How to write the word is in chinese

Learning Chinese characters is not easy, especially if you use the wrong method.

Even with the right method, it’s a task that requires time and perseverance.

In this article, I summarise the best advice I have on how to learn Chinese characters, based on more than ten years of learning, teaching and writing about Chinese.

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My best advice on how to learn Chinese characters

I have much to say when it comes to learning Chinese characters, not only because it’s a complex task in itself, but also because it’s handled badly in many classrooms. I have already written about most of these topics before and my goal in this article is to summarise the most important advice.

That means that I will adress most questions you might have about learning Chinese characters, but that I can’t put all the details in this article because it would turn it into a book. Instead, I will provide links to further reading for those who want more.

Note: There is a lot of information here. You don’t have to read through everything from start to finish, so find the answers to the questions you have about learning Chinese characters instead.

To make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for, here’s an overview of the content in this article. If you’re looking for something in particular, just searching on this page works too!

1. Understanding Chinese characters and the Chinese writing system
   1. Understanding the Chinese writing system
   2. Learning more about Chinese characters
   3. Finding information about Chinese characters
   4. Variation in Chinese characters
2. Learning to read and write Chinese characters
   1. Which Chinese characters and words should you learn?
   2. How to learn Chinese characters
   3. Things you can safely ignore when learning Chinese characters
   4. More about writing Chinese characters by hand
3. Reviewing and remembering Chinese characters
   1. How to not forget the Chinese characters you’ve learnt
   2. Mnemonics and improving your memory
   3. Practical considerations: Where and how to review
   4. Beyond beginner: Character learning in the long term

Before we get started though, let’s discuss when you should learn Chinese characters. I assume that you’re not only interested in the spoken language (I doubt you’d be reading this article if you were).

The short answer is that it makes sense to focus on the spoken language first, thus delaying learning characters. Learning characters becomes easier the more Chinese you know, but learning the sounds of the spoken language actually becomes harder the longer you wait. Read more about this in: Should you learn to speak Chinese before you learn Chinese characters?

1. Understanding Chinese characters and the Chinese writing system

In part one, we’ll look at how to make sense of the Chinese writing system and understand how characters work. Understanding is important, because if research into learning tells us anything, it is that learning things that don’t mean anything is hard. The worst case scenario is regarding characters as a jumble of disconnected strokes and try to learn them through mindless repetition.

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1.1 Understanding the Chinese writing system

To help you figure out how the writing system works, I’ve written an in-depth series about words, characters, components and strokes, but since not all of you will be interested in reading all of that right now, here’s a brief summary with links to the main articles in the series.

1. The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell – This is an introduction to the whole series and includes some advice on how to learn characters as an adult. The main point here is that Chinese characters aren’t pictures and that you as an adult learner can benefit immensely from understanding how characters work. I also talk about when to learn the writing system in relation to the spoken language (the default option should be spoken language first), the importance of reading, and the relationship between being able to read, write by hand and type in Chinese, which is rather different from most other languages. I also go through five things to avoid when learning characters: Don’t waste time learning the names of all the strokes, don’t obsess over theory, don’t clump reviews together, don’t worry if your handwriting is ugly, and don’t feel too daunted by the journey ahead,
2. The building blocks of Chinese, part 2: Basic characters, components and radicals – Chinese characters started out as pictures representing objects, such as 木 tree, 人 person, 日 sun, and 月 moon. While most characters aren’t this simple, learning the basic characters is still very important, as they are the building blocks of all other characters. When included in other characters as components, they often provide something, such as sound or meaning, to that character (they are functional components). In each character, one specific component is used to sort the character in  traditional dictionaries (this is called the radical). This article also goes through how to memorise these basic characters effectively, how to deal with basic characters that are’n’t compounds, but look rather complex anyway, along with the best tools available for learning the basics and a few important things about variations in Chinese characters.
3. The building blocks of Chinese, part 3: Compound characters – A vast majority of characters are compounds. For example, 休 (xiū), “to rest”, consists of a variant of 人 → 亻 (rén), “person”,  and 木 (mù), “tree”, indicating a person resting in the shade of a tree. Two components forming a compound character. Another example is 妈 (mā), “mother”, consisting of 女 (nǚ), “woman” and 马 (mǎ), “horse”. In fact, most compounds are like this, with one component providing meaning (妈 and 女 are clearly related by meaning) and another sound (妈 and 马 use the same syllable). This article also talks about character evolution, corruption and tricky cases.
4. The building blocks of Chinese, part 4: Learning and remembering compound characters – When you know how compounds work, you can use this knowledge to learn more characters faster. Most compounds make sense in some way, but you need to make sure you understand the composition of the character for a correct analysis. As long as you identify the right building blocks, you don’t have to stick with the true history behind the character if you don’t find that helpful. Regardless, you should make use of mnemonics or memory techniques to make characters stick. This article contains lots of tips and tricks, as well as concrete examples!
5. The building blocks of Chinese, part 5: Making sense of Chinese words – It’s a common misconception that reading Chinese is all about characters, but in fact, meaning is conveyed through words, which usually have two characters. These words are sometimes obvious combinations of characters, but often are not. However, by understanding the individual characters (the building blocks), learning words become much easier and you can employ the same memory techniques I talked about when introducing characters compounds above. This article explains what words are in Chinese, why it’s important to understand the difference between words and characters, and how to learn both. There’s also a brief overview of where Chinese words come from, which is essential to understanding many of them!
6. The building blocks of Chinese, part 6: Learning and remembering compound words – Words in Chinese can look chaotic and be hard to understand, but when you understand why they are structured the way they are, it becomes much easier. In general, words are constructed the same way as phrases, meaning that in nouns, the core noun is on the right (same as when describing nouns in a normal phrase), and that in verbs, the main verb is on the left (just as verbs appear on the left of objects in normal sentences too).  Many words also have prefixes or suffixes, and just like when learning other languages, understanding these makes learning words much easier. This article takes a look at how words work and how you can use that knowledge to make sense of them and remember them more effectively.

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1.2 Learning more about Chinese characters

There are also many articles dealing with more specific aspects of characters:

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1.3 Finding information about Chinese characters

As we have seen, vocabulary in Chinese is a multi-layered web and there’s much information you need to be able to look up when needed, although you should try to use learning methods and materials that limit the number of new characters. Here’s the best advice I have to offer about how to look up information about Chinese characters:

• How to look up Chinese characters you don’t know – Looking up characters in a dictionary used to be quite difficult; I have even taken a course in how to use a dictionary! Fortunately, you don’t have to do that, because there are now digital dictionaries that work very well. In this article, I go through many different ways of looking up characters, including by writing on screen, by scanning text (OCR), by searching in Pinyin and by using radicals.
• Looking up how to use words in Chinese the right way – Even advanced students are sometimes not very good at using dictionaries. Unlike when learning a language closely related to English, using a dictionary to find a word you want to say or write in Chinese is not as easy. Translating on a word level almost never works and you need to pay attention to context. This article teaches you the basics in how to use a dictionary for speaking and writing purposes.
• 21 essential dictionaries and corpora for learning Chinese – There are a ton of dictionaries available for learning Chinese, but which should you use? It depends on what you want to use it for, but Pleco or Hanping is a good start, and both contain many extra dictionary-add-ons. When it comes to web-based dictionaries, Youdao is my favourite. If this is not enough, this article goes into much more detail about various dictionaries and corpora (word banks).
• The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters – I want to give this dictionary a special mention because it’s the best way for students to access up-to-date information about Chinese character etymology. The link goes to my in-depth review of the dictionary, which I think is a must for students and teachers who are interested in learning more about how Chinese characters work. It’s a one-time purchase that will be useful for as long as you learn characters.

Apart from looking up characters in general,you also need resources to move up and down the knowledge web, either zooming in to look at the building blocks or zooming out to put the character in context. Some of these resources overlap with those mentioned above, but this is a different way of sorting them and is quite useful if you need to zoom!

• Zooming in: The tools you need to break down and understand Chinese characters – In order to learn efficiently, it’s important that you integrate your knowledge. This means being able to break down words into characters, and characters into components. This first article goes through the tools and resources you need to do so.
• Zooming out: The resources you need to put Chinese in context – In this second article, we look at tools for zooming out and putting things in context. This is an incredibly important step, especially since Chinese is very distant from English, and characters and words really need to be studied in context.
• Panning: How to keep similar Chinese characters and words separate – In the third article, we look at how to pan, or in other words, how to learn about how components, characters and words relate to each other on the same level. This is necessary to keep similar components, characters and words apart, but a word of warning: don’t try to learn many similar things at once; it will make it easier to mix them up. Instead, only pan when you have a problem you need to sort out (more about this later).

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1.4 Variation in Chinese characters

As if learning thousands of characters weren’t enough, there’s also a lot of variation going on, such as that between handwriting and computer fonts, simplified and traditional characters, or just some character variants that look different in different contexts. Here’s my best advice regarding how to deal with these problems and find the information you need:

• Learning simplified and traditional Chinese – Contrary to what you might have heard, the differences between simplified and traditional Chinese are not that big. Which set you start with depends largely on practical considerations: most people learn simplified, but learn traditional if you have special interest in Taiwan or Hong Kong. Learning both sets is not hard once you’ve learnt one of them.
• Are simplified characters really simpler to learn? Given that one character set is simplified and was standardised with the explicit goal to increase literacy, many just assume that simplified characters are easier to learn. But are they really? Fewer strokes does not mean easier to learn, especially not in this modern age of digital input systems!
• Chinese character variants and fonts for language learners – Most students at some point feel confused and frustrated by the unpredictable way characters are displayed on phones and computers. By understanding the problem and using the right fonts, you can make sure you learn to write characters that match the standard you want to follow.
• How to verify that you use the right Chinese font – When I started writing characters, I accidentally used a Japanese font. Don’t do that. Even using a Chinese font that doesn’t follow the right standard might cost you points on a test, even if it’s unlikely to cause people to not understand what you write. This article contains the fonts you need, as well as a step by step guide for how to check that your computer or phone is using the right font.
• Shape-shifting character components – Pay attention to components that change shape depending on where they appear in a character. These are not really different characters, but they can appear so to beginners. Some important examples include 人, “person”, being written 亻when it appears on the left in a character, and 火, “fire”, being written 灬 sometimes when it’s at the bottom. In my list of the most common radicals, I have included variant forms such as these.

