Chinese grammar

The grammar of Standard Chinese or Mandarin shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection and so words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number (singular or plural) and verb tense are frequently not expressed by any grammatical means, but there are several particles that serve to express verbal aspect and, to some extent, mood.
The basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English. Otherwise, Chinese is chiefly a head-final language, meaning that modifiers precede the words that they modify. In a noun phrase, for example, the head noun comes last, and all modifiers, including relative clauses, come in front of it. This phenomenon is more typically found in subject–object–verb languages, such as Turkish and Japanese.
Chinese frequently uses serial verb constructions, which involve two or more verbs or verb phrases in sequence. Chinese prepositions behave similarly to serialized verbs in some respects, and they are often referred to as coverbs. There are also location markers, which are placed after a noun and so are often called postpositions; they are often used in combination with a coverb. Predicate adjectives are normally used without a copular verb ("to be") and so can be regarded as a type of verb.
As in many other East Asian languages, classifiers or measure words are required when numerals and sometimes other words, such as demonstratives, are used with nouns. There are many different classifiers in the language, and each countable noun generally has a particular classifier associated with it. Informally, however, it is often acceptable to use the general classifier "ge" () in place of other specific classifiers.
Word formation.
In Chinese, the concept of words and the boundaries between them is not always transparent, and the Chinese script does not use spaces between words. Grammatically, some strings of characters behave as single words in some contexts, but are separable in others. Many English intransitive verbs are translated by verb+noun compounds, such as ( literally "to jump a dance", meaning "to dance"); such items may be regarded as single lexical words, although the two parts can become separated by (for example) aspect markers, and in fact they generally behave grammatically as a verb plus an object. Sometimes the behavior of such compounds is anomalous, however; for instance (, "to be concerned about") behaves as an inseparable word when the perfective particle "le" is attached, although it is separable in the phrase (, literally "concern what about", meaning "to be concerned about what").
Chinese morphemes, or minimum units of meaning, are mostly monosyllabic. Syllables, and thus in most cases morphemes, are represented as a rule by single characters. Some words consist of single syllables, but many words are formed by compounding two or more monosyllabic morphemes. These may be either free or bound – that is, they may or may not also be able to stand independently. Most two-syllable compound nouns have the head on the right, while in compound verbs the head is usually on the left. Loanwords from other languages may be polysyllabic; they are usually written using selected pre-existing characters that have the right phonetic values, for example, (, "sofa") is written with the characters" " (, originally "sand") and ' (, originally "to send/to issue"). Native disyllabic morphemes such as ' (, "spider") have consonant alliteration.
Many monosyllabic words have alternative disyllabic forms with virtually the same meaning, such as ' (, literally "big garlic") for ' (, "garlic"). Many disyllabic nouns are produced by adding the suffix "" (, originally meaning "child") to a monosyllabic word or morpheme. There is a strong tendency for monosyllables to be avoided in certain positions; for example, a disyllabic verb will not normally be followed by a monosyllabic object. This may be connected with the preferred metrical structure of the language.
Reduplication.
A common feature in Chinese is reduplication, where a syllable or word is repeated to produce a modified meaning. This can happen with:
Sentence structure.
Chinese, like English, is classified as an SVO (subject–verb–object) language. Transitive verbs precede their objects in typical simple clauses, while the subject precedes the verb. For example:
Chinese can also be considered a topic-prominent language: there is a strong preference for sentences that begin with the topic, usually "given" or "old" information; and end with the comment, or "new" information. Certain modifications of the basic subject–verb–object order are permissible and may serve to achieve topic-prominence. In particular, a direct or indirect object may be moved to the start of the clause to create topicalization. It is also possible for an object to be moved to a position in front of the verb for emphasis.
Another type of sentence is what has been called an ergative structure, where the apparent subject of the verb can move to object position; the empty subject position is then often occupied by an expression of location. Compare locative inversion in English. This structure is typical of the verb (, "there is/are"; in other contexts the same verb means "have"), but it can also be used with many other verbs, generally denoting position, appearance or disappearance. An example:
Chinese is also to some degree a pro-drop or null-subject language, meaning that the subject can be omitted from a clause if it can be inferred from the context. In the following example, the subject of the verbs for "hike" and "camp" is left to be inferred—it may be "we", "I", "you", "she", etc.
In the next example the subject is omitted and the object is topicalized by being moved into subject position, to form a passive-type sentence. For passive sentences with a marker such as , see the passive section.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases that modify the verb typically come after the subject but before the verb, although other positions are sometimes possible; see Adverbs and adverbials. For constructions that involve more than one verb or verb phrase in sequence, see Serial verb constructions. For sentences consisting of more than one clause, see Conjunctions.
Objects.
Some verbs can take both an indirect object and a direct object. Indirect normally precedes direct, as in English:
With many verbs, however, the indirect object may alternatively be preceded by prepositional "gěi" (); in that case it may either precede or follow the direct object. (Compare the similar use of "to" or "for" in English.)
