A helpful guide to basic Chinese sentence structures & grammar

Learning Chinese sentence structures is an incredibly helpful skill and one that is also relatively easy to acquire.

If you’ve just started learning Chinese or are only thinking about signing up for your first Chinese class, you’re probably wondering if Chinese is hard to learn. While Chinese does have some challenging aspects, like learning the characters and getting the tones right, we’re happy to report that grammar isn’t one of them.

In fact, Chinese grammar is often cited as the easiest part of learning the language by non-native speakers. That’s because Chinese has a very lenient sentence structure, no verb conjugations, and no gender agreement. In fact, if you translated Chinese to English word for word, it may sound like you’re just deciding to ignore all grammar rules.

However, that doesn’t mean that there is no Chinese grammar or that you can get away with stringing sentences together as you see fit. There are many Chinese grammar structures that you can learn to express yourself more clearly, especially as you get more advanced.

And if you’re just getting started with Chinese, then following some grammar structures can help you figure out the language while you start understanding it. Just plug in any verb/subject/object into the sentence structure, and voilà! You’ve got yourself a fully coherent Chinese sentence.

Want to see what we mean? Let’s start with the basics!

Table of contents

• Chinese grammar basics
• The most basic Chinese sentence structures
• Commonly used Chinese sentence structures
• Advanced Chinese sentence structures

Chinese grammar basics

The most basic grammar structures are some of the clearest examples of why Chinese grammar is so easy to learn. Here are some of the most important things you need to know about Chinese grammar:

No conjugations

If you’ve studied a Romance language like French or Spanish, then you already know how troublesome verb conjugations can be. The good news about Chinese is that you won’t have to conjugate verbs — ever. There is no need to conjugate based on pronouns or even verb tense as the verb stays the same no matter what.

Time at the beginning

Part of the reason verbs don’t need to be conjugated in Chinese is that the time something happened always goes at the beginning of the sentence, either before or immediately after the subject. This will make it abundantly clear when the action happened right off the bat, making it easy for people to follow your story.

You can choose to be as specific or as general as you want. If you already know how to tell the time in Chinese, then feel free to be as specific as you wish! Otherwise, here are some common time words in Chinese.

Plural and singular

Pluralizing words can be messy in some languages, but Chinese isn’t one of them. Let’s start with the basics. The auxiliary word 们 (men) will help you pluralize pronouns and human nouns. All you need to do is put it immediately after the pronoun or noun to pluralize.

For example:

See, simple as that! And want to hear the best part? It gets even easier! Besides pronouns and human nouns, all other nouns don’t need to be changed to be pluralized. But how can that be? Well, all you need to do is add the Chinese number along with the correct Chinese measure word in front of it, and that will be enough pluralization.

Here are some examples:

No gender agreement

English is a genderless language, which means that nouns don’t have gender. If you’ve studied German before, you know that getting nouns to agree in gender with adjectives and articles can be extremely difficult. Luckily, you won’t have to worry about this in Chinese as nouns have no gender!

Indicating possessions

Indicating possession in Chinese is extremely easy thanks to the particle 的 (de). This nifty particle is used to modify nouns and has many uses, one of which is to indicate possession. It’s very similar to the ’s in English, as it is added after a noun to show the possession of another noun. The general structure is:

• Noun 1 + 的 + Noun 2

In these situations, noun 1 owns noun 2. Here are some examples:

Measure words

Measure words are a critical component of Chinese grammar. As an English speaker, you’re already familiar with measure words, which are used to count uncountable nouns. For example, you might say you want two apples and two glasses of juice, since saying “two juices” wouldn’t be specific enough.

In Chinese, however, all nouns require a measure word, even if they’re countable. There is no English equivalent for many of these words, as they’re simply measure words that don’t have any other meanings. There are also over 200 Chinese measure words, and each noun has a corresponding measure word. That means that you will have to learn the appropriate measure word for each noun.

Here are some examples of measure words in action:

The most basic Chinese sentence structures

Now that you’re familiar with the essentials of Chinese grammar, let’s take a look at some of the most common sentence structures in Chinese along with a few examples.

Subject + Verb + Object (SVO)

The most basic grammar structure in English also happens to be the most basic grammar structure in Chinese. You’re used to starting your sentences with the subject, followed by a verb, and then the object. In other words, sentences are structured in a “Who does what” way.

Here are some examples:

Subject + Time + Verb + (Object)

The next sentence type adds an element of time into the mix. As you learned earlier in this article, time always comes towards the beginning of the sentence, usually right after the subject. This will help you immediately establish when something happened, thus removing the need to conjugate the verb.

Here are some examples:

Subject + Time + Location + Verb + (Object)

Now things are getting a bit spicier! You can add the location of an action by using the preposition 在 (zài) followed by the location right before the main verb of the sentence.

Here’s what that looks like:

Subject + Time + Location + Verb + Duration + (Object)

This is the longest of the elementary sentence structures, and it will allow you to express a tremendous amount of information without using any complicated grammar structures.

