Word order in chinese sentence

Also known as: sentence order, 语序 (yǔxù) and 词序 (cíxù).

You may have heard that word order in Chinese is very similar to that of English, and compared to a language like Japanese, it is. Fairly quickly, though, you’ll start to realize that there are quite a few ways that the word order of even relatively simple sentences simply don’t match in Chinese and English. The honeymoon is over; you’re going to have to work just a little bit to master Chinese word order.

The Basic SVO Sentence

On this level, Chinese word order very closely matches English word order. «SVO» stands for «Subject-Verb-Object» ^[1]. For extremely simple sentences like «I love you» or «he eats glass,» the word order of Chinese matches that of English, literally, word for word. Keep in mind that «SVO» doesn’t include little details like articles (a, the, etc.) or prepositions (to, for, etc.).

Subject + Verb + Object

This concept shouldn’t take long at all to master, but you can see more examples in our basic sentence order article. For the most part, this word order makes sense «by default» for English speakers.

Also see our A1 article on basic sentence order.

More details can be added to the basic sentence structure. How to do this is demonstrated below.

Placement of time words in a sentence

Time words, the WHEN part of a sentence, have a special place in Chinese. They usually come at the beginning of a sentence, right after the subject. Occasionally you’ll see them before the subject, but the place you won’t be seeing them is at the end of the sentence (where they frequently appear in English).

Placement of place words in a sentence

When you want to tell WHERE something happened in Chinese (at school, at work, in Vegas, on the bus, etc.), you’re most often going to use a phrase beginning with 在. This phrase needs to come after the time word (see above) and before the verb. Pay attention to this last part: before the verb. In English, this information naturally comes after the verb, so it’s going to be difficult at first to get used to saying WHERE something happened before saying the verb.

For some common exceptions to this word order, please see the following section.

Exceptions to the normal placement of place words

There are some special verbs which seem to be allowed to break the rules (see also location complements). For these special verbs, the WHERE information comes after the verb rather than before. It’s important to remember that these verbs are exceptions. If you’re not sure where the place phrase should go, it’s usually safer to put it before the verb. This is the normal way to modify a verb in Chinese.

Placement of duration in a sentence

Whenever you talk about FOR HOW LONG, you’re getting into duration. It’s not the same as a regular time word; it has its own rules.

Placement of manner in a sentence

Manner refers to HOW you do something, as in quietly, quickly, angrily, drunkenly, etc. This can be done adverbially (before the verb), but it’s worth remembering that a complement works very well too.

It is worth noting that «manner» is not something you’ll want to add to every sentence. You will see it, but it’s not the most common way to add more detail to a verb.

Placement of instrument in a sentence

OK, now we’re getting a little out there. Rarely are you going to want to cram so much information into a simple sentence, but for the sake of argument, we’re going to give it a go. This is the USING WHAT part of a sentence — called the instrument. In English, this is often placed at the end of the sentence and preceded by ‘with’. In Chinese, it comes before the verb and is preceded by 用.

Placement of target in a sentence

Target is about who or what the verb is aimed at. This includes doing things for or on behalf of someone, or towards people or objects.

Placement of 也 in a sentence

也 behaves like other adverbs, but if the sentence also contains 很, 都 or 不, 也 should appear before them.

Before 很:

Before 都:

Before 不 and 没:

Mnemonic Trick

One way to remember the word order in Chinese is the order in which things have to happen. For example, time has to pass before you can be at a place, so that goes first. You have to be at a place before you can do anything there, so the location comes before the verb. You need the instrument before you can use it, so that comes before the verb as well. Adverbs and complements are a little more difficult, but since they have to do with the verb itself, they go around the verb, either before or after it, depending on their role. Hopefully this little trick helps you remember the order of words in Chinese, but remember, practicing with Chinese speakers and hearing them make these sentences is a great tool to use as well.

Using question words in a Chinese sentence

You can insert question words (often called wh-words in English) into the structures above to form questions. Forming questions in Chinese is more straightforward than in English. In English you have to move the question word to the front of the sentence, whereas in Chinese it stays put in the sentence. All you have to do is replace the element you’d like to ask about with an appropriate question word.

Order of attributives

Sometimes, a noun will have more than one detail that you want to express. When this is the case, Chinese has a specific order for the attributives that describe the noun. It’s important to keep this order in mind as you are describing something.

Order:
1) Possessives such as «my,» «his,» or «Sarah’s.»
2) Demonstrative pronouns (这/那), number, and measure word.
3) Any adjectives that you want to use to describe the noun.
4) The noun or noun phrase

Remember, it isn’t necessary to include every single one of these attributes, but when they are all present , this is the order that they should come in. If some are missing, just jump over that section and move onto the next. The examples below will help make this clearer.

