Mandarin · Chapter 22 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Topic-comment fronting
这本书我看过 (this book, I have read it): Mandarin lifts a known thing to the front as the topic, then comments on it. Why word order bends this way, how the fronted topic differs from a grammatical subject, and why the slot is one of the language's most basic organising principles.
The short version
Never resume a fronted topic with 它 (tā)
这本书我看过 (zhè běn shū wǒ kàn guò) fronts the object and then leaves that slot inside the comment empty. English trains you to copy the object back in as a pronoun, and 这本书我看过它 (zhè běn shū wǒ kàn guò tā) is the classic learner tell. The topic names the thing once; the comment does not repeat it.
这本书我看过。 zhè běn shū wǒ kàn guo
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
Read the full article · 10 min readPractice
Practise this lesson
24-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
Mandarin · Free printables
Worksheets for this lesson
Worksheets with answer keys built in. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekLesson 8 of 21 in this chapter