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2. Learning to read and write Chinese characters

In part one, we looked at how to understand the writing system and find the information you need, but that’s obviously not enough, you also need to learn characters. This part is about that, starting out with what characters to learn and how to find them, then moving on to learning characters, some things you can safely skip, and then finally advice specific to writing by hand, including if this is actually something you need to learn in a modern, digital age.

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2.1 Which Chinese characters and words should you learn?

This question is difficult to answer since it depends on your learning situation and how much Chinese you already know. Many formal courses also decide what characters students should learn, so if you’re enrolled in one of those, you don’t have much choice in the matter. If you do have a choice, though, here’s my advice for how to decide what to learn:

• Which words you should learn and where to find them – If you’re a beginner, you need to learn around a hundred characters or so before you can read much of anything. The easiest way to do this is to rely on materials tailored to beginners in the form of textbooks. These rarely go through characters properly, but the earlier chapters in general tend to include the most important vocabulary. If you’re interested in my own attempt to create the ultimate path to the first 150 characters or so, check out the character course I built for Skritter. It’s not free, but it also took a long time to build. If you’re not a complete beginner, you should learn characters by reading, plus characters you need to be able to communicate about things you care about.
• Should you learn Chinese vocabulary from lists? Generally speaking, no. Learning vocabulary from a list someone else has created looks like a good deal because it’s convenient. However, many students reduce learning Chinese to going through word lists they find online, or otherwise place an unwarranted amount of trust in the people who created these lists. So my advice from above still stands: most of the words you learn should come either from reading or from communicative needs.
• Vocabulary lists that help you learn Chinese and how to use them – There are exceptions to the above advice about not relying on lists, though, and this article goes through several types of lists and discusses how to use them to your advantage. Lists discussed include: frequency lists, textbook vocabulary lists, proficiency test lists, special purpose lists and thematic lists.
• Kickstart your Chinese character learning with the 100 most common radicals – I’ve already said that learning the very basics is one of the few cases where relying on lists makes sense. This lists presents 100 common meaning components in characters, chosen from the 214 radicals (see the article itself for a discussion about the word “radical”). You can safely learn all the components on this list because they are all super useful!
• The most common Chinese words, characters and components for language learners and teachers – If you want to find frequency information for components, characters or words, this article is for you. It’s a comprehensive overview of the various resources available, mostly online and freely available. This can be handy if you want to plug gaps in your vocabulary, or in other words, if you want to check if you’ve missed very high-frequency words that are significantly below your general level. Read more about this here: Mapping the terra incognita of Chinese vocabulary.
• What important words are missing from HSK? Many people who ignore my advice above focus a lot on HSK, which is the most wide-spread proficiency test for Chinese. All lists are flawed, though, and the official test preparation lists that are so popular actually leave out a lot of words, or delay some very common ones until higher levels. This is an analysis of what important words are missing from the HSK lists. I also did the same analysis of the TOCFL lists, which is for the standard proficiency test used in Taiwan.
• Overcoming the problem of having too many Chinese words to learn – All students face the problem of an ever-increase number of characters and words to learn. There is obviously no simple solution to this problem as we can’t change the number of words Chinese people use, and we therefore need to learn, but you can improve your situation by changing the way you learn words, by learning fewer words, or by adding them differently in case you’re using flashcards.
• The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese – In your studies, you will encounter things that are very complex, don’t make a lot of sense or sometimes both. I strongly advise that you stay away from these things, especially as a beginner. You don’t have to sort out complex differences between how certain characters are used or understand the full process of how a given character came to be and evolved throughout history. This will contribute very little to your proficiency for the amount of time you invest. Don’t poke the monsters from beyond the bubble!

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2.2 How to learn Chinese characters

Now that you have some characters that you want to learn, how do you go about learning them? Below, I have separated the process into several steps, so this one is only about the initial learning, but as most of you probably already know, remembering and reviewing is where the real challenge is at (more about that later):

• How to learn Chinese characters as a beginner – When you start learning Chinese, it’s hard to know where to begin. If you were given a few characters as homework or just want to learn them for some other reason, how do you go about it? In general, you want to understand what you’re doing, write the characters a few times to get a feel for it, but then space out repetitions to make learning more efficient.
• Learn Chinese character meaning and pronunciation together – As we saw in part one, most characters look the way they do because of how they are pronounced. This means that you should learn meaning and pronunciation together, otherwise it’s unnecessarily hard to learn phonetic series like 晴, 情, 请, 清 and so on (they all share the phonetic component 青). I’m not a fan of approaches that ignore sound for this reason.
• How to not teach Chinese characters to beginners: A 12-step approach – Even though it sounds like this article would be about teaching and things you should not do, it’s actually meant mostly for students and is a guide for what you should do as well (just reverse the “advice” given). You might be constrained by what your teacher thinks you ought to do, but if you’re forced to do too many things mentioned here, you should look for another teacher.

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2.3 Things you can safely ignore when learning Chinese characters

When you start learning Chinese, there are so many things you need to learn, some of which seem utterly useless. However, you can’t rely on your beginner knowledge to determine what to learn and what to skip. For example, I will argue later in this part of the article that stroke order is actually important, which seems odd to many beginners. Here are some thing you can certainly ignore, though, even if you learn to write by hand:

• Should you learn the pronunciation of radicals? This is a tricky question, because the word “radical” is problematic here. Learning the pronunciation of components that are used to give the sound in other characters is very useful (I used the example of 青 above), but most characters you find on a typical list of radicals are not very common as phonetic components. Thus, the general answer is “no”, but also that it does depend on the character in question. Naturally, you need to learn how to pronounce characters that are used on their own! In my kickstart list mentioned above, I’ve indicated which pronunciations can be ignored by putting them in brackets.
• Should you learn the names of the strokes in Chinese characters? No, not unless your focus is calligraphy. You will learn the names of the basic strokes later, but obsessing about what strokes and combinations of strokes are called is a waste of time. If your teacher writes a lot by hand in class and teaches the strokes naturally simply by saying them, fine, but I still don’t think that’s a wise use of classroom time. You do not need to be able to name the strokes in characters you learn, being able to write them is enough.
• How to talk about Chinese characters in Chinese – So if you shouldn’t learn the pronunciation of all the radicals and shouldn’t learn the stroke names, how do you talk about Chinese characters in Chinese, then? After all, learning Chinese in Chinese is a good idea! Well, you gradually learn how native speakers do it and they certainly do not describe characters stroke by stroke. Instead, they use colloquial names of components and refer to parts of easier characters. This is not something you can safely ignore, I just include it here because I want to show how you can talk about Chinese characters in Chinese without violating the first two pieces of advice offered in this section!
• Should you learn how to categorise characters according to 六书/六書? No, this is another example of traditional teaching methods that make little sense today. This system is very old, very complicated and adds very little to your understanding of characters that functional components don’t do better and in a way that is also easier to learn. I mention this in How to not teach Chinese characters to beginners: A 12-step approach mentioned above as well.

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2.4 More about learning to write Chinese characters by hand

Unlike in most other languages, learning to write in Chinese is a separate skill that requires an awful lot of time to learn. As we have seen above, Chinese characters are not an alphabet, not even close to it, so they can’t be compared with the Arabic, Korean or Russian scripts.

While an alphabet can be easily maintained by reading and typing (you can probably spell almost all words you can type), this is not true in Chinese. It’s perfectly possible to be able to read well in Chinese and be able to type characters, but have only limited ability to write by hand. So, is it worth it, should you learn to write Chinese characters by hand? And if you do, how should you go about it?

• Is it necessary to learn to write Chinese characters by hand? – The short answer is that for most people, no, you don’t need to write by hand very often. Reading and typing is enough to function in a modern, largely digital society. However, learning to write can still be useful for beginners in order to deeply process characters and learn more about them, which will be useful. Learning to write by hand need not be an all-or-nothing decision either, in fact the best approach is probably to learn to write the most common characters, but be satisfied with reading and typing for the rest.
• Is it necessary to learn the stroke order of Chinese characters? Yes, you should learn stroke order. Native speakers write the way they do for a reason: it’s more practical and efficient. Your characters will look better, it will be easier to make sense of other people’s handwriting, and using handwriting input will be easier. Finally, there’s no good alternative to correct stroke order, because making up your own stroke order creates other problems.
• All the resources you need to learn and teach Chinese stroke order – This includes apps, websites, printable worksheets, where to find information about official standards for stroke order and so on. Many dictionaries offer stroke order animation and some apps like Skritter has it built into the very core of the learning process.
• How to improve your Chinese handwriting – As argued above, learning to write by hand is a separate skill in Chinese, and this article takes a closer look at what is required of you to be able to do it well, along with problems you will encounter along the way. The process is separated into intent (what you want to write) and execution (what you actually write). Depending on which you struggle with, the remedies will be different! I expanded on this specific topic here as well: What you intend to write is more important than the character you actually write.
• Handwriting Chinese characters: The minimum requirements – This article goes through the nitty-gritty of writing characters by hand, the kind of things that your teacher might mention briefly now and then, but isn’t typically taught at all these days. Note that while the title says “minimum”, this goes beyond what most second language learners need.
• 36 samples of Chinese handwriting from students and native speakers – While not being advice about how to write by hand, this article might nevertheless be interesting because it shows you how other people write Chinese characters by hand, which is not always easy to find if you’re learning Chinese in your home country. More importantly, they write exactly the same text, so you can compare! Samples include both native speakers and second language learners on various levels.

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3 Reviewing and remembering Chinese characters

I’ve learnt characters for more than a decade, and as all long-time learners can testify, Chinese character knowledge is something you have to use constantly or you will forget what you have learnt. This is particularly true for handwriting, but this part is not limited to handwriting in particular, but rather the general goal of remembering what we learn.

