifferent measure words are used for different inds of ob$ects. 6or instance, large flat ob$ects are

counted with *zhng)A long round ob$ects use *zh). %ach measure word comes between the

number of ob$ects and the name of the ob$ect.

7ere are a few sentences showing counting words in action. )he counting words and their pinyin

translations are colored red to help you pic them out. Otherwise, the word order of the Chinese and

%nglish sentences are once again parallel.

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(otice that when we translate these sentences to %nglish, we do not include the measure words. 6or

eample, it is "I have five boos," not "I have five units of boo."

)he most commonly used measure word is *gB. )his also $ust happens to be the one normally

used to count people, ecept when being etra polite, then we use *wBi. :ou might remember the

difference between *gB and *wBi as the difference between 'women' and 'ladies', between 'men'

and 'gentlemen', and between 'customer' and 'guest'.

(ow please don't tell your Chinese language teacher that I'm the one who told you this, but if you're

out and about where Chinese is the native language and you can't remember or don't now the

proper measure word for some ind of item, you will probably be understood if you use *gB

instead. ust don't mae a permanent habit of it. @o this only until you have learned the correct

measure word.

If you're lucy, the person you're taling to might politely correct you and, conse3uently, teach you

the proper counting word. )hat's how I learned many of them, from shopeepers and waitresses

woring near 6u#hou Dniversityin China's 6u$ian 8rovince.
http://www.fzu.edu.cn/http://www.fzu.edu.cn/


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Mandarin Chinese !estion ormats

=earning how to as 3uestions in a new language is as important as learning basic survival

sentences&&maybe moreimportant.

0y that I mean, what good is learning, "One beer, please, bartender," if you can't as before that,

"%cuse me, where can I get a beer2"

Dsing the particle *ma is not the only way to create a 3uestion. )wo other common formats

involve interrogatives *who, what, where, why, when, and how and the "verb&not&verb"

construction.

Interrogatives

6ollowing are eamples of some common interrogatives.

The "Verb-not-Verb" Construction

In this format, a verb is followed by *b) or (mi)&&which mean no, not, or don't&&and then theverb is repeated. )hese eamples will show you how the construction wors.


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7ere's come those tone shifts again. (ormally, *b


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