Reference:Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide

Grammar Points by Chapter

Overview of pronunciation and Pinyin romanization
- 1.1 The Mandarin syllable
- 1.2 Pinyin romanization
Syllable, meaning, and word
- 2.1 The special status of the Mandarin syllable
- 2.2 Multi-syllable tendency in Mandarin words
- 2.3 Word-specific tone changes
- 2.4 Change in neutral tone
- 2.5 Incorporating foreign words and naming foreign objects
The Chinese writing system: an overview
- 3.1 Traditional and simplified characters
- 3.2 The structure of Chinese characters the radical and the phonetic
- 3.3 The traditional classification of characters
- 3.4 Character stroke order 笔顺 bishun
Phrase order in the Mandarin sentence
- 4.1 Basic phrase order
- 4.2 The position of direct and indirect objects
- 4.3 The position of prepositional phrases
- 4.4 The position of location phrases
- 4.5 The position of 'time when' phrases
- 4.6 The relative order of the 'time when' phrase and the location phrase
- 4.7 The position of adverbs
- 4.8 The position of negation
- 4.9 The position of duration phrases
- 4.10 Order within the noun phrase
- 4.11 Phrase order in questions
Nouns
- 5.1 Common nouns
- 5.2 Pronouns
- 5.3 Proper nouns
Numbers
- 6.1 Mandarin numbers 0-99
- 6.2 Number 100 and higher
- 6.3 Formal characters for numbers
- 6.4 Ordinal numbers
- 6.5 Estimates and approximations
- 6.6 Fractions, percentages, decimals, half, and multiples
- 6.7 Lucky and unlucky numbers
- 6.8 Numbers used in phrases and expressions
- 6.9 一 yi as a marker of sequence
- 6.10 Numbers that are used as words
Specifiers and demonstratives
- 7.1 这 zhe 'this' and 那 na 'that' as demonstratives
- 7.2 这 zhe, zhei 'this/these' and 那 na, nei 'that/those' as specifiers
- 7.3 这儿 zher and 这里 zheli 'here', 那儿 nar and 那里 nali 'there'
- 7.4 Question words that correspond to specifiers
Classifiers
- 8.1 The structure of phrases involving classifiers
- 8.2 Choosing the classifier
- 8.3 Omission of the head noun
- 8.4 Classifiers that occur without a noun
- 8.5 Money and prices
Noun phrases
- 9.1 Modifying a noun with a specifier and/or number
- 9.2 Modifying a noun with all other modifiers: modification with 的 de
- 9.3 Omission of the particle 的 de
- 9.4 Noun modifiers in a series
- 9.5 Omission of the head noun
- 9.6 Modification with 之 zhi
Adjectival verbs
- 10.1 Negation of adjectival verbs
- 10.2 Yes-no questions with adjectival verbs
- 10.3 Modification by intensifiers
- 10.4 Two syllable preference
- 10.5 Comparative meaning
- 10.6 Superlative meaning
- 10.7 Adjectival verbs and comparison structures
- 10.8 Linking adjectival verbs
- 10.9 Adjectival verbs and expressions that indicate change over time
- 10.10 Adjectival verbs and sentence final -了 le
Stative verbs
- 11.1 Negation of stative verbs
- 11.2 Modification of intensifiers
- 11.3 Indicating completion, past time, and change of state
- 11.4 The equational verb 是 shi 'to be'
- 11.5 The equational verb 姓 xing 'to be family named'
- 11.6 The verb of possession and existence: 有 you 'to have,' 'to exist'
- 11.7 The location verb 在 zai 'to be located at'
Modal verbs
- 12.1 Expressing possibility: 会 hui
- 12.2 Expressing ability
- 12.3 Expressing permission: 可以 keyi
- 12.4 Expressing obligations
- 12.5 Expressing prohibitions
- 12.6 Grammatical properties of modal verbs
Action verbs
- 13.1 Indicating that an action is completed or past
- 13.2 Indicating that an action has been experienced in the past
- 13.3 Negating actions
- 13.4 Open-ended action verbs
- 13.5 Change-of-state action verbs
Prepositions and prepositional phrases
- 14.1 The grammar of the prepositional phrase in the Mandarin sentence
- 14.2 Basic functions of prepositions
- 14.3 Prepositions that also can function as verbs
Adverbs
- 15.1 General properties of adverbs
- 15.2 Adverbs with logical function: 也 ye, 都 dou, 还 hai, 就 jiu, 只 zhi, and 才 cai
Conjunctions
- 16.1 Conjunctions that indicate an 'additive' or 'and' relationship
- 16.2 Conjunctions that indicate a disjunctive or 'or' relationship
The passive
- 17.1 The structure of the Mandarin passive