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3.1 How to not forget the Chinese characters you’ve learnt

The first and most obvious thing to say is that you have to review characters to remember them. This can be done in many ways, such as reading a lot, typing, using apps to review and so on, but if you don’t review, you will forget most of what you have learnt.

• An introduction to extensive reading for Chinese learners – Reading has many benefits for your learning in general, but it’s definitely the best way to review characters and vocabulary in general. If you read extensively, i.e. where you understand almost everything you read, you can also learn new characters and words this way!
• Three ways to improve the way you review Chinese characters – Most students don’t review characters very efficiently, so this article goes through there important ways to improve: 1) understand what you’re doing, 2) spread out your reviews (see spaced repetition below), and 3) make sure your review method is valid (meaning that what you learn actually is transferable to the area you want to use it in).
• Spaced repetition software and why you should use it – Reading involves passive recognition, rather than active recall. If you want to get most out of every minute you spend on vocabulary review, you should check out spaced repetition software, or SRS for short. These programs use flashcards to combine active recall with efficient scheduling of reviews, which has been shown to have very large benefits on retention. You don’t have to use SRS and it has its limits, but it is a very powerful way of remembering everything you’ve learnt. You can of course use the spacing effect without using flashcards!
• Skritter review: Boosting your Chinese character learning – My favourite app for learning Chinese characters and words, particularly geared towards deep processing and writing by hand on screen. I’ve used this app for almost a decade now and I still try to use it every day. Requires a subscription, but also offers som content completely for free.
• Anki, the best of spaced repetition software – This app is for students who like full control and to be able to tinker with their spaced repetition experience. Anki is not designed specifically for Chinese, but there is a very useful Chinese support plug-in that adds a lot of useful features. Anki is free on all platforms except iOS.
• Reading is a lot like spaced repetition, only better – Let’s remember that there’s no magic involved in SRS; it’s just a clever way of scheduling flashcard reviews. You can get the same effect by reading a lot, which is what this article compares. While flashcards might be more efficient for certain things (such as handwriting Chinese characters), reading has lots of other benefits that flashcards don’t have.
• You can’t learn Chinese characters by rote – Technically, you can learn characters by roe, but it takes so much time that it’s impossible for most second language learners. While you can brute-force characters into your long-term memory, unless you understand what you’re doing and are able to form meaningful connections between characters and other knowledge stored in your brain, it will be very, very hard to remember in the long run.
• Learning to write Chinese characters through communication – Both written and spoken language exist for the purpose of communication, yet few people learn characters in a communicative setting. By relying on handwritten input on your phone (among other things), you can integrate writing characters into a meaningful context and your learning is driven by your own desire to express yourself, rather than what happens to be in the next chapter of your textbook.
• 7 ways of learning to write Chinese characters – When choosing how to review characters, take your long-term goals for learning Chinese into account. You need to make sure that the way you practise will actually get you to your goal. This article goes through seven ways of reviewing characters, discussing the pros and cons of each: writing on paper, writing with your finger, writing in your mind, writing on screen without feedback, writing on screen with feedback, no writing just looking, and finally, only reading and typing

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3.2 Mnemonics and improving your memory

Memory is often seen as something fixed, so either you’re born with a good one or you’re stuck with bad memory for the rest of your life. But this is not true. Our ability to remember things can be trained, both in the sense that we get better at it the more we do it, but also in the sense that there are techniques and tricks that can vastly improve your ability to remember.

Some of these tricks have been known since ancient times, others have been discovered through research in cognitive science (a nice summary can be found here). Some techniques are hard to learn, but others are actually very easy!

• Remembering is a skill you can learn – The most important lesson of all is that you can train your memory. This has been testified by many different people over the years, but my favourite of these come from Joshua Foer, known to most through his TED talk and his book Moonwalking with Einstein. In the linked article, I explain the basics and we try them out with a simple experiment.
• Using memory aids and mnemonics to make Chinese easier – There are many techniques available and they can all be used to learn Chinese characters. This includes memory palaces, the loci method, the journey method, and, the method I use most often, simply associating meaningful concepts and images in ways that stand out in a way that makes them easy to remember later.
• How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components – In general, it’s easier to remember concrete, meaningful things that can be related to what you already know in a clear way. Hence, it’s easier to remember the word “Baker” if you think of an actual baker, compared to if you think of it as a surname. Some things we want to learn are abstract or hard to  pin down, so what to do? Make them concrete, because even made-up meaning is better than no meaning.
• Are mnemonics too slow for Chinese learners?  One common complaint about using mnemonics for language learning is that they are too slow. However, this criticism misses the point: the role of mnemonics is as a stepping stone from not knowing to knowing. Recalling, even if slowly, is much better than not recalling. Gradually, mnemonics can be cast aside, except for handwriting characters where they remain useful even for very advanced learners.
• Don’t use mnemonics for everything – When introduced to the fantastic world of memory hacking and mnemonics, some people go all-in and want to use them to learn everything. However, this is not really necessary and will create a lot of extra work. Chinese is still a language, not a list of abstract things to memorise. Use mnemonics when you need to, not as the default solution to remember things you’d probably remember without them.

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3.3 Practical considerations: Where and how to review

Learning Chinese characters does not take place in a vacuum, so we also need to put learning into the general context of our daily lives.

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3.4 Beyond beginner: Character learning in the long term

Finally, I’d like to offer some advice for those of you who have been learning for a while now.

• The real challenge with learning Chinese characters – Beginners think that learning new characters is the hardest part of learning to read and write characters, but more advanced students know that keeping all of them apart and knowing when to use which is where the real challenge is at. There are many things you can do about this, some of which we covered above, but also…
• Dealing with Chinese characters you keep mixing up – The key to sorting out characters you’re mixing up is to trace your errors and figure out why you’re confusing them. It’s often the case that you have overlooked something, misunderstood a key piece of information or that the problem is easily solvable just by looking at the two characters next to each other. Often, we are subconsciously confused without realising it!
• 7 mistakes I made when writing Chinese characters and what I learnt from them – To show you the above-mentioned error tracing in action, I wrote this article where I go through seven mistakes I’ve made with my own character writing recently, tracing each error to the source.
• Chinese characters that share the same components but are still different – This is particularly tricky case of mixing characters up. Normally, I don’t encode the order of the components when creating mnemonics because only one way of writing the character looks even vaguely right. But this doesn’t work if the characters have exactly the same components!
• A minimum-effort approach to writing Chinese characters by hand – Finally, let’s look at the minimum-effort approach to maintaining the ability to write by hand. This is for those who you who, like me, want to be able to write by hand, but are too busy to spend more time than absolutely necessary. The approach includes for components: reading, typing, spaced repetition and communicative handwriting.

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Conclusion

The goal of this article is to provide a handy guide for all matters related to learning Chinese characters. There are probably things I have omitted or forgotten to mention, so if you have a question that is not covered here, please leave a comment below!

Editor’s note: This article, originally published in 2015, was rewritten from scratch and massively updated in February, 2021.

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Personal Pronouns in Chinese 人称代词 (rén chēng dài cí)

One of the first words you probably need to learn is ‘I’ 我 (wǒ). Although in Chinese, you can often get away with missing off the 我 (wǒ) ‘I’ in spoken Chinese, it is important to use it within written Chinese.

The word for ‘you’ is 你 (nǐ) and can also be used in its formal version 您 (nín), which is used to show respect to elders or superiors.

Do you know that in spoken Chinese, the words for he she and it are all the same? In a conversation with someone, it’s easy to ask the other person for clarification, but what happens in written Chinese? Luckily, personal pronouns in the written language of Mandarin Chinese have different characters.

他 (tā) – he

她 (tā) – she

它 (tā) – it

If you know a little about radicals in Chinese, you might know that usually, the meaning of the character is on the left, and the pronunciation is on the right side. Both the characters for he and she have the same radical to suggest the way it is spoken.

The left side of the character for he 他 (tā) has the person radical 人/ 亻 (rén), suggesting male origins. The character for ‘she’ 她 (tā), has the female radical 女 (nǚ) to the left of it, which indicates it is female.

Plurals

In order to pluralize personal pronouns in Chinese and create ‘we’, ‘us’ ‘they’ or ‘them’, you simply add 们 (men).

我们 (wǒ men) – us/we

你们 (nǐ men) – you (plural)

他们 (tā men) – they/them

她们 (tā men) – they/them

它们 (tā men) – they/them

他们去外面吃饭。(tā men qù wài mian chī fàn.) – They went out to eat.

Possessive  物主代词 (wù zhǔ dài cí)

Technically, the Chinese language does not have possessive pronouns, but it classed as a rule of the 的 (de) particle.

To make a pronoun ‘possessive’, you add the 的 (de) particle. Although the 的 (de) particle has many uses, at the moment it is enough to know that it makes pronouns possessive.

我的 (wǒ de) – mine

你的/您的 (nǐ de/nín de) – yours

他的 (tā de) – his

她的 (tā de) – hers

If you want to say ‘my cup’, it would look like this:

我的杯子。(wǒ de bēi zi)

Me (s) cup.

In the case of alienable possession (if the object is close to the subject like a family member), the 的 (de) particle can be removed.

我妈。(wǒ mā) My mother.

Finally, to say ours, theirs or yours add the 的 (de) particle to the plural pronoun.

我们的 (wǒ men de) – ours

你们的 (nǐ men de) – yours

他们的 (tā men de) – theirs

她们的 (tā men de) – theirs

Reflexive Pronouns

To refer to the ‘self’ in Chinese, we add the bigram 自己 (zì jǐ) to a personal pronoun:

我自己 (wǒ zì jǐ) – myself

你自己 (nǐ zì jǐ) – yourself

他自己 (tā zì jǐ) – himself

她自己 (tā zì jǐ) – herself

我们自己 (wǒ men zì jǐ) – ourselves

请用一句话介绍你自己。(qǐng yòng yī jù huà jiè shào nǐ zì jǐ.) Please introduce yourself in one sentence.

