Glossary

We strive to avoid unnecessarily technical terms on the Chinese Grammar Wiki, but occasionally it's sort of necessary, and sometimes even useful (yes, really!). So to help you out, we've placed all of the grammatical terms related to Mandarin Chinese in one place. Each term has a page on the wiki with a more complete description, and many pages also have lists of grammar points related to the term.

List of Mandarin Grammar Terms

Action verb — Also known as: 动作动词 (dòngzuò dòngcí) and 行为动词 (xíngwéi dòngcí). Action verbs describe what a subject did, is doing, or will do, physically.

Adjective — Also known as: 形容词 (xíngróngcí). Adjectives are the "describing" words of a language. In Chinese, they have some characteristics that they don't have in English.

Adjectival phrase — Also known as: 形容词性词组 (xíngróngcí-xìng duǎnyǔ) and adjective phrase. Adjectival phrases often consist of just an adjective and the adverbs modifying it, but they might also have other structures, such as an adjective and complement.

Adjectival predicate sentence — Also known as: 形容词谓语句 (xíngróngcí wèiyǔ jù) and 形容词性谓语句 (xíngróngcí-xìng wèiyǔ jù). A fancy name for a sentence where the predicate consists of an adjective.

Adverb — Also known as: 副词 (fùcí). Adverbs are words that modify verbs and adjectives. In Chinese, word order of adverbs is much stricter than in English. Chinese adverbs normally come before the main verb of a sentence, but in some cases come right at the beginning of a sentence.

Adverbial — Also known as: 状语 (zhuàngyǔ). An adverbial is a sentence element that functions like an adverb, modifying a verb or adjective.

Adverbial phrase — Also known as: 副词短语 (fùcí duǎnyǔ) and adverb phrase. An adverbial phrase is a phrase with two or more words that act like an adverb, modifying a verb or adjective.

Affirmative-negative question — Also known as: 正反问句 (zhèng-fǎn wènjù) and alternative questions. A common way to form questions in Chinese is to first use a verb in the positive, then repeat the same verb in its negative form, similar to how in English we can say, "Do you have money or not?" or "Have you or have you not been to the park?" This sentence pattern feels a lot more natural in Chinese than those admittedly awkward English equivalents, however.

Affix — Also known as: 词缀 (cízhuì). An affix is a linguistic unit added to the beginning, middle or end of a word to change its meaning (e.g. prefix, infix, suffix).

Aspect — Also known as: 动作状态 (dòngzuò zhuàngtài). Chinese does not use the concept of formal tenses. Instead, it employs what is called "grammatical aspect." Rather than conjugating its verbs, Chinese uses particles to indicate how a verb works within a particular timeframe, or how the verb relates to the flow of time. The particles most often used to indicate aspect in Chinese are 了 (le), 过 (guo), and 着 (zhe).

Aspectual particle — Also known as: 动态助词 (dòngtài zhùcí). These words are added to verbs to indicate aspect (not the same as tense). The particles most often used to indicate aspect in Chinese are 了 (le), 过 (guo), and 着 (zhe).

Attributive — Also known as: 定语 (dìngyǔ). An attributive is the word or phrase that directly precedes the noun it describes. Frequently it is linked to the noun with the structural particle 的 (de).

Auxiliary verb — Also known as: modal verb, 助动词 (zhùdòngcí), 情态动词 (qíngtài dòngcí) and 能愿动词 (néngyuàn dòngcí). Auxiliary verbs are "helping" verbs that come before main verbs and help express a tone or mood. (The word "modal" comes from "mood.") In English, auxiliary verbs include words like "should," "will," and "can," which all change something about the situation and the speaker's attitude. Auxiliary verbs express capability, possibility, necessity, obligation or willingness.

Cardinal number — Also known as: 基数词 (jīshùcí). Cardinal numbers are numbers such as 1, 2, or 3 used to indicate quantity. They contrast with ordinal numbers.

Causative verb — Also known as: 使令动词 (shǐlìng dòngcí) and 使役动词 (shǐyì dòngcí). A causative verb is a kind of verb that is used to indicate that someone or something causes something else to do or be something. In Chinese, 让 (ràng) is a major player in this space.

