Basic sentence order
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In its most basic form, Chinese word order is very similar to English word order. Don't expect these similarities to hold true too far past the very basic sentence order outlined below, though!
Contents
Subject-predicate
The most basic word order in Chinese is:
Structure
Subject + Verb
You can form very simple sentences with just two words.
Examples
| Subject | Verb | Pinyin | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 你 | 吃。 | Nǐ chī. | You eat. |
| 他 | 笑。 | Tā xiào. | He laughs. |
| 我 | 读。 | Wǒ dú. | I read. |
| 我 | 去。 | Wǒ qù. | I go. |
| 你 | 看。 | Nǐ kàn. | You look. |
| 你 | 滚 ! | Nǐ gǔn! | You get out of here! |
| 你 | 说。 | Nǐ shuō. | You speak. |
| 孩子 | 哭。 | Háizi kū. | Children cry. |
| 谁 | 要 学？ | Shuí yào xué? | Who wants to study? |
| 谁 | 想 做？ | Shuí xiǎng zuò? | Who wants to do? |
Subject-verb-object
A basic sentence usually has an object, and is formed with this structure:
Structure
Subject + Verb + Object
This is the same as in English, and is commonly referred to as SVO word order. You can express a huge variety of things with this simple structure.
Examples
| Subject | Verb | Object | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 我 | 吃 | 肉。 | I eat meat. |
| 你 | 喝 | 汤。 | You drink soup. |
| 我 | 去 | 学校。 | I go to school. |
| 他 | 说 | 中文。 | He speaks Chinese. |
| 我们 | 要 买 | 电脑。 | We are going to buy a computer. |
| 我 | 想 吃 | 中国 菜。 | I want to eat Chinese food. |
| 我 | 喜欢 | 那 个 小 孩子。 | I like that child. |
| 我 | 爱 | 你 和 爸爸。 | I love you and dad. |
| 你 | 要 做 | 什么？ | What do you want to do? |
| 你 | 想 吃 | 什么 菜？ | What food do you want to eat? |
See also
- Word order (a more in depth article)
- Time words and word order
- Using "zai" with verbs
- Verbing briefly
- Topic-comment sentences
- Expressing location with "zai...shang/xia/li"
- Wanting to do something with yao
- Standard negation with bu
- Using the verb jiao
- Using the verb qu
- In the future in general
- Expressing a learned skill
- Expressing ability or possibility
- Expressing permission
- Connecting nouns with "shi"
- Simple "noun + adjective" sentences