Examples

See Also

• Sentence Patterns
• Placement of question words

References

Sources and further reading

Books

• A Practical Chinese Grammar For Foreigners (外国人实用汉语语法) (pp. 228 — 329) →buy
• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 19 — 23) →buy
• Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 90) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 102) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 2 (pp. 89-90, 318-21) →buy
• Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 17 — 22) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (pp. 10, 123) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (pp. 142 — 143) →buy
• Structures of Mandarin Chinese for speakers of English 中文语法快易通：句型结构 (pp. 1 — 27) →buy
• 40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (基础汉语40课下册） (p. 488)→buy (Order of Attributives)
• 40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (基础汉语40课上册） (pp. 62, 110-1)→buy

Videos

• Yoyo Chinese: Chinese Word Order 001
• Yoyo Chinese: Chinese Word Order 002
• Yoyo Chinese: Chinese Word Order 003

Websites

• Wikipedia: Chinese grammar

Many Chinese learners struggle with Chinese word order & sentence structure. The difficulty comes from being used to word order & sentence structure in your mother tongue, and then replacing each word for each as LEGO blocks. That is not the right way. The Chinese language has a different word order & sentence structure than for instance English.

Read our guide written by Vivian老师.

Sentence structure mistakes come in many shapes

When Chinese beginners start learning the Mandarin Chinese language, they will make a variety of errors for different reasons. Maybe some of these seem unrelated to sentence structure to you, but they are.

1: Lexical differences

Chinese beginners are not familiar with the language rules of Chinese and often resort to translating and swapping words, but often ignore the differences between Chinese and native language parts of speech, so they are prone to some grammatical structure errors.

For example:

• English: “I’m going to meet Vivian at Goeast tomorrow.”
• In Chinese but wrong: “明天我要见面Vivian在GoEast。”

But the correct word order in Chinese is:

• 明天我要和Vivian在GoEast见面。

Although the word “见面” is translated into “meet” in English, in Chinese, because “见面” is not a transitive verb, we don’t say “见面 someone” but “跟/和+someone+见面”.

2: Wrong choice of words

For example:

• English: When running, I like to wear a hat.
• In Chinese but wrong: 跑步的时候，我喜欢穿帽子。

Correct sentence:

• 跑步的时候，我喜欢戴帽子。

In Chinese, “wear” in English can be words such as “穿” and “戴”, but because of the different objects, we choose different verbs, which will cause some trouble to Chinese beginners.

3: Word omission

For example:

• In English: “I have a cup”
• In Chinese but wrong: “我有一杯子。”

Correct sentence:

• 我有一个杯子。

Quantifier in Chinese is a special part of speech, and numeral phrases are often the parts of the language that second language learners have not touched before, so they are often forgotten, resulting in the loss of sentence elements.

4: Word order error

For example:

• In English: “If you are sick, you should drink more hot water.”
• In Chinese but wrong: 你生病了，要喝多热水。

The correct sentence structure in Chinese is:

• 你生病了，要多喝热水。

The reason for this error is that Chinese beginners, whose mother tongue is English, say “drink more water” as “喝多热水” in English order, ignoring the differences in Chinese word order.

5: Sentence pattern errors

For example:

• In English: She is beautiful
• In Chinese but wrong: “她是漂亮。”

The correct sentence in Chinese is:

• “她很漂亮。”

Because students have learned “我是XX” before, they will derive the usage of “是” and apply it to all places of “is/am/are”, causing errors.

These are some errors that Chinese beginners may often make. So what is the word order of Chinese? How can we master Chinese word order better? Let’s take a look next.

Basic Chinese word order pattern

Mandarin Chinese is classified as an SVO (subject + verb + object) language. This is a very common word order found in many languages such as English.

For example:

• 我是Ellie。(I’m Ellie.)
• 他很帅。(He is handsome.)
• 我们学汉语。(We learn Chinese.)

On the basis of basic sentence patterns, we will learn some complex sentence structures and use them to express more meanings with the deepening of our study.

For example:

• Yesterday, Victoria and her friends went to eat Chinese food in a restaurant.
• 昨天Victoria和她的朋友们在饭店吃了中国菜。

In order to express the meaning of the sentence more accurately, we need to use some words such as place and time. But if we can analyze it carefully, we can see that the basic structure of a sentence is still SVO (subject + Verb + object), even if a lot of sentence elements are added.

It is not difficult for us to see that even if we need to express complex sentences, the Chinese syntactic structure itself has its own logical structure. So let’s analyze this from the perspective of pragmatics?

The logic behind Chinese word order

The characteristics of the syntactic structure are often inseparable from pragmatics. Discourse is a kind of meaningful sentence formed by people according to the different information of topic and topic focus.

Due to the lack of morphological changes in the strict sense of Chinese, Chinese relies on word order and function words to express sentence meaning, so word order has become an important way to express dependency. According to different topics and focus information, people will choose the corresponding syntactic structure to express key information.

