Grammar
Chinese sentence structure simplified
Aug 30, 2024
Basic Chinese Sentence Word Order (SVO)
Review on English sentences
To understand Chinese sentence structure, let us first review the typical English sentence word order:
Subject
: who/what is doing the action (i.e. person)
Verb
: what is the subject doing (i.e. to watch)
Object
: who/what is the action being done to (i.e. TV)
Time + Place
: Additional details about what is being conveyed.
Examples:
A significant difference between Chinese sentences and English sentences is where the additional information is placed. Time and place normally comes before the verbs. They can also be placed before the subject in the beginning of the sentence.
Chinese Sentence Structure
Chinese basic sentences are arranged in the following order:
Subject + Time + Place + Verb + Object
Note: Time and Place can also appear before the subject!
Let's review the English statements from above using the Chinese word order:
An overview to asking questions in Chinese
Review on English question structure
When asking questions in English, the question words are placed at the beginning of the sentence:
In Chinese, these questions words are:
Who: 谁
When: 什么时候
What time: 几点
Where: 哪里 / 哪儿
What: 什么
Chinese question word order
Unlike in English, where the question word is placed at the beginning of a sentence, Chinese is more like fill in a blank. We will continue with our example sentence: "She drinks tea at home at noon."
Again, using Chinese sentence structure it would read as: "She at noon at home drinks tea."
谁 (who):
什么时候 / 几点 (when / what time):
(在)哪儿 / 哪里 (where):
什么 (what):