Beginner Guide to Chinese Grammar

As a beginner, Chinese grammar can be challenging to understand. In this quick overview, we will provide you with some basic information to start mastering the language!

Background

English is classified as an Indo-European language. This language family includes a lot of languages spoken in the western world, including the romance languages (such as Spanish, French, and Portuguese) as well as the Slavic languages (such as Russian, Czech, and Polish) and many others. All of these languages have common grammar features which include conjugating verbs for different tenses, following specific rules about subject-verb agreement, and adding endings to words to make them plural.

Chinese does not fit into the Indo-European family. Instead, it is classified as a Sino-Tibetan language, and as a result, Chinese grammar is quite different from the grammar of other languages you may have encountered before. That being said, Chinese grammar may surprise you with its pleasing simplicity and consistent logical structure.

Helpful Tools

As a language, Chinese does not have an actual alphabet. Instead, characters known as “hanzi” are used to express the different sounds of the language. These characters can also be written using the roman letters in a system called “pinyin.” All beginners should download the Pinyin Browser Extension to be able to read the Chinese characters on the site.

The Basics

When initially learning Chinese, there are a number of misconceptions about Chinese grammar. We will start this overview looking at some specific areas of Chinese grammar, listed below.

Word Order

For many simple cases, the basic sentence structure of Chinese is the same in Chinese as it is in English. Both languages use a subject-verb or subject-verb-object (SVO) formula for making sentences. This familiar pattern means that you shouldn't have much trouble with word order at first.

Subject-Verb Examples

Subject	Verb	Translation
你	吃。	You eat.
他	笑。	He laughs.
我	去。	I go.

Subject-Verb-Object Examples

Subject	Verb	Object	Translation
我	吃	肉。	I eat meat.
你	喝	汤。	You drink soup.
他	说	中文。	He speaks Chinese.

More examples can be found on our word order page. We also have pages to help you use time words in the correct word order, write simple noun-adjective sentences, and change the word order to adjust the emphasis of a sentence.

Questions

Simple sentences can be turned into yes/no questions by adding 吗 (ma). This modifies the sentence the same way “ok” or “right” modifies a sentences in English. An English version of a sentence that uses 吗 (ma) might read: "You are good, right?"

他是你哥哥，对吗？He is your older brother, right?
你喜欢咖啡吗？ (question) Do you like coffee?
他是老师吗？ (question) Is he a teacher?

Another important question particle for beginners to understand is 呢 (ne). 呢 (Ne) is simply added to a topic to turn it into a question. This is useful in conversations to say things like "and you?" or "about what?" This particle is simply tagged onto the subject to form the question.

你说他们可以去。我们呢？You said they can go. What about us?
北京下雨了。上海呢？It's raining in Beijing. How about Shanghai?
我吃饭了。你呢？I've eaten. What about you?

There are of course other ways to form questions. In English, we use question words, commonly referred to as the 5 W's and 1 H (what, where, who, when, why, how), to make questions. These question words also exist in Chinese, but their placement within a sentence is very important. The structure of a question follows the same structure as the response.

For example: In English, the structure of the question to learn someone's name is "Who are you?" The person answering this question is going to say "I am Li Li." In Chinese, the structure of the question to learn someone's name is "You are who?" The question follows the same structure as the structure of the answer (subject-verb-object.) This works for other questions too such as "It is what?" (Answer: "It is a ball.")

什么 (shénme)what
哪里 (nǎli) or 哪儿 (nǎr) where
谁 (shéi)In spoken Chinese, people normally say "shéi", not "shuí" who
什么时候 (shénme shíhou) when
为什么 (wèishénme) why
怎么 (zěnme) how

Possession

Possession can be shown using the particle 的 (de). This character functions the same way as an apostrophe “s” does in English and is added after the subject of the sentence, between the nouns. In other words, using 的 (de) is the equivalent the " 's " when saying "Maureen's bag" or "Terry's keys."

