hotels”
In the above examples, the noun bīn'guǎn 宾馆 “hotel” is qualified by a number with the appropriate measure word jiā 家, which indicates whether or not it is singular or plural. You will notice that whereas the number èr 二 “two” is used in counting, e.g., yī, èr, sān... 一二三 “one, two, three ...” the word liǎng 两 “a couple of” replaces èr 二 “two” where a measure word is used.
Like nouns, Chinese pronouns do not change form whether they are used as subjects or objects. Simple personal pronouns are: wǒ 我 “I/me,” nǐ 你 “you,” tā 他 “he/him,” tā 她 “she/her” and tā 它 “it” (the last three pronouns share the same pronunciation but are written with different characters).
Unlike nouns, however, Chinese pronouns can take on plural forms with the addition of the suffix -men 们, making the above examples into wǒmen 我们 “we/us,” nǐmen 你们 “you” (plural), tāmen 他们 “they/them” (either all male or mixed) and tāmen 她 们 “they/them” (all female). Similarly, the pronoun for animals or insects is tāmen 它们 “they/them.” The suffix -men 们 is added to nouns only sparingly in greetings, e.g., nǚshìmen, xiānshengmen 女士们、先生们 “ladies and gentlemen,” as it is unnecessary to indicate plural forms in nouns.
In addition to personal pronouns, there are demonstrative pronouns. For example, zhè 这 “this” and nà 那 “that.” It is important to note that a plural measure word xiē 些 is added to give the plural forms of these pronouns: zhèxiē 这些 “these” and nàxiē 那 些 “those,” so it is not a plural form in the sense that -men 们 is used.
3 Possessives and measure words
To make a possessive out of a noun or pronoun, simply add the particle de 的. Thus,
| dǎoyóu de | 导游的 | “the tour guide’s” |
| Lǐ xiǎojie de | 李小姐的 | “Miss Li’s” |
| wǒde | 我的 | “my” or “mine” |
| nǐde | 你的 | “your” (singular) or “yours” |
| tāde | 他/她的 | “his/her” |
| wǒmende | 我们的 | “our” |
| nǐmende | 你们的 | “your” (plural) or “yours” (plural) |
| tāmende | 他们的 | “their” or “theirs” |
You have learned to use measure words in conjunction with numbers to indicate the plural form of a noun. In English we say “a slice/loaf of bread,” “a piece/ream of paper,” “a school of fish” etc. In Chinese this usage applies to all nouns in order to specify number, e.g., “a book” is yìběn shū 一本书, “a table” is yì zhāng zhuōzi 一张桌子 and “two chairs’ is liǎng bǎ yǐzi 两把椅子. As you can see from the above examples, there isn’t one unique measure word for each noun; measure words tend to describe classes of objects with similar characteristics. Thus the word běn 本 describes bound books, zhāng 张 describes wide, flat objects of many types such as tables, paper, bedsheets, etc., and bǎ describes things with handles including chairs, knives, forks, etc. Luckily for beginners of the language, there is a general-use measure word ge 个 which is used in simple phrases like zhè ge 这 个 “this one,” nà ge 那个 “that one,” nǎ ge 哪个 “which one” or jǐ ge 几个 “how many (items)?”
4 Verbs
Chinese verbs are not conjugated, but keep one simple form regardless of the subject or tense. Thus the verb chī 吃 “eat” is the same whether the subject is I, you, he/she or they, and whether the action took place yesterday or will happen two days from now. There are ways to indicate tense in Chinese sentences, e.g., the use of time words before the verb, the use of the particles guo 过 and le 了 to indicate past and completed action, and the use of yào 要 and huì 会 to indicate future action. For example,
• The use of time words before the verb:
| Wǒ zuótiān chī jiǎozi. | 我昨天吃饺子 | “Yesterday I ate dumplings” |
| Wǒ jīntiān chī jiǎozi. | 我今天吃饺子 | “Today I eat dumplings” |
| Wǒ míngtiān chī jiǎozi. | 我明天吃饺子 | “Tomorrow I’ll be eating dumplings” |
Note that the Chinese verb chī 吃 “eat” does not change to indicate tense; this is done through the use of zuótiān 昨 天 “yesterday,” jīntiān 今天 “today” and míngtiān 明天 “tomorrow.”
• The use of the particle guo 过 after the verb to indicate action occurred in unspecified time in the past:
| Wǒ chīguo jiǎozi. | 我吃过饺子 | “I’ve eaten dumplings previously” |
• The use of the particle le 了 after the verb to indicate action has just been recently completed:
| Wǒ chīle jiǎozi. | 我吃了饺子 | “I’ve just eaten (the) dumplings” |
• The use of the aspect partices yào 要 “want” or huì 会 “will/shall” before the verb to indicate future action:
| Wǒ yào chī jiǎozi. | 我要吃饺子 | “I’m going to eat (the) dumplings” |
| Wǒ huì chī (nàxiē) jiǎozi. | 我会吃(那些) 饺子的。 | “I’ll be eating (the) dumplings” |
5 Adjectives
Adjectives in Chinese are simple as they don’t need to agree in gender or number with the nouns they modify. They are sometimes called stative verbs as they incorporate the verb “to be” in the sentence. In their positive form, adjectives are generally preceded by the adverb hěn 很 “very.” Thus Wǒ hěn gāoxìng 我很 高兴 means “I’m very happy.”
When adjectives modify nouns in phrases they generally precede the noun, often using the particle de 的 in between. For example,
| xiǎo xióngmāo | 小熊猫 | “a small panda” |
| zāng yīfu | 脏衣服 | “soiled clothings” |
| hǎo péngyou | 好朋友 | “good friends” |
|
měilì
|