In this case, you can translate as "always". Not only are the watches expensive, but the clothes are expensive too. He has never played computer games before. l is the character you need to describe the distance between two places. ), I want to play games. (It wont take long.). To list a condition and its consequence in English, you use the if then structure. Since this action happened in the past, to negate it, you need to say + verb + . Thus 2017 would be : r lng y q nin. (literal translation: listen but not understand), Students understood this book. For both, you generally have the subject (who is performing the action), followed by the verb (what that person or thing is doing), and lastly the object (what is receiving the action). Du Ydl li shu, zh ge chngsh ti zhngyo le. You can also see them come before the subject, but never after the verb. (literal translation: He is called/named Andy. (emphasis: last June). Although it is not rainy today, it is going to rain tomorrow. However, slightly different from , emphasizes that the action is in progress RIGHT NOW. It can be used for both times and locations. How to get to the hotel from the airport? Adding gu after the verb can indicate actions that one has experienced in the past. Both + verb and + verb are commonly used. Can you tell what kind of people that person is (thoroughly)? (now, this week, these months, this semester, etc.). By simply putting before verbs, you can create questions to ask how to do something.

Here, du refers to "all". xin refers to "early" and "first". Basically, the two ways of questioning can be safely interchanged. / Dad and I took an eight-hours worth of flight. (the movement is down away from the speaker). To make a sentence indicating A is in the front of/behind B, you have to use min/. The passive pattern makes the action recipient the subject, and the doer into a secondary place, even not included in some cases. Please tell a little bit about your story. Chinese nouns don't show singular or plural in the same way that English words do. The bus will pass by the school and my home. Simple! (znme) means "how". What relatively tasty are their dumplings. I suddenly realize that he is not at school.

n[n] hn goxng, w y[y] hn go xng. ( is followed by the starting point of the action). To describe everyday routine, you can use the pattern "someone + (every day) + time 1 + + time 2 + action". (the movement is out and away from the speaker). By advancing the action recipient, the new pattern intends to concentrate on the influence or the result of an action on the action recipient. (I won't play for a long time.). The sentence n ch min will translate as "You eat noodles" because it would be a bit odd to just eat a single noodle. One common pattern is " + verb + number + measure word". I didn't buy the computer, because it's too expensive. is used for people and objects in general. "verb + + object" indicates that the action is conducted on a little bit of the object. I am very unhappy.. can also be used as the complement to verbs like xi(write), shu(speak), kn(look) and tng(listen). Every day, as soon as they get home, they sleep. B[b]yo y[y]bin kn sh, y[y]bin kn dinsh. It is almost weekend. The same thing also happens with words like this or that (demonstrative pronouns). The subject is not always necessary for this sentence pattern. You can use it for comparison and show the speaker's expectation. (emphasis: yesterday). "subject + + place" is among the most commonly used construction. My younger brother is playing soccer right now. There is no exception to this rule. When you use the pattern "subject + + adjective", please be aware that you should choose adjectives with unpleasant meanings. He got back home disappointedly./ He disappointedly got back home. You can drop the subject (the command recipient) and directly use the structure " + verb".