In certain situations a direct object may be preceded by the accusative marker "bǎ" (). This generally denotes an action that results in a change of state in the object. For further details of this, see the "bǎ" construction section. Such a "bǎ" phrase no longer occupies the normal direct object position, but moves in front of the verb. Compare:
The meanings of the above two sentences are similar, but the one with "bǎ" may be considered to place more emphasis on what happened to the object. It may also indicate definiteness—"the plate" rather than "a plate". Certain other markers can be used in a similar way to "bǎ", such as the formal "jiāng" () and colloquial "ná" ().
Some verbs can apparently take two direct objects, which may be called an "inner" and an "outer" object. These cannot both follow the verb – typically the outer object will be placed at the start of the sentence (topicalized) or introduced via the "bǎ" construction. For example:
Here "pí" (, "skin") is the inner object, and "júzi" (, "tangerine") is introduced via the "bǎ" construction as the outer object.
Plurals.
Chinese nouns and other parts of speech are not generally marked for number, meaning that plural forms are mostly the same as the singular. However, there is a plural marker "men" (), which has limited usage. It is used with personal pronouns, as in "wǒmen" (, "we" or "us"), derived from "wǒ" (, "I, me"). It can be used with nouns representing humans, most commonly those with two syllables, like in "péngyoumen" (, "friends"), from "péngyou" (, "friend"). Its use in such cases is optional. It is never used when the noun has indefinite reference, or when it is qualified by a numeral.
The demonstrative pronouns "zhè" (, "this"), and "nà" (, "that") may be optionally pluralized by the addition of "xiē" (), making "zhèxiē" (, "these") and "nàxiē" (, "those").
Noun phrases.
The head noun of a noun phrase comes at the end of the phrase; this means that everything that modifies the noun comes before it. This includes attributive adjectives, determiners, quantifiers, possessives, and relative clauses.
Chinese does not have articles as such; a noun may stand alone to represent what in English would be expressed as "the ..." or "a[n] ...". However the word "yī" (, "one"), followed by the appropriate classifier, may be used in some cases where English would have "a" or "an". It is also possible, with many classifiers, to omit the "yī" and leave the classifier on its own at the start of the noun phrase.
The demonstratives are "zhè" (, "this"), and "nà" (, "that"). When used before a noun, these are often followed by an appropriate classifier (for discussion of classifiers, see Classifiers below and the article Chinese classifiers). However this use of classifiers is optional. When a noun is preceded by a numeral (or a demonstrative followed by a numeral), the use of a classifier or measure word is in most cases considered mandatory. (This does not apply to nouns that function as measure words themselves; this includes many units of measurement and currency.)
The plural marker "xiē" (, "some, several"; also used to pluralize demonstratives) is used without a classifier. However "jǐ" (, "some, several, how many") takes a classifier.
For adjectives in noun phrases, see the Adjectives section. For noun phrases with pronouns rather than nouns as the head, see the Pronouns section.
Possessives are formed by adding "de" ()—the same particle that is used after relative clauses and sometimes after adjectives—after the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that denotes the possessor.
Relative clauses.
Chinese relative clauses, like other noun modifiers, precede the noun they modify. Like possessives and some adjectives, they are marked with the final particle "de" ( ). A free relative clause is produced if the modified noun following the "de" is omitted. A relative clause usually comes after any determiner phrase, such as a numeral and classifier. For emphasis, it may come before the determiner phrase.
There is usually no relative pronoun in the relative clause. Instead, a gap is left in subject or object position as appropriate. If there are two gaps—the additional gap being created by pro-dropping—ambiguity may arise. For example, "chī de" () may mean "[those] who eat" or "[that] which is eaten". When used alone, it usually means "things to eat".
If the relative item is governed by a preposition in the relative clause, then it is denoted by a pronoun, e.g. "tì tā" (, "for him"), to explain "for whom". Otherwise the whole prepositional phrase is omitted, the preposition then being implicitly understood.
For example sentences, see Relative clause → Mandarin.
Classifiers.
Chinese nouns require "classifiers" called "liàngcí" () in order to be counted. That is, when specifying the amount of a countable noun, a classifier must be inserted which agrees with the noun. Hence one must say "liǎng tóu niú" (, "two head of cattle") for "two cows", with "tóu" being the measure word or classifier. This phenomenon is common in East Asian languages. In English, some words, as in the cited example of "cattle", are often paired with a noun used much like the Chinese measure word. "Bottle" in "two bottles of wine" or "sheet" in "three sheets of paper" are further examples. However, certain nouns representing units of measurement, time, or currency are themselves classifiers. These can therefore be counted directly.
