SENTENCE PATTERNS & PHRASE ORDER IN MANDARIN CHINESE

Basic Sentence Pattern:

Subject + Predicate

A. The POSITION of DIRECT & INDIRECT OBJECTS: WHERE NOTHING is emphasized, the direct and
indirect objects of the verb follow the verb. We refer to the verb and its object as verb phrase.

PATTERN/ ORDER : Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object.

Ex. TA1 GEI3 WO3 YI1 BEN3 SHU1. He gives me one book.

Most verbs take only a direct object.

Ex . Wo3 kan4 le na4 xie1 shu1. I read those books.

B. The POSITION of PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES. The prepositional phrase always occurs right before
the verb and its object.

PATTERN /ORDER : Subject + prepositional phrase + verb + direct object.

Ex. Wo1 gen1 wo3 de di1 di kan4 dian1 ying3. I see a movie with my younger brother.

Ta1 gen1 ta1de nu3 peng2you chi1 wan3fan4. He eats dinner with his girlfriend.

C. The POSITION of LOCATION PHRASES. This is a type of preposition phrase. It always occurs
before a verb phrase.

PATTERN/ORDER: Subject + location phrase + verb phrase.

Ex. Wo3 zai4 jia1 chi1 fan4. I eat at home. Within the location phrase, the order is from the
biggest to the smallest. Letters are addressed following this principle.

D. The POSITION of ‘time when’ PHRASES. THE ‘time when’ phrase occurs at the beginning of the
predicate.

PATTERN/ORDER : Subject + time when + predicate

Ex. Wo3 mei3tian1 he1 ka1fei1. I drink coffee every day.

Ta1 mei3tian1 gen ta de nu pengyou chi wanfan. He eats dinner with his girlfriend every day.

IF ‘TIME WHEN’ IS EMPHASIZED or contrasted with another time, it may occur before the subject.

Ex. Zuo2tian1 wo3 bu2 tai4 shu1fu. Jin1tian1 yi3jing mei2 wen4ti2 le. Yesterday I was a bit

uncomfortable. Today it is no longer a problem.

 Within the ‘time when’ phrase , the order is from the largest to the smallest block of time.

Ex. October 10, 2020- er4 ling2 er ling nian shi2 yue4 shi2 hao4.

Yesterday evening 7 0’ clock – Zuo2tian1 wan3shang qi1 dian3 zhong1.

E. THE relative ORDER of the ‘TIME WHEN’ PHRASE and the LOCATION PHRASE. When both
phrases are included in the sentence, ‘time when’ occurs before location.

PATTERN/ ORDER : Subject + time when + location + verb phrase.

Ex. Wo3 mei3tian1 zai4 jia1 chi1 fan4. I eat at home every day.

F. The POSITION of ADVERBS. Adverbs occur at the beginning of the predicate, before the verb
and any prepositional phrase. Adverbs usually occur after the ‘time when’ phrase.

Ex. Wo3 zuo3tian1 gen wode pengyou qu4 xue2xiao4. Yesterday I went to school with my
friends.

G. The POSITION of NEGATION . Negation words ( bu and mei) occur before the verb and any
prepositional phrase. It usually occurs after an adverb, though certain adverbs may either
precede or follow negation.

H. The POSITION of DURATION PHRASES. Duration phrases are time phrases that indicate the
length of time that an action occurs . They directly follow the verb. Unlike English , there is no
preposition associated with the expression of duration in Mandarin.

Ex. Wo meimei zai4 Meiguo zhu4 le si4 nian2. My younger sister lived in America for 4 years.

Wo3 zuo2 (zuotian)wan3 (wanshang) xue2 pu3tong1hua4 san1 ge xiao3shi2. I studied Mandarin

for 3 hours last night.

I. ORDER Within the NOUN PHRASE. The main noun in the noun phrase , the head noun, occurs as
the last word in the phrase. All phrases that describe or modify the head noun occur before the
head noun.

Ex. na4 ben3 hen3 you3 yi4si de shu1 – that very interesting book.

a very long road – yi1 ge4 hen3 zhang3 de lu4.

J. PHRASE ORDER in QUESTIONSi. In Mandarin Chinese, the order of phrases in questions is similar
to the order of phrases in statements.

Ex. STATEMENT- Wo xi3huanta1. – I like him

CONTENT QUESTION – Ni3 xihuan shei2? Who do you like?

YES-NO QUESTION – Ni xihuan ta ma? Or Ni xihuan bu xihuan ta? Or Ni xi bu xihua