Some people argue that the Chinese language somehow has no grammar. Well, of course that is not true. In this article, we’ll dive into 5 myths about Chinese grammar. This is part two. 3. Chinese Has No Noun Genders In many languages, like Spanish, French, and German, nouns have genders. This means that words can be masculine, feminine, or neuter, and this gender affects other words in a sentence, like adjectives and articles. For example, in French, the word for “book” is masculine (“le livre”), while the word for “table” is feminine (“la table”). However, in Chinese, nouns do not have genders. In other words, every Chinese noun is gender-neutral. This simplicity means you don’t have to remember whether a noun is masculine or feminine or adjust other words in the sentence to match the noun’s gender. 4. Chinese Has No Articles Before Nouns In many languages, articles are small words placed before nouns to tell us if the noun is general (any) or specific. In English, for example, we have “a” and “an” for general nouns and “the” for specific nouns. However, in Chinese, this concept doesn’t exist in the same way. There are no articles like “a,” “an,” or “the” to put before nouns. This means when you talk about a noun in Chinese, the language relies more on context to show whether something is general or specific. For instance, to express the idea of “a book” in Chinese, you simply say 书 (shū; book). If you want to specify “the book on the table,” you would say 桌子上的书 (zhuōzi shàng de shū), literally “table on of book.” Here, 的 (de), is used to link nouns and show a relationship, similar to “of” in English, indicating the book that belongs to or is located on the table. 5. Chinese Has No Passive Voice In English, we distinguish between active and passive voice to shift the focus from the doer of the action to the receiver of the action. While it’s a common belief that the Chinese language lacks a passive voice, this isn’t entirely accurate. Chinese uses grammatical markers to achieve a similar effect, specifically with the use of 被 (bèi) and 把 (bǎ). 被 (bèi) for passive constructions: The marker 被 (bèi) is used to construct sentences highlighting the action’s receiver, much like the passive voice in English. For example: 鱼被猫吃了 (yú bèi māo chī-le), literally “fish by cat eaten.” 把 (bǎ) in Chinese sentences: While 把 (bǎ) doesn’t create a passive voice in the same way as 被 (bèi), it’s another tool that alters the typical subject-verb-object (SVO) order, allowing the speaker to emphasize the object being acted upon. Thus, saying Chinese has no passive voice is a simplification; it’s more accurate to note that Chinese uses grammatical markers, like 被 (bèi) and 把 (bǎ), to convey similar meanings without directly mirroring the English passive voice. |
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