Classifiers are generally associated with certain groups of nouns related by meaning, such as "tiáo" () for long, thin objects or animals, like ropes, snakes or fish; "bǎ" () for objects with handles, like knives or umbrellas; or "zhāng" () for flat, sheet-like objects like photographs, or fur. While there are dozens of classifiers, which must be memorized individually for each noun, a majority of words use the general classifier "gè" (). Many nouns that are associated with other classifiers can also use "gè" if the speaker chooses. The classifiers for many nouns appear arbitrary. The word "zhuōzi" (, "table") is a "zhāng" noun, probably because a table-top is sheet-like; while "yǐzi" (, "chair") is a "bǎ" noun, likely because a chair is moved by lifting something like a handle. "Dèngzi" (), another word for chair or stool, is a "gè" noun.
Classifiers are also used optionally after demonstratives, and in certain other situations. See the Noun phrases section, and the article Chinese classifier.
Pronouns.
The Chinese personal pronouns are "wǒ" (, "I, me"), "nǐ" (, "you"), and "tā" (, "he; him/she; her/it (animals)/it (inanimate objects)". Plurals are formed by adding "men" (): "wǒmen" (, "we, us"), "nǐmen" (, "you"), "tāmen" (, "they/them"). There is also "nín" (), a formal, polite word for singular "you". The alternative "inclusive" word for "we/us"—"zán" () or "zá[n]men" (), referring specifically to the two people "you and I"—is not widely used. The third-person pronouns are not often used for inanimates, with demonstratives used instead.
Possessives are formed with "de" (), such as "wǒde" (, "my, mine"), "wǒmende" (, "our[s]"), etc. The "de" may be omitted in phrases denoting inalienable possession, such as "wǒ māma" (, "my mom").
The demonstrative pronouns are "zhè" (, "this", colloquially pronounced "zhèi") and "nà" (, "that", colloquially pronounced "nèi"). They are optionally pluralized by the addition of "xiē" (). There is a reflexive pronoun "zìjǐ" () meaning "oneself, myself, etc.", which can stand alone as an object or a possessive, or may follow a personal pronoun for emphasis. The reciprocal pronoun "each other" can be translated from "bǐcǐ" (), usually in adverb position. An alternative is "hùxiāng" (, "mutually").
Adjectives.
Adjectives can be used attributively, before a noun. The relative marker "de" () may be added after the adjective, but this is not always required; "black horse" may be either "hēi mǎ" () or "hēi de mǎ" (). When multiple adjectives are used, the order "quality/size – shape – color" is followed, although this is not necessary when each adjective is made into a separate phrase with the addition of "de".
Gradable adjectives can be modified by words meaning "very", etc.; such modifying adverbs normally precede the adjective, although some, such as "jíle" (, "extremely"), come after it.
When adjectives co-occur with classifiers, they normally follow the classifier. However, with most common classifiers, when the number is "one", it is also possible to place adjectives like "big" and "small" before the classifier for emphasis. For example "yí dà ge xīguā" (, "one big [classifier] watermelon").
Adjectives can also be used predicatively. In this case they behave more like verbs; there is no need for a copular verb in sentences like "he is happy" in Chinese; one may say simply "tā gāoxìng" (, "he happy"), where the adjective may be interpreted as a verb meaning "is happy". In such sentences it is common for the adjective to be modified by a word meaning "very" or the like; in fact the word "hěn" ( , "very") is often used in such cases with gradable adjectives, even without carrying the meaning of "very".
It is nonetheless possible for a copula to be used in such sentences, to emphasize the adjective. In the phrase "tā shì gāoxìng le", (, "he is now truly happy"), "shì" is the copula meaning "is", and "le" is the inceptive marker discussed later. This is similar to the cleft sentence construction. Sentences can also be formed in which an adjective followed by "de" () stands as the complement of the copula.
Adverbs and adverbials.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases normally come in a position before the verb, but after the subject of the verb. In sentences with auxiliary verbs, the adverb usually precedes the auxiliary verb as well as the main verb. Some adverbs of time and attitude ("every day", "perhaps", etc.) may be moved to the start of the clause, to modify the clause as a whole. However, some adverbs cannot be moved in this way. These include three words for "often", "cháng" (), "chángcháng" () and "jīngcháng" (); "dōu" (, "all"); "jiù" (, "then"); and "yòu" (, "again").
Adverbs of manner can be formed from adjectives using the clitic "de" (). It is generally possible to move these adverbs to the start of the clause, although in some cases this may sound awkward, unless there is a qualifier such as "hěn" (, "very") and a pause after the adverb.
Some verbs take a prepositional phrase following the verb and its direct object. These are generally obligatory constituents, such that the sentence would not make sense if they were omitted. For example:
There are also certain adverbial "stative complements" which follow the verb. The character "dé" () followed by an adjective functions the same as the phrase "-ly" in English, turning the adjective into an adverb. The second is "hǎo le" (, "complete"). It is not generally possible for a single verb to be followed by both an object and an adverbial complement of this type, although there are exceptions in cases where the complement expresses duration, frequency or goal. To express both, the verb may be repeated in a special kind of serial verb construction; the first instance taking an object, the second taking the complement. Aspect markers can then appear only on the second instance of the verb.