Complement — Also known as: 补语 (bǔyǔ) and objective complement. A complement is a word or phrase following a verb (or sometimes an adjective) that provides additional meaning to the verb phrase. Complements are not the same as objects, and can be as short as one character, or practically as long as a sentence. Complements provide additional information associated with verbs, such as degree, result, direction or possibility, and are extremely common. Complements are not a form of flattery (those are compliments); they're much more versatile than that!

Complex sentence — Also known as: 复句 (fùjù). A complex sentence is a sentence with one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

Conjunction — Also known as: 连词 (liáncí). Conjunctions in Chinese do exactly what they do in English: connect things. They help make the transition between ideas smoother and also show the relationships between those ideas.

Content word — Also known as: 实词 (shící). Content words refer to real objects in the real world, whether solid and palpable, or observable in some other way. These words refer to objects, actions, concepts, and even emotions, which exist in some real way as more than just grammatical tools. Words that serve purely grammatical roles are called function words.

Coverb — Also known as: 副动词 (fùdòngcí) and 伴动词 (bàndòngcí). A coverb is a verb that modifies the main verb of a sentence when used with its own object.

Degree adverb — Also known as: 程度副词 (chéngdù fùcí) and adverb of degree. Degree adverbs intensify or in some other way modify the degree of expression of the adjective (or verb).

Degree complement — Also known as: 程度补语 (chéngdù bǔyǔ) and complement of degree. While most complements follow verbs, degree complements can follow both verbs and adjectives. These complements intensify or modify the degree of expression of the verb or adjective.

Demonstrative pronoun — Also known as: 指示代词 (zhǐshì dàicí). A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun used in the place of a noun and specifies what is being referred to.

Dependent clause — Also known as: 从句 (cóngjù). A dependent clause is dependent on and modifies an independent clause. Dependent clauses have a subject and verb, but also start with a subordinate conjunction, making it clear that they are not meant to stand on their own.

Direct object — Also known as: 直接宾语 (zhíjiē bīnyǔ). A direct object is what is being acted upon, thus receiving the action of a verb. In Chinese grammar, direct objects are often simply referred to as "objects."

Direction complement — Also known as: 趋向补语 (qūxiàng bǔyǔ), directional complement and complement of direction. A direction complement is a complement used to describe the direction of a verb. Verbs often already have some inherent movement implied, but by adding a direction complement, it becomes clearer where, exactly, that action is going.

Directional verb — Also known as: 趋向动词 (qūxiàng dòngcí). Directional verbs can be added to other verbs in a direction complement, illustrating which direction the verb is going.

Directional complement — See direction complement

Distinguishing word — Also known as: 区别词 (qūbiécí) and attributive adjective. "Distinguishing words" are rather foreign to the English speaker. On the surface they may seem like regular adjectives, but distinguishing words cannot have degree, so they cannot be modified by adverbs. Unlike normal adjectives, sentences involving distinguishing words use 是 (shì), and usually 的 (de) as well. Common words include the Chinese words for "male," "female," "real," "fake," and colors.

Existential verb — Also known as: 存现动词 (cúnxiàn dòngcí). Existential verbs declare the existence or nonexistence of things.

Function word — Also known as: 虚词 (xūcí). Function words do not refer to real objects in the real world; rather they serve purely grammatical roles in sentences, drawing relationships and logical connections between the content words in a sentence. Words that refer to real objects in the real world are called content words.

Judgment verb — Also known as: 关系动词 (guānxì dòngcí) and 判断动词 (pànduàn dòngcí). Judgment verbs are verbs used to express the speaker’s judgment. This can be as simple as the verb "to be," but also covers a wide range of other verbs.

Indirect object — Also known as: 间接宾语 (jiànjiē bīnyǔ). Indirect objects occur when there are two objects in a sentence. The indirect object is for/to whom/what the action of the verb is done and who/what is receiving the direct object. In Chinese grammar, indirect objects are often referred to as second objects.

Independent clause — Also known as: 主句 (zhǔjù). An independent clause is a clause that has a subject and a predicate that modifies the subject, allowing it to stand alone as a sentence.

Independent phrase — Also known as: 独立语 (dúlì yǔ). An independent phrase has no subject acting out the verb in the sentence.

