sentence patterns for beginning Chinese

Major Sentence Patterns
last revised January 6, 2004

NOTE: This page will be added to continually over the course of the year. NJWin or NJ Communicator can be downloaded to read the Chinese characters in these pages, or you can install Microsoft fonts. Set your browser to view character set "Big 5 (traditional Chinese)." Interactive exercises have been created to accompany many of the patterns--click on practice. UCD students who want printed copies of pages for lessons covered in the current quarter may purchase them at Classical Notes in Memorial Union.

Integrated Chinese, Level 1 sentence patterns

Lesson	Web Page
Intro	Tips for learning Chinese Character worksheet FAQ
1	Lesson 1 basic sentence pattern
2	Lesson 2 major sentence patterns supplementary list of nationalities and languages
3	Lesson 3 major sentence patterns Useful time expressions
4	Lesson 4 major sentence patterns
5	Location of action zai 在 Aspect and modal particle le 了 Verb-Object verbs (complete list)
6	給 gei as a preposition Auxiliary verbs
7	Descriptive complement
8	Patterns 1-3 are interconnected Pattern 1: time-when expressions Pattern 2: sequence of actions Pattern 3: serial verbs Pattern 4: chule 除了。。。以外 Pattern 5: tell and ask
9	Pattern 1: measure words Pattern 2: money Pattern 3: 的 de
10	Pattern 1: 比 bi for comparison Pattern 2: 又，再，還 repetition Pattern 3: review of pivotal sentences
11	Pattern 1: huozhe 或者 / haishi 還是 Pattern 2: mei...dou 沒。。。都 Supplementary Pattern: Imminent Action
12	Pattern 1: resultative complement Pattern 2: 一個都沒有
13	Pattern 1: time-measure complement Patterns 2 and 3: 把 and verbal complements
14	Pattern 1: giving directions Pattern 2: locative expressions Pattern 3: past experience 過
15	Pattern 1: family relations Pattern 2: progressive action Pattern 3: verbal and other attributives
16	Pattern 1: measurement of action Pattern 2: directional complement
17	Pattern 1: potential complement

References:

Chao, Yuan Ren, A Grammar of Spoken Chinese, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968).
Cheung, Samuel Hung-nin, with Sze-yun Liu, Li-lin Shih, A Practical Chinese Grammar, (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1994).
Li, Charles and Sandra A. Thompson, Mandarin Chinese: a functional reference grammar, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
呂叔湘, 現代漢語八百詞 (北京: 商務印書館,1981).
Ma, Jing-heng, Chinese Unmasked: grammatical principles and applications, (Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company, 1994).
Tian, Shou-he, A Guide to Proper Usage of Spoken Chinese, (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1989).

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to the following people who have looked at the web pages and made comments and suggestions for improving them: Young-ming Wu, Sun Jingtao, Hsu Chun-ling.

Page created by Mary Jacob.

Major Sentence Patterns last revised January 6, 2004

Integrated Chinese, Level 1 sentence patterns

Major Sentence Patterns
last revised January 6, 2004