The typical Chinese word order "XVO", where an oblique complement such as a locative prepositional phrase precedes the verb, while a direct object comes after the verb, is very rare cross-linguistically; in fact, it is only in varieties of Chinese that this is attested as the typical ordering.
Locative phrases.
Expressions of location in Chinese may include a preposition, placed before the noun; a postposition, placed after the noun; both preposition and postposition; or neither. Chinese prepositions are commonly known as coverbs – see the Coverbs section. The postpositions—which include "shàng" (, "up, on"), "xià" (, "down, under"), "lǐ" (, "in, within"), "nèi" (, "inside") and "wài" (, "outside")—may also be called "locative particles".
In the following examples locative phrases are formed from a noun plus a locative particle:
The most common preposition of location is "zài" (, "at, on, in"). With certain nouns that inherently denote a specific location, including nearly all place names, a locative phrase can be formed with "zài" together with the noun:
However other types of noun still require a locative particle as a postposition in addition to "zài":
If a noun is modified so as to denote a "specific" location, as in "this [object]...", then it may form locative phrases without any locative particle. Some nouns which can be understood to refer to a specific place, like "jiā" (, home) and "xuéxiào" (, "school"), may optionally omit the locative particle. Words like "shàngmiàn" (, "top") can function as specific-location nouns, like in "zài shàngmiàn" (, "on top"), but can also take the role of locative particle, not necessarily with analogous meaning. The phrase "zài bàozhǐ shàngmiàn" (), can mean either "in the newspaper" or "on the newspaper".
In certain circumstances "zài" can be omitted from the locative expression. Grammatically, a noun or noun phrase followed by a locative particle is still a noun phrase. For instance, "zhuōzi shàng" can be regarded as short for "zhuōzi shàngmiàn", meaning something like "the table's top". Consequently, the locative expression without "zài" can be used in places where a noun phrase would be expected – for instance, as a modifier of another noun using "de" (), or as the object of a different preposition, such as "cóng" (, "from"). The version with "zài", on the other hand, plays an adverbial role. However, "zài" is usually omitted when the locative expression begins a sentence with the ergative structure, where the expression, though having an adverbial function, can be seen as filling the subject or noun role in the sentence. For examples, see sentence structure section.
The word "zài" (), like certain other prepositions or coverbs, can also be used as a verb. A locative expression can therefore appear as a predicate without the need for any additional copula. For example, "he is at school" (, literally "he at school").
Comparatives and superlatives.
Comparative sentences are commonly expressed simply by inserting the standard of comparison, preceded by "bǐ" (, "than"). The adjective itself is not modified. The "bǐ" (, "than") phrase is an adverbial, and has a fixed position before the verb. See also the section on negation.
If there is no standard of comparison—i.e., a "than" phrase—then the adjective can be marked as comparative by a preceding adverb "bǐjiào" () or "jiào" (), both meaning "more". Similarly, superlatives can be expressed using the adverb "zuì" (, "most"), which precedes a predicate verb or adjective.
Adverbial phrases meaning "like [someone/something]" or "as [someone/something]" can be formed using "gēn" (), "tóng" () or "xiàng" () before the noun phrase, and "yīyàng" () or "nàyàng" () after it.
The construction "yuè ... yuè ..." can be translated into statements of the type "the more ..., the more ...".
Copula.
The Chinese copular verb is "shì" (). This is the equivalent of English "to be" and all its forms—"am", "is", "are", "was", "were", etc. However, "shì" is normally only used when its complement is a noun or noun phrase. As noted above, predicate adjectives function as verbs themselves, as does the locative preposition "zài" (), so in sentences where the predicate is an adjectival or locative phrase, "shì" is not required.
For another use of "shì", see "shì ... [de]" construction in the section on cleft sentences. The English existential phrase "there is" ["there are", etc.] is translated using the verb "yǒu" (), which is otherwise used to denote possession.
Tense.
There are on-going debates over whether tense exists in Chinese or not.
The difference between tense and aspect.
Tense is the information conveying the temporal relationship between an event and the moment when the sentence is uttered. The tense system is a study which is highly related to time. In 1947, Reichenbach builds a system by proposing three times: Speech Time, Event Time and Reference Time. Following the research on time, in 1994, Klein builds a system by proposing three times: Situation Time, Topic Time, and Utterance Time. Situation Time is the time when the event takes place. Topic Time is the time at which the speaker is referring to. Utterance Time is the time when the sentence is spoken. In practice, Topic Time can sometimes be indicated by materials such as when-clause, while-clause, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Two elements that are related to the time in a sentence: tense and aspect. Tense is in charge of the relationship between Topic Time and Utterance Time. Aspect is in charge of the relationship between Situation Time and Topic Time.
