Chinese verbs
Encyclopedia
There are two different forms of verb
s in the Chinese language
: the stative
, indicating state, and the dynamic
, indicating action. The sentence
changes with the different forms of verbs.
is subject–verb–object (SVO), much like English. Thus, the sentence "我吃鸡" (wǒ chī jī, "I eat chicken") has exact equivalents in the English sentence (我,wǒ: "I"; 吃,chī: "eat"; and 鸡,jī: "chicken").
such as English or Spanish. In English, for example, the verb "to eat" has many forms compared to its Chinese equivalent: "to eat" (infinitive), "eat, eats" (present), "ate", (simple past), "eaten" (past participle), "eating" (present participle), etc. Chinese only has one basic form, used for every person and tense; thus "chī" (吃) can equal all these forms. ("tā chī" 他吃: he eats, "nǐ chī" 你吃: you eat, etc.) In other words, Chinese does not express these differences through inflectional suffixes.
Another way of expressing past tense is to use the aspect particles "guò" (过) or "le" (了) , which cannot stand by themselves but can express completed actions when placed after verbs. The distinction between these and other particles can be difficult for learners to grasp.
Past tense in Chinese can also be emphasized by surrounding the verb and direct object with the words "shì"-"de" (是-的). Here the time is sufficient to express the past tense but the shi...de pattern emphasizes for purpose. For example "wǒ shì zuótiān chī jī de" (我是昨天吃鸡的). This phrasing emphasizes the time in which the action took place more than the action itself.
There is one exception to this rule, however. The verb "yǒu" (有 to have) is negated with the particle "méi" (没).
The past negative is made by use of "méi yǒu" 没有 instead of "bù" 不. For example: "wǒ méi yǒu jī" (我没有鸡) "I do not have chicken".
of Mandarin Chinese means that there are many homophones for some syllables. It may be to compensate for this that many commonly used verbs work in verb–object combinations. For example, 睡 (shuì) (sleep v.) and 觉 (jiào) (sleep n.) are used together as a pair to mean "sleep":
我平常晚上十点就睡觉.
(wǒ píngcháng wǎnshang shí diǎn jìu shuìjiào.)
I normally at-night 10-o'clock PARTICLE sleep.
I usually go to bed as early as 10 o'clock at night.
"ma" (吗) is placed at the very end of a basic affirmative sentence to turn it into a Yes/No question
. For example:
"wǒ chī jī" (我吃鸡): "I eat chicken"
"wǒ chī jī ma?" (我吃鸡吗?): "Do I eat chicken?"
s take the place of prepositions or postpositions in other languages. Sometimes, these coverbs can stand alone as a verb in its own right. One example is 给 (gěi), which can be used in both manners:
Preposition-like usage:
我给你打电话.
(Wǒ gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà.)
(I'll give you a telephone call.)
Verb:
请给我一杯可乐.
(Qǐng gěi wǒ yī bēi kělè.)
(Please give me a glass of cola.)
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s in the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: the stative
Stative verb
A stative verb is one that asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property . Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; that is, they have undefined duration...
, indicating state, and the dynamic
Dynamic verb
A dynamic or finitive verb is a verb that shows continued or progressive action on the part of the subject. This is the opposite of a stative verb....
, indicating action. The sentence
Sentence (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
changes with the different forms of verbs.
Verb construction
The word order for a basic declarative sentence in Standard ChineseStandard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
is subject–verb–object (SVO), much like English. Thus, the sentence "我吃鸡" (wǒ chī jī, "I eat chicken") has exact equivalents in the English sentence (我,wǒ: "I"; 吃,chī: "eat"; and 鸡,jī: "chicken").
The present
Chinese verbs do not conjugate like the verbs of most Indo-European languagesIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
such as English or Spanish. In English, for example, the verb "to eat" has many forms compared to its Chinese equivalent: "to eat" (infinitive), "eat, eats" (present), "ate", (simple past), "eaten" (past participle), "eating" (present participle), etc. Chinese only has one basic form, used for every person and tense; thus "chī" (吃) can equal all these forms. ("tā chī" 他吃: he eats, "nǐ chī" 你吃: you eat, etc.) In other words, Chinese does not express these differences through inflectional suffixes.
The past
The simplest way of expressing past tense is to use adverbs such as "yesterday." For example: "zuótiān wǒ chī jī" (昨天我吃鸡, literally: yesterday I eat chicken) is equal to saying "Yesterday I ate chicken".Another way of expressing past tense is to use the aspect particles "guò" (过) or "le" (了) , which cannot stand by themselves but can express completed actions when placed after verbs. The distinction between these and other particles can be difficult for learners to grasp.
Past tense in Chinese can also be emphasized by surrounding the verb and direct object with the words "shì"-"de" (是-的). Here the time is sufficient to express the past tense but the shi...de pattern emphasizes for purpose. For example "wǒ shì zuótiān chī jī de" (我是昨天吃鸡的). This phrasing emphasizes the time in which the action took place more than the action itself.
Negation of Chinese verbs
Negation of Chinese verbs is accomplished by inserting bù (不), which can be interpreted roughly as "not", before the verb to be negated. For example: "wǒ bù chī jī" (我不吃鸡, literally: I not eat chicken) is equal to saying "I don't eat chicken". Serial verbs and verbal complements complicate matters.There is one exception to this rule, however. The verb "yǒu" (有 to have) is negated with the particle "méi" (没).
The past negative is made by use of "méi yǒu" 没有 instead of "bù" 不. For example: "wǒ méi yǒu jī" (我没有鸡) "I do not have chicken".
Verb–object combinations
The relatively restrictive phonotacticsPhonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
of Mandarin Chinese means that there are many homophones for some syllables. It may be to compensate for this that many commonly used verbs work in verb–object combinations. For example, 睡 (shuì) (sleep v.) and 觉 (jiào) (sleep n.) are used together as a pair to mean "sleep":
我平常晚上十点就睡觉.
(wǒ píngcháng wǎnshang shí diǎn jìu shuìjiào.)
I normally at-night 10-o'clock PARTICLE sleep.
I usually go to bed as early as 10 o'clock at night.
Questions
While some languages like English invert the verb and subject, Chinese uses two different constructions.The particle "ma" (written)
This particleGrammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
"ma" (吗) is placed at the very end of a basic affirmative sentence to turn it into a Yes/No question
Yes-no question
In linguistics, a yes–no question, formally known as a polar question, is a question whose expected answer is either "yes" or "no". Formally, they present an exclusive disjunction, a pair of alternatives of which only one is acceptable. In English, such questions can be formed in both positive...
. For example:
"wǒ chī jī" (我吃鸡): "I eat chicken"
"wǒ chī jī ma?" (我吃鸡吗?): "Do I eat chicken?"
The "verb-not-verb" construction
A question can also be formed by stating the affirmative and the negative consecutively; that is, taking the verb, putting "bù" (不) after it and then repeating the verb once more:- "nǐ qù" (你去) "You are going."
- "nǐ qù bú qù" (你去不去?)(literally: you go not go?) "Are you going?"
Coverbs
A special class of verbs called coverbCoverb
In theoretical linguistics, a converb is a non-finite verb form that serves to express adverbial subordination, i.e. notions like 'when', 'because', 'after', 'while'....
s take the place of prepositions or postpositions in other languages. Sometimes, these coverbs can stand alone as a verb in its own right. One example is 给 (gěi), which can be used in both manners:
Preposition-like usage:
我给你打电话.
(Wǒ gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà.)
(I'll give you a telephone call.)
Verb:
请给我一杯可乐.
(Qǐng gěi wǒ yī bēi kělè.)
(Please give me a glass of cola.)