How to use ‘to be’ (是 shì) in Mandarin Chinese

‘To be’ (是 shì) is an essential Mandarin word, but because the word ‘to be’ in English is so versatile it causes some problems for foreigners when they learn and speak Chinese. Here we show you some examples of how not and How to use ‘to be’ (是 shi) in Chinese.

Don’t use ‘是 shì’ to connect sentences or adjectives

You may know that the Chinese word ‘是 shì’ in English means ‘am/is/are’. And sometimes the usage in Chinese is similar. For example in English you say “I am Chinese”, we will say “我是中国人” in Chinese. ‘是 shì’ is used in sentences where the word used to describe something is a noun.

But if you want to say “I am beautiful” in Chinese, you cannot say “我是漂亮”. Here ‘beautiful’ is an adjective. You cannot use ‘是 shì’ to describe an adjective. Instead, you should use the word ‘很 hěn’, which means ‘very’. In Chinese, “adverb + adjective” can be used as a predicate directly without adding a “be” verb. Therefore, The correct way to say “I am beautiful. ” would be: “Wǒ hěn piào liang 我很漂亮.”

A common mistake we often hear Mandarin Chinese students make is using 是 in sentences with an adjective. An example: “你是很漂亮×” (“Nǐ shì hěn piàoliang”). This is a literal translation from the English sentence “you are very pretty.” However, in the Chinese language, this kind of sentence doesn’t need a verb. The correct way to say this is: “你很漂亮” (Nǐ hěn piàoliang).

Similarly, the sentence 他是很高(Tā shì hěn gāo: he is very tall.) is incorrect. 高(gāo)， like 漂亮(piàoliang), is an adjective, and therefore this sentence does not need a 是(shì): 他很高(Tā hěn gāo).

If you have trouble figuring out which words are adjectives and which words are nouns, keep the following in mind:

When describing something with an adjective, it’s usually an opinion (not everyone will agree someone is pretty). But when using a noun, what is being described is a fact (I am really a Chinese person).

How to use ‘to be’ (是 shi)

So when do we use 是(shì)?

是(shì) is used in sentences where the word used to describe something is a noun. For example:

• 你是中国人
• Nǐ shì zhōngguó rén
• You are Chinese

This sentence is similar to 你很漂亮(Nǐ hěn piàoliang), as in both cases we are saying something about 你(nǐ). But in the first sentence, the word used is an adjective, 漂亮(piàoliang), whereas in the second sentence the word used is a noun, 中国人(zhōngguó rén).

We hope that clarifies how to use ‘to be’ (是 shi) in Chinese!

Read here for more beginner mistakes in Chinese.