Kilo Lingo

Ch 6 · Lesson 14

Conditionals ruguo yaoshi

Prescribed by the AQA specification.

The short version

(rúguǒ) opens the if, (jiù) opens the then

，。Yàoshi tā lái, wǒ jiù gàosu nǐ.

If he comes, I'll tell you.
Why?

(rúguǒ) or the chattier (yàoshi) starts the condition, and (jiù) starts the result, after its subject: (rúguǒ nǐ máng), (wǒ jiù zǒu). You can also close the first half with (dehuà): (nǐ máng dehuà), (wǒ jiù zǒu). English often leaves 'then' out; Mandarin usually keeps (jiù).

(yàoshi) for chatting, (rúguǒ) anywhere

，。Yàoshi nǐ lèi le, wǒmen jiù huíjiā.

If you're tired, we'll go home.
Why?

(rúguǒ) and (yàoshi) mean the same if, but (yàoshi) is the spoken one and (rúguǒ) is safe in speech and writing alike. (jiǎrú) and 倘 (tǎngruò) belong in essays and contracts. (dehuà) can close the condition after any of them, or do the job alone: (nǐ máng dehuà), if you're busy.

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

Lesson 14 of 21 in this chapter

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