SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY

Integrated Basic Education

A.Y. 2018-2019

Basic Sentence Order

Subject-Predicate

A simple predicate can be just a verb. The most basic word order in Chinese is:

Structure

Subject + Verb

You can form very simple sentences with just two words.

Examples

Subject Verb Translation

你们 Nǐmen 吃。chī. You eat.

他 Tā 笑。xiào. He laughs.

我 Wǒ 读。dú. I read.

你 Nǐ 去。qù. You go.

你们 Nǐmen 看。kàn. You look.

你 Nǐ 来。lái. You come here!

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Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

我 Wǒ 说。shuō. I speak.

孩子 Háizi 哭。kū. Children cry.

谁 Shéi 要 学？yào xué? Who wants to study?

谁 Shéi 想 玩？xiǎng wán? Who wants to play?

Subject-Verb-Object

A slightly longer predicate might be a verb with an object. A sentence with both a verb and an object is
formed with this structure:

Structure

Subject + Verb + Object

This is the same as in English, and is commonly referred to as SVO word order. You can express a huge variety of
things with this simple structure.

Examples

Subject Verb Object Translation

他们 Tāmen 吃 chī 肉。ròu. They eat meat.

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Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

你Nǐ 喝 hē 茶 吗？chá ma? Do you drink tea?

我Wǒ 去 qù 学校。xuéxiào. I go to school.

他Tā 说 shuō 中文。Zhōngwén. He speaks Chinese.

你Nǐ 喜欢 xǐhuan 孩子 吗？háizi ma? Do you like kids?

我们 Wǒmen 要 买 yào mǎi 电脑。diànnǎo. We want to buy a computer.

你们 Nǐmen 想 吃 xiǎng chī 中国 菜 吗？Zhōngguó cài ma? Do you want to eat Chinese food?

我Wǒ 爱 ài 你 和 爸爸。nǐ hé bàba. I love you and dad.

他们 Tāmen 要 做 yào zuò 什么？shénme? What do they want to do?

你Nǐ 想 去 xiǎng qù 什么 地方？shénme dìfang? What place do you want to go to?

When Things Get Tricky

Things start to break down as soon as you start adding in such simple sentence elements as the "also" adverb 也
(yě), a time word, or a location where something happened.

Mandarin Chinese Word Order

Mandarin Chinese word order is similar to English in a lot of ways. The basic word order is subject + verb + object
(known as SVO), as it is in English. There are a lot of important differences though.

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Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

Subject + Time + Manner + Place + Negate + Auxillary + Verb +

Complement + Object
That’s a generalized word order for simple Mandarin Chinese sentences. It’s not concrete, but works most of the
time with some important caveats.

Building up Mandarin Chinese word order

As mentioned above, basic Mandarin word order is SVO: subject + verb + object. Remember that this is just
what’s typical in Mandarin. Different word orders can certainly appear.

One major reason for this is that the idea of a “subject” isn’t as clear in Mandarin as it is in many other
languages. The subject is often omitted, and Mandarin is more interested in the topic of a sentence; it’s a topic-
prominent language.

Still, SVO is a good place to start. Here are some examples of basic Mandarin SVO sentences, color coded
for subject (red), verb (green) and object (blue).

我 爱你。 Wǒ ài nǐ. I love you.

他 喜欢猫。 Tā xǐhuan māo. He likes cats.

你 吃面条。 Nǐ chī miàntiáo. You eat noodles.

他们 去公园。 Tāmen qù gōngyuán. They go to the park.

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Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

As you can see from the color coding, the word order of these basic sentences is the same in Mandarin and
English.

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are also known as helper verbs. English is full of them, and so is Mandarin. In Mandarin, auxiliary
verbs are placed before the main verb just as they are in English.

Some more examples, with the auxiliary verb color coded in purple.

她 会说中文。 Tā huì shuō zhōngwén. She can speak Chinese.

他们 可以帮助你。 Tāmen kěyǐ bāngzhù nǐ. They can help you.

Negation

English is a bit funny about negation. It doesn’t like negating main verbs, so if there isn’t an auxiliary verb it will
insert one and negate that. In Mandarin you can just negate the main verb (negation color coded in pink):

我 不喜欢他。 Wǒ bù xǐhuan tā. I don’t like him.