Chinese has two words for asking How much?: dusho and j. When will you go down and eat? The computer is too expensive, so I didn't buy it. ), The shop doesnt have any apples any more. (Is this cup of coffee yours or mine? To express ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) We learned about when learning how to ask for telephone numbers. (Otherwise, the speaker couldn't meet him today.). N sh zutin q de yyun ma? It was not at the school that the teacher saw me. Here well take a quick look at how the 3rd tone changes. Luckily, I met him yesterday. The original meaning of zu is "to sit". Luckily, we are at home. Dad wants to buy a little bit of lamb. ), Whats your name? You should replace with to show "not going to do" something. They can also serve as complements placed after verbs to describe where exactly the movement is heading. The pattern A + +B + + / bin simply indicates literal translation: A is on B's left/right side. With months its the same, only you add the number before yu (month). can also be used to ask how much or how many. While is used to ask about smaller numbers, is generally used to ask about numbers when we expect the answer to be larger, generally over ten. You can use the pattern verb + + duration + + object to address how long that action took place. You can put this pattern before + verb to ask how to get to a place. While is in sentences with certain movements and is placed before the starting point of the action, emphasizing the direction. Keep in mind, however, that you can also see this in sentences about the future when is showing that one action was completed before another. The same thing happens to adjectives with two or more characters where you can choose to only repeat the first character or both characters, though it sounds more natural to only repeat the first character. ), Whats his surname? is to show the change of state (that dog used to be there but not anymore). Jntin t miyu shjin. is normally used in the pattern " + measure word + + action/description". Placing before verbs, k[k]y is used to show the permission to carry out actions, similar to "may" "can (permission not ability)" in English. If the verb has a sensory meaning, such as (to look) and (to drink), the pattern shows that something has a negative sensory experience. You can't add to make a command/suggestion or indicate a future event. Those verbs include tng(listen), d(read), and kn(look; read). * here indicates that there is a new condition (I used to watch TV, but starting from this weekend, I will not watch it anymore.). Moms (younger) brothers name is Zhang Ming. There are different ways to say or in Chinese. Of course, the answer to such questions can be yes or no. Previously, you learned that to express negation in Chinese, one can add before the verb. (fast is to show how he walks.). Here is the pattern: action recipient + + doer + verb. (literal translation: the teacher is on my front side. We use it more for stating details related to the verb in the past. In English, personal pronouns for subject and object may be different, such as, I for the subject and me for the object. Please note that, itself is a measure word so that there is no need to place an extra measure word between and . Chinese is much more specific about family relationships. Ninai tng b qng(ch) bba shu de hu. The sentences normal indicate that the two subjects have something in common, so the complete pattern is " + subject A + subject B + ". The word "noodles" is also in this skill. You can also place directly after the verb, in the verb + pattern. However, if you want to describe that A is more of something than B in Chinese, you have to place in between those two things with the adjective at the end. This pattern is applicable to every number on the clock face to avoiding using big numbers, for example, 7:16 can be rather than . The construction "subject + + verb" simply means something is difficult to do. You learned about Chinese also uses the subject (doer) + verb (action) + object (action recipient) pattern as in English. Does the supermarket take credit card or cash? Alternatively, you can repeat the verb and connect the two parts by . The complete pattern " + number + / + + number + " simply indicates how many minutes/quarters to the next sharp hour. " + + verb" and " + verb + " are also commonly used and they convey a more intensified degree. It goes between the subject (who or what we are describing) and the adjective (what we are describing it as). Here, is used to show the completion of an action. If the verb is followed by an object, you should repeat the verb as shown in the new pattern subject + verb + object + verb + + duration + . Since can express an ongoing action, you can use the pattern "subject + + + verb" to indicate someone has been/is continuously doing something. The pattern "subject + + action" describes that an action frequently happens. The pattern is place A + + place B + adverb + /. In order to say "I eat" or "I am eating" in Chinese, you have to include what is being eaten, you cannot use just by itself. ( is followed by the starting point of the action ), ( is followed by the starting point of the action ). (literal translation: She is surnamed Li. It must always come after the subject and before the verb. In this case, you can choose to drop either of the subjects. Shngdin kui / kuiyo / yo ki mn le. The most common verb is zh (to live): In Chinese, when talking about how many of something there are, we dont just add the number before the word, but also put something in between the number and the noun to classify it. T y[y]bin chfn, y[y]bin chng g. You have to add (side) after / when making a sentence. How much does the computer cost? There is no apple in the fridge. Simply place it before the verb or adjective and it will place the context of the sentence into the future. It wont rain next Monday. (The listener has already asked once.

