Difference between revisions of "Reduplication of verbs"

Revision as of 02:07, 10 September 2013

Level

A2 / HSK2 and HSK3
Level

A2
Level

HSK2, HSK3
Similar to
- Softening speech with "ba" (A2)
- Verbing briefly with "yixia" (A2)
- Reduplication of adjectives (B1)
- Reduplication of measure words (B1)
- Repeated actions in the past with "you" (B2)
Similar to
- Softening speech with "ba" (HSK1)
- Reduplication of measure words (HSK2)
- Verbing briefly with "yixia" (HSK2)
- Reduplication of adjectives (HSK3)
- Repeated actions in the past with "you" (HSK5)
Used for

Expressing duration, Decreasing formality
Keywords

一

One of the fun things about Chinese is that you can repeat certain things to express "a little bit", similar to how in some Latin languages you can add a bit to the end of a word to make it "cute".

Structure

In Chinese, verbs can be reduplicated to indicate that they happen briefly or "a little bit".

Subject + Verb + Verb

Examples

你看看。(You) Take a little look.
我试试。I'll give it a little try.
你听听。(You) Listen for a bit.

Sources and further reading

Books

New Practical Chinese Reader 2 (新实用汉语课本2) (pp. 18) →buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (3rd ed) (pp. 85) →buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 2 (pp. 227-8) →buy
Contemporary Chinese 1 (当代中文1) (pp. 125) →buy
Practicing HSK Grammar (语法精讲精炼) (pp. 152-160) →buy
New Practical Chinese Reader 4 (新实用汉语课本4) (p. 121-2) →buy