Beginner Guide to Chinese Grammar
As a beginner, Chinese grammar can be challenging to understand. In this quick overview, we will provide you with some basic information to start mastering the language!
Contents
Background
English is classified as an Indo-European language. This language family includes a lot of languages spoken in the western world, including the romance languages (such as Spanish, French, and Portuguese) as well as the Slavic languages (such as Russian, Czech, and Polish), and many others. All of these languages have common grammatical features which include conjugating verbs for different tenses, following specific rules about subject-verb agreement, and adding endings to words to make them plural.
Chinese is not part of the Indo-European family at all. Instead, it is classified as a Sino-Tibetan language, and, unsurprisingly, its grammar is quite different from the grammar of those European languages you may have encountered before. Still, Chinese grammar may surprise you with its pleasing simplicity and consistent logical structure.
Helpful Tools
As a language, Chinese does not have an alphabet. Instead, characters known as “hanzi” (汉字) are used to express the different sounds of the language. These characters can also be written using the roman letters in a system called “pinyin.” All beginners should learn pinyin first. Pinyin is provided for all Chinese characters on the A1 and A2 grammar point pages.
The Basics
When initially learning Chinese, there are a number of misconceptions about Chinese grammar. We will start this overview looking at some specific areas of Chinese grammar, listed below.
Word Order
For many simple cases, the basic sentence structure of Chinese is the same in Chinese as it is in English. Both languages use a subject-verb or subject-verb-object (SVO) formula for making sentences. This familiar pattern means that you shouldn't have much trouble with word order at first.
Subject-Verb Examples
| Subject | Verb | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 你 | 吃。 | You eat. |
| 他 | 笑。 | He laughs. |
| 我 | 去。 | I go. |
Subject-Verb-Object Examples
| Subject | Verb | Object | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 我 | 吃 | 肉。 | I eat meat. |
| 你 | 喝 | 水。 | You drink water. |
| 他 | 说 | 中文。 | He speaks Chinese. |
More examples can be found on our basic word order page. We also have pages to help you put time words and locations of actions in the right places, use simple adverbs correctly, and make simple noun-adjective sentences.
Questions
Simple sentences can be turned into yes/no questions by adding 吗 (ma) to the end. This modifies the sentence the same way adding “ok” or “right” to the end changes sentences in English. An English version of a sentence that uses 吗 (ma) might read: "You're good, right?"
- 他 是 老师 吗 ？ question Is he a teacher?
- 你 喜欢 咖啡 吗 ？ questionDo you like coffee?
- 他 是 你 哥哥 吗 ？ questionIs your older brother?
Another important question particle for beginners to understand is 呢 (ne). 呢 (Ne) is simply added after a topic to turn it into a "what about...?" question. This is useful in conversations to say things like "what about you?" or "what about my money?" This particle is simply tagged onto the subject to form the question.
- 我 吃 饭 了 。 你 呢 ？ I've eaten. What about you?
- 北京 下 雨 了 。 上海 呢 ？ It's raining in Beijing. How about Shanghai?
- 你 说 他们 可以 去 。 我们 呢 ？ You said they can go. What about us?
There are of course other ways to form questions. In English, we use question words, commonly referred to as the "5 W's and 1 H" (what, where, who, when, why, how), to make questions. These question words also exist in Chinese, but their placement within a sentence in Chinese is different from English. The structure of a question in Chinese follows the same structure as a normal statement.
For example, in English the structure of the question to learn someone's name is "Who are you?" The person answering this question is going to say "I am Li Li." In Chinese, the structure of the question to learn someone's name is "You are who?" The question follows the same structure as the structure of the answer (subject-verb-object). This works for other questions too such as "It is what?" (Answer: "It is a ball.").
- 什么 what
- 哪里、哪儿 where
- 谁 who
- 什么时候 when
- 为什么 why
- 怎么 how
Possession
Possession can be shown using the particle 的 (de). This character functions the same way as an apostrophe “s” does in English and is added after the "owner," before the "thing owned." One interesting result of this extremely versatile system is that you don't need separate words for "my" or "your" or "his"; you just follow the words for "I" or "you" or "he" with a 的 (de).
- 小李 的 手机Xiao Li's cell phone
- 我 的 手机My cell phone
- 公司 的 老板the company's boss
- 他 的 小狗His puppy
Possession can also be expressed by talking about things you have. Just like we can say in English "I have the tickets" or "she has the camera" the particle 有 (yǒu) can be used to show this type of possession.
