Tag: mandarin chinese

How to use the particles 吗 (ma)

As mentioned above, 吗 is a question particle that is used to turn statements into yes-no questions. What exactly does that mean? A yes-no question is also known as a “binary question” or a “polar question”. This simply means that it’s a question that can only be answered with “yes” or “no”. In other words, it’s not an open question.

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Chinese Grammar -Coordinative Phrases 并列短语

A coordinative phrase is a single formed by two or much more phrases on the exact same portion of speech in coordinative relation. The terms in a coordinative phrase may possibly be separated by conjunction. The serial comma “、” can also be utilized to separate words in a coordinative phrase. When much more than two words are joined, a conjunction is positioned just before the last one. For instance:

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Chinese Grammar-Pronouns 汉语语法-代词

For example, there is no differentiation in the spoken language amongst "he", "she" and "it" (even though a written difference was launched following speak to with the West), and pronouns remain the same whether they are the matter or object of the sentence. Mandarin Chinese more lacks a distinction in between the possessive adjective ("my") and possessive pronoun ("mine"); both are formed by appending the particle “的” (de). 

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Chinese grammar: What is a 被bei Sentence?

Bei Sentences, which are called 被字句 (bèizìjù) in Chinese, are a key way to express the passive in modern Mandarin Chinese. In passive sentences, the object of an action becomes the subject of the sentence, and what would have been the subject of the normal (active voice) sentence, the "doer" of the action, becomes secondary, and may or may not be included in the passive sentence.

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