Interrogative Pronouns 疑问代词 (yí wèn dài cí)

Interrogative pronouns are ‘question’ words that express an enquiry.

谁 (shéi) – Who

他是谁？(tā shì shéi) Who is he?

什么 (shén me) – What

这是什么? (zhè shì shén me) What is this?

哪个 (nǎ ge) – Which

这两个玩具，你喜欢哪一个？(zhè liǎng gè wán jù, nǐ xǐ huan nǎ yī gè)

Which of these two toys do you prefer?

为什么 (wèi shén me) – Why

这么晚了，为什么你还不回家？(zhè me wǎn le, wèi shén me nǐ hái bù huí jiā.)

It’s late. Why don’t you go home?

怎么 (zěn me) – How

这个问题怎么解决？(zhè ge wèn tí zěn me jiě jué)

How do we solve this problem?

什么时候 (shén me shí hou) – When

你什么时候来中国？ (nǐ shén me shí hou lái zhōng guó.)

When will you come to China?

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哪里 (nǎ lǐ) – Where

我忘记把钥匙放哪里了。(wǒ wàng jì bǎ yào shi fàng nǎ lǐ le)

I have forgotten where I put my keys.

几 (jǐ) How much/How many

我们几点见面？(wǒ men jǐ diǎn jiàn miàn)

When shall we meet?

多 (duō) – Many/Much

你花了多长时间写作业？(nǐ huā le duō cháng shí jiān xiě zuò yè.)

How much time did you spend on your homework?

Rules for Interrogative Pronouns

There are some rules regarding interrogative pronouns. Here are some examples of when to use these pronouns:

For people or things use: 谁 (shéi) – who, 什么  (shén me) – what, 哪 (nǎ) which

For place or location use: 哪儿 (nǎr) or 哪里 (nǎ lǐ)

For time use: 哪会儿 (nǎ huì er) or 多会儿 (duō huì er)

For status, actions, method or property use: 怎么 (zěn me) or 怎么样 (zěn me yàng)

For quantity use: 多 (duō), 多少 (duō shao) or 几 (jǐ).

Generally, the usage of 几 (jǐ), is almost the same as 多少 (duō shao), so they can replace each other. However, 多 (duō) can also be used to ask for levels or amounts such as 多长 (duō cháng) meaning ‘how long’ or 多大 (duō dà) meaning ‘how large’, whereas 几 (jǐ) can not be used in this way.

When interrogative pronouns are used in the way that relative pronouns are used in English, then there should be always be an adverb such as 都 (dōu) or 也 (yě). These characters are interchangeable as they have almost the same meaning. Sometimes they will be used with words such as 不管 (bù guǎn) or 无论 (wú lùn) to create emphasis.

If 都 (dōu) or 也 (yě) are removed from the sentences below, they no longer have the same meaning. The first example shows the sentence with 都 (dōu) or 也 (yě), the second shows it without.

谁也不知道他在哪儿了。(shéi yě bù zhī dao tā zài nǎr le) – No one knows where he is.

≠ 谁不知道他在哪儿。 Every knows where he is (don’t they?)

你什么都不懂。(nǐ  shén me dōu bù dǒng) – You know nothing.

≠ 你什么不懂。 You know everything (don’t you?)

Take a look at the Chinese sentence type blog post to find out more about this interrogative sentence pattern.

不管怎么解释，他都不明白。(bù guǎn zěn me jiě shì, tā dōu bù míng bai.) – No matter how it has been explained, he is unable to understand.

Indefinite Pronouns

Since there are no clear cut way to translate English indefinite pronouns into their Chinese equivalents, the words we know in the English language such as ‘anything’ and ‘something’ etc are not indefinite pronouns in Chinese. In the English language, indefinite pronouns are words that include some-, any-, every- etc

Here are the some of the ways you can translate the English indefinite pronouns into Chinese:

任何事(情) / 任何东西 (rèn hé shì (qíng) / rèn hé dōng xi) – Anything

有些事(情) / 有些东西 (yǒu xiē shì (qíng) / yǒu xiē dōng xi) – Something

有人/某人 (yǒu rén/mǒu rén) – Someone

每(个)人/人人 (měi (gè) rén / rén rén – Everyone

任何人 (rèn hé rén) – Anyone

Demonstrative Pronouns 指示代词 (zhǐ shì dài cí)

This and That

这 (zhè) and 那 (nà) can be used as both demonstratives and specifiers. A demonstrative is used to ‘point out’ an item, so that it is not confused with another object. These two characters will be used as 这 (zhè) ‘this’ and  那 (nà) ‘that’.

这样 (zhè yàng) – like this/this way

这么 (zhè me) – this much

这会儿 (zhè huìr) – at this moment

那样 (nà yàng) – that kind

那么 (nà me) – like that

那会儿 (nà huìr) – never been seen

那是我的被子。(nà shi wǒ de bèi zi.) That is my quilt.

These and Those

This 这 (zhè) and that 那 (nà) can be turned into plurals by adding the character 些 (xiē), meaning ‘few’ or ‘several’. 这些 (zhè xiē) be used to say ‘these’ and 那些 (nà xiē) for ‘those’.

Here and There

这儿/这里 (zhèr / zhè lǐ) – Here

那儿/那里 (nàr / nà li) – There

There are several ways to pronounce here and there in Chinese. In the north of China, especially in Beijing, the first 这儿 (zhèr) and 那儿 (nàr) pronunciations are common. Whereas the 这里 (zhè lǐ) and 那里 (nà li) pronunciations are used in the south.

Sometimes 这儿 (zhèr) and 那儿 (nàr) are used at the beginning of a sentence as a subject and can be, but not necessarily followed by the preposition 在 (zài). Take a look at our article about the 在 character here.

在这里有很多东西。(zài zhè lǐ yǒu hěn duō dōng xi.) There is a lot of stuff here.

If they are not the subject, then the 在 (zài) preposition must be used.

我在这里工作。(wǒ zài zhè lǐ gōng zuò) I work here.

Exercises

1. How do you say ‘myself’ in Chinese?’

2. The Chinese characters for this and that are 这 (zhè) and 那 (nà). Create mnumonics (a story or picture) to help you remember which one is which and post them in the Written Chinese Dictionary!

3. Does the Chinese language have possessive pronouns? What is used to indicate a ‘possessive’ word?

11	=	10 + 1	=	十一
12	=	10 + 2	=	十二
20	=	2 + 10	=	二十
21	=	2 + 10 + 1	=	二十一
28	=	2 + 10 + 8	=	二十八
82	=	8 + 10 + 2	=	八十二
99	=	9 + 10 + 9	=	九十九

Basic Chinese Sentence Structure

In general, there are two basic sentence structures in Mandarin Chinese: “S-V-O” and “Topic-Comment”. They are both simple and straightforward. Let’s have a look at each one in turn.

1. S-V-O

In English, the basic sentence order is subject-verb-object, AKA “S-V-O”.

For example:

I drink tea.

“I” is the subject, “drink” is the verb, and “tea” is the object.

The basic sentence order in Chinese is the same, which means you should get used to this structure right away.

我喝茶。
Wǒ hē chá.
I drink tea.

Let’s see some more examples.

• 我爱你。
  Wǒ ài nǐ.
  I love you.

• 牛吃草。
  Niú chī cǎo.
  Cow eats grass.

• 我们说中文。
  Wǒmen shuō Zhōngwén.
  We speak Chinese.

Just as in English, the basic subject-verb-object structure in Chinese can at times be reduced to produce an even shorter sentence with just a subject and a verb (S-V).

• 我想。
  Wǒ xiǎng.
  I think.

• 你去。
  Nǐ qù.
  You go.

• 她哭。
  Tā kū.
  She cries.

2. Topic-Comment

The second structure is the “Topic-Comment”. It’s often the more natural-sounding way to express an idea in Chinese.

“Topic” means the subject matter you want to talk about, and “comment” is the information you give about the subject matter.

To arrange a Chinese sentence with this structure, you simply mention the topic you want to talk about at the beginning and then say what you have to say about it.

For example,

• 那个人我认识。
  Nàge rén wǒ rènshi.
  I know that guy.
  Literally, “That guy, I know.”

• 咖啡我不喜欢。
  Kāfēi wǒ bù xǐhuan.
  I don’t like coffee.
  Literally, “Coffee, I don’t like.”

• 茶你喝吗？
  Chá nǐ hē ma?
  Do you drink tea?
  Literally, “Tea, you drink?” 

Like many other components of Chinese, the topic-comment structure may require a bit of practice to get used to. You don’t have to worry even if the structure confuses you now. It’s totally fine to stick with “S-V-O” when you start to learn Chinese.

But bear in mind this topic-comment structure is widely used in spoken Chinese, and you’ll want to start experimenting with it later when you have “S-V-O” under your belt. (You can find out more with our detailed article here on how to use the topic-comment structure)

Chinese Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Mandarin Chinese are fairly simple to master.

They don’t change form according to whether they are the subject (performer of the action, e.g. “I”) or object (undergoer of the action, e.g. “me”).

Here’s the list.

我	wǒ	I	me
你	nǐ	you	you
他	tā	he	him
她	tā	she	her
它	tā	it	it

There’s just one issue:

While “he”, “she”, “it” (or “him”, “her”, “it”) are represented by different characters, they are pronounced in exactly the same way, hence, they are written the same in Pinyin (Mandarin romanization). You will need to rely on the context to figure out whether someone is referring to the male “tā” or female “tā” during a conversation, or if you are reading Chinese through Pinyin.

(An interesting consequence is that native Chinese speakers, when learning English, often mistakenly use “he” instead of “she” or vice versa, simply because they’ve never had to think about the phonetic difference before.)

The plural pronouns in Chinese are formed with the simple addition of 们 (men) to the singular forms.

我们	wǒmen	we	us
你们	nǐmen	you (plural)	you (plural)
他们	tāmen	they	them
她们	tāmen	they (all female)	them
它们	tāmen	they (non-human)	them

Expressing Possession in Chinese

Expressing possession (the state of owning something) can’t be easier in Mandarin Chinese.

