Kilo Lingo

Ch 1 · Lesson 11

Copula shi

Prescribed by the AQA specification.

The short version

Mandarin drops (shì) for age, dates, times and prices

。Wǒ èr shí suì.

I am twenty (years old).
Why?

(shì) links a noun to a noun and that is its entire job. In front of a number or time phrase it steps aside altogether: (wǒ èr shí suì), (jīn tiān xīng qī yī), (xiàn zài sān diǎn), (zhè ge shí kuài qián). You can put (shì) back for contrast, but the bare form is the everyday default.

(shì) joins two nouns; adjectives do not need it

，。Tā shì wǒ péngyou, tā hěn hǎo.

He is my friend. He's lovely.
Why?

(shì) links a noun to a noun: (wǒ shì lǎo shī), I am a teacher. Before an adjective it is not needed, because the adjective already means 'to be cold' or 'to be busy': (wǒ hěn máng), not (wǒ shì máng). The negative is (bú shì), never (méi shì).

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 · 4 min read

Practice

Practise this lesson

10-question session

One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 25 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.

Lesson 11 of 18 in this chapter

Back to the curriculum

What do the colours mean?