Interjection — Also known as: 叹词 (tàncí) and 感叹词 (gǎntàncí). This type of word is used in exclamations or various kinds of emotional response.

Interrogative pronoun — See question word

Intransitive verb — Also known as: 不及物动词 (bùjíwù dòngcí). Intransitive verbs are verbs which take no direct object.

Location word — Also known as: 方位名词 (fāngwèi míngcí), 方位词 (fāngwèi cí) and noun of locality. Location words are nouns showing direction and location.

Main clause — See independent clause

Measure word — Also known as: 量词 (liàngcí) and classifier. Measure words are used together with numerals to indicate the quantity of a noun, and sometimes even of an action. The general term for "measure word" in linguistics is "classifier," because measure words involve some kind of classification of the noun (or action) being counted.

Mimetic word — See onomatopoeia

Modal adverb — Also known as: 语气副词 (yǔqì fùcí) and tone adverb. Modal adverbs express likelihood with adverbs such as probably, possibly, evidently, certainly, etc.

Modal particle — Also known as: 语气助词 (yǔqì zhùcí), 语气词 (yǔqì cí), Sentence-final particle and Sentential particle. Modal particles are words used at the end of sentences to indicate mood, or attitude. They tend to be neutral tone and hard to translate, but they add a bit of "flavor" to a sentence. See also particles.

Modal verb — See auxiliary verb

Negative adverb — Also known as: 否定副词 (fǒudìng fùcí). Negative adverbs negate verbs and adjectives to make a negative statement. The main ones in Chinese are 不 (bù) and 没 (méi).

Noun — Also known as: 名词 (míngcí). You may have learned these as "person, place, or thing." Nouns often act as subjects, are modified by adjectives, and can be counted with measure words in Chinese.

Noun measure word — Also known as: 名量词 (míngliàngcí) and nominal measure word. As the name suggests, these are measure words that are only used for nouns.

Noun phrase — Also known as: 名词性短语 (míngcí-xìng duǎnyǔ). A noun phrase is a phrase with a noun or pronoun as a head word that has any sort of modifier.

Numeral — Also known as: 数词 (shùcí). A numeral is a symbol that represents a number.

Nominal predicate sentence — Also known as: 名词谓语句 (míngcí wèiyǔjù). Nominal predicate sentences are sentences with a noun phrase that functions as the main predicate of the sentence.

Object — Also known as: 宾语 (bīnyǔ). The object is the receiver of the action of the verb.

Onomatopoeia — Also known as: 象声词 (xiàngshēngcí) and 拟声词 (nǐshēngcí). Onomatopoeia are words which represent sounds and noises.

Ordinal number — Also known as: 序数词 (xùshù cí). Ordinal numbers are numbers used to express rank or sequence. Think "1st," "2nd," etc. Ordinal numbers contrast with cardinal numbers.

Particle — Also known as: 助词 (zhùcí). Particles are function words that depend on other words or phrases to impart meaning. They're kind of like prepositions, but more abstract. In Chinese, the key ones are aspectual particles (for indicating aspect), structural particles (for indicating relationships between words), and modal particles (for indicating mood). Chinese particles are also special words because they tend to always take the neutral tone.

Passive voice — Also known as: 被动结构 (bèidòng jiégòu), 被动句式 (bèidòng jùshì), 被动语态 (bèidòng yǔtài) and the passive. "Passive voice" is a grammatical term used to refer to sentences in which the "recipient" of an action (often referred to as the "direct object" or simply "object") becomes the subject of the sentence, and the "doer" of the action is demoted to secondary importance or omitted altogether.

Passive structure — See passive voice

Personal pronoun — Also known as: 人称代词 (rénchēng dàicí). Personal pronouns include 我 (wǒ), 你 (nǐ), 他 (tā), and 她 (tā). To make them plural, all you need to do is add the suffix -们 (-men) to them. There is also a polite second person form 您 (nín), which cannot normally take the -们 (-men) suffix.

Place noun — Also known as: 处所名词 (chùsuǒ míngcí). Place nouns are nouns describing the position or place of something.

