Mandarin · Chapter 12 · Lesson 3 · Grammar primer
Concession buguo haishi
Grammar for HSK 3.
The short version
虽然 (suī rán) opens a bracket you have to close
English is happy with a lone 'although'. Mandarin marks both ends, so the moment you write 虽然 (suī rán), plant a 还是 (hái shì) or a 但是 (dàn shì) in the next clause. A bare 虽然 (suī rán) is the signature learner error. 还是 (hái shì) sits after the subject and before the verb; 但是 (dàn shì) heads the whole clause.
虽然下雨,我还是去 suī rán xià yǔ, wǒ hái shì qù
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 · 9 min readPractice
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 24 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Lesson 3 of 5 in this chapter