Mandarin · Chapter 19 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Serial verb constructions
Stacking verbs in the order the actions happen: 我去商店买东西 (I go to the shop to buy things). The verbs share one subject and run in real-world sequence, with no conjunction between them, covering purpose (去...买), means (坐车去) and instrument (用筷子吃).
The short version
Verb order is event order, and nothing glues them
我去商店买东西 (wǒ qù shāng diàn mǎi dōng xī) is literally I-go-shop-buy-things, with no 和 (hé), no 然后 (rán hòu), no 'to'. The only thing carrying the sequence is the order itself, so whichever action happens first in the world goes first in the sentence. Each verb keeps its own object: 坐车 (zuò chē) then 回家 (huí jiā), never 坐回家车 (zuò huí jiā chē).
我去商店买东西。 Wǒ qù shāng diàn mǎi dōng xī.
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