Basic sentence order

Revision as of 08:47, 12 February 2016 by WikiSysop (talk | contribs)

In its most basic form, Chinese word order is very similar to English word order. These similarities definitely have their limits, though; don't expect the two languages' word orders to stay consistent for anything past the very basic sentence orders outlined below.

Subject-predicate

The most basic word order in Chinese is:

Structure

Subj. + Verb

You can form very simple sentences with just two words.

Examples

SubjectVerbTranslation
你们
Nǐmen
吃。
chī.
You eat.

笑。
xiào.
He laughs.

读。
dú.
I read.

去。
qù.
You go.
你们
Nǐmen
看.
kàn.
You look.

来。
lái.
You come here!

说。
shuō.
I speak.
孩子
Háizi
哭。
kū.
Children cry.

Shuí
要 学?
yào xué?
Who wants to study?

Shuí
想 玩?
xiǎng wán?
Who wants to play?

Subject-verb-object

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

Structure

Subj.+ Verb + Obj.

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
SubjectVerbObjectTranslation
他们
Tāmen

chī
肉。
ròu.
They eat meat.


茶 吗?
chá ma?
Do you drink tea?


学校。
xuéxiào.
I go to school.


shuō
中文。
Zhōngwén.
He speaks Chinese.

喜欢
xǐhuan
孩子 吗?
háizi ma?
Do you like kids?
我们
Wǒmen
要 买
yào mǎi
电脑。
diànnǎo.
We want to buy a computer.
你们
Nǐmen
想 吃
xiǎng chī
中国 菜 吗?
Zhōngguó cài ma?
Do you want to eat Chinese food?


ài
你 和 爸爸。
nǐ hé bàba.
I love you and dad.
他们
Tāmen
要 做
yào zuò
什么?
shénme?
What do they want to do?

想 去
xiǎng qù
什么 地方?
shénme dìfāng?
What place do you want to go?

When it all falls apart

Despite the initial word order similarities highlighted above, things start to break down as soon as you start adding in such simple sentence elements as an adverb (such as "also"), a time word, or a location where something happened.

See also

Sources and further reading