All you have to do is stick the particle 的 (de) on the end of the “owner”, before the “thing” that’s owned.

Let me guess, you are wondering what a “particle” is.

Simply put, it’s a function word that doesn’t have a concrete meaning on its own, but is used together with another word, phrase, or sentence to serve a grammatical purpose.

Take 的 (de), the most common particle in Chinese, for example, you can think of it as being similar to the apostrophe ’s in English. By placing 的 (de) between two nouns, you can indicate ownership. That is, the second noun belongs to the first.

Examples:

• 国王的演讲
  guówáng de yǎnjiǎng
  the king’s speech

• 猫的尾巴
  māo de wěiba
  the cat’s tail

• 楚门的世界
  Chǔmén de shìjiè
  Truman’s world
  Yep, that’s the Chinese title for “The Truman Show (1998)”.

And it gets better…

With this versatile system, you don’t need separate words for “my”, “your”, “his” etc, all you need is to add 的 (de) to the corresponding personal pronoun.

• 我的名字
  wǒ de míngzì
  my name

• 你的歌
  nǐ de gē
  your song

• 他们的房子
  tāmen de fángzi
  their house

Yep, it’s that easy.

Nouns, Genders, Plurals in Chinese

If you’ve ever learned Spanish, French, German, or just about any European language except English, you just breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Mandarin Chinese has no concept of “feminine” or “masculine” words. You simply learn the word as it is, without any need for extra memorization.

• 太阳
  tàiyáng
  the sun

• 月亮
  yuèliang
  the moon

As if that’s not enough, Chinese nouns (and adjectives, too) don’t have plural forms! They always stay the same. So you don’t have to worry about forgetting to stick an “s” or “es” on the end of words, not to mention the trouble of memorizing irregular ones.

Example:

person → 人 (rén)
people → 人 (rén)

If you need to be specific, just slap a numeral or quantifier in front of the noun, like 

• 一个人
  yí gè rén
  one person

• 十个人
  shí gè rén
  ten people

• 很多人
  hěn duō rén
  many people

Easy, isn’t it?

‘A’, ‘The’ – Articles in Chinese

In case you haven’t noticed from the earlier examples, here’s another easy part of Mandarin Chinese: there are no articles at all!

You won’t have to bother about the equivalents for the English articles “a/an” and “the” when putting together a Chinese sentence. They simply don’t exist.

Why is that?

Well, if you think about it, it’s actually not that important whether you are talking about “a/an” something or “the” something. It’s usually obvious from the context which one you mean. Far easier to just do away with them completely, which is what Chinese does. 

Trust me, you can tell from the context whether something is indefinite or definite in Chinese.

‘This’, ‘That’ – Demonstratives in Chinese

Demonstratives or demonstrative pronouns are the words used to point things out (e.g. “this”, “that”, “those” in English).

The demonstratives in Mandarin Chinese are equally simple as their English counterparts.

这	zhè	this
那	nà	that
这些	zhèxiē	these
那些	nàxiē	those

Examples:

• 这人
  zhè rén
  this person

• 那人
  nà rén
  that person

• 这些人
  zhèxiē rén
  these people

• 那些人
  nàxiē rén
  those people

How to Use Adjectives in Chinese

Just as in English, descriptive words, AKA adjectives, typically come before the noun in Mandarin Chinese.

If an adjective consists of more than one syllable (character), then usually the particle 的 (de) needs to be placed between the adjective and the noun that it describes.

• 黑色的衣服
  hēisè de yīfu
  black clothes

• 很大的眼睛
  hěn dà de píngguǒ
  big eyes

• 漂亮的女孩
  piàoliang de nǚhái
  a pretty girl

Here, the particle 的 (de) does not mark actual possession, but rather attaches an attribute (a quality or feature) to the noun. In other words, it connects the description to the noun.

Take the first sentence, for example, you could think of it as literally saying “black’s clothes”, or “clothes that belong to the black category”. This is the standard way of linking adjectives to nouns in Chinese grammar.

If, however, an adjective consists of only one syllable (character), then generally you shouldn’t put 的 (de) after it.

Examples:

• 老人
  lǎo rén
  old people

• 热茶
  rè chá
  hot tea

• 美女
  měi nǚ
  beautiful woman

The words above are more like compound nouns that function as individual units. There’s no need to separate them with 的 (de). Think of “beautiful woman” as “belle” and you’ll understand what I mean.

Chinese Verb Conjugation?

Anyone who’s studied a European language might still remember going through conjugation tables in class so often until getting sick of them.

To speak one of those languages, you have to learn five or six different verb endings for the present tense alone, even to say something as simple as the word “eat”.

The technical term for the modification of verbs is inflection. English isn’t t nearly as inflective as other European languages, but we still do it to some extent.

For example, the word “eat” can inflect to “eats”, “eating”, “ate”, or “eaten” to agree with the person and tense.

Or maybe you’ve learned Japanese or Korean before, where there are virtually unlimited ways you can attach endings to a sentence, and each carries a very, very specific nuance.

Now, here is the good news.

The notion of “conjugation” doesn’t exist in Mandarin Chinese. No verb ever changes its form in any context. 

Learn the word 吃 (chī) – “eat”, and you’ll instantly know how to say “eat” in all contexts for all speakers: I 吃, you 吃, he 吃, she 吃, we 吃, you all 吃, and they 吃. 

Isn’t that great?

That’s dozens, if not hundreds of hours of work saved compared to learning almost any European language.

‘Be’ in Chinese

This is when things seemingly start to get trickier.

In Mandarin Chinese, three words correspond to the English verb “to be”: 是 (shì), 很 (hěn), and 在 (zài). There are used on different occasions.

Sounds complicated, huh?  

But don’t stop reading now, because it just takes two minutes to sort out when to use which, once and for all!

Let’s look at the three “be”s in Chinese in turn.

1. Use 是 (shì) with Nouns

是 (shì) is considered the standard “be” in Mandarin Chinese, however, it’s not used in quite the same way as in English.

The verb 是 (shì) is only ever used with a noun (or a noun phrase), as in these sentences.

• 我是学生。
  Wǒ shì xuéshēng.

• 这是我的老师。
  Zhè shì wǒ de lǎoshī.
  This is my teacher.

Essentially, the structure is equivalent to “sb/sth is (equal to) that noun” in English.

2. Use 很 (hěn) with Adjectives

Linking nouns with adjectives in Mandarin Chinese is a completely different story.

Instead of 是 (shì), you need to use 很 (hěn) between the noun and adjective.

Examples:

• 他很好。
  Tā hěn hǎo.
  He is good.

• 我很高兴。
  Wǒ hěn gāoxìng.
  I am happy.

Technically, 很 (hěn) does not mean “to be”. In fact, it’s not even a verb, but rather an adverb (a word that modifies a verb or adjective). The literal meaning of 很 (hěn) is “very”.

And yes, the above sentences can be translated as “he’s very good” and “I am very happy”, but more often 很 (hěn) is just the default connecting word to link a noun to an adjective. The literal meaning of 很 (hěn) – “very” is very weak in such cases.  

If you actually want to stress the meaning of “very” in a sentence, you could use other adverbs instead. One common choice would be 非常 (fēicháng), a stronger “very”.

• 我非常高兴。
  Wǒ fēicháng gāoxìng.
  I am very happy.

3. Use 在 (zài) with Locations

When it comes to expressing presence in a location, you need to use the third “to be” in Mandarin Chinese: 在 (zài).

Simply stick this word before the name of the place in the sentence.

Examples:

• 我在中国。
  Wǒ zài Zhōngguó.
  I am in China.

• 她在家。
  Tā zài jiā.
  She is at home.

• 老师在学校。
  Lǎoshī zài xué xiào.
  The teacher is at school.

This is similar to how we say “to be in” or “to be at” in English.

As 在 (zài) covers both the role of the verb (to be) and the preposition (in/at), it’s the only word you need to indicate your whereabouts.

‘Have’ in Chinese

To express that you own or possess something in Mandarin Chinese, simply use the verb 有 (yǒu).

It’s pretty much like saying “have” in English. You’ll get the hang of it right away!    

Examples:

• 我有时间。
  Wǒ yǒu shíjiān.
  I have time.

• 他有女朋友。
  Tā yǒu nǚ péngyou.
  He has a girlfriend.

Saying “don’t have”, however, does require a bit more attention, as the verb 有 (yǒu) is negated differently than all the other words in Chinese. We’ll get to that part in a moment.

’Want’ in Chinese

The verb 要 (yào) is a rough equivalent of “to want” in Mandarin Chinese, although it has a slightly stronger connotation than its English counterpart, implying that your mind has been made up (or almost made up).

You can think of 要 (yào) as the mixture of “want” and “will”. This word is particularly useful when you are buying something in a shop or ordering in a restaurant.

• 我要这个。
  Wǒ yào zhège.
  I’ll take this. (literally, “I want this.”)

• 我要咖啡。
  Wǒ yào kāfēi.
  I’ll have a coffee. (literally, “I want coffee.”)

Yep, as direct as that! And it doesn’t sound rude at all in Chinese. (there is no conditional verb like “would like” in Chinese anyway).

‘Go’ in Chinese

Saying “to go” in Mandarin Chinese is quite simple as there is one verb that directly translates to this English word: 去 (qù).

You can follow up 去 (qù) with the place directly. No preposition like the English “to” is needed.

Examples:

• 我去公司。
  Wǒ qù gōngsī.
  I go to the office.

• 我们去北京。
  Wǒmen qù Běijīng.
  We go to Beijing.

There is just one thing to note.

You can’t say “go home” with 去 (qù) in Chinese. Instead, you need to use a different verb: 回 (huí), meaning “go back”.

You must be wondering why.  

Well, let’s just say home is the most important place in Chinese culture, as everything springs from there. Therefore, it’s considered to be the starting point in life that one can only go back to. (as a comparison, 去 qù, is used for destinations away from where you’re at or where you’re from)

• 我回家。
  Wǒ huí jiā.
  I go (back) home.

There is no problem going to other people’s homes, though.

