Emphasizing the doer of an action with "you"
Revision as of 07:53, 28 October 2011 by Jonathan.pope (talk | contribs)
由 (yóu) is used to emphasize who is the doer or initiator of an action. It has a formal tone, and is a little like the passive in English, where we might say: "this project was completed by Andy"
The structure is:
Noun + 由 + person + verb
Here are some examples:
- 这 件 事 由 我 负责。
- 这 不 是 由 你 决定，别 干涉。
- 会议 由 王总 主持，肯定 很 无聊，咱们 准备 睡觉 吧！
Sources and further reading
Books
Boya Chinese Lower Intermediate 2（博雅汉语准中级加速篇）p111