For example, under the topic of “辣spicy food”, we often hear three phrases:

• “不怕辣 Bùpà là”
• “辣不怕 Là bùpà”
• “怕不辣 Pà bù là”

Because of the different word order of “不（no）”, “怕（afraid）” and “辣（spicy）”, the sentence structure is different. They are respectively composed of verb-object structure, subject-predicate structure, and verb-object structure. According to the principle of semantic proximity, with the change of word order, the focus information also changes greatly, which leads to the change of the semantic direction of “不”, which leads to the change of sentence semantics.

• “不怕辣” puts “不” in front of “怕”, which forms a negative meaning to “怕”. The focus information of a sentence is “不怕”, but it is a passive state to accept all the things it bears.
• “辣” in “辣不怕” is placed in front of the sentence information, emphasizing that you can eat spicily. Here, because of the preposition of topic focus information, “辣” has the meaning of taking the initiative to bear, indicating that you can eat spicily and not afraid.
• “不” in “怕不辣” is placed in front of “辣”, which forms a strong semantic relationship with “辣”. “怕” is placed in the focus of the topic and reminds the speaker to say “be afraid” first, but “not spicy” acts as the result of “be afraid”, so it has the deepest semantic degree and expresses that they are very strong in eating spicy food.

From the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the choice of Chinese word order is closely related to the focus  of the information it contains. Then what are the rules of Chinese sentence structure? How can we better grasp the word order of Chinese?

Tricks for beginners to memorize word order

In order to facilitate you to better remember the regular patterns of Chinese expression, we can summarize some regular Chinese word order patterns.

1: Chinese verbs do not change with a person, number, tense, and so on

For example:

• 我是汉语老师。（I am a Chinese teacher.）
• 你是汉语老师。（You are a Chinese teacher.）
• Andie 是汉语老师。（Andie is a Chinese teacher.）
• 我们是汉语老师。（We are Chinese teachers.）

No matter how the person, singular, and plural change, the verb “是” will not change (unlike in English).

2: No matter in time or place, the order of Chinese is from big to small

For example:

• 他明年八月去英国。（He will go to England next August.）
• GoEast 在上海市杨浦区政民路。（Goeast is on Zhengmin Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai.）

Because of the function of modification and restriction, the attribute is before the subject and object, the adverbial is before the predicate, and the complement is after the predicate.

For example:

• 他喜欢漂亮的女人。（He likes beautiful women.）
• Allen上个星期旅游了。（Allen traveled last week.）
• 她们写完报告了。（They’ve finished the report.）

3: In Chinese, time words are placed before and after the subject or at the beginning of the sentence

For example:

• 我下个月要参加汉语考试。（I will take the Chinese test next month.）
• 明年我们可以去中国旅游。（We can travel to China next year.）

4: If there are more than one adverbial in a sentence at the same time, the order of the sentence is: time + place + scope/negation + verb

For example:

• 我运动，（I do sports.）
• 我昨天运动了。（I took exercise yesterday.）
• 我昨天在学校运动了。（I played sports at school yesterday.）
• 我昨天在学校跟同学一起运动了。（I played sports with my classmates at school yesterday.）

In addition to adverbials, there are also many attributives in Chinese. We usually describe them according to the structure of “scope + quantity + verb phrase + adjective phrase + noun phrase + head”

For example:

• 她是老师。（She is a teacher.）
• 她是女老师。（She is a female teacher.）
• 她是汉语女老师。（She is female teacher of Chinese.）
• 她是漂亮的汉语女老师。（She is a beautiful Chinese teacher.）
• 她是有丰富教学经验的漂亮的汉语女老师。（She is a beautiful Chinese teacher with rich teaching experience.）
• 她是一个有十年教学经验的漂亮的汉语女老师。（She is a beautiful Chinese teacher with ten years of teaching experience.）
• 她是GoEast里一个有十年教学经验的漂亮的汉语女老师。（She is a beautiful Chinese teacher with ten years of teaching experience at GoEast.）

5: The position of time quantity complement is placed after the verb

For example:

• 我们昨天唱了八个小时歌。（We sang for eight hours yesterday.）

---

For beginners Chinese language students, to really learn Chinese, the most important thing is not always to ask “why”, but to master the general rules of Chinese word order, listen more and practice more, in order to cultivate their own sense of Chinese. I hope today’s Chinese word order analysis can help you in your Chinese learning!

More tips? Scroll our Chinese language resources or check out our YouTube channel.

All the Grammar of Chinese Happens at the Phrase Level

So you’ve been learning Mandarin Chinese. And you’ve come to the conclusion that, wow, this language is so easy! Nouns never change gender, there are no plurals and no declensions. Verbs never change conjugation or tense, and I just add the same handful of particles to change the meaning of all verbs.

But why then when you speak to Chinese people they give you the strangest looks, as if you’re speaking an alien language? You’re pretty sure you got your pronunciation and tones right, but they still have no idea what you want to say?

