Ch 2 · Lesson 16Mandarin · Chapter 2 · Lesson 16 · Grammar primer
Possession with de
Prescribed by the AQA specification.
The short version
Drop the
wǒ mā
Why?Hide
Objects keep it: (wǒ de diànhuà), (tā de chē). Close family and the groups you belong to usually lose it: (wǒ mā), (wǒ bà), (wǒ gē), (wǒmen xuéxiào). With friends both are everyday. Keeping (de) with family is not wrong, just more written than spoken.
。Zhè běn shū shì wǒ de.
Why?Hide
Mandarin has one word where English has two. Put (de) after the owner and the thing after that: (wǒ de shū), my book. Leave the thing off and the same (wǒ de) means mine: (zhè běn shū shì wǒ de).
Two owners in a row: only the last
wǒ péngyou de māma
Why?Hide
'My friend's mum' has two owners. Let the first (de) drop and keep the last: (wǒ péngyou de māma). Two (de) in a row are grammatical but clumsy. Swap the people and you swap the meaning: (wǒ māma de péngyou) is my mum's friend.
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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One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 21 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Lesson 16 of 19 in this chapter