sentence pattern lesson 2

Lesson 2, Major Sentence Patterns
last revised October 18, 2004

`有` Basic Sentence Pattern

S	Adv	V	Obj (Num-MW-N)	Particle
`王先生`		`有`	`弟弟`。
`我`		`有`	`兩個妹妹`。
`小高`	`沒`	`有`	`女兒`。
`老張`	`也沒`	`有`	`兒子。`
`他`		`有`	`三張照片`	`嗎?`
`我家`		`有`	`五個人`。

Question Pronouns -- replace nouns

Question pronouns can be inserted into ordinary statements in order to turn them into questions. The question word must replace a noun in the sentence. When answering such a question, you may keep the exact wording but replace the question word with the answer. Alternatively, you may shorten the sentence by replacing proper names with 他 or other pronouns, or even omitting part of the sentence altogether. In all cases, however, the word order remains the same (unlike English, in which the word order of the answer is usually different from that of the question).

S-有幾-MW-N?
how many?

小張有幾個姐姐?
How many older sisters does Young Zhang have?

她有兩個姐姐。
She has two elder sisters.

S-是誰?
who?

S-是誰的?
whose?

高先生是誰? 高先生是我的老師。
Who is Mr. Gao? Mr. Gao is my teacher.

你的朋友是誰? 他是王朋。
Who is your friend? He's Wang Peng.

那是誰的? 是李老師的。
Whose is that? It's Teacher Li's.

S-是什麼?
S-叫什麼(名字)?
what?

這是什麼? 那是我的照片。
What is this? That is my photograph.

那是什麼? 這是我家的照片。
What is that? This is a photo of my family.

你叫什麼名字? 我叫李友。
What is your name? My name is Li You.

Multiple Adverbs

Adverbs always go before the verb, and after the subject, if there is a subject. When a sentence has more than one adverb, the adverbs must be arranged in a fixed order. Please note that this pattern also works with adjectives, introduced in more detail in a later lesson. You can expect to see an expanded table then.

S-`都`-V all	`王朋和李友都是老師`。 Wang Peng and Li You are both teachers.
S-`都不`-V S-`都沒有`-(N) all not (none)	`王朋和李友都不是老師。` Neither Wang Peng nor Li You is a teacher. `老師都沒有弟弟。` None of the teachers has a younger brother.
S-`不都`-V not all	`律師不都是中國人`。 Not all of the lawyers are Chinese. `老師不都有弟弟。` Not all of the teachers have younger brothers.
S-`也都`-V also all	`醫生也都是美國人。` All of the doctors are Americans, too.
S-`也都不`-V S-`也都沒有`-(N) also all not (none)	`大學生也都不姓王`。 None of the college students are surnamed Wang, either. `大學生也都沒有照片。` None of the college students have photographs, either.
S-`也不`-V S-`也不都`-V also not also not all	`王朋也不是中國人。` Wang Peng is also not Chinese. Wang Peng isn't Chinese, either. `律師也不都是英國人。` Not all of the lawyers are English, either. `醫生也不都有弟弟。` Not all of the doctors have younger brothers, either.


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Lesson 2, Major Sentence Patterns last revised October 18, 2004

有 Basic Sentence Pattern

Question Pronouns -- replace nouns

Multiple Adverbs

Lesson 2, Major Sentence Patterns
last revised October 18, 2004

`有` Basic Sentence Pattern