Kilo Lingo

Ch 12 · Lesson 6

Formal connectives

Prescribed by the AQA specification.

The short version

(rán'ér) is the written 'however'

。，。Zhège jìhuà kàn qǐlái hěn jiǎndān. Rán'ér, zuò qǐlái hěn nán.

The plan looks simple. In practice, however, it is hard.
Why?

Written Mandarin swaps the spoken joins for formal ones: (rán'ér) for (dànshì), (yīncǐ) for (suǒyǐ), (jǐnguǎn) for (suīrán). (rán'ér) can open a new sentence, with a comma after it, as 'however' does in an essay. Said to a friend, it sounds like reading out a report.

(yīncǐ) concludes; (yúshì) tells what came next

，。Tiān hēi le, yúshì wǒmen huíjiā le.

It got dark, so we went home.
Why?

Both translate as 'so'. (yīncǐ) draws a conclusion: if 'it follows that' fits, use it. (yúshì) tells a story: if 'and then' fits, use it. A state such as (shēntǐ hěn hǎo), being fit, is a conclusion, so it takes (yīncǐ).

(jǐnguǎn) and (yóuyú): written although, because

，。Jǐnguǎn tiānqì hěn lěng, tā háishi qù pǎobù le.

Despite the cold, he still went running.
Why?

(jǐnguǎn), although, is weightier than (suīrán) and usually takes a partner such as (háishi). (yóuyú), owing to, opens its clause; unlike (yīnwèi), it cannot follow the main clause unless (shì) comes first. Straight before a verb, (jǐnguǎn) means 'feel free to'.

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.

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Practice

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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 20 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.

Lesson 6 of 9 in this chapter

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