9 Nov 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chinese 1 Note Lesson 4
1） 还是
The conjunction 还是 is used to join two statements to form a question which
offers a choice of alternatives. 吗 is NOT required as the conjunction 还是 itself
can indicate that it is a question form.
Examples: 你说英语还是说法语？ (Ni shuo Yingyu haishi
shuo Fayu?)
Do you speak English or French?
When the verb is the same in each clause but the object is different, the verb may
be omitted in the second clause. Thus we can say either
你说英语还是说法语？ (Ni shuo Yingyu haishi
shuo Fayu?)
or
你说英语还是法语？ (Ni shuo Yingyu haishi
Fayu?)
When the verb used is 是, it is never repeated in the second clause:
Examples: 你是法国人还是英国人？ (Ni shi Faguoren
haishi Yingguoren?)
Are you French or British?
他是学生还是老师？ (Ta shi xuesheng
haishi laoshi?)
Is he a student or a teacher?
Note: In English, “or” can be used in both a question and a statement. 还是,
however, can only be used in a question sentence, and it cannot be used in
statement sentences such as “You may study Chinese or Japanese.”.
2) S 想 + a sentence = S think that + a sentence
我想我们学校有八百个学生。I think that there are 800 students in our
school.
3) S 想 V O
In this structure, 想means “would like” or “to be thinking of” (and should be
followed by another verb).