How Sentences Are Formed In Mandarin Chinese

A sentence is generally composed of one or more clauses.

A Chinese sentence can be carved up into different parts, which each part playing a different grammatical role in the sentence.

The most common elements of a Chinese sentence are as follows:

Subject: Usually, the subject comes at the beginning of the sentence and is followed by the predicate.

Example:

My mother will travel on May.

我的母親將前往五月.

Wǒ de mǔqīn jiāng qiánwǎng wǔ yuè.

The dog of Ms. Wong is very cute.

黃女士的狗很可愛.

Huáng nǚshì dì gǒu hěn kěài

Predicate: This part states the subject.

Examples:

Mary and John like to eat chocolate cake.

瑪麗和約翰喜歡吃巧克力蛋糕.

Mǎlì hé yuēhàn xǐhuan chī qiǎokèlì dàngāo.

He speaks Chinese language very well.

他講中文非常好.

Ta kōjū bun hijō kō.

A Chinese language has some types of sentences these are

Interrogative sentences

These sentences are composed by using 吗 - (Ma) or 没有 - (Méiyǒu) at the end of a declarative sentence or a simple sentence.

Examples:

Has she finished her homework?

有她完成功課吗？

Yǒu tā wánchéng gōngkè ma?

Do you want this apple?

你想這個蘋果吗?

Nǐ xiǎng zhège píngguǒ ma?

Have they lost their wallets?

又失去了自己的錢包没有？

Yòu shīqù le zìjǐ de qiánbāo méiyǒu?

Does Mary come to dinner?

瑪利亞來到吃飯没有?

Mǎ lì yǎ lái dào chīfàn méiyǒu?

Declarative Sentences

This kind of sentence is just the common sentence composed by Subject + Verb + Complement.

Examples:

Mary likes to sing sad songs.

瑪麗喜歡唱悲傷的歌.

Mǎlì xǐhuan chàng bēishāng de gē.

They don't know math as well as we.

他們不知道數學以及我們.

Tāmen bù zhīdào shùxué yǐjí wǒmen.

China is a global leader country.

中國是全球領先的國家.

Zhōngguó shì quánqiú lǐngxiān de guójiā.

Chinese people like to eat rice.

中國人喜歡吃米飯.

Zhōngguó rén xǐhuan chī mǐfàn.

Negative Sentences

These sentences are formed by placing 没 - (Méi) or 没有 - (Méiyǒu) in the front of the main verb in the sentence.

Examples:

She doesn't know the answer.

她没知道答案.

Tā méi zhīdào dáàn.

Mary and Taylor don't dance together.

瑪麗和泰勒没一起跳舞.

Mǎlì hé tàilēi méi yīqǐ tiàowǔ.

He doesn't attend to Chinese language class.

他没有參加中文學習班.

Tā méiyǒu cānjiā zhōngwén xuéxí bān.

We don't like this kind of food.

我們没有喜歡這種食物.

Wǒmen méiyǒu xǐhuan zhè zhǒng shíwù.

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