As the sentences shown below, it serves as an example to understand the concepts and to distinguish tense from aspect.
It is a sentence of present tense because of the main verb 'has' being in its present tense form and a perfect aspect because it contains 'have (has) + Vp.p' structure. The Situation Time is in the past because John has done the action of buying a house. However, the Topic Time is present because unlike 'John bought a house', this sentence focuses on the current effect of completing the action of buying a house. Therefore, present time is the speaker's focus and so Topic Time is present. Therefore, we can see that the position of three times being Situation Time precedes Topic Time which coincides the Utterance Time. Since tense is in charge of the relationship between Topic Time and Utterance Time, the sentence is of present tense. However, since aspect is in charge of the relationship between Situation Time and Topic Time and that Situation Time precedes Topic Time, this sentence has perfect aspect. It can be seen that tense and aspect are in charge of different relationships. This is emphasized to help distinguishing these two concepts.
Whether Chinese tense exists or not.
Take sentences below as examples:
It can be seen that these three examples have 'ta' (he), 'huilai' (come back) in common. The only difference is the time adverbials 'zuotian' (yesterday), 'jintian' (today), 'mingtian' (tomorrow). One thing to note is that the verb huilai' stays the same in three different times. If the time adverbials were removed, readers or listeners could not tell any difference from the verb form.
Unlike Chinese, English changes the verb to indicate different times, e.g. 'came' for past time, 'will come' for future time. In this case, if the time adverbials were removed, readers or listener could still tell the temporal references from the verbs.
Theories supporting the existence of Chinese tense.
Tense and T node.
From a syntactic point of view, the existence of a T node in a language indicates the existence of tense. Therefore, a sentence with a T node can show its temporal reference. As an argument, some researchers state that a sentence without a T node may not be able to show its temporal reference. That is to say, since there are a lot of Chinese sentences carrying temporal reference, there should be a T node in Chinese; and thus tense exists in Chinese.
Implicit default tense.
It is argued that if the time in a Chinese sentence can be modified by time adverbials, it can be the case there is a covert T node which the time adverbials, one of the linguistic materials, takes effect on.
Theories opposing the existence of Chinese tense.
Time adverbials.
As shown in section 'Whether Chinese tense exists or not', 他 昨天/今天/明天 回來 (He yesterday/today/tomorrow come back) share a common verb 回來 (come back). Researchers argue that time adverbials can already represent temporal reference in sentences and therefore there is no tense marker (at least on verb).
Aspectual elements.
Some researchers argue that aspects can take over the job of indicating time in Chinese. Shown by an example below, that the perfective aspect of the sentence implies that the Topic Time is past. He argues that such perfective telic event can be uttered only when it has been completed before the Utterance Time because if it has not, it should be imperfective aspect which could be unnatural for a telic event (breaking a vase).
Aspects.
Chinese does not have grammatical markers of tense. The time at which action is conceived as taking place—past, present, future—can be indicated by expressions of time—"yesterday", "now", etc.—or may simply be inferred from the context. However, Chinese does have markers of aspect, which is a feature of grammar that gives information about the temporal flow of events. There are two aspect markers that are especially commonly used with past events: the perfective-aspect "le" () and the experiential "guo" (). Some authors, however, do not regard "guo" (or "zhe"; see below) as markers of aspect. Both "le" and "guo" immediately follow the verb. There is also a sentence-final particle "le", which serves a somewhat different purpose.
The perfective "le" presents the viewpoint of "an event in its entirety". It is sometimes considered to be a past tense marker, although it can also be used with future events, given appropriate context. Some examples of its use:
The above may be compared with the following examples with "guo", and with the examples with sentence-final "le" given under Particles.
The experiential "guo" "ascribes to a subject the property of having experienced the event".
There are also two imperfective aspect markers: "zhèngzài" () or "zài" (), and "zhe" (), which denote ongoing actions or states. "Zhèngzài" and "zài" precede the verb, and are usually used for ongoing actions or dynamic events – they may be translated as "[be] in the process of [-ing]" or "[be] in the middle of [-ing]". "Zhe" follows the verb, and is used mostly for static situations.
Both markers may occur in the same clause, however. For example, "tā zhèngzai dǎ [zhe] diànhuà", "he is in the middle of telephoning someone" ().
The delimitative aspect denotes an action that goes on only for some time, "doing something 'a little bit'". This can be expressed by reduplication of a monosyllabic verb, like the verb "zǒu" ( "walk") in the following sentence:
An alternative construction is reduplication with insertion of "one" ( "yī"). For example, "zǒu yi zǒu" (), which might be translated as "walk a little walk". A further possibility is reduplication followed by "kàn" ( "to see"); this emphasizes the "testing" nature of the action. If the verb has an object, "kàn" follows the object.