Mandarin Chinese is easy — up to a limit. Since Chinese has very little that changes at the word level, like European languages, it makes syntax that much more important. In other words, all the grammar of Chinese happens at the phrase level!

The reason why you’re getting strange looks is probably because you’re putting Chinese words in the wrong order. Not only that but sometimes English (along with other European languages) require a lot more words to describe what can be said with very few syllables in Mandarin Chinese. Always try to deconstruct what you want to say into the fundamental units, then reconstruct these into a Chinese way of saying them.

How Adding Different Elements Affects Word Order

Mandarin Chinese is classified as an SVO (subject + verb + object) language. This is a very common word order found in many languages such as English and the Romance languages. Because of this, you might think word order rules are similar in Chinese and English. That’s correct to some extent, however, when you start adding elements such as time, place, and manner words into the sentences, the order of Chinese words can change drastically.

General Rule 1: in a series of items, always state the largest item or container first: year > month > day, country > region > town. English tends to do the opposite.

General Rule 2: always think of time as progressing vertically from top to bottom: last month (up/上), next month (down/下). English tends to think of time as progressing horizontally or forward.

1. Placement of Time (Subject + Time Word + Verb + Object): In Chinese, time words are placed at the beginning of a sentence, before or right after the subject. NEVER put them at the end of a sentence.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
我一月去夏威夷。	wǒ yíyuè qù xiàwēiyí.	I January go Hawaii.	I went to Hawaii in January.
一月我去夏威夷。	yíyuè wǒ qù xiàwēiyí.	January I go Hawaii.	In January, I went to Hawaii.

Alternatively:

我	一月	去	夏威夷。
wǒ	yíyuè	qù	xiàwēiyí.
I	January	go	Hawaii
I went to Hawaii in January

一月	我	去	夏威夷。
yíyuè	wǒ	qù	xiàwēiyí.
January	I	go	Hawaii
In January, I went to Hawaii.

1. Placement of duration phrases (Subject + Place Word + Verb + Duration Phrase): Three years, a month , or four hours are not time words but phrases that indicate duration. When you are talking about duration, it has its own word order rules. The phrase is complementary to what has just been stated.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
她在美國住了八年。 她在美国住了八年。	tā zài měiguó zhùle bā nián.	She LOC U.S. live-[already] eight years.	She has lived in the U.S. for eight years.

Alternatively:

她	在美國	住了	八年。
她	在美国	住了	八年。
tā	zài měiguó	zhùle	bā nián.
She	LOC U.S.	live-[already]	eight years.
She has lived in the U.S. for eight years.

1. Placement of Location (Subject + Time + Location + Verb) : Usually, Location is placed between Time and the verb. Note: this requires a good deal of practice to get used to it.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translate	English
我昨天在家看電視。 我昨天在家看电视。	wǒ zuótiān zài jiā kàn diànshì.	I yesterday LOC home watch TV.	I watched TV at home yesterday.

Alternatively:

我	昨天	在家	看電視。
我	昨天	在家	看电视。
wǒ	zuótiān	zài jiā	kàn diànshì
I	yesterday	LOC home	watch TV.
I watched TV at home yesterday.

• Exceptions: Some verbs encode Location as a bound complement due to the meaning of the verb. What these verbs share in common is that they are single syllable verbs: 留 (stay +Loc), 放 (put +Loc), 住 (live +Loc), 裝 (pack +Loc), 關 (be enclosed +Loc), 坐 (sit +Loc), 站 (stand +Loc), 躺 (lie +Loc). If you add a resulting complement to these verbs (下/到/著/了/過/起來/…), then you need to move the Location and Object before the verb.

• Here is an example of a single syllable verb 住 followed by the Location. At the end of this article, we’ll show you how to move things when a verb like this has a resulting complement.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
他們住在巴黎。 他们住在巴黎。	tāmén zhù zài bālí.	They live LOC Paris.	They live in Paris.

Alternatively:

他們	住	在巴黎。
他们	住	在巴黎。
tāmén	zhù	zài bālí
They	live	LOC Paris.
They live in Paris.

1. Placement of manner: Manner deals with HOW you do something, as in quickly, happily, silently, secretly, etc. It’s good to remember that “manner” is usually an adverbial (an adverb or even a whole adverb clause) and is not necessary for the core meaning of the sentence. These are optional, but they have their appropriate slot for insertion in a sentence:

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
他買到食物後開心地走了。 他买到食物后开心地走了。	tā mǎidào shíwù -hòu kāixīn de zǒule.	He buy-[achieve] food -afterwards happy-[ly] leave-[already].	He left happily after having bought food.

Alternatively:

他	買到食物	後	開心地	走了。
他	买到食物	后	开心地	走了。
tā	mǎidào shíwù	-hòu	kāixīn de	zǒule.
He	buy-[achieve] food	-afterwards	happy-[ly]	leave-[already].
He left happily after having bought food.

