Expressing "on the basis of" with "ping"

凭 is a preposition that means "on the basis of" or "by virtue of". Usually the subject of a sentence with 凭 is a person.

Structure with 凭

凭 with a noun

凭 can be followed up with a noun or noun phrase. The nouns can be something concrete like 银行卡, 身份证, etc., or they can be something abstract like 经验, 努力, 感觉 etc.

凭 + noun/noun phrase

Examples

• 凭 护照， 外国 人 可以 买 火车 票。
• 他 凭 自己 的 努力 学 了 三千 多 个 汉字。
• 我们 凭 学生证 在 电影院 享受 折扣 优待。

凭 with a verb phrase

凭 can also be used with a verb phrase or subject-predicate phrase,as follows:

凭 + verb phrase/subject-predicate phrase

Examples

• 怪不得 那 个 孩子 的 数学 不 好，他 只 凭 计算器 算。
• 学好 跳舞 不 能 只 凭 看 迈克尔·杰克逊 的 音乐 录像带， 还 得 凭 自己 的 努力。
• 我们 凭 凭 为 他人 做服务 表示 我们 的 关心。

凭 with 什么

This is one of the most common grammatical phrases, heard many times. It often has a feeling of dissatisfaction or anger, perhaps said while people are arguing. It is like saying "On what basis do you ...!?!?" Usually it is paired with blame, scold, hit etc.

Subject + 凭什么 + noun phrase

Examples

• 你 凭什么 怪 我！
• 我 没有 做 错，他 凭什么 骂 我？
• 她 一直 很忠诚， 你 凭什么 怀疑 她？

Structure with 凭着

You can also add 着 to 凭 to make it 凭着, however when you do so you can only use it if the action has already been completed. If the actions happens frequently or has not happened yet, you cannot use 凭着. The structure is the same as using 凭 by itself.

凭着 + noun/noun phrase

Examples

• 小白 凭着 自己 的 努力 致富。
• 他 凭着 智慧 战胜 了 很多 的 困难。

See also

• Limiting Scope with "jiu"
• "Along with…" Using "suizhe"

Sources and further reading

Books

• Chinese Grammar - Broken down into 100 items - Basic and Intermediate Levels (汉语语法百项讲练 - 初中级) (p. 227-228) →buy

HSK5