Complement Sentence in Chinese Grammar

In iChineseLearning’s online mandarin class, the usage of complement is always a challenging thing. Now, let’s summarize how to make sentences with complements.

In Chinese, a verb can be followed by another word to explain its further meaning, which is known as a complement. A complement indicates the degree of the verb. In a complement sentence, the particle “得” , which indicates how the actions are done is often used to connect the verb and the complement.

Learning sentence pattern is always a good way to learn Chinese grammar online. Now let’s see the pattern of a complement sentence:

S + N + V + 得 + Complement

wǒ zúqiú tī dé hǎo.

1. 我 足球 踢 得 好。

  I am good at playing football.

tā hànyǔ shuō dé hǎo.

2. 她 汉语 说 得 好。

  She is good at speaking Chinese.

When we want to express the negative meaning, “不” can be added before the complement.

wǒ zúqiú tī dé bùhǎo.

3. 我 足球 踢 得 不好。

  I am not good at playing football.

tā hànyǔ shuō dé bùhǎo.

4. 她 汉语 说 得 不好。

  She is not good at speaking Chinese.

There is another sentence pattern to express a complement in Chinese. If the verb is followed by an object, the verb should be repeated after the object.

S + V + O + V + 得 + complement

tā shuōhànyǔ shuō dé hǎo.

5. 她 说汉语 说 得 好。

  She is good at speaking Chinese.

tā chànɡɡē chànɡ dé hǎotīnɡ.

6. 她 唱歌 唱 得 好听。

  She is good at singing songs.

Chinese Particle Words 吗 and 呢 - Difference

The Chinese particles 呢 (ne) and 吗 (ma) are very commonly used in both written and spoken Chinese. How do we use them in Chinese? Now let’s check out the similarities and differences between the particle words 呢 (ne) and 吗 (ma).

Similarities

•      Both 吗 and 呢 are used at the end of a sentence.

•      Both 吗 and 呢can be used to form questions.

•      Both of them are pronounced in neutral tone.

 

Differences

•      吗 is used to turn statements into yes-no questions.

For example:

zhè shì tú shū ɡuǎn

这是图书馆。

This is a library.

zhè shì tú shū ɡuǎn mɑ？

这是图书馆吗？

Is this a library?

Another example can be found in the newbie Chinese podcast lesson from iChinesePodcast, a free website for beginners to learn Chinese with free audios.

 

•      呢 is mostly used to turn statements into queries.

For example:

fànɡjià le, nǐ wèishénme bù chqu wán’ér ne？

放假 了，你 为什么 不 出去 玩儿 呢？

It’s holiday time. Why not go out for fun?

wǒ jiào lǐqiánɡ, nǐne？

我 叫 李强，你呢？

My name is Li Qiang. What about you?

Negative words in Chinese – difference between 不 and 没

Do you know how to use 不 bù and 没 méi, the basic negative words in Chinese grammar? Both of them have the meaning of “no, not”. Then what’s the difference between 不 and 没?

"brainless" and "not happy"

First, in the view of tense, 没 is used in the negative past tense, while 不 is used in negative sentences that describe a status or an action now or in the future.For example: 我昨天没去学校（wǒ zuó tiān méi qù xué xiào）。 I didn’t go to school yesterday. In the sentence, 没 describes a negative meaning of an action in the past. 我明天不去学校（wǒ mínɡ tiān bú qù xué xiào）。 I will not go to school tomorrow. In the sentence, 不 describes a negative meaning of an action in the future.

Second, the verb 有 should always be negated by”没”. For example: 我没有女朋友（wǒ méi yǒu nǚ pénɡ you）。And the word 是 should always be negated by “不”. For example: In the dialogue of iChinesePodcast's newbie Chinese podcast lesson 《你是小王吗？》, there is a sentence “他不是小王”（tā bú shì xiǎo wánɡ）。

Third, 不 is often used to describe a subjective meaning while 没 is used to describe an objective meaning. For example: 我不喜欢吃苹果（wǒ bù xǐ huɑn chī pínɡ ɡuǒ）。This sentence tells that my subjective attitude is: I don’t like apples. 

Polyphones in Chinese

Polyphones are very common in Chinese language. A polyphone is a character that can be pronounced in two or more different ways. With different ways of pronunciation, the polyphone usually has different meanings. Being able to use polyphones in Chinese properly will help us a lot in Chinese Learning. In this article, we are going to review the common polyphones.

polyphone 还

1. 好 There are two ways to pronounce it - hao3 and hao4. When pronounced in the third tone, it means well or good, as in the phrase 好人 (a good guy) or 好天气 (good weather). When pronounced in the fourth tone, it means “to like”. However, it is seldom used alone, but usually used with another word such as 喜好 and 爱好, both of which have the meaning of “to like”.

2. 行 It is one of the most common words that you will encounter on street signs. For example, we have 请绕行 and 银行. However, it pronounces different ways in the two phrases. In the first phrase请绕行, it is pronounced xing2, which means “to go”. The whole phrase means “Please go the other way.” It is pronounced hang2 in the word 银行, which means “bank”.

3. 赃 This character has two pronunciations. They are zang1 and zang4. The first tone, zang1, means that something is really dirty and is an adjective. The second tone, zang4, is usually used as a noun such as 心脏, which means heart.

