向 (xiàng) is a preposition that means "towards", and is used often when expressing or referring to a certain point in Chinese grammar.
Tag: Chinese Grammar
Chinese grammar: Using 对dui
When using 对 (duì) as a preposition, it is used to indicate "to" or "towards" a object or target. As with all prepositions, some care should be taken when using this particle, as usage of 对 doesn’t always totally "make sense" or correspond to English at all in Chinese grammar.
Chinese grammar: Purpose with 为了weile
为了 (wèile) is most often used to indicate the purpose of an action, or the person that will benefit from some act of kindness. In the "purpose" sense, it corresponds pretty well to "in order to" or "for the purpose of" in English.
Chinese grammar: the self-evident with 嘛ma
The particle 嘛 (ma) is a sentence-final particle identical in pronunciation to the simple "yes/no question" particle 吗 (ma) you learned back in the day, but with a rather different function. It can be used when the speaker feels what he is saying is obvious (from his point of view).
Chinese grammar: For with 为wei
When you work for a company, or do other sorts of physical (and even mental) activities for another party, you’re likely to use the Chinese preposition 为 (wèi), which is often translated into English as "for," a translation which is often unnatural or unnecessary, depending on the particular phrase. The super common Mao-era phrase, 为人民服务 ("serve the people"), doesn’t need the word "for" in English, for example.
Chinese grammar: Change of state with 了le
了 (le) has a lot of uses. You probably first learned 了 as a particle that tells you an action is completed, which is also known as 了1. This article is not about that use of 了; it’s about indicating a change of state (了2). In other words, there is now a new situation, or there is about to be a new situation. This whole "change of state" idea can take numerous forms, so it’s helpful to view them individually, alongside some English translations.
Chinese grammar: Aspect particle 着zhe
The particle 着 (zhe) is one way of indicating the continuous aspect in Mandarin Chinese (another common way is using the adverb 在 in front of verbs). You may have heard that the Chinese particle 着 added onto the end of verbs is similar to the use of -ing in English. This isn’t particularly helpful, however, because the use of 着 in Chinese is not nearly so frequent, and can also be quite idiomatic.
Chinese grammar: Sequencing past events with houlai后来
"…, 后来…" (…, hòulái…) is used to sequence past events in the same way that "Afterward…" is in English. Something very important to note is that 后来 can only be used with two events that have already occurred in Chinese grammar.
Chinese grammar: ever since with yilai以来
There are a few ways to express "ever since" in Chinese. In English, we would say something like "ever since I came to Shanghai, my Chinese has improved a lot." In this article, we will first take a look at using 以来 (yǐlái) to mean "ever since". We will also take a quick look at using "ever since" with 来 （lái), which is similar but used in a somewhat different way.
Chinese grammar: Before and after with zhiqian之前 and zhihou之后
Before and after can be expressed using 之前 (zhīqián) and 之后 (zhīhòu). They are in relatively the same vein as 以前/以后, except that these two are adverbs, while 之前/之后 is a preposition. Don’t forget that these two are talking about before and after in terms of time.
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