Mandarin 也 (yě) and 都 (dōu)

English puts "too" at the end of a sentence and "all" more or less wherever it likes. Mandarin is stricter and simpler: 也 (yě, also) and 都 (dōu, all) are adverbs, and both live in one fixed slot, after the subject and straight before the verb. Learn the slot once and both words are done.

The whole system on one screen

The colours below stay the same all page long: 也 (yě) in one colour, 都 (dōu) in another, and 不 (bù) in a third.

One slot: after the subject, before the verb

Mandarin adverbs go before the verb they describe, and 也 (yě) and 都 (dōu) follow that rule without exception. Here is the slot, three times:

If something else stands in front of the main verb, such as 想 (xiǎng, want to), 要 (yào, want, will) or 跟 (gēn, with), the adverb goes in front of the whole chain.

A time word such as 明天 (míngtiān, tomorrow) normally comes before the adverb, as in the last row: the adverb wants to be the last thing before the verb phrase.

也 (yě): also, too, and "not ... either"

也 (yě) adds one more person or thing to something already said. It attaches to the verb, not to a noun, so there has to be a verb (or an adjective such as 好) for it to sit in front of.

1234

1. 1她tā看kàn书shū
2. 2他tā也yě看kàn书shū
3. 3她tā看kàn书shū
4. 4他tā踢tī足zú球qiú

On the left he reads too, so 也 yě goes before his verb. On the right he plays football instead: nothing is shared, so no 也.

Two things the table cannot show:

• 也yě usually comes before other adverbs, so the rest of the phrase follows it unchanged: 咖kā啡fēi也yě真zhēn的de很hěn好hǎo。 (Kāfēi yě zhēnde hěn hǎo.), the coffee is really good too.
• English "either" is just 也yě with a negative. There is no separate word: 我wǒ也yě不bú去qù。 (Wǒ yě bú qù.), I am not going either.

For things that did not happen, 也没 (yě méi) does the same job: 我wǒ也yě没méi去qù。 (Wǒ yě méi qù.) - I didn't go either.