The Basic SVO Sentence
On this level, Chinese word order very closely matches English word order. "SVO" stands
for "Subject-Verb-Object" [1]. For extremely simple sentences like "I love you" or "he eats
glass," the word order of Chinese matches that of English, literally, word for word. Keep in
mind that "SVO" doesn't include little details like articles (a, the, etc.) or prepositions (to, for,
etc.).
Subject + Verb + Object
SVO word order exampes
Subject
Verb
Object
我
爱
你
。
你
吃
饭
。
他
踢
足球
。
This concept shouldn't take long at all to master. This makes sense "by default" for English
speakers.
Adding extra information to a sentence
More details can be added to the basic sentence structure. How to do this is demonstrated
below.
Placement of time words in a sentence
Time words, the WHEN part of a sentence, have a special place in Chinese. They usually
come at the beginning of a sentence, right after the subject. Occasionally you'll see them
before the subject, but the place you won't be seeing them is at the end of the sentence
(where they frequently appear in English).
Placement of Time Words
Subject
Time when
Verb phrase
我
今天
工作
。
你们
每天
洗澡
。
他
星期二
来
。
Placement of place words in a sentence
When you want to tell WHERE something happened in Chinese (at school, at work, in
Vegas, on the bus, etc.), you're most often going to use a phrase beginning with 在. This
phrase needs to come after the time word (see above) and before the verb. Pay attention to
this last part: before the verb. In English, this information naturally comes after the verb, so
it's going to be difficult at first to get used to saying WHERE something
happened beforesaying the verb.
Placement of place words
Subject
Time when
我
Place word
Verb phrase
在 上海
工作
你们
星期六
在家
看 电影
她
1980年
在 美国
出生
For some common exceptions to this word order, please see the following section.
Exceptions to the normal placement of place words
There are some special verbs which seem to be allowed to break the rules (see
also location complements). For these special verbs, the WHERE information
comes after the verb rather than before. It's important to remember that these verbs are
exceptions. If you're not sure where the place phrase should go, it's usually safer to put
it before the verb. This is the normal way to modify a verb in Chinese.
Exception to place word location in sentences
Subject
Verb phrase
Place word
我们
住
在 中国
他
走
到 外面
坐
在 房间 里
他
Time when
Place word
刚才
Placement of duration in a sentence
Whenever you talk about FOR HOW LONG, you're getting into duration. It's not the same
as a regular time word; it has its own rules.
Placement of duration
Subject
Time when
Place word
Verb phrase
Place word
Time duration
我
住
在 中国
三年 了
我
去年
在 北京
学习 了
三个月
他
上 个 星期
在 家里
看 电视 看 了
二十 个 小时
Placement of manner in a sentence
Manner refers to HOW you do something, as in quietly, quickly, angrily, drunkenly, etc. This
can be done adverbially (before the verb), but it's worth remembering that
a complement works very well too.
Placement of manner
Subject
Time-when
Manner
Place word
高兴 地
我
他
买 完 东西 以后
满意 地
她
喝醉 的 时候
疯狂 地
在桌子上
It is worth noting that "manner" is not something you'll want to add to every sentence. You
will see it, but it's not the most common way to add more detail to a verb.
Placement of instrument in a sentence
OK, now we're getting a little out there. Rarely are you going to want to cram so much
information into a simple sentence, but for the sake of argument, we're going to give it a go.
This is the USING WHAT part of a sentence - called the instrument. In English, this is often
placed at the end of the sentence and preceded by 'with'. In Chinese, it comes before the
verb and is preceded by 用.
Placement of instrument
Subject
Time when
Manner
Place word
Instrument
Verb
用 筷子
吃饭
在 办公室
用 电脑
工作
在 路上
用 中文
讨论 了
她
他
今天 早上
咱们
友好地
Placement of target in a sentence
Target is about who or what the verb is aimed at. This includes doing things for or on behalf
of someone, or towards people or objects.
Placement of manner
Subject
Time when
我
有时候
Manner
Location
Instrument
Target
Ver
对 父母
说
见
我
偷偷 地
和 女朋友
司机
热情 地
给我
介绍
对他
审
给 我们
做
警察
那天
她
上 个 星期
不停地
在 警察局
在他家
用 网上 的 菜谱
Placement of 也 in a sentence
也 behaves like other adverbs, but if the sentence also contains 很, 都 or 不, 也 should
appear before them.
Before 很:
他
很 喜欢 吃 包子。我 也 很 喜欢 吃。He really likes to eat baozi. I
also like to eat them.
 我们
很 高兴。他 也 很 高兴。We are happy. He is also happy.
Before 都:
你
是 我的 朋友。他们 也 都 是 我的 朋友。You are my friend. They
are also all my friends.
我
吃素。我 家人 也 都 吃素。I am vegetarian. The people in my family
are also all vegetarians.
Before 不 and 没:
我
不 是 学生。他 也 不 是。I am not a student. He isn't either.
 我 没 去过 美国。他 也 没 去过。I have not gone to America. He also
hasn't gone.
Mnemonic Trick
One way to remember the word order in Chinese is the order in which things have to
happen. For example, time has to pass before you can be at a place, so that goes first. You
have to be at a place before you can do anything there, so the location comes before the
verb. You need the instrument before you can use it, so that comes before the verb as well.
Adverbs and complements are a little more difficult, but since they have to do with the verb
itself, they go around the verb, either before or after it, depending on their role. Hopefully
this little trick helps you remember the order of words in Chinese, but remember, practicing
with Chinese speakers and hearing them make these sentences is a great tool to use as
well.
Using question words in a Chinese sentence
You can insert question words (often called wh-words in English) into the structures above
to form questions. Forming questions in Chinese is more straightforward than in English. In
English you have to move the question word to the front of the sentence, whereas in
Chinese it stays put in the sentence. All you have to do is replace the element you'd like to
ask about with an appropriate question word.
Placement of question words
Subject
Time when
Manner
谁
她
什么 时候
她
Place Word
Instrument
Target
在 路上
用 中文
向 陌生人
问
在 路上
用 中文
向 陌生人
问
用 中文
向 陌生人
问
怎么
她
在 哪里
用 中文
向 陌生人
问
她
在 路上
用 哪种 语言
向 陌生人
问
在 路上
用 中文
向谁
问
她
昨天
你
闲暇的时候
他
今年
做
在 上海
学了
Order of attributives
Sometimes, a noun will have more than one detail that you want to express. When this is
the case, Chinese has a specific order for the attributives that describe the noun. It's
important to keep this order in mind as you are describing something.
Order: 1) Possessives such as "my", "his", or "Sarah's". 2) Demonstrative pronouns (这/那),
number, and measure word. 3) Any adjectives that you want to use to describe the noun. 4)
The noun or noun phrase
Remember, it isn't necessary to include every single one of these attributes, but when they
are all present , this is the order that they should come in. If some are missing, just jump
over that section and move onto the next. The examples below will help make this clearer.
Examples
我
的 这 三 个 孩子 都 很 听话。These three kids of mine are all very
obedient.
这
个 红 色 的 小 盒子 里面 有 什么？What is inside this little red box?