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.

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