• 我去她的家。
  Wǒ qù tā de jiā.
  I go to her home.

‘Can’ in Chinese

You might be surprised to learn that there are three words that correspond to the English modal verb “can” in Mandarin Chinese.

But it shouldn’t be hard to figure out when to use which at the beginner level if we take a look at their differences.

1. Expressing “know how to” with 会 (huì)

The Chinese verb 会 (huì) is used to describe an ability you possess or a skill you have acquired after learning.

You can think of 会 (huì) as “know how to”.

• 我会游泳。
  Wǒ huì yóuyǒng.
  I can swim. (I know how to swim)

• 他会做中国菜.
  Wǒ huì zuò zhōngguó cài.
  He can make Chinese food. (He knows how to make Chinese food).

2. Expressing “possibility” with 能 (néng) 

The verb 能 (néng) is used to show possibility or an “ability” that’s not gained through conscious learning.  

• 我能睡一整天。
  Wǒ néng shuì yì zhěng tiān.
  I can sleep all day. (It’s possible for me)

• 苹果手机能自动更新应用。
  Píngguǒ shǒujī néng zìdòng gēngxīn yìngyòng.
  iPhone can automatically update apps. (it’s possible for iPhone)

3. Expressing “permission” or “suggestion” with 可以 (kěyǐ)

The third “can” in Chinese – 可以 (kěyǐ) is mostly associated with permission. You can think of it as “may”.

• 你可以走了。
  Nǐ kěyǐ zǒu le.
  You may go now. (You are permitted)

• 你可以进来。
  Nǐ kěyǐ jìnlái.
  You may enter. (You are permitted)

You can also use 可以 (kěyǐ) to make suggestions.

• 你可以打911。
  Nǐ kěyǐ dǎ 911.
  You can call 911. (I suggest you call 911)

• 我们可以看电影。
  Wǒmen kěyǐ kàn diànyǐng.
  We can watch a movie. (I suggest we watch a movie)

Now, I have to confess, when you get deeper into your Chinese studies, you will find the usage of 会 (huì), 能 (néng), 可以 (kěyǐ) overlap somewhat, which may complicate things a little bit.

That said, there is no need to get hung up on it if you can’t get a full picture now.  You’ll cross that bridge when you come to it.

How to Connect Verbs in Chinese

What happens if there is more than one verb in a Chinese sentence? How to use them together in one sentence?

In English, you normally need to use a preposition or conjunction such as “to” or “and” to link different verbs (or verb phrases) in a sentence.

For instance,

I want to go home.
I want to go home and sleep.

In Chinese, you can simply place one verb or verb phrase after another to describe actions in a row.

Here’s how you use multiple verbs in one sentence in Chinese.

• 我要回家。
  Wǒ yào huí jiā.
  Literally, “I want go home.”

• 我要回家睡觉。
  Wǒ yào huí jiā shuìjiào.
  Literally, “I want go home sleep.”

You see, the sequence of actions is already clear without the use of connecting words. Therefore, they are not needed in Chinese.

Tenses in Chinese?

First off, there is no so-called “tense” in Mandarin Chinese, because the verbs don’t conjugate. What it does have, is something called “aspect”. (we’ll get to that in a minute).

To indicate whether something happens in the present, past, or future, you need to stick an extra word before or after the verb, or in other positions in the sentence.

The most straightforward way to do so is to include a time word, like “yesterday”, “tomorrow”, or “an hour ago” at the beginning of the sentence.

For example,

• 今天我在家。
  Jīntiān wǒ zài jiā.
  I am at home today.
  Literally: “Today I be at home.”

• 明天我在家。
  Míngtiān wǒ zài jiā.
  I will be at home tomorrow.
  Literally: “Tomorrow I be at home.”

• 昨天我在家。
  Zuótiān wǒ zài jiā.
  I was at home yesterday.
  Literally: “Yesterday I be at home.”

• 以前他是巴西人。
  Yǐqián tā shì Bāxī rén.
  He used to be Brazilian.
  Literally: “Past, he be Brazilian.”

• 现在他是中国人。
  Xiànzài tā shì Zhōngguó rén.
  Now, he is Chinese.
  Literally, “Now, he be Chinese.”

The slightly trickier way is to add an aspect particle around the verb in the sentence to indicate the status of the action.

Unlike tense, the aspect isn’t about when an action happened, but whether or not it is completed in a timeframe. The aspect can be in the past, present, or future.  

Take the most common aspect particle in Chinese 了 (le), for example. You can use it after a verb to indicate that the action is completed.  

Without a context, it can usually be perceived as a marker of past action.  

• 我去了中国。
  Wǒ qù le Zhōngguó.
  I went to China.
  Literally: “I go le China.” or “I completed the action of going to China.”

You can include a timeframe in the sentence to be more specific.

• 去年我去了中国。
  Qùnián wǒ qù le Zhōngguó.
  I went to China last year.
  Literally “Last year, I go le China.” or “I completed the action of going to China within the last year.”

Though 了 (le) often appears in sentences about the past, it can also appear with present or future actions.

We’re not going to get into that here, because it’s quite a complex topic. But know this is a grammar point you’ll want to come back to later when you get deeper into your studies.

Negation in Chinese

We have talked about the basic sentence structure in Chinese and a bunch of verbs. But how do you say you don’t do whatever the action is in the sentence?

To make a sentence negative in Mandarin Chinese, you have to use a negation word.

And you can do it pretty easily – just add 不 (bù), the equivalent to the English “not” or “don’t” before the verb!

Examples:  

• 我不喝茶。
  Wǒ bù hē chá.
  I don’t drink tea.

• 我不去中国。
  Wǒ bú qù Zhōngguó.
  I am not going to China.

• 我不要回家。
  Wǒ bú yào huí jiā.
  I don’t want to go home.

• 我不是学生。
  Wǒ bú shì xuéshēng.
  I am not a student.
  Literally: “I not be student.”

• 我不会游泳。
  Wǒ bú huì yóuyǒng.
  I can’t swim.
  Literally: “I not can swim.”

You’ll find the pattern highly consistent.

In case you haven’t noticed, the tone of 不 (bù) varies between bù and bú in the above examples following the tone change rules, which is something you must learn to pronounce Chinese words correctly. Read this post if you are not familiar with this rule.

The use of 不 (bù) doesn’t stop there. It can negate adjectives as well.

Examples:

• 不漂亮
  bú piàoliàng
  not pretty

• 不好吃
  bù hǎochī
  not tasty

Sounds easy, right?

There is just one exception in Chinese, though.

Remember I said that the verb 有 (yǒu), meaning “have”, is negated differently than all the other words in Chinese?

That’s right! It’s the only word you can’t negate with 不 (bù) in Chinese. You would have to use another negating word, namely 没 (méi), to negate 有 (yǒu).

• 我没有时间。
  Wǒ méiyǒu shíjiān.
  I don’t have time.

• 他没有女朋友。
  Tā méiyǒu nǚ péngyou.
  He doesn’t have a girlfriend.

As you can see, 没 (méi) and 有 (yǒu) can be written without any space in the Pinyin form, as if they were just one word, because of their exclusive connection.

Expressing Command in Chinese

Expressing command or giving instructions in Mandarin Chinese can’t be easier, all you have to do is say the verb as it is in a commanding tone. (there is no verb conjugation in Chinese, remember?)

Examples:

• 坐！
  Zuò!
  Sit!

• 滚！
  Gǔn!
  Go away!

To form a negative command, simply put 不要 (búyào) before the verb.

• 不要走！
  Búyào zǒu!
  Don’t leave!

• 不要动！
  Búyào dòng!
  Don’t move!

Alternatively, you can use 别 (bié), a shorter, more colloquial version of 不要 (búyào) to initiate a negative command.

• 别走！
  Bié zǒu!
  Don’t leave!

• 别动！
  Bié dòng!
  Don’t move!

We’ve written a detailed post on forming negative commands in Chinese, read here.

‘Let’ or ‘let’s’ in Chinese

If you don’t want to sound too harsh, you can use the particle 吧 (ba) to soften your tone. It can turn a pushy command or instruction into a polite request or suggestion.

Simply add 吧 (ba) to the end of your statement.

• 我们回家吧。
  Wǒmen huí jiā ba.
  Let’s go home.
  Literally, “We go home ba.”

• 我帮你吧。
  Wǒ bāng nǐ ba.
  Let me help you.
  Literally, “I help you ba.”

Forming Questions in Chinese

Asking questions in Mandarin Chinese is easier than you thought.

There are several ways you can do it, and here are the three most common ones.

1. Yes-No Question

The easiest way to form a question in Mandarin Chinese is to make a statement and simply add the particle 吗 (ma) to the ending.

This will work for questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no”, namely, yes-no questions.

Here’s an example of a yes-no question in English.

Do you like tea?

To form a yes-no question in Chinese, think of a statement and then add 吗 (ma) to it.

Example:

吗 (ma) is the most common way to turn a statement into a question. Therefore, a yes-no question is also called a “吗 (ma) question”.

In informal situations, though, you can drop the 吗 (ma), and just raise the intonation at the end of the sentence.

• 你喜欢茶？
  Nǐ xǐhuan chá?
  You like tea?
  Raise your intonation when you say it.

2. WH Question

If you are looking for specific information instead of a simple “yes” or “no”, you can then raise a WH question.

WH questions, refer to those questions using question words like “what”, “where”, “how”, etc.

These question words also exist in Mandarin Chinese.

Take a look.

谁	shéi	who
什么	shénme	what
哪里/哪儿	nǎli/nǎr	where
什么时候	shénme shíhou	when
哪个	nǎge	which
为什么	wèi shénme	why
怎么	zěnme	how

The placement of questions words within a sentence in Chinese, however, is different from English.

In English, to convert a statement into a WH question, you need to rearrange the sentence order by putting the question word at the very beginning.

For instance,

You are Nick.
→ Who are you?

That is a durian.
→ What is that?

The word order of a Chinese WH question is to keep the word order of the statement and then change the “asked part” to the corresponding question word.