Some compound verbs, such as restrictive-resultative and coordinate compounds, can also be reduplicated on the pattern "tǎolùn-tǎolùn" (), from the verb "tǎolùn" (), meaning "discuss". Other compounds may be reduplicated, but for general emphasis rather than delimitative aspect. In compounds that are verb–object combinations, like "tiào wǔ" (, "dance"), a delimitative aspect can be marked by reduplicating the first syllable, creating "tiào-tiào wǔ" (), which may be followed with "kàn" ().
Passive.
As mentioned above, the fact that a verb is intended to be understood in the passive voice is not always marked in Chinese. However, it may be marked using the passive marker 被 "bèi", followed by the agent, though "bèi" may appear alone, if the agent is not to be specified. Certain causative markers can replace "bèi", such as those mentioned in the Other cases section, "gěi", "jiào" and "ràng". Of these causative markers, only "gěi" can appear alone without a specified agent. The construction with a passive marker is normally used only when there is a sense of misfortune or adversity. The passive marker and agent occupy the typical adverbial position before the verb. See the Negation section for more. Some examples:
Negation.
The most commonly used negating element is "bù" (), pronounced with second tone when followed by a fourth tone. This can be placed before a verb, preposition or adverb to negate it. For example: "I don't eat chicken" (). For the double-verb negative construction with "bù", see Complement of result, below. However, the verb "yǒu" ()—which can mean either possession, or "there is/are" in existential clauses—is negated using "méi" () to produce "méiyǒu" ().
For negation of a verb intended to denote a completed event, "méi" or "méiyǒu" is used instead of "bù" (), and the aspect marker "le" () is then omitted. Also, "méi[yǒu]" is used to negate verbs that take the aspect marker "guo" (); in this case the aspect marker is not omitted.
In coverb constructions, the negator may come before the coverb (preposition) or before the full verb, the latter being more emphatic. In constructions with a passive marker, the negator precedes that marker; similarly, in comparative constructions, "the negator precedes the "bǐ" phrase"Not clear (unless the verb is further qualified by "gèng" (, "even more"), in which case the negator may follow the "gèng" to produce the meaning "even less").
The negator "bié" () precedes the verb in negative commands and negative requests, such as in phrases meaning "don't ...", "please don't ...".
The negator "wèi" () means "not yet". Other items used as negating elements in certain compound words include "wú" (),"wù" (), "miǎn" () and "fēi" ().
A double negative makes a positive, as in sentences like "wǒ bú shì bù xǐhuān tā" (, "It's not that I don't like her" ). For this use of "shì" (), see the Cleft sentences section.
Questions.
In "wh"-questions in Chinese, the question word is not fronted. Instead, it stays in the position in the sentence that would be occupied by the item being asked about. For example, "What did you say?" is phrased as "nǐ shuō shé[n]me" (, literally "you say what"). The word "shénme" (, "what" or "which"), remains in the object position after the verb.
Other interrogative words include:
Disjunctive questions can be made using the word "háishì" () between the options, like English "or". This differs from the word for "or" in statements, which is "huòzhě" ().
Yes-no questions can be formed using the sentence-final particle "ma" (), with word order otherwise the same as in a statement. For example, "nǐ chī jī ma?" (, "Do you eat chicken?").
An alternative is the A-not-A construction, using phrases like "chī bu chī" (, "eat or not eat"). With two-syllable verbs, sometimes only the first syllable is repeated: "xǐ-bu-xǐhuān" ( , "like or not like"), from "xǐhuān" (, "like"). It is also possible to use the A-not-A construction with prepositions (coverbs) and phrases headed by them, as with full verbs.
The negator "méi" () can be used rather than "bù" in the A-not-A construction when referring to a completed event, but if it occurs at the end of the sentence—i.e. the repetition is omitted—the full form "méiyǒu" () must appear.
For answering yes-no questions, Chinese has words that may be used like the English "yes" and "no" – "duì" () or "shì de" () for "yes"; "bù" () for "no" – but these are not often used for this purpose; it is more common to repeat the verb or verb phrase (or entire sentence), negating it if applicable.
Imperatives.
Second-person imperative sentences are formed in the same way as statements, but like in English, the subject "you" is often omitted.
Orders may be softened by preceding them with an element such as "qǐng" (, "to ask"), in this use equivalent to English "please". See Particles for more. The sentence-final particle "ba" () can be used to form first-person imperatives, equivalent to "let's...".
Serial verb constructions.
Chinese makes frequent use of serial verb constructions, or verb stacking, where two or more verbs or verb phrases are concatenated together. This frequently involves either verbal complements appearing after the main verb, or coverb phrases appearing before the main verb, but other variations of the construction occur as well.
Auxiliaries.
