Basic Grammar Rules 3


Measure Words
Two with a measure word

When the following case appears:
Two + Measure + Noun,

Then in such cases.
Ø      Two is “Liang3”
Ø      Two is not “er”
Ø      If the “two” refers to a personal pronoun like we or you(as in both of you), then one may write lia3 instead of liang 3ge

Question words

Ø      Question word is always placed in a sentence where the answers to the question is expected to be
Ø      “ne” is often used with sentences having question words. It gives the sentence a softening effect and helps the sentence to feel more balanced
Ø      “ma” particle is not added to sentences with question words

Le (-verbal suffix)
Ø      it is put after the verb to indicate that the action of the verb has been completed
i.e verb + le = the action of the verb in done
eg: Wang fei chi le fan/Wang fei has eaten.
Zhang wenfei jie hun le ma?/ Is zhang weifei married(already)?

Ø      Positive complete action is verb + le
Eg: Ni kan le ma?/You saw?

Ø      Negative answer is made by removing the “le” and adding mei you before the verb
Mei you / mei + verb / mei you + verb
eg: wo mei kan/I haven’t seen (it)

Ø      “le” is almost every time to be found with adverb “tai/too”
eg: na tai hao le/that’s too good


Verb Object Construction
Certain verbs in Chinese always occur with an object attached to them.
They never appear independently. 
These verbs are always written as verb+object.
Eg: chi1 means to eat. Chi can not occur on its own.
One has to always write chi fan(lit. eat rice)
There “wo chi” is a wrong way to say “I eat”
Correct way is “wo chi fan”/I eat.

But if you eat baozi/bun, then the fill in object “fan” is replaced by baozi.
Eg: wo chi fan baozi is wrong
Wo chi baozi




Adverb jiu
Ø      Jiu never preceeds noun or pronoun
Ø      It is used to join two clauses


Marker de
Marker de is used to join two nouns, where the preceding noun is subordinate to the following noun.
Ø      Main idea is what the one about whom the information is to be given.
Subordinate noun is simply additional information about the main idea
Ø      Syntax: Subordinate noun + de + main idea.

Eg: gege de duixiang/ girl friend of brother
      Zhuozi de pangbian/ (the one) adjacent to the table
     Pengyou de nvhai/ daughter of friend

Here duixiang, pangbian and nvhai are the main idea.

Ø      de must not be confused as a possessive marker
eg: zhuozi de pangbian does not mean that the table belongs to the adjacent. There is ownership on part of mr.Pangbian on the table!

Ø      In close relations de is not used to show the relationship
Eg: wo baba/my father instead of wo de baba
       Wo jiejie instead/my eldersister of wo de jiejie



Adverbial phrases of time:
Adverbial phrase of time (appears first) > Verb (appears later in the sentence)
The adverbial phrase of time precedes the verb in a sentence.

Reverse of the English usage.
Similar to the Hindi usage.



Eg: Wo mingtian qu kan ta. I will go tomorrow to see him.

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