As you can see, the word order of a WH question in Chinese stays in line with the basic Chinese structure we talked about at the very beginning of this guide: S-V-O.

3. 呢 (ne) Question

Another particle frequently used to form queries in Mandarin Chinese is 呢 (ne).

The structure is easy, just say what you want to know about (the “subject”), and add a 呢 (ne) right after it. This is equivalent to saying “what about…?” or “how about…?” in English.

• 我是英国人，你呢？
  Wǒ shì Yīngguó rén, nǐ ne?
  I am British, what about you? (where are you from?)

• 我在公司，你们呢？
  Wǒ zài gōngsī, nǐmen ne?
  I am at the office, what about you guys? (where are you guys?)

呢 (ne) can also be translated as “and…?”. It’s a simple and quick way to bounce back the question that you’ve just been asked in Chinese, that is, when someone asks you a question, and you return the question to them after answering it.

There are also other ways to form questions. We’ve written a detailed post here.

‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in Chinese

Fun fact: Mandarin Chinese doesn’t have specific words that correspond directly to “yes” and “no” in English.

“That’s impossible! How can I answer a yes-no question then?”

I can almost hear you thinking…

Well, the solution is simple. When someone asks you a question, repeat the main word (verb or adjective) used in the question if your answer is “yes”.

Examples:

• 你喜欢茶吗？
  Nǐ xǐhuan chá ma?
  Do you like tea?

  喜欢。
  Xǐhuan.
  Yes. (Literally, “Like.”)

• 你高兴吗？
  Nǐ gāoxìng ma?
  Are you happy?

  高兴。
  Gāoxìng.
  Yes. (Happy.)

• 他有家庭吗？
  Tā yǒu jiātíng ma?
  Does he have a family?

• 有。
  Yǒu.
  Yes. (Have.)

If your answer is “no”, simply add the negation word 不 (bù) or 没 (méi) before the main word.

• 不喜欢。
  Bù xǐhuan.
  No. (Don’t like.)

• 不高兴。
  Bù gāoxìng.
  No. (Not happy.)

• 没有。
  Méiyǒu.
  No. (Don’t have.)

‘There is’ and ‘There are’ in Chinese

Remember the verb 有 (yǒu)? We just talked about how we can use it to express possession in Mandarin Chinese.

But that’s not all.

有 (yǒu) can also be used to describe existence.

In English, it’s usually translated as “there is” or “there are”. (If you are a Spanish speaker, you’ll find it more like the word “hay”.)

Now, to say “something exists at someplace” in Chinese, you say “the place has something”, using the classic S-V-O sentence structure.

For example,

• 厕所里有人。
  Cèsuǒ lǐ yǒu rén.
  There is someone in the restroom.
  Literally: “The restroom has someone.”

• 上海有很多外国公司。
  Shànghǎi yǒu hěn duō wàiguó gōngsī.
  There are many foreign companies in Shanghai.
  Literally, “Shanghai has many foreign companies.”

Need more examples? You can full our full guide to using 有 (yǒu) here.

Chinese Numbers

Numbers in Mandarin Chinese are super easy to learn as the system is extremely regular.

In fact, if you know how to count to ten, then it shouldn’t take you more than two minutes to learn the rest.

In case you don’t, here is how you count from 1 to 10 in Chinese.

一	yī	1
二	èr	2
三	sān	3
四	sì	4
五	wǔ	5
六	liù	6
七	qī	7
八	bā	8
九	jiǔ	9
十	shí	10

After ten, it’s just first-grade math.

11 is ten and one, hence 十一 (shí yī).
12 is ten and two, hence 十二 (shí èr).
Then there is 十三 (shí sān), 十四 (shí sì), 十五 (shí wǔ),…,十九 (shí jiǔ).

Multiple of tens are made by starting the multiple followed by 10.

For instance, 20 is literally “two ten” in Chinese – 二十 (èr shí).
30 is thus “three ten”: 三十 (sān shí), and 40 is “four ten”: 四十 (sì shí)…

You know where I’m going with this.

Now, for numbers like 25 and 36, you simply do the multiplication first, and then addition.

25 is “two ten” and five, hence, 二十五 (èr shí wǔ).
36 is “three then” and six – 三十六 (sān shí liù).

and 99?

九十九 (jiǔ shí jiǔ) it is! (“nine ten” and nine)

Easy, isn’t it?

Well, I think you’ll agree with me when I say that the simplicity of Chinese number words supports efficient calculations, and that solves the mystery of why Chinese kids are good at math, eh?

How to Use Measure Words in Chinese

In Mandarin Chinese, when you talk about quantities of any noun, you have to put a measure word, AKA counter, between the number and the noun.

The concept of “measure words” might be alien to you, but it shouldn’t be hard to comprehend. After all, there are similar words in English too.

For example, we talk about “a cup of tea”, “a piece of news”, “a slice of bread”, “a pair of shoes”, etc.

These words are used to quantify the noun. They all have counterparts in Chinese.

• 一杯水
  yì bēi shuǐ
  Literally, “one cup water” 

• 一条新闻
  yì tiáo xīnwén
  Literally, “one piece news” 

• 一片面包
  yí piàn miànbāo
  Literally, “one slice bread” 

• 一双鞋
  yì shuāng xié
  Literally, “one pair shoe” 

It doesn’t stop there.

In Chinese, the system is more developed, and measure words must be used every time numbers are used with a noun, and I mean any noun.

Different measure words are designated for different kinds of things, according to their shape, feature, or the category to which they belong.

And the rule is based on Chinese logic.

Here’s what I mean.

The measure word for snake, river, pants, tie, and news, is the same: 条 (tiáo). Can you think of why?

Well, they are all considered “long”, and 条 (tiáo) is the measure word for long things.

Now, try this out.

umbrella, spoon, pistol, sword, teapot

Any idea what they have in common?

Well, they all have handles, therefore, they should be paired with  把 (bǎ), the measure word specifically for things with handles. (You may argue that an umbrella or sword is long too, but that’s not their primary feature based on Chinese logic)

You probably see where I’m going with this.

So, how many measure words are there in Mandarin Chinese?

Well, the number can be surprising. There are more than one hundred (dozens of them are used frequently).

Don’t be intimidated by the measure word system, though. It doesn’t need much attention at the beginner stage.

This is because you can get by for quite a while by just using the most common, general-purpose measure word 个 (gè). It may not be strictly correct (works like 1/3 of the time), but you’ll be understood (though you may find native speakers gently correct you).

So, if your Chinese teacher is constantly drilling you on all kinds of measure words when you just started learning Chinese, you know something is wrong.

It’s only natural to focus on language more central to basic communication first, and come back to this grammar point later when you get deeper into your studies.

One thing you do need to take note of now, however, is that when the number “2” is used before a measure word, you must read it as 两 (liǎng) instead of 二 (èr).

For example,

• 两个人
  liǎng gè rén
  two people

• 两杯水
  liǎng bēi shuǐ
  two cups of water

This is just one of those “special cases” that you have to deal with when learning Chinese.

Saying the Date in Chinese

The dates in Mandarin Chinese are quite different from the ones in English.

To start with, the elements of the date must be named in ascending order: year + month + day, that is, 年 (nián) + 月(yuè) + 日(rì).

For example:

2021年5月10日
2021 nián 5 yuè 10 rì
May 10th, 2021

Both months and days of the month are expressed using normal cardinal numbers, i.e. 一, 二, 一 (yī), 二 (èr), 三 (sān), … , 三十一 (sān shí yī).

Examples:

• 一月
  yī yuè
  January

• 十二月
  shí èr yuè
  December

• 二日
  èr rì
  2nd (of the month)

• 二十五日
  èr shí wǔ rì
  25th (of the month)

The year, however, is said differently. You have to read each digit one at a time.

Examples:

• 2021年
  èr líng èr yī nián
  year 2021
  Literally, “two zero two one year”

• 2030年
  èr líng sān líng nián
  year 2030
  Literally, “two zero three zero year”

Now, you should be able to say “May 10th, 2021” in Chinese.

二零二一年五月十日
èr líng èr yī nián wǔ yuè shí rì

In spoken Chinese, you can also use 号 (hào), a more colloquial version of 日 (rì) to express the day.

二零二一年五月十号 
èr líng èr yī nián wǔ yuè shí hào

Day of the Week

The names for the days of the week in Mandarin Chinese are based on the word “星期 (xīngqī)”, meaning “week” and a number indicating the day.  

Monday is literally “week one”, Tuesday is “week two”, Wednesday is “week three”, etc. (In China, the first day of the week is not Sunday, but Monday, as the name indicates)

The only exception is Sunday. Instead of a number, 日 (rì) or 天 (tiān), both meaning “day” (日 rì is somewhat more formal) are used. Sunday thus becomes “week day”, literally.

星期一	xīngqīyī	Monday
星期二	xīngqī’èr	Tuesday
星期三	xīngqīsān	Wednesday
星期四	xīngqīsì	Thursday
星期五	xīngqīwǔ	Friday
星期六	xīngqīliù	Saturday
星期日/星期天	xīngqīrì/xīngqītiān	Sunday

Besides 星期 (xīngqī) “X”, there are two other ways of saying days of the week in Chinese, read here.

Telling the Time in Chinese

Telling the time in Chinese is rather simple. Just as in English, you state the hour first, and then the minute, by the corresponding cardinal number.

To “connect” the hour and minute, however, you always need to use the word 点 (diǎn), meaning “o’clock”.

• 三点二十
  sān diǎn èr shí
  3:20

• 十二点四十
  shí èr diǎn sì shí
  12: 40

You would also need the 点 (diǎn) to tell the time on the hour in Chinese, like

• 九点
  jiǔ diǎn
  9:00

China generally uses the 12-hour system. The two periods are marked 上午 (shàngwǔ), meaning “morning”, and 下午 (xiàwǔ), meaning “afternoon”.

You can think of 上午 (shàngwǔ) and下午 (xiàwǔ) as “a.m.” and “p.m.” Unlike in English, these words must be placed before the time.