A main verb may be preceded by an auxiliary verb, as in English. Chinese auxiliaries include "néng" and "nénggòu" ( and , "can"); "huì" (, "know how to"); "kéyǐ" (, "may"); "gǎn" (, "dare"); "kěn" (, "be willing to"); "yīnggāi" (, "should"); "bìxū" (, "must"); etc. The auxiliary normally follows an adverb, if present. In shortened sentences an auxiliary may be used without a main verb, analogously to English sentences such as "I can."
Verbal complements.
The active verb of a sentence may be suffixed with a second verb, which usually indicates either the result of the first action, or the direction in which it took the subject. When such information is applicable, it is generally considered mandatory. The phenomenon is sometimes called "double verbs".
Complement of result.
A complement of result, or resultative complement () is a verbal suffix which indicates the outcome, or possible outcome, of the action indicated by the main verb. In the following examples, the main verb is "tīng" ( "to listen"), and the complement of result is "dǒng" (, "to understand/to know").
Since they indicate an absolute result, such double verbs necessarily represent a completed action, and are thus negated using "méi" ():
The infix "de" () is placed between the double verbs to indicate possibility or ability. This is not possible with "restrictive" resultative compounds such as "jiéshěng" (, literally "reduce-save", meaning "to save, economize").
To negate the above construction, "de" () is replaced by "bù" ():
With some verbs, the addition of "bù" and a particular complement of result is the standard method of negation. In many cases the complement is "liǎo", represented by the same character as the perfective or modal particle "le" (). This verb means "to finish", but when used as a complement for negation purposes it may merely indicate inability. For example: "shòu bù liǎo" (, "to be unable to tolerate").
The complement of result is a highly productive and frequently used construction. Sometimes it develops into idiomatic phrases, as in "è sǐ le" (, literally "hungry-until-die already", meaning "to be starving") and "qì sǐ le" (, literally "mad-until-die already", meaning "to be extremely angry"). The phrases for "hatred" (), "excuse me" (), and "too expensive to buy" () all use the character "qǐ" (, "to rise up") as a complement of result, but their meanings are not obviously related to that meaning. This is partially the result of metaphorical construction, where "kànbùqǐ" () literally means "to be unable to look up to"; and "duìbùqǐ" () means "to be unable to face someone".
Some more examples of resultative complements, used in complete sentences:
Double-verb construction where the second verb, "break", is a suffix to the first, and indicates what happens to the object as a result of the action.
Another double-verb where the second verb, "understand", suffixes the first and clarifies the possibility and success of the relevant action.
Complement of direction.
A complement of direction, or directional complement () indicates the direction of an action involving movement. The simplest directional complements are "qù" (, "to go") and "lái" (, "to come"), which may be added after a verb to indicate movement away from or towards the speaker, respectively. These may form compounds with other verbs that further specify the direction, such as "shàng qù" (, "to go up"), "gùo lái" (, "to come over"), which may then be added to another verb, such as "zǒu" (, "to walk"), as in "zǒu gùo qù" (, "to walk over"). Another example, in a whole sentence:
If the preceding verb has an object, the object may be placed either before or after the directional complement(s), or even between two directional complements, provided the second of these is not "qù" ().
The structure with inserted "de" or "bù" is not normally used with this type of double verb. There are exceptions, such as "to be unable to get out of bed" ( or ).
Coverbs.
Chinese has a class of words, called coverbs, which in some respects resemble both verbs and prepositions. They appear with a following object (or complement), and generally denote relationships that would be expressed by prepositions (or postpositions) in other languages. However, they are often considered to be lexically verbs, and some of them can also function as full verbs. When a coverb phrase appears in a sentence together with a main verb phrase, the result is essentially a type of serial verb construction. The coverb phrase, being an adverbial, precedes the main verb in most cases. For instance:
Here the main verb is "zhǎo" (, "find"), and "bāng" () is a coverb. Here "bāng" corresponds to the English preposition "for", even though in other contexts it might be used as a full verb meaning "help".
Here there are three coverbs: "zuò" ( "by"), "cóng" (, "from"), and "dào" (, "to"). The words "zuò" and "dào" can also be verbs, meaning "sit" and "arrive [at]" respectively. However, "cóng" is not normally used as a full verb.
A very common coverb that can also be used as a main verb is "zài" (), as described in the Locative phrases section. Another example is "gěi" (), which as a verb means "give". As a preposition, "gěi" may mean "for", or "to" when marking an indirect object or in certain other expressions, such as "wǒ gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà" for "I'll give you a telephone call" ().
Because coverbs essentially function as prepositions, they can also be referred to simply as prepositions. In Chinese they are called "jiè cí" (), a term which generally corresponds to "preposition", or more generally, "adposition". The situation is complicated somewhat by the fact that location markers—which also have meanings similar to those of certain English prepositions—are often called "postpositions".
Coverbs normally cannot take aspect markers, although some of them form fixed compounds together with such markers, such as "gēnzhe" (), "ànzhe" (, "according to"), "yánzhe" (, "along"), and "wèile" ( "for").
Other cases.
