Lessons 7, 10: Word order in Chinese sentences · Sentences with a verbal predicate

Word order in Chinese sentences and sentences whose predicate is a verb.

Hanyu textbook · Hanyu 1 · Lesson 7 · Hanyu 1 · Lesson 10

我学习汉语。

Wǒ xuéxí Hànyǔ.

I study Chinese.

Explanation

Strictly speaking, Chinese has no inflection, so word order is the main grammatical device of Chinese. A Chinese sentence is made up of six elements: subject, predicate, object, attributive, adverbial, and complement. The usual order is subject first, predicate after.

The main component of a predicate is the verb; the object is the element that goes with the verb; the adverbial modifies a verb or adjective; the complement follows a verb or adjective to add further explanation; the attributive comes before a noun serving as subject or object and modifies it.

A sentence whose main predicate element is a verb is called a verbal-predicate sentence. Order: subject + predicate (verb) + object.

Structure

1
主语谓语（动词）宾语
Subject + predicate (verb) + object.
- 我学习汉语。
  Wǒ xuéxí Hànyǔ.
  I study Chinese.
- 她吃米饭。
  Tā chī mǐfàn.
  She eats a meal.
- 王老师住十八楼。
  Wáng lǎoshī zhù shíbā lóu.
  Teacher Wang lives on the 18th floor.
- 我不去图书馆。
  Wǒ bú qù túshūguǎn.
  I'm not going to the library.
2
定语主语 | 状语动词宾语 / 状语形容词
The textbook's table: subject = attributive + noun; predicate = adverbial + verb + complement + attributive + object (or adjective).
- 我朋友下午去银行。
  Wǒ péngyou xiàwǔ qù yínháng.
  My friend is going to the bank this afternoon.
- 我换人民币。
  Wǒ huàn rénmínbì.
  I'm exchanging RMB.
- 汉语不太难。
  Hànyǔ bú tài nán.
  Chinese is not very difficult.

Practice

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