Difference between revisions of "Connecting nouns with "shi""

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== Sources and further reading ==
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=== Books ===
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* [[New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)]] (pp. 44) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/7561910401/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=allset-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=7561910401 →buy]
  
 
[[Category:A1 grammar points]]
 
[[Category:A1 grammar points]]

Revision as of 03:53, 30 December 2011

The verb to be is not used in Chinese the same way as it is in English. In Chinese, 是 is for connecting nouns, and is generally not used with adjectives. The structure for connecting nouns with 是 is:

Noun 1 + 是 + Noun 2

This is equivalent to "Noun 1 is Noun 2" in English. In terms of sentence elements, the structure is:

Subject + 是 + Object

Chinese does not conjugate verbs. That is, the form of the verb is the same no matter who is doing it. In this case, it is always 是 and never changes. As you can see, it's easy to form simple sentences expressing to be in Chinese. Some examples:

Simple 是 sentences
Subject Object
学生
医生
老师
杯子

Sources and further reading

Books