The "shi... de" construction for emphasizing details
| This article is a stub. Editors can help the Chinese Grammar Wiki by expanding it. |
- Also known as: 是⋯⋯的结构 (shì ... de jiégòu), 是 ... 的 sentence and 是 ... 的 pattern.
The 是 ... 的 construction appears commonly in Chinese and is used to draw particular attention to certain information in a sentence. It's often used to respond to questions that seek specific information, or to explain a situation by emphasising a particular detail.
Contents
Basic 是 ... 的 structure
A 是 ... 的 sentence is formed with this structure:
Subject + 是 + information to emphasized + Verb + 的
Picking out different details with 是 ... 的
When to use 是 ... 的
"The situation is that"
"It was ... that ..."
Negating 是 ... 的
是 ... 的 and questions
是 is often optional
Where to put 的 in a 是 ... 的 construction
Sources and further reading
Books
- Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar (pp. 587 - 594)
Websites
- University website: The shi ... de construction
- East Asia Student: The 是 … 的 construction in Mandarin