If you delete this adverbial, you should fill this empty slot with 就:

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
他買到食物後就走了。 他买到食物后就走了。	tā mǎidào shíwù -hòu jiù zǒule.	He buy-[achieve] food -afterwards [then] leave-[already].	He left after having bought food.

Alternatively:

他	買到食物	後	就	走了。
他	买到食物	后	就	走了。
tā	mǎidào shíwù	-hòu	jiù	zǒule.
He	buy-[achieve] food	-afterwards	[then]	leave-[already].
[-] He left after having bought food.

1. Placement of instrument: Instrument refers to USING WHAT to do something. It’s usually placed before the verb and is preceded by 用 (to use) in Chinese, whereas, in English, it’s often seen at the end of the sentence and preceded by ‘with’.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
她用刀子切菜。 她用刀子切菜。	Tā yòng dāozi qiē cài.	She INSTR knife cut veggies.	She cuts veggies with a knife. (Literally: She uses a knife to cut veggies.)

Alternative:

她	用刀子	切菜。
她	用刀子	切菜。
Tā	yòng dāozi	qiē cài.
She	INSTR knife	cut veggies.
She	uses a knife	to cut veggies.
She cuts veggies with a knife.

Mandarin Chinese isn’t the easiest language to classify when it comes to word order. As a topic-prominent language, sentences around topics are emphasized rather than subjects and objects, which can sometimes make it hard to identify the subject in a sentence. For example:

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
麵包還有很多。 面包还有很多。	miànbāo hái yǒu hěn duō.	Bread still EXIST very much.	There is still a lot of bread [left].

Alternatively:

麵包	還	有	很多。
面包	还	有	很多。
miànbāo	hái	yǒu	hěn duō.
Bread	still	EXIST	very much.
There is still a lot of bread [left].

If you directly translate from English but switch the first two words, it would be:

還	有	很多	麵包。
hái	yǒu	hěn duō	miànbāo.

which is grammatically correct, but this is not as natural as the example we gave you above.

Linguists say that sentences like «There is [something]…» has neither a subject nor object; neither doing an action nor receiving an action. Instead, the something here is called the theme of the sentence.

Common Mistakes Made By Chinese Learners

Many Chinese learners have the tendency to make mistakes with Time and Location by translating the word order from their native language. For example:

Chinese Mistake	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
*我有英文課今天下午。 *我有英文课今天下午。	wǒ yǒu yīngwén kè jīntiān xiàwǔ.	I have English class; today afternoon.	I have an English class. This afternoon…

(The * asterisk means an unacceptable sentence to native speakers)
Alternatively:

*我	有	英文課	今天下午。
*我	有	英文课	今天下午。
wǒ	yǒu	yīngwén kè	jīntiān xiàwǔ.
I	have	English class;	today afternoon.
I have an English class. This afternoon…

The example above is a common mistake made by non native Chinese speakers as they directly translate the sentence from their native language. The correct way to form this sentence should be:

Chinese Correction	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
我今天下午有英文課。 我今天下午有英文课。	wǒ jīntiān xiàwǔ yǒu yīngwén kè.	I today afternoon have English class.	I have an English class this afternoon.

Alternatively:

我	今天下午	有	英文課。
我	今天下午	有	英文课。
wǒ	jīntiān xiàwǔ	yǒu	yīngwén kè.
I	today afternoon	have	English class.
I have an English class this afternoon.

Another common mistake:

Chinese Mistake	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
*我昨天看電視在家。 *我昨天看电视在家。	wǒ zuótiān kàn-diànshì zài jiā.	I yesterday watch TV; LOC home.	I watched TV yesterday; At home…

Alternatively:

*我	昨天	看電視	在家。
*我	昨天	看电视	在家。
wǒ	zuótiān	kàn-diànshì	zài jiā.
I	yesterday	watch TV;	LOC home.
I watched TV yesterday; At home…

As you can see, the learner has put the Location after the single-syllable verb (看) which already has a complement (電視). Move the Location before the verb:

Chinese Correction	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
我昨天在家看電視。 我昨天在家看电视。	wǒ zuótiān zài jiā kàn-diànshì.	I yesterday LOC home watch TV.	I watched TV at home yesterday.

Alternatively:

我	昨天	在家	看電視。
我	昨天	在家	看电视。
wǒ	zuótiān	zài jiā	kàn-diànshì.
I	yesterday	LOC home	watch TV.
I watched TV at home yesterday.

What should I do when I’m not sure where to put the Location?
It’s always safest to put it before the verb.

Where to Put Things When Verbs Have Complements

As you may have noticed, verbs that are longer than one syllable or that have complements do not like to have other pieces of information following. This is quite similar to German word order where the first helping verb occurs early in the sentence, but everything else will then precede the rest of the participles and modal verbs.

