 Here are 5 really simple sentence structures to get you started : 1. Subject + Verb: “nĭ chī” “Nĭ” means “you” and “chī” means “to eat .” So this means “you eat.” 2. Subject + Verb + Object: “nĭ chī fàn” nĭ means “you” and “chī” means to eat and “fàn” means “food” or “rice.” So this means “you eat food.” Or “you are eating.” But if the tense of eat/chī isn’t clear, then how do Chinese people communicate? The answer is that it’s implied from the context. If they want to be clearer, they provide more details like in the next example. 3. Subject + Time + Verb + Object: “nĭ jīn tiān chī fàn” “jīn tiān” means “today,” so this means “today you eat rice/food.” If the person wants to clarify the tense, instead of changing the verb “chī” which means “to eat,” they add the time after the noun. This is what I meant when I said there are no tenses or conjugation. The verb “chī” has a timeless quality about it, sort of like an element in chemistry. 4. Subject + Verb + Object + ma: “nĭ jīn tiān chī fàn ma” Adding “ma” at the end converts a sentence into a question. So this means “today do you eat rice?” You can use this for any question that has a yes/no answer. (So you wouldn’t be able to use it for something like “what do you think of this food?”) Isn’t this much simpler than English? How would you go about explaining to an English learner how they can ask a question? 5. Subject + Time + Verb: “nĭ jīn tiān chī” This means “you eat today.” We’ve removed the word “fan”, which is implied. Chinese people love to be concise, so if they can communicate the same thing with less they say less. |
| FOLLOW US： |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |