Published on 9 Nov 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chinese 1 Notes Lesson 1
1) S V O (Subject + Verb + Object)
Examples: I study Chinese. They play computer games. She eats fruits.
我是澳大利亚人。 Wo shi Aodaliyaren。 I
am Australian.
我说英语。 Wo shuo Yingyu。 I
speak English.
我姓王，他姓林。 Wo xing Wang, ta xing Lin。My family
name is Wang,
and
his family
name is
Lin.
2) The negative form 不
不 is the negative form and it precedes verbs (both “to be” and other verbs).
Examples: 他不是英国人。 Ta bu shi Yingguoren。 He
is not British.
我不说英语。 Wo bu shuo Yingyu。 I do
not speak English.
3) S V O 吗?
This is a simple question form (a question sentence which does not have any question words
such as what, when, where, how, who etc.)
Examples: 你是澳大利亚人吗？ Ni shi Aodaliyaren ma? Are
you Australian?
你说英语吗？ Ni shuo Yingyu ma? Do
you speak English?
4) S V O ? (with question words)
In English, question sentences containing question words always start with those question
words; for example, “What do you study?” and “Where are you going?”. In Chinese, no
change is required to the sequence of “S V O”. In other words, in the sentence “What do you
study?”, for example, “what”, as the object of the sentence, still stays in the object position;
the structure for this sentence is then “You study what?”. “吗” is NOT required for such
question sentences, as the question words contained in these sentences can show that they are
questions.