Basic Grammar Rules 2

“To give/gei3” verb

The basic meaning of gei3 is “to give”

The sentence format for gei is “subject + gei + object”.

Eg: Wo gei ni wo de shu/ I give you my book.

Ta gei  wo da dianhua / He gave me a call.

"hui"/to be able to 
Hui roughly translates to "can" in English.
But hui is used only in case of acquired abilty. Acquired ability is something that you have learned or practiced.
Wo hui shuo Yingwen. I can speak English. English is something thing you have learned.
Zai zher hui mai piao ma? Can I buy tickets here? Here hui is wrong. 

“to be/shi4” verb

The verb "shi4/to be" is seldom used in Chinese.

In most cases the shi4 is assumed to be there.

Eg: Ta hen shuai. He (is) very handsome.

The shi4 not used. But it is assumed to be there.

So, Ta shi hen shuai is wrong.

Shi4 is used:

1.      To emphasis a fact.

Eg: zhe shi wo de shu/ This IS my book (and no other)

2.      (not a compulsory rule, a possible rule) where A=B & B=A is also possible.

Particles:

Particles are those words with do not have a meaning in themselves. But when used in a sentence or with another word, give a new value or meaning to the sentence/word.

ma

Eg: Particle ma is a interrogative particle. When added to the end of the sentence, it turns the sentence into a question.

Ta shi ni pengyou/ He is your friend.

Ta shi ni pengyou ma?/ Is he your friend?

Ni hao/You to be good.

Ni hao ma? /Are you good/fine?

ba

ba is a suggest particle. It is used at the end of the sentence or verb to show suggestion or ask confirmation.

Eg: xing ba? / is it fine then?

women xuexi ba / lets us study

ne

When a question is said on an ongoing topic, a ne is used to avoid the entire question.

eg: Wo yijing kan le zhe bu dianying. Ni ne?/ I already saw this movies. What about you?

Here “ni ne?” is used instead of “ni ye kan le zhe bu dianying ma?”

Measure Words

Measure word is unique feature of Chinese.

To put in simple words a when a number and noun occur together, a MW is interested between them.

i.e. Number +Measure Word + Noun

Therefore ,

Yi gequ is wrong

yi shou gequ/lit. one MW song i.e a poem

For different types, class of nouns, different measure words are used.

Eg: ge is for people san ge ren/three people

Zhang for rectangular flat objects

Yi zhang zhouzi/a table

Si zhang piao/four tickets
liang tao shouji/two mobile phones


Bad news: You have to literally by heart all the Measure words for each class of noun. Sometimes even Chinese people them wrong.
Good news: Where you are not sure of the MW, you can simple use "ge". It is sort of a universal measure word