A Summary of the Different Aspects of Chinese Action Expressions
In English, the verb is usually the key to show the different aspects of an action in English, such as be / be doing / was / was doing /…
Grammar Talk: The use of 是…的 (shì…de) Sentence Structure in Chinese
In our ‘Chinese Made Simple Level 1 course’, we studied the grammar structure of ‘是...的 (shì...de)’. In this article, we’re going to elaborate a bit more about it. The ‘是...的…
How to Tell Tenses in Chinese -Use the Adverbs and Nouns of Time Correctly
Unlike English and some other languages, Chinese doesn’t have a specialized pattern of verb changes to indicate tenses. So how do the Chinese tell the different tenses apart? Well, we…
Making a Clean Sweep of all Basic Associated Constructions in Chinese
You may have hit a wall in the study of Function words in Chinese. Maybe you have mastered Function words like “着”, “了”, “过”, but the next step is to…
The Extended Usages of “起来”(qǐlái ) and “下去”(xiàqu)
You may have already learned the how to use the Directional Verbs “……起来” and “……下去”， but in some situations, how they are supposed to be used doesn’t work very well,…
从(cóng) VS 离(lí) and 向(xiàng) VS 往(wǎng): Two Commonly Confused Chinese Grammar Structures
If you’ve spent more than a year or so learning Mandarin, you’ve probably encountered the familiar predicament where you must decide whether to use 从(cóng) versus 离(lí) or向 (xiàng) versus…
Mastering When to Use 一点儿 and 有一点儿
Learning a new language can be challenging, especially when it comes to mastering the nuances and subtleties of everyday conversation. As a Chinese teacher, I often notice my students using…
上下(shànɡxià)？左右(zuǒyòu)？前后(qiánhòu)？- Expressing an “Approximate Number” in Mandarin
If you need to express an “Approximate Number” in terms of time, weight, age, or any other term that involves a number, there are a number of ways to do…
How to Say that Something will Happen “Soon” in Mandarin Chinese
Unlike other languages such as English, Mandarin does not change the form of its verbs to express past, present, and future tenses. Instead, there are other ways to say how…