Emphasizing the doer of an action with "you"

Revision as of 07:53, 28 October 2011 by Jonathan.pope (talk | contribs)

由 (yóu) is used to emphasize who is the doer or initiator of an action. It has a formal tone, and is a little like the passive in English, where we might say: "this project was completed by Andy"

The structure is:

Noun + 由 + person + verb

Here are some examples:

  • 这 件 事 我 负责。
  • 这 不 是 你 决定,别 干涉。
  • 会议 王总 主持,肯定 很 无聊,咱们 准备 睡觉 吧!

Sources and further reading

Books

Boya Chinese Lower Intermediate 2(博雅汉语准中级加速篇)p111