• 上午九点
  shàngwǔ jiǔ diǎn
  9: 00 a.m.

• 下午三点二十
  xiàwǔ sān diǎn èr shí
  3:20 p.m.

Besides 上午 (shàngwǔ) and 下午 (xiàwǔ), Chinese speakers use words like 早上 (zǎo shàng), 中午 (zhōngwǔ), 晚上 (wǎnshàng), etc, to depict the period more accurately.

These words too should be mentioned before the time.

• 早上五点
  zǎoshàng wǔ diǎn
  5:00 a.m.
  Literally, “early morning 5:00”

• 中午十二点三十
  zhōngwǔ shí èr diǎn sān shí
  12:30 p.m
  Literally, “noon 12:30”

• 晚上十点
  wǎnshàng shí diǎn
  10:00 p.m.
  Literally, “evening 10:00”

How to Use Adverbs in Chinese

An adverb (or an adverb phrase) is a word or expression that, among other things, describes a verb within any sentence.

Adverbs crop up everywhere. Take English, for example, 

I will go to Shanghai tomorrow.
My train leaves at 7:00 p.m. 

“Tomorrow” and “at 7:00 p.m.” are adverb/adverb phrase of time, which tells you when the verb is carried out. 

We met there.
I work at home.

“There” and “at home” are adverb/adverb phrase of place. They tell you where the verb happens.

Let’s go together.
I’ll go by train.

“Together” and “train” are adverb/adverb phrase of manner. They explain how something is done.

In English, these adverbs usually go end position, though they sometimes can go in the front position for the sake of emphasis.

For example,

Today, I am going to clean the house.
Together we will succeed.
They all came.

Now, this is important.

Unlike in English, the position of adverbs in a Mandarin Chinese sentence is always fixed. They must go before the verb (the main verb of the sentence).

Under this grammar rule, the example sentences will look like this in Chinese.

I tomorrow will go to Shanghai.
My train at 7:00 p.m. leaves.
We there met.
I at home work.
Let’s together go.
I’ll by train go.

As you can see, the pattern is highly consistent in Chinese. It doesn’t matter when, where, and how the verb is carried out, the modifications have to go first.

Basic Word Order in Chinese  

So far, we’ve talked about the basic Chinese structure involving a subject, a verb, and an object (S-V-O).

Example:

• 我看书。
  Wǒ kàn shū.
  I read books.

We’ve also established the ground rule that adverbs go before the verb.

Adverb of Time

• 我晚上看书。
  Wǒ wǎnshàng kàn shū.
  I read books in the evening.
  Literally, “I evening read books.”

Adverb of Place

• 我在家看书。
  Wǒ zài jiā kàn shū.
  I read books at home.
  Literally: “I at home read books.”

Adverb of Manner

• 我一个人看书。
  Wǒ yí gè rén kàn shū.
  I read books alone.
  Literally: “I alone read books.”

But what happens if we need to use more than one adverb in a sentence, like “I read books alone at home.” or “I read books in the evening at home”?

Unlike in English, where you can put them all over the place depending on the situation, in Chinese, the word order of adverbs is highly strict.

You have to do it in the following sequence: Time, manner, place.

Needless to say, all the adverbs must go before the verb.

Let’s take a look at the example:

我晚上一个人在家看书。
Wǒ wǎnshàng yí gè rén zài jiā kàn shū.
Literally: “I evening alone at home read books”.

You can also put the adverb of time at the very beginning of the sentence.

晚上我一个人在家看书。
Wǎnshàng wǒ yí gè rén zài jiā kàn shū.
Literally: “Evening I alone at home read books”.

Yep, it sounds a bit weird in English, but that’s the word order rule you have to comply with when you are putting together a sentence in Chinese.

‘And’ in Chinese

In English, we often use “and” to connect phrases and sentences.

For example:

I will try and do what you say.
Keep trying and you will succeed.

It can be tempting to use “and” in the same way when you put together a Chinese sentence, but usually, that’s wrong.

The Chinese conjunction “和 (hé)”, which can be translated as “and”, is much less versatile.

It can only be used to connect nouns.

For Example,

• 我喝咖啡和茶。
  Wǒ hē kāfēi hé chá.
  I drink coffee and tea.

You CAN’T use 和 (hé) to connect adjectives/adjective phrases in Chinese.

• × 她很聪明和很漂亮。
  Tā hěn cōngmíng hé hěn piàoliàng.
  Wrong way of saying “She is smart and pretty”.

Nor can you use 和 (hé) to connect verbs/verb phrases.

• × 我喝了一杯茶和吃了一个蛋糕。
  Wǒ hē le yì bēi chá hé chī le yí gè dàngāo.
  Wrong way of saying “I drank a cup of tea and ate a cake”.

And it certainly CAN’T be used to connect clauses or sentences.

• × 继续努力和你会成功。
  Jìxù nǔlì hé nǐ huì chénggōng.
  Wrong way of saying “Keep trying and you will succeed.” 

So, what’s the correct way to connect words (other than nouns), phrases, and sentences in Mandarin Chinese?

Here are some simple solutions.

1. Use a comma

Drop the 和 (hé) and use a comma instead, or make a pause when you are speaking.

• 她很聪明, 很漂亮。
  Tā hěn cōngmíng, hěn piàoliàng.
  Literally: “She is smart, (is) pretty.”

• 我喝了一杯茶, 吃了一个蛋糕。
  Wǒ hē le yì bēi chá, chī le yí gè dàngāo.
  Literally: “I drank a cup of tea, ate a cake.”

• 继续努力，你会成功。
  Jìxù nǔlì, nǐ huì chénggōng.
  Literally, “Keep trying, you will succeed.” 

It’s almost like two short sentences packed into one without any conjunction, but it works in Chinese, most of the time.

2. Use Other Connecting Words

If you just feel too weird to build two sentences with no conjunction, then try some other connecting words.

For instance, the adverb 还 (hái) can be a good word to connect phrases in the sense of “also”.

• 她很聪明, 还很漂亮。
  Tā hěn cōngmíng, hái hěn piàoliàng.
  Literally: “She is smart, also (is) pretty.”

• 我喝了一杯茶, 还吃了一个蛋糕。
  Wǒ hē le yì bēi chá, hái chī le yí gè dàngāo.
  Literally: “I drank a cup of tea, also ate a cake.”

3. Use Fixed Grammar Patterns

If you’ve already taken a couple of Chinese lessons, you might’ve heard of the expression 太好了(tài hǎo le), which means “Great!” or “Awesome!”.  

The literal meaning of 太好了 (tài hǎo le) is, however, “too good”. The expression is formed by two parts: the adjective 好 (hǎo), which can be replaced by whatever adjectives you want, and the word combination “太…了 (tài…le)” meaning “too…”.

This type of word combination is called a fixed grammar pattern in Chinese because…it’s fixed.

Now, there are a dozen fixed grammar patterns like “太…了 (tài…le)” that you can use in Chinese to make yourself sound more native and natural.

For instance, you can use 又 (yòu)…又 (yòu)… to attribute two qualities to a person.

• 她又聪明又漂亮。
  Tā yòu cōngmíng yòu piàoliàng.
  She’s both smart and pretty.

And you can use 只要 (zhǐyào)…就 (jiù)… to express “as long as”.

• 只要继续努力，你就会成功。
  Zhǐyào jìxù nǔ lì, nǐ jiù huì chénggōng.
  As long as you keep trying, you will succeed.

Your Next Step – Master Chinese Grammar

Congratulations! You’ve now known all the Chinese grammar needed as a beginner!

Having an understanding of these basic grammar rules will give you a good head start on learning Chinese. But it doesn’t mean you must spend heaps of time studying every single one of them to understand and form the language.

It’s also crucial that you get out there and make contact with the real language. Relate the grammar patterns we talked about here to things you already know and understand. Relate them to conversations you’ve had, certain moods, or various situations, and then go out and use them.

Grammar patterns will emerge naturally in conversation, and you’ll pick it up just as naturally if you force yourself to communicate and attempt to be understood. Challenge yourself to use new patterns, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Ask for feedback, and if you don’t understand something, be sure to ask for help.

Be creative, be fearless, and above all, use the language!

Grammar 1: This and That in Chinese · HSK 1

zhè 这 this | nà 那 that

When introducing someone or something, we can use 这 and 那 to refer to them. Here are some example sentences of using 这 and 那 to express this and that in Chinese:

• zhè shì yí wèi xiānsheng 
  这是一位先生
  this is a gentleman
• nàshì yí wèi xiǎojiě 
  那是一位小姐
  that is a young lady

Grammar 2: Measure Word 位 in Chinese · HSK 3

wèi 位 a polite Measure Word for people

We’ve already learned that 个 is the general Measure Word in Chinese. But sometimes if you want to be polite and respectful, we use Measure Word 位 to address people. For example:

PINYIN	CHINESE	ENGLISH
yíwèi lǎoshī	一 ① 位老师	one teacher
yíwèi Zhōngguórén	一位中国人	one Chinese person
yíwèi xiānsheng	一位先生	one gentleman
yíwèi xiǎojiě	一位小姐	one young lady

NOTES:
① The number word 一 can be pronounced in three different ways: yī, yí and yì because of its tone change rule.

However, we do not use 位 for our own family members. For example, to say «I have two big brothers», here’s what we say and what we don’t say:

• wǒ yǒu liǎngge gēge
  我有两个哥哥。
• wǒ yǒu liǎngwèi gēge
  我有两位哥哥。

But it is okay to introduce our own family members with 位, for example (See Grammar 2 of Lesson 18.1):

• zhèwèi shì wǒde bàba
  这位是我的爸爸。
  this is my dad

Grammar 3: Mr. and Miss in Chinese· HSK 1

In English when addressing Mr. Li or Miss Wang., the last name goes after Mr. or Miss, but in Chinese, the last name goes before the word 先生 or 小姐, like this:

Last Name + 先生 / 小姐

For example:

• Lǐ Xiānsheng
  李先生
  Mr. Li
• Wáng Xiǎojiě
  王小姐
  Miss Wang