Chinese Grammar

离 (lí) is considered one of the core, ‘basic’ words in Chinese. The way it works might not seem too intuitive to an English speaker. And no wonder: the concept of 离 (lí) barely exists in English, and to use it correctly, you need to resort to a seemingly twisted sentence structure. But let’s try to make it less

The adverb 真 (zhēn) is one of the most basics words in Mandarin Chinese. It corresponds to “really” or “truly” in English and is often used before adjectives and verbs to intensify the degree. In this post, we’ll look at how to use 真 (zhēn) to express exclamation in Chinese. Afterward, we’ll explore the differences between 真 (zhēn), 很 (hěn), 非常 (fēicháng) and 真的 (zhēn de) which

One of the first phrases you might want to pick up in Mandarin Chinese is: I don’t understand. Learning to say “I don’t understand” is actually quite simple, but because of the way this phrase can be used in different contexts, learning its direct translation is not enough. We also need to learn the various ways

应该 (yīnggāi) is one of the most important modal verbs in Chinese. In many ways, it works like the English word “should”, but still there is some difference, which could be somewhat confusing for Chinese beginners. Have no fear if that happens to be your case. In this post, you’ll learn how to say “should” in Chinese

Mandarin Chinese and English have the same basic sentence pattern ‘subject-verb-object’, AKA ‘S-V-O’. But when it comes to using two or multiple verbs in one sentence, Chinese works somewhat differently. In this article, we’ll look at how to connect different verbs in a Chinese sentence, and we’ll also talk about a common mistake that many

If you are looking to build a solid foundation in Mandarin Chinese grammar, or simply want to have a basic understanding of how the Chinese language works, you’ve come to the right place.   As one of the world’s biggest websites about learning Chinese, we’ve helped thousands of people improve their grammatical skills, and speak