他们 不吃肉。 Tāmen bù chī ròu. They don’t eat meat.

她 不喝咖啡。 Tā bù hē kāfēi. She doesn’t drink coffee.

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 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

When there is an auxiliary verb, Mandarin prefers to negate that. Some examples:

他们 不会说中文。 Tāmen bù huì shuō zhōngwén. They can not speak Chinese.

她 不要去。 Tā bùyào qù. She will not go.

我 不应该告诉你。 Wǒ bù yìng gāi gàosu nǐ. I should not tell you.

Note how in English the negation occurs after what’s being negated (the auxiliary verb in the examples above),
whereas in Chinese it comes before. This is because of a general rule in Chinese: modifiers precede what they
modify (see below).

Adverbials: time, manner and place

The structure is getting a little more complicated now. Words that add information about the verb such as time,
manner and place are known as adverbials.

In Mandarin these nearly always come before the verb. This is different to English which tends to put them all over
the place depending on the situation.

Another difference between the two languages is that Mandarin has a specific order for this extra information:
time first, then manner and then place. This sequence is a general rule.

Some examples with adverbials in turquoise:

我 明天要去上海。 Wǒ míngtiān yào qù shànghǎi. I will go to Shanghai tomorrow.

6 | Gr.6 M a n d a r i n - B a s i c S e n t e n c e O r d e r
Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

他 慢慢地吃饭。 Tā màn man de chī fàn. He eats slowly.

你 在这里等我。 Nǐ zài zhèlǐ děng wǒ. Wait for me here.

我 今天下午用电邮发。 Wǒ jīntiān xiàwǔ yòng diànyóu fā. I will send it by email this
afternoon.

我们 意外地在箱子里找到了一只猫。 Wǒmen yìwàide zài xiāngzi lǐ zhǎodàole yī zhī

māo. We unexpectedly found a cat in the box.

我 上个星期匆匆地在我的房间里看了四本书。 Wǒ shàng gè xīngqí cōngcōngde zài wǒ

de fángjiān lǐ kànle sì běnshū. Last week I quickly read four books in my room.
Complements

Complements are a tricky topic in grammar. Mandarin has a few kinds of special complements that come after
the verb: directional, degree, result and potential.

The grammar of these is pretty complicated. The main point in terms of word order is that they occur after the
verb.

Some examples with complements marked in orange:

我 会下来。 Wǒ huì xiàlái. I will come down.

7 | Gr.6 M a n d a r i n - B a s i c S e n t e n c e O r d e r
Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

他 说得很好。 Tā shuō de hěn hǎo. He speaks well.

我 看到了他。 Wǒ kàndàole tā. I saw him.

她 听得懂。 Tā tīng dé dǒng. She understands.

A note on adjectives

Adjectives are placed before what they modify, as in English. This follows the general Chinese rule of modifiers
preceding what they modify.

Some example sentences with adjectives color coded in turquoise (as they are modifiers just like adverbials):

所有人 都喜欢大的比萨。 Suǒyǒu rén dōu xǐhuan dà de

bǐsà. Everyone likes big pizzas.

瘦的 男人杀死了胖的男人。 Shòu de nánrén shā sǐle pàng de

nánrén. The thin mankilled the fat man.

那辆 红色的汽车撞到了蓝色的卡车。 Nà liàng hóngsè de qìchē zhuàng dàole lánsè

de kǎchē. That red car hit the blue van.
Complete Mandarin word order

(for simple sentences!)

8 | Gr.6 M a n d a r i n - B a s i c S e n t e n c e O r d e r
Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez
 SAN BEDA UNIVERSITY
Integrated Basic Education
A.Y. 2018-2019

This is a general word order for Mandarin that works most of the time. Note that Mandarin sentences are not
always exactly like this, especially due to Mandarin being topic-prominent. Adjectives could be inserted before
the subject and object:

Sbj + Tme + Mnr + Plc + Neg + Aux + Vrb + Cmp + Obj

(subject, adverbials, negative, auxiliary verb, verb, complement, object)

9 | Gr.6 M a n d a r i n - B a s i c S e n t e n c e O r d e r
Prepared by: Ms. Shaira Nicole D. Pelaez