Chinese Sentence Structure [Complete Guide 2021]

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ni wang

Passionate about language learning, translating and teaching. Graduated with a master's degree in arts from PolyU in Hong Kong, majoring in TCFL. Have an experience of teaching spoken Chinese to college students at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, which inspired her to help more people from different countries understand China. Enjoy sharing with others the Chinese culture and the secrets of how to learn Chinese.

Latest posts by ni wang (see all)

• Chinese Tones: Tips on How to Learn the Tricky Change - 7月 4, 2021
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• Chinese Sentence Structure [Complete Guide 2021] - 3月 9, 2021

Sentence structures are important: without grasping them, you won’t have a solid foundation for your foreign language knowledge. Sentence structures vary from language to language. Fortunately, Chinese sentence structure is similar to English. This article will help you get to grips with them.

Simple Sentence Pattern

Chinese, like English, is classified as an SVO (subject-verb-object) language, so its basic sentence patterns won’t be too difficult to master. Within the SVO framework, the simplest sentence patterns are as follows:

• Subject + Verb 

我同意。

wǒ tóngyì

I agree.

• Subject + Verb + Object

我想你。

wǒ xiǎng nǐ

I miss you.

• Subject + Noun

明天雷阵雨。

míngtiān léizhènyǔ

A thunderstorm tomorrow.

• Subject + Adjective

 妈妈（很）忙。

māmā (hěn) máng

Mom is very busy.

房子（比较）大。

fángzi (bǐjiào) dà

The house is relatively big.

⚠ Note that the Subject + Adjective pattern needs an adverb, such or 很, or 比较.

Take a look at the following chart for more examples. 

Chinese Sentence structure: Components

Every sentence should contain at least one subject and one predicate (e.g. SV, SAdj, and SN), and other components can be added to express more complex meanings. In Chinese, there are six sentence components:

• Subject 主语 (zhǔ yǔ): can be a person or a thing.
• Predicate 谓语 (wèi yǔ): most of the time the predicate is a verb, but sometimes it can be an adjective, a noun, a noun phrase, or a numeral-measure word
• Object 宾语 (bīn yǔ): a noun governed by a verb.
• Attributive 定语 (dìng yǔ): modifies a noun, a pronoun or a noun phrase, which should be put before the noun or pronoun. 
• Adverbial 状语 (zhuàng yǔ): modifies or qualifies an adjective or a verb expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc., which comes before the adjective or the verb.
• Complement 补语 (bǔ yǔ): completes the meaning of the predicate and provides additional information associated with the predicate, such as degree, result, direction, time duration or possibility. The main point in terms of word order is that they occur after the verb.

Examples:

⚠ Note that the above six components don’t include function words, such as 了, 着, 过, 的, 地, 得, etc.

Exercise:

Please mark all components of each of the following sentences. Highlight to see the answer.

• 勤奋的哥哥在中国学过三年中文。

qínfèn dí gēge zài zhōngguó xuéguò sān nián zhōngwén

My diligent brother learned Chinese for three years in China.

⇒ “勤奋”— Attributive; “哥哥”— Subject; “在中国” — Adverbial; “学” — Predicate; “过” and “三年” — Complement; “中文” — Object.

• 中国的风景非常吸引我。

Zhōngguó de fēngjǐng fēicháng xīyǐn wǒ

The view in China attracts me a lot.

⇒“中国” — Attributive; “风景” — Subject; “非常” — Adverbial; “吸引” — Predicate; “我” — Object.

• 他拿出来一张纸。

tā ná chūlái yī zhāng zhǐ

He took out a piece of paper.

⇒“他” — Subject; “拿” — Predicate; “出来” — Complement; “一张” — Attributive; “纸” — Object.

• 我妹妹今年考上大学了。

wǒ mèimei jīnnián kǎo shàng dàxuéle

My sister went to college this year.

⇒ “我” — Attributive; “妹妹” — Subject; “今年” — Adverbial; “考” — Predicate; “上” — Complement; “大学” — Object.

Chinese Word Order

In Chinese, one sentence can have different types of adverbials that express time, place, or manner of action, as well as multiple attributives or complements. How to deal with the word order of the more complicated structure?

# Time: a time word that is always adverbial in Chinese sentence has two positions: at the beginning of the sentence or after the subject. You will never see it appearing at the end of the sentence.

Subject + Time + Predicate + Object

Time + Subject + Predicate + Object

# Duration: duration is considered as the time measure complement that should be put after the predicate (verb or verb phrase).

Subject + Time + Predicate + Duration + Object

# Place: generally, the place word is preceded by “在”, such as “在中国/zài zhōngguó/in China”, “在桌子上/zài zhuōzi shàng/on the table”. It is also the adverbial in a sentence, which should be placed between the subject and the predicate. If there is a time word in the sentence, the place word should be after the time word.

Subject + Time + Place + Predicate + Object

⚠ However, there are some exceptions: place words should come after such verbs as 留/liú/stay, 放/fàng/put, 住/zhù/live, 装/zhuāng/pack, 关/guān/be enclosed, 坐/zuò/sit, 站/zhàn/stand, 躺/tǎng/lie: 妈妈住在加拿大。/ māma zhù zài jiānádà / Mom lives in Canada.

# Manner: it indicates the manner of action. Most of these words or phrases are adverbs, so the placement is optional, but they usually precede the verb.

Subject + Time + Place + Manner + Predicate + Object

# Instrument: it indicates the instrument of action, which is preceded by “用/yòng/use” and comes before the verb. 

Subject + Time + Place + Instrument + Predicate + Object

# Target: it indicates the aim of action, and is usually put before the verb because of its adverbial function.

Subject + Time + Place + Instrument + Target + Predicate + Object

# Multiple attributives: sometimes nouns can have multiple attributives. They should be used in the following order:

+ Possessives such as “your,” “her,” or “Annie’s.” 

+ Demonstrative pronouns 

+ Number 

+ Measure word 

+ Any adjectives that you want to use to describe the noun 

+ The noun or noun phrase

Word order in the question sentence

In Chinese, the word order of a question sentence is much easier if you have already mastered the basic Chinese sentence structure. The main point is to place a question word in the place of the thing you want to ask about and there is nothing that needs to be rearranged.

你

为了谁学
中文?

Topic-prominent Language 

Unlike English (and similarly to Japanese and Korean), Chinese is a topic-prominent language, which means that sometimes the subject of a sentence is different from its topic. 

As shown above, the topic precedes the subject and is separated from it with a comma. This sentence pattern is great for emphasizing certain information.