| Whilst it’s important to learn grammar in detail in small chunks, it can be very useful to get familiar with some general Chinese grammar rules. These aren’t specific grammatical structures, but general facts about the Chinese language that apply in most cases. They can help you get a feel for Mandarin Chinese and how it works. Chinese grammar rule #1: What precedes modifies what follows This rule sounds a little bit complicated when you first see it, but it’s actually quite straightforward. It simply means that modifiers come before the thing they modify. The Chinese language, right through from the written classical language to the modern spoken vernacular, has always had this rule. Let’s look at some simple examples to demonstrate this rule. 他不喜欢 贵的 东西。 Tā bù xǐhuan guì de dōngxi. He doesn't like expensive things. 我哥哥 慢慢地 开车。 Wǒ gēgē mànmande kāichē. My brother drives slowly . 她能喝 很多 啤酒。 Tā néng hē hěnduō píjiǔ. She can drink a lot of beer. As you can see in each of the Chinese sentences, the modifier (colored red) comes before the thing it modifies. 贵的 (expensive) comes before 东西 (things), 慢慢地 (slowly) comes before 开车 (drive) and 很多 (a lot of) comes before 啤酒 (beer). Notice how the position of the modifier varies in the English sentences. Knowing about this ‘modifiers first’ rule in Chinese grammar can be very helpful in the early stages of your Chinese studies. It lets you follow the structure of sentences more quickly because you can identify modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) and the things they’re modifying (nouns and verbs) more easily. It also lets you form sentences with more confidence because you know that adjectives should be placed before the nouns they modify, and adverbs should be placed before the verbs they modify. Rule #2: Words do not change Unlike in European languages, words in Chinese do not change. They have a fixed form that is the same no matter what they’re used for or where the appear in a sentence. In Chinese, you don’t conjugate verbs and you don’t make adjectives agree. According to Chinese grammar rules, a word is a word. Have a look at these examples that illustrate this point: 她去工作。 Tā qù gōngzuò. She goes to work. 我去工作。 Wǒ qù gōngzuò. I go to work. 他们去工作。 Tāmen qù gōngzuò. They go to work. 我们去工作。 Wǒmen qù gōngzuò. We go to work. These simple sentences show that verbs do not change in Chinese, whereas they do in English. The verb 去 (qù) is the same in every sentence and doesn’t change. These sentences would be even more varied in a language like French, but in Chinese the verb is the same every time. It’s not just verbs that never change according to Chinese grammar rules. Adjectives are also fixed in their form and are the same no matter what noun they modify. Let’s see some examples: 这是一辆 黑色的 车。 Zhè shì yī liàng hēisède jū. This is a black car. 我看到了一些 黑色的 猫。 Wǒ kàn dàole yīxiē hēisède māo. I saw some black cats. 这是一件 黑色的 衬衫。 Zhè shì yī jiàn hēisède chènshān. This is a black shirt. The adjective in these sentences, 黑色的 (hēisède) , is the same for each of the items. There is no gender or grammatical number in Chinese grammar rules. Rule #3: Chinese is topic-prominent This is a rule that English-speakers often find hard to get used to. Chinese is topic prominent. This means that it puts the thing the sentence is about first. English is subject prominent, which means that it puts the doer of an action (the subject) in a sentence first. If you haven’t studied grammar before, you might not be familiar with these terms. The subject in a sentence is the thing that performs the action of the verb. The subject of the following sentences is colored red: He likes cheese. You are awesome. New York is exciting. We eat rice. |
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