Learn Chinese for Free—Lesson 17

Lesson 17 of 360

Today's Chinese character:

The other Chinese characters contained in this lesson have already been studied previously. You can just click on them and go back to the corresponding lesson.

is the 1st most frequently used verb and the 3rd most frequently used character!

Character Knowledge Meter
22.7%
Today with this lesson your knowledge of Chinese characters will reach 22.7% of all the Chinese language usage!

Characters' Essentials

Character Help
Pronunciation Help
shì
Meaning Help
-[verb] To be
-This verb ties two things, indicating that they are identical or that the second explains or states the case of the first

Description and Examples

What I'm going to say might muddle you, but sooner or later I had to: can perform the function not only of a verb, but also of an adverb, of a noun, of an adjective, of a pronoun, and of an interjection!

as a verb:

Sentence Structure 4
The Declarative “是” Sentence—Part 1

The "" sentence is a sentence with its predicate composed by the verb together with its object. Its declarative basic form is "AB".

Example

医生


Sentence Structure 5
The Negative “是” Sentence

The negative form of the "" sentence is formed by putting the negative adverb before .

Example

你们医生


Sentence Structure 6
The Declarative “是” Sentence—Part 2

The verb ties two things, indicating that they are identical or that the second explains or states the case of the first.

Both forms "AB" and "BA" are correct, but their meanings are slightly different. Examples:

Example

先生
The point here is which name I have.

先生
Here the point is who has that name.


as an adverb:

Sentence Structure 7
“是” For Emphasis

, stressed, may be used as an adverb to indicate certainty. For example, in a verbal predicate sentence it may be put before the verb.

Example


meaning: I really love her.


as a noun:

Sentence Structure 8
Surnames

is also a Chinese surname, even if not at all common. Surnames must be put before titles. So let's say we find a teacher whose surname is . We would call her 老师 (that is SURNAME + TITLE) and would cacophonically say "老师".



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Lesson 17 of 360

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