- 17.2 The passive and negation
- 17.3 Conditions for using the passive in Mandarin
- 17.4 Differences between the passive markers 被 bei, 叫 jiao, and 让 rang
- 17.5 Additional functions of 让 rang, 叫 jiao, and 给 gei
- 17.6 English passives and their Mandarin equivalents
Names, kinship terms, titles, and terms of address
- 18.1 Names: 姓名 xingming
- 18.2 Kinship terms
- 18.3 Titles
- 18.4 Addressing others
- 18.5 Addressing new acquaintances and negotiating terms of address
- 18.6 Name cards and business cards
- 18.7 Addressing letters and envelopes
Introductions
- 19.1 The general format of introductions
- 19.2 Sample introductions
- 19.3 Common occupations and fields of study
Greetings and goodbyes
- 20.1 Greetings in conversations
- 20.2 Saying goodbye in conversations
- 20.3 Greetings and goodbyes in letters
Basic strategies for communication
- 21.1 Attracting someone's attention
- 21.2 Responding to a call for attention
- 21.3 Checking whether people have understood you
- 21.4 Indicating understanding or lack of understanding
- 21.5 Requesting repetition or clarification of spoken language
- 21.6 Asking for assistance in identifying a Chinese character
- 21.7 Providing information about the identification of Chinese characters
- 21.8 Signaling that you are following the speaker
- 21.9 Interrupting a speaker
- 21.10 Using fillers
- 21.11 Formal development of a topic
Telecommunications and e-communications: telephones, the internet, beepers, and faxes
- 22.1 Sending and receiving phone calls, fazes, email, and beeper messages
- 22.2 Dialing a number and entering a number
- 22.3 Using the internet
- 22.4 Telephone etiquette
- 22.5 Writing and reciting phone numbers, fax numbers, and beeper numbers
Negating information
- 23.1 Negation of verbs and verb phrases
- 23.2 The relative order of negation and adverbs
- 23.3 Words that occur with negation
- 23.4 不 bu in resultative verb structures
- 23.5 Literary markers of negation: 无 wu and 非 fei
Asking questions and replying to questions
- 24.1 Yes-no questions
- 24.2 Asking for agreement
- 24.3 Choosing between alternatives with either-or questions
- 24.4 Rhetorical questions
- 24.5 Follow-up questions with 呢 ne
- 24.6 Content questions
Expressing identification, possession, and existence
- 25.1 Expressing identification
- 25.2 Expressing possession
- 25.3 Expressing existence
Describing people, places, and things
- 26.1 Equational sentences: identifying or describing the subject with a noun phrase in the predicate
- 26.2 Describing the subject with a predicate that is an adjectival verb
- 26.3 Identifying or describing a noun with a modifying phrase
- 26.4 Asking questions about the attributes of a person, place, or thing
- 26.5 Describing an item in terms of the material that is made of
- 26.6 Describing nouns in terms of attributes that imply comparison
- 26.7 Describing person in terms of age
- 26.8 Describing the weather
- 26.9 Talking about illness and other medical conditions
Describing how actions are performed
- 27.1 Describing the general or past performance of an action with a manner adverbial phrase
- 27.2 Asking about the performance of an action
- 27.3 Describing the performance of an entire action with an adverbial modifier
Indicating result, conclusion, potential, and extent
- 28.1 Indicating the result or conclusion of an action with resultative verbs
- 28.2 Indicating the ability to reach a conclusion or result: the potential infixes 得 de and 不 bu
- 28.3 Summary of the functions of resultative verbs
- 28.4 Indicating the ability to perform the verb: the potential suffexes 得了 deliao and 不了 buliao
Making comparisons
- 29.1 Similarity
- 29.2 Difference
- 29.3 More than
- 29.4 Less than
- 29.5 Comparative degree
- 29.6 Superlative degree
- 29.7 Relative degree
Talking about the present
- 30.1 Time expressions that indicate present time
- 30.2 Using 在 zai and 正在 zhengzai to indicate ongoing actions in present time
- 30.3 Using the final particle 呢 ne to indicate ongoing actions in present time
- 30.4 Using 着 zhe to emphasize ongoing duration or an ongoing state in the present time
