Basic sentence order

Revision as of 08:26, 31 May 2013 by Simingjie (talk | contribs)

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 "Subject + Verb" 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.

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
包子 You eat baozi.
中文 He speaks Chinese.
I love you.

See also

Sources and further reading

Books