Here are a few examples:

Commonly used Chinese sentence structures

Most Chinese sentence structures follow modified versions of the essential sentence structures covered above. If you don’t know when or how to start modifying them, we’ve put together a simple guide for some of the most common (and useful!) sentence structures in Chinese:

Basic negations

There are two main ways to express negations in Chinese: 不 (bù) and 没有 (méi yǒu). Although they both form negations, they are almost never interchangeable, so you need to learn how to use the right negation in the right circumstance. Let’s take a look:

Negations with 不

This is likely the first type of negation you will learn in your Chinese class as it helps us negate the most basic types of sentences: present and future tense. It is placed immediately before a verb or adjective to negate it. Some of the most common uses of 不 (bù) include:

• Present tense (except for the verb 有)
• Future tense
• Actions you don’t want to do
• Habitual actions
• Adjectives
• Asking questions
• In most cases, only 不 can negate the verbs 是, 在 and 认识

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Negations with 没有

The other common negation is 没有 (méi yǒu), which is commonly abbreviated as simply 没. It is generally used to:

• Negate actions that happened in the past
• Negate the verb 有
• To make comparisons (A isn’t as [adjective] as B)

Here are some examples:

Questions with 吗 and question words

There are two main ways to ask questions in Chinese, and both are extremely easy. The first and most common way is to simply add the question particle 吗 (ma) at the end of what would otherwise be a statement to turn it into a question. Here are some examples:

The second way to ask questions in Chinese is to use a question word. In English, these are the “what, where how, why” words. If you use one of these words in Chinese, then you no longer need to use 吗 (ma) at the end of the sentence. Here are some of the most common question sentences in Chinese:

Here are some examples of questions using question words:

Conjunctions with 和

The most common way to express “and” in Chinese is with 和 (hé). However, keep in mind that there are several ways to express “and” in Chinese, so you can’t always rely on it. You will want to use this structure when listing out two or more nouns, such as:

Comparisons with 也

The Chinese adverb 也 (yě) works similarly to the English “also” and “too.” It always comes before a verb or adjective, as opposed to 和 (hé), which comes before nouns. You can use 也 (yě) to compare your behaviors

Using 有

This is undoubtedly one of the most helpful Chinese verbs. This sentence structure, though simple, will help you express what you have, both physical and abstract. For example, if you’ve just started taking online group Mandarin classes, you can use this sentence to say you have a question!

• Subject + 有 + Object

Here are some examples:

Advanced Chinese sentence structures

So far, so good? If you’ve gotten through the previous sentence structures with no trouble, then it’s time to introduce you to some advanced Chinese grammar structures. These are just some of the most common sentence structures you’ll run into:

Using the 把 structure

The 把 (bǎ) structure is one of the hardest for non-native speakers to grasp because it doesn’t have a direct English equivalent. Its closest equivalent would be something like “[subject] took [object] and [verb],” such as “I took the keys and put them on the table.” However, you don’t necessarily have to physically take something to use the 把 (bǎ) structure. Don’t worry, though, this sentence structure becomes quite intuitive after some practice.

The 把 (bǎ) structure places the object before the verb (as opposed to a normal SVO structure) to emphasize the movement of the object:

• Subject + 把 (bǎ) + Object + Verb

Here are some examples:

Using the 被 structure

This structure isn’t as common as the 把 (bǎ) structure, but it’s still very helpful to know. Fortunately, the 被 (bèi) structure does have an English equivalent: the passive voice. It works by putting the receiver of the action before 被 and following it with the doer of the action. This is the general structure:

• Subject + 被 + (Doer) + Verb + 了

Here are some examples:

Using 看来 to express perspectives

The 看来 construction is extremely helpful when you want to express perspectives, be it your own or someone else’s. It can help you put yourself in other people’s shoes, and describe what your friends and family are thinking. You can even use it to hypothesize about what another person might be thinking and what led them to behave a certain way! The basic construction is:

• 在 + Person + 看来 + Perspective

Here are some examples:

Using 随着

Another nifty verb structure in Chinese is the use of 随着 to express changing trends or circumstances. The English equivalent would be “As [trend], [result]” as in “As the sun went down, the temperature dropped.” The structure in Chinese is the following:

• 随着 + Trend，Subject + Predicate

Here are some examples:

Using 并 / 并且

并 (bìng) / 并且 (bìngqiě) can help you express complex sentences by taking things even further with “moreover.” This will help you expand on your ideas by adding subordinate clauses expanding on your first action.

There are three main ways to use this word:

• Verb 1 + 并且 / 并 + Verb 2
• Verb 1 + 并且 + 也 / 还 + Verb 2
• 不但 / 不仅 + Verb 1 + 并且 + 也 / 还 + Verb 2

Here are some examples:

Using 只好

This is a very useful phrase that can help you express that you ought to do something. It works similar to the English equivalent of “have to + verb,” as in “I have to leave.” It’s relatively easy to use once you’re familiar with this comparison and its sentence structure:

• Initial phrase，(Subject +) 只好 + [Verb] (+ Object)

Here are some examples:

Using 不得不

This structure is very similar to the one above, but it expresses a higher degree of necessity. It emphasizes that the subject had no choice but to do the action immediately after 不得不 (bù dé bù), as it was out of the subject’s hands.

• Subject + 不得不 + Verb

Here are some examples:

Start using these sentence structures right away!

Although learning grammar can be a grueling process in many languages, that doesn't have to be the case with Chinese. No matter how many Chinese lessons you’ve taken, you can use one of the sentence structures above, insert some vocabulary words, and start speaking right away!

Not sure where you can find the vocabulary words to fill in your sentence structures? Take a look at our Mandarin blog! We regularly publish helpful vocabulary and grammar blogs to propel your learning, like our guide to over 200 drinks in Chinese and 186 ways to say I love you in Chinese.