Place adverb — Also known as: 处所副词 (chùsuǒ fùcí), location adverb, adverb of place and adverb of location. Place adverbs modify the location of a verbs or adjective.

Placement verb — See existential verb

Phrase — Also known as: 短语 (duǎnyǔ) and 词组 (cízǔ). A phrase is a group of words that expresses a concept. It can be focused on fleshing out a particular word, as in a noun phrase or verb phrase. See also clause, which expresses a more complete thought.

Possessive pronoun — Also known as: 物主代词 (wùzhǔ dàicí). Possessive pronouns take the place of a noun and show ownership.

Potential complement — Verbs can take potential complements to indicate whether or not an action is possible. Potential complements contain a 得 (de) or a 不 (bu) immediate after the verb being modified, and are quite common in everyday spoken Mandarin.

Predicate — Also known as: 谓语 (wèiyǔ). Predicates are the main verb or verb phrase of a sentence, and state something about the subject. Aside from verbs, adjectives and sometimes even nouns can be predicates as well. See basic sentence order for more examples.

Preposition — Also known as: 介词 (jiècí). Prepositions are words that indicate location or direction. They are called "pre"-positions because they are positioned before the words that they modify.

Prepositional phrase — Also known as: 介词短语 (jiècí duǎnyǔ). A prepositional phrase is a phrase beginning with a preposition that precedes the word it modifies and clarifies that word's relationship with another word in the sentence.

Pronoun — Also known as: 代词 (dàicí). Pronouns substitute in for regular nouns and proper nouns to avoid unnecessary repetition of the same words over and over again.

Proper noun — Also known as: 专有名词 (zhuānyǒu míngcí). A proper noun is specific person, place or thing. Proper nouns are generally capitalized (e.g. Anubis, Asgard, AllSet Learning), both in English and in pinyin.

Psychological verb — Also known as: 心理动词 (xīnlǐ dòngcí) and psych verb. A psychological verb is a verb that conveys the speaker's mental state or attitude.

Qualitative adjective — Also known as: 性质形容词 (xìngzhì xíngróngcí). Qualitative adjectives describe the quality or nature of something.

Quantitative phrase — Also known as: 数量短语 (shùliàng duǎnyǔ). Quantitative phrases express a measurement of amount.

Quantity complement — Also known as: 数量补语 (shùliàng bǔyǔ), quantitative complement and complement of quantity. A quantity complement follows a verb and supplies information regarding an amount.

Question pronoun — See question word

Question word — Also known as: 疑问代词 (yíwèn dàicí), question pronoun, interrogative pronoun. A question word refers to a special kind of pronoun used to ask questions. These would include 什么 (shénme), 什么时候 (shénme shíhou), 谁 (shéi), 哪儿 (nǎr) / 哪里 (nǎlǐ), 哪个 (nǎge), 为什么 (wèishénme), 怎么 (zěnme). Beginners should pay attention to the placement of question words.

Reduplication — It is one of the great ironies of linguistics that the term for repeating a word is overly repetitive itself. You'd think that the word "duplication" would work just fine, but the linguistic term really is reduplication. In Chinese, verbs and adjectives are often reduplicated.

Relational verb — See judgment verb

Result complement — Also known as: 结果补语 (jiéguǒ bǔyǔ), complement of result, resultative complement and result compound. Result complements are a kind of verbal complement that appears very frequently in Chinese. Surprisingly enough, they're used to describe the result of a verb.

Scope adverb — Also known as: 范围副词 (fànwéi fùcí). Scope adverbs modify and expand a verb or adjective.

Sentence with a nominal predicate — See nominal predicate sentence

Sentence with a verbal predicate — Also known as: 动词谓语句 (dòngcí wèiyǔ jù). A sentence with a verb as the main element of its predicate is called a sentence with a verbal predicate. This type of sentence is extremely common.

Sentence with an adjectival predicate — See adjectival predicate sentence

Sentence with a subject-predicate structure as predicate — Also known as: 主谓谓语句 (zhǔ-wèi wèiyǔ jù).

Sentence-final particle — See modal particle

Sentential particle — See modal particle

Separable verb — Also known as: 离合词 (líhécí) and verb-object phrase. "Separable verbs" get their name from their ability to "separate" into two parts (a verb part and an object part), with other words in between. In fact, you could also simply call separable verbs "verb-object phrases."

