During Chinese class, whenever I ask my students, “今天上课累不累？(jīn tiān shàngkè lèi bu lèi? / Do you feel tired in class today?)”, they often answer me with the phrase ”一点儿累(yìdiǎnr lèi)”(×). But the correct phrase to use here is”有一点儿(yǒu yìdiǎnr)”.…
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 it in Mandarin. This is a fundamental and important language…
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 something will happen soon or the near future. Below, we…
In Chinese, and unlike in English, people don’t change the form of a word to express the ongoing continuity of an action or a state of being. Instead, Chinese focuses on using other words to express this. Here are some…
Introduction We are all familiar with the basic English expression “more and more”, an expression which actually exists in many languages. Chinese is no exception. Chinese learners are taught these two expressions for “more and more: 越来越……(yuè lái yuè……) 越……越……(yuè……yuè……)…
Editor`s Notes: 我去了公司了。”When you first read or hear this kind of sentence, you may wonder, why do I need to use two “了” in one sentence? Do they have the same meaning? What are their functions? How do I use…
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 sentence structure is widely used in oral and written Chinese…
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 of someone or something. It is similar to the ‘There…