If we start with a simple verb-object complement such as 關門 (close the door), and then add a complement to 關 (close) -起來 (up), it results in 關起來 (close up or close shut), but there is no longer a slot to put the door. If we want to still indicate door, we need to put it in front of this complex verb and indicate that the action is happening to the door with 把 (have/make/let).

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
[關門]。 [关门]。	[guānmén].	close-door	Close the door.
把門[關起來]。 把门[关起来]。	bǎ mén [guān-qǐlái].	have/make door [close-up].	Close the door shut.

Alternatively:

把門	[關起來]。
把门	[关起来]。
bǎ mén	[guān-qǐlái].
have/make door	[close-up].
Close the door shut.

Interrogative Sentences with Quantity

In Chinese, the interrogatives 幾 and 多少 represent quantity meaning «how many» and «how much». In English, question words move to the front of the sentence but no such movement occurs in Chinese. In other words, the question word remains where you would normally state the quantity in a normal (declarative) sentence. To help make the transition easier, think about substituting x-amount-of before the word money. It is obvious by this example that the English word order is the one that becomes complex.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
你有多少錢? 你有几块钱?	nǐ yǒu duō shǎo qián? nǐ yǒu jǐ kuài qián?	You have how much money? You have how many dollars?	How much money do you have? How many dollars do you have?

Alternatively:

你	有	多少	錢?
nǐ	yǒu	duō shǎo	money?
You	have	how much	money?
How much money do you have?

你	有	几块	錢?
nǐ	yǒu	jǐ kuài	qián?
You	have	how many	dollars?
How many dollars do you have?

A frequent question that we get:

Is there any difference between China and Taiwan Chinese?

There is no difference in grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation in the examples provided in this article. Pronunciation and nuances of some vocabulary will differ slightly when you encounter more of the language. We provide Chinese characters in both traditional and simplified for each example.

💡Read more: Differences Between Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese

If you intend to learn more of the language to an intermediate or advanced level, it’s important to choose one accent and stick with it, rather than mixing, which may confuse people you speak to. We provide training by native speakers in both accents on the Glossika platform.

The Glossika team, based in Taipei Taiwan, takes syntax and word order seriously. We believe that expression is unique in each language and translating sentences literally or verbatim leads to errors and miscommunication.

We provide bilingual training of sentence structures in more than 62 languages, including half a dozen Chinese languages and dialects. We analyze the syntactic-semantic relationship of each sentence at a deep level, then translate back to the surface using the most natural word choice and word order in each language. We do not encourage students to guess or translate into a target language on their own in order to minimize early bad habits. We believe that the correct structures can only be learned through enough exposure and repetitive practice (reps) from native speakers.

With the bilingual sentences, this helps the learner notice differences in the order of Chinese words and word choice. It’s possible to learn everything you need to know in sentence formation through training the thousands of sentences on Glossika. Since Glossika is an audio-based training platform, you will boost your listening and speaking in many Chinese languages faster than any other method.

Sign up on Glossika and get free Chinese audio training:

You May Also Like:

1. Where should I learn Mandarin Chinese: Taiwan or Mainland China?
2. Chinese Pronunciation: How to Practice the 4 Chinese Tones
3. Harvard Med Student gets to Crystal Clear Chinese
4. Glossika’s Chinese Instagram Account:

Subscribe to The Glossika Blog

Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox

In Chinese, sentences do not change the morphology, or form of words, to show person, tense, gender, number, or case. Instead, sentence structure is used to convey different meanings. Here is a list of basic Chinese sentence structures:

• Declarative Sentence Structures
  • Sentences with “是”
  • Sentences with “有”
  • Sentences with an adjective predicate
  • Sentences with a verbal predicate
  • Sentences with a nominal predicate
  • Sentences with serial verbs
  • Comparative Sentences with “比”
  • Sentences with a subject-predicate predicate
  • Sentences with double objects
• Question Sentence Structures
  • General Questions 吗(ma) and 呢(ne)
  • Yes-No Questions and Affirmative-Negative Questions in Chinese
  • A Summary of Wh-Questions in Chinese

Declarative Sentence Structures

1. Sentences with “是”

This sentence structure has the verb “是” (to be) as the key predicate. The negative form is “不” before “是”.

Subject + 是 + Other Elements

e.g.

他是老师。(Tā shì lǎoshī.) He is teacher.

这是我的书。(Zhè shì wǒ de shū.) This is my book.

他们不是中国人。(Tāmen bú shì Zhōnɡɡuó rén.) They are not Chinese.

Subject	Negation	是	Other Elements
他		是	老师
这		是	我的书
他们	不	是	中国人

2. Sentences with “有”

This sentence structure has the verb “有” (to have) as the key predicate. The negative form is “没” before “有”.

Subject + 有 + Other Elements

e.g.

他有书。(Tā yǒu shū.) He has books.

我们有中文课。(Wǒmen yǒu Zhōnɡwén kè.) We have Chinese class.

