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Chinese Grammar

The Chinese grammar section explains the main grammatical structures you need to know in order to make your own sentences.  There are example sentences to show how the language is used. 

Watch our videos to help you understand grammar and listen our audios to help you pronounce the language in an interactive, clear and simple way.

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In this unit, learn to:

Use "V1 着 (O1) + V2 (O2)" to indicate that two actions occur simultaneously

To indicate two actions happening simultaneously, we use the grammatical structure of “V1 着 (O1) + V2 (O2)”, V1 is an accompanying state of V2.

Examples:

• 他听着音乐看杂志。

• He is listening to music while reading a magazine.

• 他喝着酒聊天儿。

• He drinks while chatting

Use “半”, “刻”or “差”to express time.

Use “半”, “刻”or “差”to express time. In English, “半” is half-past, “刻” is quarter hour and “差” is used to indicate how many minutes it will be till the next full hour.

Use “半” to express “half-past”. The grammatical structure is “Number in Hour + 点 + 半”.

Examples

• 二 点 半 = 2:30 Half-past Two

• 七 点 半 = 7:30 Half-past Seven

Use “刻” to express "quarter hour”. The quarter hours are expressed on the first quarter x:15 and the third quarter x:45. The grammatical structure is “Number in Hour + 点 + first/third + 刻”.

Examples:

• 六 点 一 刻 = 6:15 Six fifteen

• 十 点 三 刻 = 10:45 Fifteen to Eleven

Use “差” to express how many minutes it will be till the next full hour, we put 差 in front of the time expression. The grammatical structure is “差 + Number in Minutes + 分 + Number in Hour + 点” or “Number in Hour + 点 + 差 + Number in Minutes + 分”

Examples

• 差 三 分 五 点 = 4:57 Three minutes to Six

• 五 点 差 三 分 = 4:57 Three minutes to Six

Chinese Vocabulary and Writing

The Chinese vocabulary and writing section introduces new Chinese vocabulary you need to know in order to understand the language.  For each new vocabulary, you learn what it means, how to pronounce and write it. 

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Having a good vocabulary will help you improve your language level and become a more confident speaker of Mandarin.  Practising Chinese writing is often one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary.

Chinese character copybooks available online or in printed format enable you to practise your Chinese writing in a stroke by stroke manner.  

In this unit, learn how to pronounce and write new vocabulary below:

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