Ch 1 · Lesson 7Mandarin · Chapter 1 · Lesson 7 · Grammar primer
Word order in Mandarin
Subject, verb, object - and the moments Mandarin bends the English order.
The short version
Time and place of the action go before the verb
wǒ míngtiān qù Běijīng
Why?Hide
The biggest word-order difference from English. When something happens goes before the verb, and so does where it happens, with (zài): (wǒ míngtiān zài jiā gōngzuò), I-tomorrow-at-home-work. A destination is different: after (qù) or (lái) the place is just the object, so 'I am going to Beijing tomorrow' is I-tomorrow-go-Beijing. Putting the time word last, as English does, is always wrong.
Mandarin questions keep the order of a statement
？。Nǐ qù nǎlǐ? Wǒ qù Běijīng.
Why?Hide
English moves 'what' to the front and adds 'do'. Mandarin does neither: the question word sits exactly where the answer will go. (nǐ chī shénme?) is literally 'you eat what?', and the answer (wǒ chī fàn) fills the same slot. A yes/no question just adds (ma) to the end of the statement.
The SVO baseline
The baseline shape, the one to default to when you build a sentence:
| Hanzi | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
。 | Wǒ chī fàn. | I eat. / I'm eating. |
。 | Tā shuō Zhōngwén. | She speaks Chinese. |
。 | Wǒ xǐhuan kāfēi. | I like coffee. |
。 | Lǎoshī jiāo Zhōngwén. | The teacher teaches Chinese. |
Word order alone tells you who does what, because nothing on the noun marks it:
。(Wǒ xǐhuan lǎoshī.) - I like the teacher.。(Lǎoshī xǐhuan wǒ.) - The teacher likes me.
Default to SVO when you are unsure. It will rarely produce a wrong sentence.
Divergence 3: time and place before the verb
The single biggest word-order difference from English. English puts time and place at the END of the sentence; Mandarin puts them BEFORE THE VERB. The colours mark the two slots all page long:
| Hanzi | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
。 | Wǒ míngtiān qù Běijīng. | I'm going to Beijing tomorrow. |
。 | Wǒ zài jiā chī fàn. | I eat at home. |
。 | Wǒ měitiān zài jiā chī fàn. | I eat at home every day. |
。 | Tā xīngqīliù zài gōngsī gōngzuò. | She works at the office on Saturdays. |
The rule: Subject + Time + Place + Verb + Object. Two details the table cannot show:
- Time may also open the sentence, before the subject, but never close it:
。(Míngtiān wǒ qù Běijīng.), tomorrow I'm going to Beijing. - A destination is the object. After
(qù, go) or(lái, come), it follows the verb:。(Wǒ qù Běijīng.) - I'm going to Beijing.
What sits before the verb is where the action HAPPENS, with (zài, at); where you are GOING follows .
No agreement, no plurals, no articles
Mandarin nouns take no plural endings, do not agree with anything, and have no words for "a" or "the". Context does the work, and a number with a measure word does the counting:
| Hanzi | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
。 | Wǒ yǒu shū. | I have a book / I have books. |
。 | Wǒ yǒu yì běn shū. | I have one book. |
。 | Wǒ yǒu sān běn shū. | I have three books. |
。 | Shū hěn guì. | The book is / books are expensive. |
One apple or three: the word is 苹果 píngguǒ either way. Add 一个 yí ge or 三个 sān ge only when the number matters.
The plural (men) attaches to pronouns and some nouns for people: (wǒmen, we), (tāmen, they), (lǎoshīmen, teachers). It never attaches to things: is not Mandarin, and with a number it goes even from people: (sān ge lǎoshī), three teachers, never .
The difficulty migrates to measure words, like (běn) for books and (ge) for most things. It is a trade, and usually a good one for English speakers.
Going further: The whole system on one screen and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
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Lesson 7 of 15 in this chapter