Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar: A Student's Guide to Correct Structures and Common Errors

by Qin Xue Herzberg, Larry Herzberg

Overview

Here is a concise guide to supplement any course of study and help with homework, travel, and test preparation. Topics include word order, time, nouns, verbs, adjectives, word choices with verbs and adverbs, and letter writing. The simple format has one goal: quick mastery and growing confidence.

Qin Xue Herzberg, a graduate of Beijing Normal University, has taught Chinese for decades and has been an upper-level Chinese professor at Calvin College for ten years.

Larry Herzberg did his PhD work in Chinese and founded the Chinese language programs at Albion College and Calvin College.

Qin and Larry live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are co-authors of the popular China Survival Guide as well as the recently released Chinese Proverbs and Popular Sayings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933330891
Publisher:	Stone Bridge Press
Publication date:	12/21/2010
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Qin Xue Herzberg: Qin Xue Herzberg is a native speaker of Chinese and a graduate of Beijing Normal Universityin Chinese Language and Literature. For the past ten years she has been the upper-level Chinese language professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For the past several decades she has taught Chinese to Americans of all ages.

Larry Herzberg: Larry Herzberg studied Chinese for five years at Vanderbilt Universitybefore doing his Master's and Ph.D. work in Chinese Language and Literature at Indiana University. In 1980 he founded the Chinese Language Program at Albion College and then did the same at Calvin College in 1984. For the past three decades he has taught the Chinese language at the college level.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: BASIC WORD ORDER
1) Basic Word Order 2) Action and Location 3) Action and Time 4) Word Order for When Something Happens 5) Duration of Time
6) Placement of the word “Why?”

CHAPTER TWO: TIME EXPRESSIONS
1) When/While…
2) Days, Weeks, Months, Years

CHAPTER THREE: NOUNS
1) Plurals 2) Counting Things 3) “This” and “That” 4) Nouns for Nationalities and Languages
5) “All” of some Noun
6) Indefinites 7) Not Even One Bit of Something 8) Location Words

CHAPTER FOUR: VERBS
1) Past Tense 2) Present Tense 3) Future Tense
4) The Word “It” with Verbs
5) Helping Verbs 6) Going, Coming, Returning
7) The “Ba” Pattern with Verbs 8) The “Shi…de” Pattern with Past Tense Action Verbs
9) Passive Voice

CHAPTER FIVE: ADJECTIVES
1) General Rules for Adjectives 2) How to Translate “Bad” 3) “Not Bad” 4) “Nice” 5) “Pretty”
6) Positive Comparisons 7) Negative Comparisons

CHAPTER SIX: USES OF THE PARTICLE “LE”
1) Action Verbs in Past Tense 2) Change of Status with Adjectives 3) Imminent Action
4) “Not Any More”

CHAPTER SEVEN: USES OF THE PARTICLE “DE”
1) Uses of 的 (de) 2) Uses of 地 (de) 3) Uses of 得 (de)

CHAPTER EIGHT: CONJUNCTIONS (AND; OR)
1) “And”: Connecting nouns; verbs and adjectives 2) “Or”: In a statement; in a question
CHAPTER NINE: SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
1) Connecting sentences with “who”/”that” 2) If…then 3) As soon as> 4) Even> 5) Because> 6) No Matter Whether> 7) Besides

CHAPTER TEN: How to Express the verb “can” in Chinese 1) Know how to (hui) 2) Physically able (neng) 3) May/permitted (keyi) 4) Resultative Endings

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Word Choice Issues with Certain Important Verbs 1) To “be” (“shi” vs. “zuo” vs. “dang”) 2) To “know” (“zhidao” vs. “renshi”) 3) “Like” vs. “Would like to” (“xihuan” vs. “xiang”) 4) “To think/to feel” (“xiang” vs. “juede”) 5) “To ask” 6) “To tell” 7) “To seem like” (“haoxiang” vs. “xiang”) 8) “To receive” 9) “To be afraid” 10) “To worry” 11) “To help” 12) “To take” 13) “To lose” 14) “To produce”

CHAPTER TWELVE: Word Choice Issues with Adverbs 1) “from” 2) “first”
3) “actually” 4) “although” 5) “almost” 6) “unless” 7) “every time”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Letter Writing Issues 1) Greetings and Salutations
2) Writing to one’s Parents
3) Closing the Letter 4) More on Ending the Letter 5) Social Niceties