Similar to English, personal pronouns in Chinese substitute regular nouns to avoid repeating the same word for many times. hu can be used to indicate future tense. You should pronounce the second verb in this pattern with the neutral tone. It is difficult to prepare for the geography test./ The geography test is difficult to prepare. The most common word used is , which is used for people and objects in general. / They listened to a days worth of music. It can also refer to the action of taking a certain vehicle since people normally sit in the bus, train, and place, to name a few. We eat very well. Please note that you can place before the subject. My older brother is eating at the restaurant. " + vehicle + + place" simply means to take some vehicle to somewhere. + verb + object can also indicate "be going to do" when the sentence has a time word. You may remember that to indicate an actions completion, you should put after the action. I want to learn Chinese because I like China very much. We do something similar in English but to a much lesser degree. To negate this wanting, you can simply place before . zhngjin means middle. The quality of some glasses is bad./ Some glasses have bad quality. serves to connect two qualities that don't contrast with each other. To negate the permission, you can simply use (can't). Other patterns with similar use will be introduced later. W b zhdo zh bi kfi sh n de hish w de. When it comes to statements, for both, you generally have the subject (who is performing the action), followed by the verb (what that person or thing is doing), and lastly the object (what is receiving the action). Ynwi w hn[hn] xhun Zhnggu, su[su]y w[w] xing xu Zhngwn. (she was seven years old last year. Reasons to use passive sentences in Chinese include 1) you want to address that the action recipient has been negatively affected; 2) you want to address the action recipient more than the doer; 3) you try not to mention the doer for some reason. (the movement is down and towards the speaker). It is normally used as a return sentence after being asked the same question. The word q can indicate the action of going to a certain place. When there is no specific context, biji refers to Chinese spirits that are made from fermented cereals (sorghum, maize, etc.). Additionally, sometimes youll see the subject pronoun placed in between and . You can use in sentences with a vague time that goes beyond the current moment. If you want to express someone has been doing something for some time, namely the duration of an ongoing event, you might need to use two in the sentence. Asking yes/no questions in Chinese is very simple, all you need to do is add ma (neutral tone) to the end! I didnt hear the sentence you said clearly. Different from placed before unpleasant adjectives, "adjective + " is used to express "a little bit more of a condition". There is no measure word between and because is already a measure word. If you want to express possession, saying that someone/something belongs to someone/something else, the word de (neutral tone) is used to connect the two elements. In many cases, you can choose to omit without altering the meaning. Tmen xin ch wnfn, zi ch shu[shu]gu, rnhu shuy. rnhu means "and then" or "and after that". Students are not going to the U.S. tomorrow. When will you come down and eat? They eat dinner first, then eat fruit, and after that brush their teeth. While hngji only means red wine, has two meanings. There is no newspaper on the chair. The very popular structure "subject + + event A, + event B" is used to describe that as soon as event A has taken the place, event B would happen immediately. The same thing also happens with words like this or that (demonstrative pronouns). The pattern " + a complete sentence" means "luckily, something happened/didn't happen". means money and the literal meaning of is how much money. Normally, these two parts share the same subject and you should drop the second one. Please note that personal pronouns remain the same for subject and object in Chinese. You can also use "A" to express "in the middle of A". Mostly, is followed as an indicator of the completion. de (neutral tone) also plays a role here. You can use the pattern A + +B + + /. The most common word used to do this is hn, which literally means very. To make a verb or a verb phrase indicate completeness, you just need to add after it. You can make a complicated sentence with two actions by using ", , ". jio means to call/name or to be called/named and is commonly used to introduce names. In Chinese, when talking about how many of something there are, we dont just add the number before the word, but also put something in between the number and the noun to classify it. Similarly, in Chinese, you can choose to say or use ch. That clothes looks/appears to be expensive.

Also, you can also put at the beginning of a sentence. can also be used to describe circumstances and conditions. For people that you have a close relationship with (e.g. In this case, you can omit the subject for the part. The pattern " + someone + lishu" generally expresses "for/to someone" or "from someone's perspective, followed by a statement to show someone's attitudes and ideas. This pattern is always used to make requests and orders. as a verb means "to compare". ), I am behind the teacher. The pattern is "subject + + , + subject + ". You learned about the pattern "subject + adverb + adjective", such as (I am happy). Please note that + place emphasizes going to a place while + place is for arriving at a place. Please be aware that is used to illustrate the fixed and static distance between two places and their order doesnt influence the whole sentence. It is commonly used to ask people to do something or it can end with to indicate the completion of an action. Apart from referring to locations, can also be seen before verbs to show actions in progress. work, school), you can choose to leave out the , but this only happens with pronouns. Time words such as today, tomorrow, and yesterday usually come after the subject but before the verb. + adjective 1 + + adjective 2 is very similar to both adjective 1 and adjective 2 in English. / yu[yu]dinr is used to make a complaint in a very polite manner and indicates "a little bit too much of a certain feeling". Please ask one more time. in Chinese, you only need to place the word "d" before a number. To negate a sentence, you simply add the word b (no) before the verb. Traditionally it was used mostly for negative things, but nowadays you can hear it for positive things as well. Most commonly, it is placed before verbs or adjectives to show that an action or a condition unexpectedly happens in a short time. y[y]dinr ( in southern China) literally means "a little bit". In many cases, is followed by "adverb + adjective". Cng zh ge zhum kish, w b[b] kn dinsh le.

n combined with other words can be used to ask where and which questions. Orally, can be omitted. ), The teacher is in front of me. Change adjectives into adverbs Zhl miyu gngch. You use this pattern to compare one thing with a general fact. Qng[qng] jing y[y] jing n de gsh. Please note that verbs in verb + / pattern should imply inherent movements by their own, such as shng(to go up) and xi(to go down). / N sh zutin q yyun de ma? To say someone does not have something, you do not use b, instead, you use mi. In Chinese, plays similar role to from, placed before the starting point (place B). Normally present actions are negated with , but is an exception. Since the computer is too expensive, I didn't buy it.