小李的手机Xiao Li's cell phone
公司的老板the company's boss
我家的小狗my family's puppy

Possession can also be expressed by talking about things you have. Just like we can say in English "I have the tickets" or "James has the camera" the particle 有 (yǒu) can be used to show this type of possession.

我有钱。I have money.
他有两个女儿。He has two daughters.
你有工作吗？Do you have a job?

Negation

You can use the same basic word order to express things that don’t happen. To express this negative action, the character 不 (bù) is placed before the verb. This functions much like the word "no" in English, but in fact, it is a lot simpler than English.

For example: In English when you add "no" to the sentence "I speak English," "no" becomes "don't" and it would read "I don't speak English." In Chinese when you add 不 (bù) to the sentence "I speak English," it just slips in right before the verb. So proper Chinese grammar would be "I no speak English." It's that simple!

她不喝酒。She doesn't drink beer.
我不 想工作。 I don't want to work.
很多年轻人不运动。Many young people don't exercise.

不 (Bù) can be used with both verbs (to express something that isn't done) and adjectives (to express that something does not have a characteristic).

When talking about things that you do not have, you use the particle 没 (méi) instead of 不 (bu). It is placed after the subject but before the verb 有 (yǒu) to form the verb 没有 (méiyǒu). This allows you to say sentences like "Bryan doesn't have a car" or "Vikki doesn't have the books."

我没有狗。Wǒ méi yǒu gǒu. I don't have a dog.
我们没有房子。Wǒmen méi yǒu fángzi. We don't have a house.
我们公司没有电脑。Wǒmen gōngsī méi yǒu diànnǎo. Our company doesn't have computers.

Aspect

Many beginners think that Chinese has no grammar. While this belief is false, it usually stems from the fact Chinese has no formal tenses to express events that took place in either the past or the future. Instead of tense, the language makes use of time words and puts more emphasis on aspect. You don't need to worry about this in the beginning; just remember to use time words to make clear when something happened, and the aspect thing will come with time.

Parts of Speech

All words can be broken up into parts of speech to define what the word describes. Here, we will briefly recap how these different parts work in English, and explain how the same rules apply to Chinese grammar.

Nouns are commonly referred to as "person, place, or thing" words. As you start learning more Chinese vocabulary, many of the words you will learn will be nouns. These will make up the subject and the object of a sentence.

Verbs are words that describe actions. Chinese does not conjugate verbs. The word stays the same regardless of when the action takes place or who performs it.

Here are some good verbs for beginners to start learning:

Adverbs are words that describe verbs. In Chinese, the adverb always goes before the verb. Instead of saying "I run too," proper grammar in Chinese would be "I too run." It's easy, and it's always done the same way!

Here are some good adverbs for beginners to start learning:

Adjectives are words that describe nouns. Chinese has some unique rules about how adjectives interact with different nouns and verbs.

Here are some good adjective rules for beginners to start learning:

Simple Sentences with Adjectives
是 (Shì) - Verb for "To Be" Adjectives are dropped when using this verb

Conjunctions are words that join two thoughts together in a sentence. The three most common ones in English are "and" "but" and "or." As you learn more about each of them in Chinese, you will learn some of the different ways they can be used in sentences.

Here are some good conjunctions for beginners to start learning:

Articles are kind of a confusing concept in English, but basically the only English articles are "a" "an" and "the." We use them when saying things like "I have a laptop" or "Open the door." In Chinese, articles don't exist. There is no word for "a" or "the." It makes it really easy and there are no confusing rules to memorize!

Measure Words are words that describe numbers. We don't have them in English, but they allow you to say exactly what the value (or measure) of something was. As you read about how to use measure words, you'll see that even though it is a little new, it is actually very easy!

Here are some good measure words for beginners to start learning.

Numbers are the words we use to express certain quantities. We use numbers to express value, time, and other important functions in our lives. They can be used for all of these same functions in Chinese.

Here are some good number structures for beginners to start learning.

Ready for more?

Of course all of this is just the beginning. There are many more interesting characters and rules that can help you say lots of different things in Chinese. Take a look at the Grammar Points by Level page to see where you should start, then check out the A1 page for more information.