4. 假With two distinct tones, jia3 and jia4, this character is easy to read and remember. Jia3, means fake. It can be used as an adjective, such as the word假如(if). It can be used as a noun such as, Jia4, 假期, which means vacation.

Up and Down in Chinese

In Chinese grammar, there are a group of directional nouns, which are used to tell directions. These nouns include 东，南，西，北，上，下，左， 右，(dōnɡ ， nán ， xī ， běi ， shànɡ ， xià ， zuǒ ，   yòu) etc.  Among them, 上 and 下 are special ones, because besides nouns they can also be used as verbs. We are going to learn the usage of these two words and the verb-object phrases about 下（xià) and 上（shàng).

“上（shàng）” originally means at the top of a place.

Example: 苹果在桌子上，which means “The apple is on the table.” 

In the opposite, 下（xià) means “under something”. In Chinese, when we want to express the meaning “A is under B”, we often add another Chinese word “面” after 下.

Example: 鞋在床的下面(xié zài chuánɡ de xià miɑn). The shoes are under the bed.书在衣服下面(shū zài yī fu xià miɑn). The book is under the clothes.

Besides nouns, 上 and 下 can also be used as verbs in spoken Chinese. When used as a verb, “上（shàng）” has the meaning of “to go to”

Example: “上（shàng）Beijing,” to go to Beijing

 “上饭店（shàng fàn diàn）” to go to the restaurant

“上厕所（shàng cè suǒ）” to go to the bathroom

When下（xià ) is used as a verb, it often “tells” the direction of an action.

For example we can use “下” to express “江南（jiāng nán)” because it is in the south.

In Chinese, there are many words that have more than one word categories. Mastering them is important because it can help us express ourselves more freely in Chinese. Join our Chinese tutor online to learn more Chinese words and phrases.

Learn to say different weathers in Chinese

Learning to talk about different weathers in Chinese is a big part in Chinese online lessons. Weather is one of the most fundamental areas of communication as it is so closely connected to our daily life. Another reason we need to learn different weathers is that this topic appears frequently in HSK exams, which demand us to pay more attention in the HSK prep.

                                                                       大雨

About Rains

In Chinese, the most commonly used decoration words are “大”,“中”and“小”meaning “big”, “medium” and “small”. So, when there is a heavy rain, we can say：“今天大雨”，and likewise, we can also say “中雨”and “小雨”. Besides, there are other words to describe different types of rains such as 雷阵雨，which is thunder shower, 暴雨 which is rainstorm, and 细雨 which means “It is drizzling.”

About Snow

Actually, the words describing a snowy weather is quite the same to the ones describing 雨. In Chinese, we can say“大雪”,“中雪”，“小雪”or “暴雪”. But we can’t say “雷阵雪”or “细雪”.

                                      晴天

Besides “雨” and “雪”，there are other types of weathers: If you want to say the weather is sunny, you can say qíng (晴)；cloudy, duō yún (多云)，etc. The above are the most frequently used expressions we learned from today’s mandarin tutorial, and I hope that you will master them because it will be very helpful for you when you need to talk about weather in Chinese.

Before we end, I will put a question here: Among the different weathers, maybe the most uncomfortable one is “雨夹雪”. Do you know what it is like if the weather is “雨夹雪”？

Can you use “方便 （fāng biàn）” accurately in Chinese?

We all know that learning Chinese online can be a great way to know Chinese language. It not only saves much time on the way to school but give us a lot of convenience. 方便（fāng biàn） is a very commonly used word in Chinese. For those of you who have learned Chinese either by yourself or with an online mandarin tutor, it is easy to understand that方便（fāng biàn）means convenience in Chinese.

For example: When two friends meet, one of them may say to the other that she wants to have an party when she was “方便的时候 （fāng biàn de shí hou）.” Here the word means convenience, and she means when it is convenient or when she has time to have party with her friend.

However, there are other meanings that are quite different to its original meaning. It can be used in this phrase: “方便一下（fāng biàn yī xià）.”which has the meaning of going to the bathroom in Chinese.

                              Convenient or 方便？

Many times in China, this expression confused the foreigner.

A foreigner who has taken mandarin lessons online is having dinner with some Chinese friends. Then one of them said我要方便一下. People around him told the foreigner that his friend wanted to go to the lavatory. The foreigner then understood that in Chinese “方便（fāng biàn）” meant “ to go to the lavatory.

The next day, another Chinese man proposed a toast and told the foreigner : ”Ｉhope you can give me the “方便 （fāng biàn）” of meeting you when I go abroad next time.” This made the foreigner more confused than before.

But what made him most confused was the following event. When two friends meet, one of them may say to the other that she wants to have an party when she was “方便的时候 （fāng biàn de shí hou）.” The foreigner was stunned:” How can I give you an interview when answering nature’s call?”

In this story, we may find that there are two meanings of “方便 （fāng biàn）.” The first meaning is to go to the bathroom and the second meaning is “convenient.” In the second case, the Chinese man told the foreigner “Ｉhope you can give me the “方便 （fāng biàn）”  of seeing you when I go abroad next time” . Here, “方便 （fāng biàn）” means at someone’s convenience.