lesson 8 part 3

Lesson 8, Pattern 3: Serial Verbs
last revised January 9, 2004

他回宿舍看書了。 He returned to the dorm to read.

You have already encountered some patterns with two or more verbs in series within a single clause. Now you will gain an overview of the whole pattern. Several principles may come into play in determining the sequence, however, the grammatical structure is the same. Generally speaking, the action that occurs first is placed first in sequence.

In some cases, the second verb or verb-object combination expresses the purpose of the first action. Quite often, the first verb in such a sentence is one of locomotion (去/來) while the second verb expresses the action that takes place in the new place. 來我家看電視 thus means "to come to my house to watch TV." Watching TV is the purpose of the first verb, 來.
In other cases, the first verb may express the means by which the second verb takes place. 用筆寫字 thus means "to write with (or using) a pen." In lesson 16 you will learn about this usage in more detail.

Note the handling of negative and perfect aspect sentences. 沒 or 不 is placed before the first verb in series (including auxiliary verbs), while the perfect aspect particle 了 is placed after the last one to indicate completion of action. It is also possible to put 了at the end of the entire sentence, in which case it becomes a modal particle and indicates a change of state (see grammar notes for Lesson 5).

Pattern	Example	Explanation
S-V1-O1-V2-O2 affirmative	`他到圖書館去看報。` He goes to the library to read the paper.	V2 `看報`: purpose and sequence of actions
	`李友喜歡用筆寫漢字。` Li You likes writing Chinese characters with a pen.	V1 `用`: expresses the means
	`我想找朋友去打球。` I want to find a friend to go play ball.	V2 `去` and V3 `打球`: purpose and sequence
S-`沒/不`-V1-O1-V2-O2 negative	`李小姐沒來學校上課。` Miss Li didn't come to school to go to class.	V2`上課`: purpose
	`明天他不去王朋的家玩兒。` He's not going to Wang Peng's house to "play" tomorrow.	V2 `玩兒`: purpose
	`他不喜歡用中文唱歌。` He doesn't like to sing songs in Chinese.	V2 `用`: means
	`他還沒給我寫信告訴我他什麼時候要來。` He still hasn't written me to tell me what time he is coming.	V3 `告訴`: purpose Note that in this sentence, `給` is treated as if it were a verb. In some grammar systems, it is called a co-verb, rather than a preposition. Note further that the complete phrase `他什麼時候要來` comprises the second object of `告訴`
S-V1-O1-V2-`了`-O2 perfect aspect	`下午我去圖書館看了三本書。` In the afternoon I went to the library and read three books.	V2 `看`: purpose
S-V1-O1-V2-`了`-O2 perfect aspect	`昨天晚上他用漢語給他女朋友寫了一封信。` Last night he wrote a letter to his girlfriend in Chinese.	V1 `用`: means


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Lesson 8, Pattern 3: Serial Verbs last revised January 9, 2004

Lesson 8, Pattern 3: Serial Verbs
last revised January 9, 2004