Difference between revisions of "Basic sentence order"

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In its most basic form, Chinese word order is very similar to English word order.  Don't expect these similarities to hold true too far past the very basic sentence order outlined below, though!
 
In its most basic form, Chinese word order is very similar to English word order.  Don't expect these similarities to hold true too far past the very basic sentence order outlined below, though!

Revision as of 21:52, 24 November 2013


In its most basic form, Chinese word order is very similar to English word order. Don't expect these similarities to hold true too far past the very basic sentence order outlined below, though!

SV Structure

The most basic word order in Chinese is:

Subject + Verb

You can form very simple sentences with just two words.

Examples

Very simple SV sentences
Subject Verb Translation
You eat.
跑步 He runs.
跳舞 I dance.
I go.
看一下 You look.
! You get out of here!
You speak.
孩子 Child cry.
要 学 Who wants to study?
想 做 Who wants to do?

SVO Structure

A basic sentence usually has an object, and is formed with this structure:

Subject + Verb + Object

This is the same as in English, and is commonly referred to as SVO word order. You can express a huge variety of things with this simple structure.

Examples

Simple SVO sentences
Subject Verb Object Translation
I eat meat.
You drink soup.
学校 I go to school.
中文 He speaks Chinese.
我们 要 买 电脑 We are going to buy computer.
想 吃 中国 菜 I want to eat Chinese food.
喜欢 那 个 小 孩子 I like that child.
你 和 爸爸 I love you and dad.
要 做 什么 What do you want to do?
想 吃 什么 菜 What food do you want to eat?

See also

Sources and further reading