- 30.5 Indicating present time by context
- 30.6 Negation in present time situations
- 30.7 Talking about actions that begin in the past and continue to present
- 30.8 Describing situations that are generally true
Talking about habitual actions
- 31.1 Expressing habitual time with the word 每 mei 'every/each'
- 31.2 Expressing habitual time with 天天 tiantian and 年年 niannian
- 31.3 Adverbs that describe habitual action
Talking about the future
- 32.1 Time words that refer to future time
- 32.2 Adverbs that refer to future time
- 32.3 Indicating future time with the modal verb 会 hui
- 32.4 Verbs that refer to the future
Indicating completion and talking about the past
- 33.1 Completion: V -了 le
- 33.2 Talking about sequence in the past
- 33.3 Indicating that an action did not occur in the past
- 33.4 Asking whether or not an action has occurred
- 33.5 Indicating that an action occurred again in the past: 又 you verb 了 le
- 33.6 Talking about past experience: verb suffix -过 guo
- 33.7 Comparing the verb suffixes 过 guo and 了 le
- 33.8 Adverbs that indicate past time
- 33.9 Focusing on a detail of a past event with 是...的 shi...de
Talking about change, new situations, and changing situations
- 34.1 Indicating that a situation represents a change
- 34.2 Comparing sentences with and without sentence final -了 le
- 34.3 Indicating change over time
- 34.4 Nouns and verbs that express change
Talking about duration and frequency
- 35.1 Specifying the length of an action with a duration phrase
- 35.2 Emphasizing ongoing duration
- 35.3 Indicating the ongoing duration of a background event
- 35.4 Indicating frequency
Expressing additional information
- 36.1 也 ye 'also'
- 36.2 还 hai 'in addition, also'
- 36.3 还有 hai you 'in addition'
- 36.4 并且 bingqie 'moreover'
- 36.5 再说 zai shuo 'besides, moreover, to put it another way'
- 36.6 而 er 'and, but'
- 36.7 和 he and 跟 gen 'and'
- 36.8 不但...而且... budan...erqie... 'not only...but also...'
- 36.9 又...又... you...you... 'both...and...'
- 36.10 除了...以外 chule...yiwai 'besides...'
- 36.11 另外 lingwai 'in addition' '(an)other'
Expressing contrast
- 37.1 Expressing contrast with paired connecting words
- 37.2 Adverbs that indicate contrast
- 37.3 Qualifying a statement with an adjectival verb or stative verb
Expressing sequence
- 38.1 Expressing the relationship 'before'
- 38.2 Expressing the relationship 'after' in a single sentence
- 38.3 Indicating that one event happens first and another event happens afterward
- 38.4 Indicating 'afterward' in a separate sentence
- 38.5 Comparing 以前 yiqian 'before' with 以后 yihou 'after'
Expressing simultaneous situations
- 39.1 Indicating that one situation is the background for another situation
- 39.2 Indicating that two actions occur at the same time
- 39.3 Indicating that two actions occur in the same time frame
- 39.4 Describing a subject in terms of two qualities that exist at the same time
- 39.5 Indicating that a situation is reached at a specific point in time
- 39.6 Presenting simultaneous situations
Expressing cause and effect or reason and result
- 40.1 Expressing cause and effect or reason and result in a single sentence
- 40.2 Introducing the cause of reason
- 40.3 Introducing the effect or result
- 40.4 Inquiring about cause or reason
Expressing conditions
Expressing 'both,' 'all,' 'every,' 'any,' 'none,' 'not any,' and 'no matter how'
Expressing location and distance
Talking about movement, directions, and means of transportation
Talking about clock time and calendar time
Expressing obligations and prohibitions
Expressing commands and permission
Expressing ability and possibility
Expressing desires, needs, preferences, and willingness
Expressing knowledge, advice, and opinions
Expressing fear, worry, and anxiety
Expressing speaker attitudes and perspectives
Topic, focus. and emphasis
Guest and host
Giving and responding to compliments
Expressing satisfaction and dissatisfaction
Expressing gratitude and responding to expressions of gratitude
Invitations, requests, and refusals
Expressing apologies, regrets, sympathy, and bad news
Expressing congratulations and good wishes