CHINESE 1

中文一
Seminar 1 Week 3
Tracy
What did you learn in Week 2?
Today’s outline

Revision of the structure of Chinese characters & strokes

New words and expressions of Lesson 1

Text study & Grammar notes of Lesson 1

Lesson 1 您贵姓 ? nín guì xìng?
Characters 汉字 hàn zì

您 们 老 师 贵 姓 叫 什 么 名
nín men lǎo shī guì xìng jiào shén me míng

字 是 国 学 习 汉 语 都 吗 呢
zì shì guó xué xí hàn yǔ dōu ma ne
词 语 CÍ YǓ
 Grammar Point 1
◦ 1) S V O (Subject + Verb + Object)

◦ Examples: I study Chinese. They play computer games. She eats fruits.

◦ 我是澳大利亚人。 Wo shi Aodaliyaren。 I am Australian.

◦ 我说英语。 Wo shuo Yingyu。 I speak English.
◦ 我姓王，他姓林。 Wo xing Wang, ta xing Lin.
My family name is Wang, and his family name is Lin.
e.g I am American.
My name is Linda.
 Grammar Point 2
2) S V O ? (with question words)
◦ In English, question sentences containing question words always start with those question words; for
example, “What do you study?” and “Where are you going?”. In Chinese, no change is required to
the sequence of “S V O”. In other words, in the sentence “What do you study?”, for example,
“what”, as the object of the sentence, still stays in the object position; the structure for this sentence
is then “You study what?”. “吗” is NOT required for such question sentences, as the question
words contained in these sentences can show that they are questions.

◦ In the text, the sentence “What is your name?” is structured as “You (are) call(ed) what name?” (你
叫什么名字？) because “what name（什么名字）” is the object of this sentence.
◦ Another example: 你是哪国人？
Grammar Point 3
3） Someone + 呢? = what about someone?

Examples:
我是中国人。你呢？ Wo shi Zhonguoren. Ni ne?
I am Chinese. What about you?

你是学生。他呢？ Ni shi xuesheng. Ta ne?

You are a student. What about him?

我学习英语。你呢？ Wo xuexi Yingyu. Ni ne?

I study English. What about you?
 Grammar Point 4
4) S V O 吗?
◦ This is a simple question form (a question sentence which does not have
any question words such as what, when, where, how, who etc.)

Examples:
你是澳大利亚人吗？Ni shi Aodaliyaren ma? Are you Australian?
你说英语吗？ Ni shuo Yingyu ma? Do you speak English?
e.g. Are you Linda?
Do you study Chinese?
Grammar Point 5
5) The negative form 不
不 is the negative form and it precedes verbs (both “to be” and other
verbs).

Examples:
他不是英国人。 Ta bu shi Yingguoren。 He is not British.
我不说英语。 Wo bu shuo Yingyu。 I do not speak English.

e.g. We don’t study English. We study Chinese.

 Grammar Point 6
6) S Adv V O

Examples:

我是法国人。她也是法国人。Wo shi Faguoren。Ta ye shi Faguoren.

I am French and she is also French.

我们都是澳大利亚人。Women dou shi Aodaliyaren。

We are all Australians.

e.g. They all study Chinese.