In the Chinese language there are two ways to say “two” and this grammar point catches out a lot of foreigners, especially for Beginner Chinese students. Let’s go over it here! In a nutshell though: Use ‘两liǎng’ for measuring things, such as ‘two people’ or ‘two cups of coffee’ Use ‘两liǎng’ to say ‘Two o’clock’ […]
Are patterns part of grammar, or are they just… Sentence structures? Maybe the distinction doesn’t matter, but it’s good to look at Chinese patterns, the stuff that kinda keeps it all together. With great sentence patterns your paragraphs, whether written or spoken, will become more flowing and fluent. And it’s not just us saying that. […]
The tyrannical “把”, unlike anything in English languages and so very tricky for Chinese learners to master. But you can! And you should, because it’s an extremely common sentence structure in Chinese. Everyone struggles with how to use 把bǎ in Chinese, when they reach an intermediate-high level. The “把” sentence structure is such a distinctively […]
The three ‘De’s are difficult for Chinese learners. Even Chinese people get confused about the three De’s in Chinese (的, 得, and 地). They sound the same, but their Chinese Hanzi characters aren’t the same, nor are their meanings/usages. Be confused no more! It’s not that complicated. In this blog, we’ll clarify this grammar point […]
Many Chinese learners struggle with Chinese word order & sentence structure. The difficulty comes from being used to word order & sentence structure in your mother tongue, and then replacing each word for each as LEGO blocks. That is not the right way. The Chinese language has a different word order & sentence structure than […]
Chinese measure words are one of the most notorious parts of the Mandarin Chinese language. Measure words in Chinese are slightly different than in most other languages (such as English) and therefore cause some headaches to Chinese learners. — Written by Anna老师 Whenever I’m teaching Chinese, I often hear Chinese language students complain about how […]
If you’re reading this, probably we need to congratulate you on reaching HSK 5 level! But it also means you may struggle with more Chinese grammar points in Mandarin learning, especially when you find most of them make no sense to you or cannot be directly translated. The three most important grammar points from HSK […]
Another difficult grammar point in HSK5 is the 为…所… (Wèi…suǒ…) phrase construction. Let’s go over this. How to use 为…所… (Wéi…suǒ…) First, please notice the pronunciation of “为” here is not “wèi” but “wéi”, and it indicates a difference in meaning. Different from “为 wèi” which is often translated into “for” or “for the sake […]
Another HSK5 grammar point that causes headaches to Chinese language students is the proposition word 于(Yú). “于” is a word often used in ancient Chinese, it means that you can only see it on formal occasions in modern Chinese. And because it can be used in different ways to express different meanings, and it can […]
One of the most difficult grammar points in HSK5 is the structural particle 所(suǒ). This grammar point confuses many HSK5-level Chinese language learners. Related Reading: HSK 2024 Test Dates & Details The particle 所 (suǒ) As a structural particle, “所” does not have a specific meaning. It means we do not need to translate it […]