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Showing posts with the label grammar

Confusing Chinese Structures

 Confusing Chinese Structures As any other language, Chinese also has a complex grammar. Of course, come structures are easier than others. In this post, you'll see a lot of confusing grammar structures that are part of an intermediate learner coursework. Also, this structures are not based of the HSK, instead they are based on the GoChinese Series. If you want to learn more about these books, click here. What makes these structures hard? These structures are complicated, because they do not have a translation to English, nor there are similar to any other structure in Spanish. Depending on your mother tongue, you might be able to assimilate them a bit faster. Furthermore, This is a clear example of why when learning a language, it is important to focus on the meaning things have, instead of simply translating everything. As in the future, this will make your language learning path a lot smoother and less confusing. Grammar structures: 原來...啊 This structure is used to indicate that...

Chinese Modal Particles (啊 and 吧)

  Chinese Modal Particles to Express Emotions  In your Chinese language journey you probably have encounter a lot of modal particles. Whether it's on a show, video, or reading. They are practically everywhere, which makes them quite important. It's true that without knowing them you are still able to understand the meaning, but the modal particles help you understand the connotation.  Why do Chinese modal particles exists?  They exist to show emotion while speaking. For example: in English you can simply change your tone to show a certain emotion, or to emphasize that it's a question. But in Chinese we can't do this as it would change the tones, so instead they use modal particles to show a connotation.  啊 and 吧, Opposite Modal Particles.  啊: Statetement+啊: The 啊 is used to express certainty  他對我問:小美有沒有男朋友?, 他一定喜歡她啊 Statement (usually an opinion)+啊: The 啊 is used as an exclamation  這蛋糕好好吃啊  Question+啊 / 原來...啊: The 啊 is used to express surp...

What is going on with the 把 structure ?

The 把 structure The reason behind why you need he 把 structure The 把 structure is mostly used to add emphasis, the emphasis is added in the verb/result as it changes their usual position. This structure can be quite confusing, because in most western languages we don't have a structure that is remotely similar, so there is not a direct translation.  Even though this structure is quite hard, it's also really important, in my opinion it is fundamental. In addition, you will encounter this structure early on in your language journey. In my case I learned this structure in the GoChinese 400, and I'm also I'm pretty sure it's part of the HSK 3 coursework. What is the infamous 把 structure?  This structure is quite strict, from what I have learned up to now, the 把 structure never changes. It always follows its original pattern, which is : Subject+把+Object+Verb+ Result   The main uses of the 把 structure: 1)To emphasize that an action has finished Subject+把+Object+Verb+好了/忘了 ...

Grammar, do you ever just know it?

Grammar in the Chinese language The grammar of a language is the base of everything that's why in most classes there is such an emphasis on it, but as you keep improving in your language journey you'll keep learning new structures and old structures will become more complex, but when you are on the breach between beginner and intermediate level things get a bit complex, because you have more and more structures but at the same time you still don't know the basic grammar, by this I mean that you still need to look them up or analyze them when you are creating a sentence. The key to just knowing these structures is to practice and to get immersed in the language, because the more you interact with the structures, the faster you will process them, and suddenly they will start to click.  How can you use writing to improve this  There are different ways to do this; some people like to create paragraphs to practice, or in my case I like describing pictures, by this I mean that I ...