Chinese Grammar

Let’s talk about the trickiest Chinese particles today - 的, 地, and 得 (all pronounced as “de”). If you've been learning Chinese for a while, these 3 'de' might've confused you.   的 的 is used to link attributes to nouns. Structure: attribute + 的 + noun Example: 美好的春天 (méihǎo de chūntiān) 🔹 a beautiful spring [...]

If you are a beginner or intermediate Chinese learner trying to learn Chinese grammar, you might get confused with words and structures that seem to have the same meaning. How do you tell the difference? And how do you choose which one is correct? Don’t worry! We are here to help. In this article, we […]

Do you know the difference between 最后 (zuìhòu) and 终于 (zhōngyú)? Both words mean “finally/in the end”, but they’re used differently. Let’s master them!   Difference between 最后 (zuìhòu) and 终于 (zhōngyú) Use ”最后 zuìhòu” when you describe a sequence of events, to indicate that one event was THE LAST to happen: 🔷下课以后我先去吃午饭，然后去买水果，最后去咖啡厅做作业。 🔷Xiàkè yǐhòu […]

Do you know the difference between “或者” (huòzhě) and “还是” (háishi)?   In Brief Read these examples first: 你想喝茶还是喝咖啡？ Nǐ xiǎng hē chá háishi hē kāfēi? Do you want to drink tea or coffee? 我想喝茶或者咖啡。 Wǒ xiǎng hē chá huòzhě kāfēi. I want to drink tea or coffee. In More Detail Well, as we can […]

In the beginning, many Chinese learners struggle to see the difference between two phrases: 的时候 (de shíhou) and 以后 (yǐhòu). In Brief Let’s have a look at how the meaning of one sentence changes depending on which word we use in it. 🔹昨天我写作业的时候，她在洗衣服。 Yesterday, while I was doing homework, she was washing the clothes.⠀ 🔹 […]

想 (xiǎng) and 要 (yào) This post continues exploring the differences between Chinese modal verbs. Our learners have also noticed that modal verbs 想 (xiǎng) and 要 (yào) share the same meaning – they all can be translated as “to want”. However, they are actually slightly different from each other depending on the context. Take […]

会 (huì), 能 (néng) and 可以 (kěyǐ) Some Chinese learners have noticed that modal verbs 会 (huì), 能 (néng) and 可以 (kěyǐ) share the same meaning – they all can be translated as “can”. However, they are actually slightly different from each other depending on the context, which may sometimes lead to misunderstanding if you […]

“hé shì(合适)”  and  “shì hé(适合)” sometimes also cause trouble to Chinese learners as both words consist of exactly the same characters, the only difference is the word order. In addition, their meanings are very similar, what you need to remember is that “hé shì(合适)” is an adjective, meaning “suitable”, whereas “shì hé(适合)” is a verb, which […]

“jiàn (见)” and “jiàn miàn (见面)” both mean “to meet, to see”. However, in order to express “A meets B”, the structures used are A + jiàn (见) + B and A + hé(和) + B + jiàn miàn (见面) respectively. Let’s have a look at some examples: English I want to see you. Chinese […]

In English, it’s common to see phrases like “a beautiful park”, “an interesting person”, “a big room”, etc. You don’t need to put anything between an adjective and a noun in these cases. In Chinese, things get a bit more complicated. You will need to add 的 (de) between an adjective and a noun, depending [...]