Chinese Grammar
The grammar of Chinese language can be summarized as:
1) No conjugations: each verb has only one form, and for that matter: no irregular verbs;2) No tenses: use of particles to express if an action takes place in the past, present or future. The verb form never changes in function of the tense;
3) No articles: no such thing as "the" and "a";
4) No plurals: quantifiers before the noun, or simply the context, will make clear whether speaking in singular or in plural;
5) No gender-specific pronouns: no masculine, feminine or neuter words;
6) No cases: since articles don't exist, and nouns can't be changed anyway;
7) No declinations of adjectives by number or gender: just like nouns, adjectives never change.
Chinese grammar is not difficult. The basic sentence structure is subject + verb + object. You can change the meaning of a sentence by adding or replacing a Chinese character. After you learn more vocabulary, you can start to build simple sentences in daily conversations.
English: You eat apple.
Chinese: 你吃苹果 nǐ chī píng guǒ
Subject (you, 你) + verb (eat, 吃) + object (apple, 苹果)
English: She eats apple.
Chinese: 她吃苹果 tā chī píng guǒ
Verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to replace the subject (you, 你) with (she, 她) in the sentence.
English: We eat apples.
Chinese: 我们吃苹果 wǒ men chī píng guǒ
Verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to replace the subject (you, 你) with (we, 我们) in the sentence.
English: You ate apple.
Chinese: 你吃了苹果 nǐ chī le píng guǒ
Subject, verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to add the Chinese character (了) in the sentence.
English: Do you eat apple?
Chinese: 你吃苹果吗? nǐ chī píng guǒ ma
Subject, verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to add the Chinese character (吗) in the sentence.
English: You want to eat apple.
Chinese: 你想吃苹果 nǐ xiǎng chī píng guǒ
Subject, verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to add the Chinese character (want, 想) in the sentence.
English: You are eating apple.
Chinese: 你在吃苹果 nǐ zài chī píng guǒ
Subject, verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to add the Chinese character (在) in the sentence.
English: Are you eating apple?
Chinese: 你在吃苹果吗? nǐ zài chī píng guǒ ma
Subject, verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to add the Chinese characters (在) and (吗) in the sentence.
English: Have you eaten apple?
Chinese: 你吃过苹果吗? nǐ chī guò píng guǒ ma
Subject, verb and object remain unchanged. You just need to add the Chinese characters (过) and (吗) in the sentence.
As you learn more about Chinese language, you will need to learn more complicated grammar rules. Many Chinese grammar rules can be understood only if you have basic Chinese proficiency. For beginner, it’s best you first focus on learning Pinyin and improving your vocabulary. You should start to learn grammar after you already have learned some vocabulary, developed some listening and speaking skills.
Find out more about learning Mandarin Chinese, please visit Learn Chinese
