Understanding Sentences with Serial Verb Phrases in Chinese
In this article, we are going to focus on ‘连动句(lián dòng jù)’, which are Sentences with Serial Verb Phrases, the last of the special sentences in Mandarin. This kind of…
Mastering Existential Sentences(存现句) in Mandarin
Let’s now look at ‘存现句’, which are called Existential Sentences. Existential Sentences are an especially useful structure in Mandarin. Chinese people use it to express the existence, appearance, or disappearance…
Complex Structure in Chinese: Pivotal Sentence
This time, we are going to talk about ‘兼语句’ (Jiānyǔjù), Pivotal sentence, which is a special structure that plays an important role in Chinese. I believe many learners willhave or…
“帮助他(bāngzhù tā) is Correct, but 帮忙他(bāngmáng tā) is Not?” 离合词(Separable words): A Special Kind of Chinese Verbs
Introduction: The word “help” can be translated as either “帮助” (bāngzhù) or “帮忙”(bāngmáng) in Chinese. But when you want to say “help him”, you will be corrected by your Chinese…
Making Comparisons in Chinese – All about Bǐ-structure(比字句)
In everyday life, we usually compare different people or things by length, weight, size, age and so on. So, do you know how to say she is more beautiful than…
“早饭吃完了”(The breakfast has been eaten) – Learn All About the Unmarked Passive Sentence in Chinese
Passive sentences make up a big and important part of modern Chinese. There are generally two types: Marked Passive Sentences and Unmarked Passive Sentences. We have talked about Marked Passive…
Constructing Passive Sentences in Chinese Using “被字句”(Bèi-structure)
In Chinese, the use of “passive sentences” is fairly common and foreigners who are not used to passive sentences are often confused by them when learning the language. So ,…
常常(cháng cháng) VS往往(wǎng wǎng): The Many Ways of Using the word “Often” in Chinese
In English, the word “often” means “frequently” or “many times”. In Chinese, the adverbs常常(cháng cháng) and 往往(wǎng wǎng) can both be translated as “often”. However, like other synonym pairs, they…
通过(tōng guò) VS经过(jīng guò): The Many Ways of “Passing Through” in Mandarin
Here is a lesson that is a bit more advanced, and it involves two words that are often thought to have the same meaning and are sometimes used interchangeably. These…