Serial verb constructions can also consist of two consecutive verb phrases with parallel meaning, such as "hē kāfēi kàn bào", "drink coffee and read the paper" (). Each verb may independently be negated or given the "le" aspect marker. If both verbs would have the same object, it is omitted the second time.
Consecutive verb phrases may also be used to indicate consecutive events. Use of the "le" aspect marker with the first verb may imply that this is the main verb of the sentence, the second verb phrase merely indicating the purpose. Use of this "le" with the second verb changes this emphasis, and may require a sentence-final "le" particle in addition. On the other hand, the progressive aspect marker "zài" () may be applied to the first verb, but not normally the second alone. The word "qù" (, "go") or "lái" (, "come") may be inserted between the two verb phrases, meaning "in order to".
For constructions with consecutive verb phrases containing the same verb, see under Adverbs. For immediate repetition of a verb, see Reduplication and Aspects.
Another case is the causative or pivotal construction. Here the object of one verb also serves as the subject of the following verb. The first verb may be something like "gěi" (, "allow", or "give" in other contexts), "ràng" (, "let"), "jiào" (, "order" or "call") or "shǐ" (, "make, compel"), "qǐng" (, "invite"), or "lìng" (, "command"). Some of these cannot take an aspect marker such as "le" when used in this construction, like "lìng", "ràng", "shǐ". Sentences of this type often parallel the equivalent English pattern, except that English may insert the infinitive marker "to". In the following example the construction is used twice:
Particles.
Chinese has a number of sentence-final particles – these are weak syllables, spoken with neutral tone, and placed at the end of the sentence to which they refer. They are often called modal particles or "yǔqì zhùcí" (), as they serve chiefly to express grammatical mood, or how the sentence relates to reality and/or intent. They include:
This sentence-final "le" () should be distinguished from the verb suffix "le" () discussed in the Aspects section. Whereas the sentence-final particle is sometimes described as an inceptive or as a marker of perfect aspect, the verb suffix is described as a marker of perfective aspect. Some examples of its use:
The two uses of "le" may in fact be traced back to two entirely different words. The fact that they are now written the same way in Mandarin can cause ambiguity, particularly when the verb is not followed by an object. Consider the following sentence:
This "le" might be interpreted as either the suffixal perfective marker or the sentence-final perfect marker. In the former case it might mean "mother has come", as in she has just arrived at the door, while in the latter it might mean "mother is coming!", and the speaker wants to inform others of this fact. It is even possible for the two kinds of "le" to co-occur:
Cleft sentences.
There is a construction in Chinese known as the "shì ... [de]" construction, which produces what may be called cleft sentences. The copula "shì" () is placed before the element of the sentence which is to be emphasized, and the optional possessive particle "de" () is placed at the end of the sentence. For example:
If an object following the verb, is to be emphasized in this construction, the "shì" precedes the object, and the "de" comes after the verb and before the "shì".
Sentences with similar meaning can be produced using relative clauses. For example, "yesterday was the time he bought food" can be said "zuótiān shì tā mǎi cài de shíjiān" (, literally "yesterday is he buy food DE time"). These may be called pseudo-cleft sentences.
Conjunctions.
Chinese has various conjunctions () such as "hé" (, "and"), "dànshì" (, "but"), "huòzhě" (, "or"), etc. However Chinese quite often uses no conjunction where English would have "and".
Two or more nouns may be joined together by the conjunctions "hé" (, "and") or "huò" ( "or"); for example "dāo hé chā" (, "knife and fork"), "gǒu huò māo" (, "dog or cat").
Certain adverbs are often used as correlative conjunctions, where correlating words appear in each of the linked clauses, such as "búdàn ... érqiě" (), "suīrán ... háishì" (), "yīnwèi ... suǒyǐ" (). Such connectors may appear at the start of a clause or before the verb phrase.
Similarly, words like "jìrán" (, "since/in response to"), "rúguǒ" () or "jiǎrú" () "if", "zhǐyào" ( "provided that") correlate with an adverb "jiù" (, "then") or "yě" (, "also") in the main clause, to form conditional sentences.
In some cases, the same word may be repeated when connecting items; these include "yòu ... yòu ..." (, "both ... and ..."), "yībiān ... yībiān ..." (, "... while ..."), and "yuè ... yuè ..." (, "the more ..., the more ...").
Conjunctions of time such as "when" may be translated with a construction that corresponds to something like "at the time (+relative clause)", where as usual, the Chinese relative clause comes before the noun ("time" in this case). For example:
Variants include "dāng ... yǐqián" ( "before ...") and "dāng ... yǐhòu" (, "after ..."), which do not use the relative marker "de". In all of these cases, the initial "dāng" may be replaced by "zài" (), or may be omitted. There are also similar constructions for conditionals: "rúguǒ /jiǎrú/zhǐyào ... dehuà" (, "if ... then"), where "huà" () literally means "narrative, story".