- 我 有 钱。I have money.
- 他 有 两 个 女儿 。He has two daughters.
- 你 有 工作 吗？Do you have a job?
Negation
You can use the same basic word order to express things that don’t happen. To express this negative action, the character 不 (bù) is placed before the verb. This functions much like the word "not" in English, but in fact, it is a lot simpler than English.
For example, in English when you negate the sentence "I speak English," instead of just "not" you actually have to add "do not," giving you "I do not speak English." In Chinese when you add 不 (bù) to the Chinese version of the sentence "I speak English," it just slips in right before the verb, no other chances necessary. So proper Chinese grammar would be "I not speak English." It's that simple!
- 她 不 喝 酒。She doesn't drink alcohol.
- 我 不 想 工作。 I don't want to work.
- 很 多 人 不 喜欢 热狗 。Many people don't like hot dogs.
不 (bù) can be used to negate both verbs and adjectives.
When talking about what you do not "have," you use the particle 没 (méi) instead of 不 (bu). It is placed right before the verb 有 (yǒu) to form the "do not have" phrase 没有 (méiyǒu). This allows you to say sentences like "Walter doesn't have a car" or "Voltron doesn't have the books."
- 我 没 有 手机 。 I don't have a cell phone.
- 我们 没 有 房子 。 We don't have a house.
- 我们 公司 没 有 电脑 。 Our company doesn't have computers.
Aspect
Many beginners think that Chinese has no grammar. While this belief is false, it usually stems from the fact Chinese has no formal tenses to express events that took place in either the past or the future. Instead of tense, the language makes use of time words and puts more emphasis on aspect. You don't need to worry about this in the beginning; just remember to use time words to make clear when something happened, and the aspect thing will come with time.
Parts of Speech
All words can be classified into parts of speech to define what roles the words play in sentences. Here, we will briefly recap how these different parts of speech work in English, and explain how the same rules apply to Chinese grammar.
Nouns are commonly referred to as "person, place, or thing" words. As you start learning more Chinese vocabulary, many of the words you will learn will be nouns. These will make up the subject and the object of a sentence.
Verbs are words that describe actions (sometimes mental or abstract rather than physical). Chinese does not conjugate verbs. The word stays the same regardless of when the action takes place or who performs it.
Here are some good verbs for beginners to start learning:
- 是 (Shì) - Verb for "To Be"
- 在 (Zài) - Verb for "To Be Located"
- 有 (Yǒu) - Verb for "There is/There are"
- 叫 (Jiào) - Verb for "To Be Called"
- 去 (Qù) - Verb for "To Go"
Adverbs are words that modify verbs and adjectives. In Chinese, the adverb always goes before the verb or adjective. Instead of saying "I run also," proper grammar in Chinese would be "I also run." It's easy, and it's always done the same way!
Here are some good adverbs for beginners to start learning:
Adjectives are words that modify nouns. Chinese has some unique rules about how adjectives interact with different nouns and verbs.
Here are some good adjective rules for beginners to start learning:
- Simple Sentences with Adjectives
- 是 (Shì) - Verb for "To Be" Adjectives are dropped when using this verb
Conjunctions are words that join two thoughts together in a sentence. The three most common ones in English are "and" "but" and "or." As you learn more about each of them in Chinese, you will learn some of the different ways they can be used in sentences.
Here are some good conjunctions for beginners to start learning:
Articles are kind of a confusing concept in English, but basically the only English articles are "a" "an" and "the." We use them when saying things like "I have a laptop" or "Open the door." In Chinese, articles don't exist. There is no word for "a" or "the." It actually makes things really easy and there are no confusing rules to memorize!
Measure Words are words that describe numbers. We don't have such a pervasive, complete system for this in English (we like articles, though!), but they allow you to say exactly what the value (or measure) of something was. As you read about how to use measure words, you'll see that even though it is a little weird at first, it is actually very easy and consistent!
Here is the only measure word beginners need to start learning:
Numbers are the words we use to express specific quantities. We use numbers to express value, time, and other important functions in our lives. They can be used for all of these same functions in Chinese.
Here are some good number structures for beginners to start learning.
Ready for more?
Of course all of this is just the beginning. There are many more interesting characters and rules that can help you say lots of different things in Chinese. Take a look at the Grammar Points by Level page to see where you should start, then check out the A1 page for more information.
