Connecting nouns with "shi"
The verb to be is not used in Chinese the same way as it is in English. In Chinese, 是 is for connecting nouns, and is generally not used with adjectives. The structure for connecting nouns with 是 is:
Noun 1 + 是 + Noun 2
This is equivalent to "Noun 1 is Noun 2" in English. In terms of sentence elements, the structure is:
Subject + 是 + Object
Chinese does not conjugate verbs. That is, the form of the verb is the same no matter who is doing it. In this case, it is always 是 and never changes. As you can see, it's easy to form simple sentences expressing to be in Chinese. Some examples:
| Subject | 是 | Object | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 我 | 是 | 学生 | 。 |
| 她 | 是 | 医生 | 。 |
| 他 | 是 | 老师 | 。 |
| 这 | 是 | 书 | 。 |
| 那 | 是 | 杯子 | 。 |
See also
Sources and further reading
Books
- New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (pp. 44) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (pp. 50 - 51) →buy