爸爸没有苹果。(Bàbɑ méi yǒu pínɡɡuǒ.) Dady doesn’t have apple.

Subject	Negation	有	Other Elements
他		有	书
我们		有	中文课
爸爸	没	有	苹果

3. Sentences with an adjective predicate

Chinese adjectives can be complete predicates. Adverbs like “很,” “也,” and “都” can modify these sentences. To make a negative sentence, “不” is placed before the adjective that is the predicate.

Subject + Adjective Predicate

e.g.

我忙。（Wǒ máng.）I`m busy.

我很忙。（Wǒ hěn máng.）I`m very busy.

我不忙。（Wǒ bù máng.）I`m not busy.

我们都很忙。（Wǒmen dōu hěn máng.）We are all very busy.

Subject	Predicate
	Adverb	Adjective
我		忙
我	很	忙
我	不	忙
我们	都很	忙

4. Sentences with a verbal predicate

Verbs are the main part of these sentences, and the object typically comes after the verb. To make a sentence negative, “不” or “没” is placed before the verb. But “不” and “没” are not interchangeable – certain verbs use “不,” while others use “没.”

Subject + (Adverb) + Verb + (Object)

(S-V-O)

e.g.

我爱你。（Wǒ ài nǐ.）I love you.

我们都喜欢汉语。（Wǒmen dōu xǐhuān hànyǔ.）We all like the Chinese language.

你在哪儿？（Nǐ zài nǎr?）Where are you?

我不知道。（Wǒ bù zhīdào.）I don`t know.

Subject	Verbal Predicate	Object
	Adverb	Verb
我		爱	你
我们	都	喜欢	汉语
你		在	哪儿
我	不	知道

5. Sentences with a nominal predicate

Nominal words or phrases can serve as the predicate in Chinese, but only for limited topics like time, age, date, weather, nationality, price, etc. The negative form uses “不是” before the nominal word or phrase.

Subject +Nominal Predicate

e.g.

今天三月五号。(Jīntiān sān yǜe wǔ hào.) Today is March 5th.

我八岁。(Wǒ bā sùi.) I’m eight years old.

今天晴天。(Jīntiān qíngtiān.) It’s sunny today.

他中国人。(Tā Zhōngguó rén.) He is Chinese.

昨天不是星期五。(Zuótiān bú shì xīngqī wǔ.) Yesterday wasn’t Friday.

Subject	Negation Form	Nominal Predicate
今天		三月五号
我		八岁
今天		晴天
他		中国人
昨天	不是	星期五

6. Sentences with serial verbs

These sentences have multiple verbs to indicate a sequence of actions, purposes, methods, etc. The negative form is usually “不” or “没” before the first verb.

Subject + Verb1 + (Object1) + Verb2 + (Object2)

e.g.

他打开门走进教室。(Tā dǎkāi mén zǒujìn jiàoshì.) He opens the door and enters the classroom.

他去图书馆看书。(Tā qù túshū ɡuǎn kàn shū.) He goes to the library for read.

我用筷子吃饭。(Wǒ yònɡ kuàizi chī fàn.) I eat with chopsticks.

他不去上海玩。(Tā bú qù Shànɡhǎi wán.) He won’t go to Shanghai to have fun.

我们没有时间休息。(Wǒmen méi yǒu shíjiān xiūxi.) We don’t have time to rest.

Subject	Negation	Verb1	(Object1)	Verb2	(Object2)
他		打开	门	走进	教室
他		去	图书馆	看	书
我		用	筷子	吃	饭
我	不	去	上海	玩
我们	没	有	时间	休息

7. Comparative Sentences with “比”

You can use “比” in sentences to compare degrees or states between two objects. The negative form uses “没有” without changing the basic meaning expressed by the speaker.

A + 比 + B + Adjective/Verbal Phrase

→ B + 没有 + A + Adjective/Verbal Phrase

e.g.

他比我高。(Tā bǐ wǒ ɡāo.) He is taller than me.

我没有他高。(Wǒ méi yǒu tā ɡāo.) I’m shorter than him.

我比他跑得快。(Wǒ bǐ tā pǎo de kuài.) I run faster than him.

他没有我跑得快。(Tā méi yǒu wǒ pǎo de kuài.) He runs slower than me.

A	比	B	Adjective/Verbal Phrase
他	比	我	高
我	比	他	跑得快
B	没有	A	Adjective/Verbal Phrase
我	没有	他	高
他	没有	我	跑得快

8. Sentences with a subject-predicate predicate

This sentence structure has a subject-predicate predicate. It has two related subjects.

Subject + Subject-Predicate Predicate

e.g.

他一句话也不说。(Tā yí jù huà yě bù shuō.) He doesn’t say one word.

这棵树叶子很多。(Zhè kē shù yèzi hěn duō.) There are many leaves on the tree.

他汉语很好。(Tā hànyǚ hěn hǎo.) He speaks Chinese very well.

