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

although it is raining, I am still going

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 read

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

Lesson 3 of 5 in this chapter

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