Subject — Also known as: 主语 (zhǔyǔ). A subject is a noun or pronoun that the sentence centers around. It is the actor of the verb and is what something is said about.

Subject-predicate construction — Also known as: 主谓结构 (zhǔ-wèi jiégòu). The subject-predicate construction consists of a subject and a predicate, and may be part of a larger sentence, or may serve as a sentence on its own.

Subject-predicate sentence — Also known as: 主谓句 (zhǔ-wèi jù). A sentence composed of a subject and a predicate. The vast majority of sentences fit this description.

Subordinate clause — See dependent clause

State complement — Also known as: 状态补语 (zhuàngtài bǔyǔ), 情态补语 (qíngtài bǔyǔ) and complement of state. State complements describe an achieved state of an action. State complements are usually adjective phrases (adverb + adjective) but can take the form of verb phrases, subject-predicate phrases, or other complements. State complements that are adjective phrases often look the same as degree complements and thus are often lumped together with degree complements in textbooks.

Stative adjective — Also known as: 状态形容词 (zhuàngtài xíngróngcí). A stative adjective is an adjective describing a relatively unchanging or permanent condition/state.

Stative verb — Also known as: 状态动词 (zhuàngtài dòngcí), 静态动词 (jìngtài dòngcí), state verb and static verb. A stative verb is a verb describing a relatively unchanging or permanent condition/state. Stative verbs in Mandarin are usually translated as adjectives in English.

Structural particle — Also known as: 结构助词 (jiégòu zhùcí). A structural particle is a function word that denotes the structural/grammatical relationship between elements of a sentence.

Time adverb — Also known as: 时间副词 (shíjiān fùcí). Adverbs of time express the when, how long, or how often of a verb.

Time phrase — Also known as: 时间短语 (shíjiān duǎnyǔ). A time phrase occurs before the verb phrase and indicates the when, how long, or how often of a situation.

Time noun — Also known as: 时间名词 (shíjiān míngcí), 时间词 (shíjiāncí), time nominal and temporal noun. Time nouns are nouns that provide information regarding time. One reason they're noteworthy in Chinese is that words indicating time in English are often adverbs, whereas their Chinese counterparts are nouns.

Time-measure complement — Also known as: 时量补语 (shí-liàng bǔyǔ). Time-measure complements show the state or duration of an action.

Tone adverb — See modal adverb

Topic-comment structure — Also known as: 主题句 (zhǔtí-jù), 主题结构 (zhǔtí jiégòu), 主题评论结构 (zhǔtí-pínglùn jiégòu), 主题述题结构 (zhǔtí-shùtí jiégòu) and 主题评述结构 (zhǔtí-píngshù jiégòu). A topic-comment structure is an alternative to the typical subject-predicate sentence structure, whereby a topic (or theme) is followed by the speaker's comment on that topic. The topic is not the "doer" (subject) of the sentence, but rather sets the scope of the comments (some thoughts related to the topic).

Transitive verb — Also known as: 及物动词 (jíwù dòngcí). A transitive verb is an verb which takes a direct object.

Verb — Also known as: 动词 (dòngcí). Verbs are the "action" words which make up the predicates of most sentences, but may also simply indicate relationships, changes, or mental activity rather than physical actions. Verbs may take objects, and can also be reduplicated in Chinese. They can be negated, as well as modified by particles.

Verb measure word — Also known as: 动量词 (dòng liàngcí), verbal measure word and verbal classifier. A verb measure word accompanies the number of times a verb occurred to count the frequency or re-occurrence of an action. See: Measure words for verbs

Verb phrase — Also known as: 动词性短语 (dòngcí-xìng duǎnyǔ) and verbal phrase. A verb phrase is a phrase with a verb as a head word that has any sort of modifier. It commonly includes modal verbs before it and objects after it.

Verbal measure word — Also known as: 动量补语 (dòng-liàng bǔyǔ), verb measure word, verbal classifier and action-measure complement. This type of measure word is not used to count nouns. Rather, it is placed after verbs to show the frequency of an action.

Verbal predicate sentence — See sentence with a verbal predicate