Subject	Subject-Predicate Predicate
Subject	Predicate
他	一句话	也不说
这棵树	叶子	很多
他	汉语	很好

9. Sentences with double objects

This sentence structure has two objects, and only specific verbs like “给” (give), “问” (ask), “告诉” (tell) can be used. The negative form is “不” or “没” before the verb.

Subject + Verb + Object1 + Object2

e.g.

妈妈给我一块钱。(Māmɑ ɡěi wǒ yí kuài qián.) Mama gave me one yuan.

他问我一个问题。(Tā wèn wǒ yí ɡè wèntí.) He asks me a question.

他告诉我一件事。(Tā ɡàosu wǒ yí jiàn shì.) He tells me something.

Subject	Verb	Object1	Object2
妈妈	给	我	一块钱
他	问	我	一个问题
他	告诉	我	一件事

Question Sentence Structures

10. General Questions 吗(ma) and 呢(ne)

To form a yes-no question in Chinese, add “吗” to the end of a declarative sentence. For certain interrogative sentences, “呢” can be used at the end to indicate a question.

Sentence + 吗

Interrogative Sentence + 呢

e.g.

你是英国人吗？(Nǐ shì Yīnɡɡuó rén mɑ?) Are you British?

你有笔吗？(Nǐ yǒu bǐ mɑ?) Do you have a pen?

我叫小明，你呢？(Wǒ jiào Xiǎomínɡ, nǐ ne?) I’m Xiaoming, and you?

小明不是老师，小华呢？(Xiǎomínɡ bú shì lǎoshī, Xiǎohuá ne?) Xiaoming isn’t a teacher, how about Xiaohua?

Sentence	吗	Elliptical Interrogative Sentence	呢
你是英国人	吗	我叫小明，你	呢
你有笔	吗	小明不是老师，小华	呢

11. Yes-No Questions and Affirmative-Negative Questions in Chinese

Yes-No Questions

To form Yes-No questions in Chinese, you can use inflection when stating a declarative sentence, add “吗” at the end of a declarative sentence, or add “好吗” or “对吗” at the end of the sentence.

Sentence ? (with inflection)

Sentence + 吗？

Sentence, 好吗？/对吗?

e.g.

你是学生？(Nǐ shì xuéshenɡ?) You are a student?

这是你的杯子吗？(Zhè shì nǐ de bēizi mɑ?) Is this your cup?

我们一起去超市，好吗？(Wǒmen yìqǐ qù chāoshì, hǎo mɑ?) Let’s go to the supermarket together, is that ok?

这是你的本子，对吗？(Zhè shì nǐ de běnzi, duì mɑ?) This is your notebook, right?

Sentence	？
你是学生	？
Sentence	吗 ?
这是你的杯子	吗 ?
Sentence	好吗/对吗 ?
我们一起去超市	好吗 ？
这是你的本子	对吗 ？

Affirmative-Negative Questions

Affirmative-Negative Questions are composed of the affirmative and the negative forms of the predicate, and the responder can choose between them. In this kind of sentence, “呢” can be put after the sentence while “吗” can’t.

Subject + Predicate + (Object) + (呢）

(Affirmative Form + Negative Form)

e.g.

你是不是学生？(Nǐ shì bu shì xuéshenɡ?) Are you a student or not?

他会不会游泳呢？(Tā huì bu huì yóuyǒnɡ ne?) Does he can swim or not?

你听没听见呢？(Nǐ tīnɡ méi tīnɡ jiàn ne?) Do you hear or not?

你们有没有尺子？(Nǐmen yǒu méi yǒu chǐzi?) Do you have ruler or not?

Subject	Predicate	Object	呢
Affirmative Form	Negative Form
你	是	不是	学生
他	会	不会	游泳	呢
你	听	没听见		呢
你们	有	没有	尺子

12. A Summary of Wh-Questions in Chinese

To ask questions in Chinese using words like “who,” “when,” “where,” “what,” and “why,” you can use “谁,” “什么时候” (or “几点”), “哪,” “什么,” and “为什么.” These questions follow the same word order as declarative sentences.

Who→谁

When→什么时候/几点

Where→哪

What→什么

Why→为什么

e.g.

你是谁？(Nǐ shì shuí?) Who are you?

你什么时候回家？(Nǐ shénme shíhou huíjiā?) When will you back home?

现在几点？(Xiànzài jǐ diǎn?) What time is it?

你是哪国人？(Nǐ shì nǎ ɡuó rén?) Where are you from?

你在哪里？(Nǐ zài nǎlǐ?) Where are you?

这是什么？(Zhè shì shénme?) What’s this?

为什么不上课？(Wèi shénme bú shànɡ kè?) Why don’t you take classes?

Who	你是谁?
When	你什么时候回家?
现在几点?
Where	你是哪国人?
你在哪里?
What	这是什么?
Why	为什么不上课?