Sentences that include 被 are known as ‘被字句’ (bèi zì jù) and are used to show a passive voice. A passive voice is where the noun being acted upon becomes the subject of the sentence. Active sentence: Hollie read the book in one day. Passive sentence: The book was read by Hollie in one day…. Read More
I’m sure most of us have started to learn something and reached a point where you just want to give up. Especially when learning the Chinese language, which can be a challenging language to speak, read and write. I chose many of the quotes below because, when the going gets tough, sometimes a feel-good-thought provoker… Read More
Aside from remembering how to write them, writing ‘beautiful’ characters can be a challenge. Using the adjective ‘beautiful’ might seem strange, but there is a particular finesse that comes with writing Chinese characters that, when written correctly, can be beautiful. When I first began learning to write Chinese characters (yes, you’ve heard my story a… Read More
You’ve probably already learned the basic numbers in Chinese, but there are ways in which Chinese numerals are used in specific ways that are different to in English. You’ll learn some of these differences, as well as some practical ways to use Chinese numerals for discounts, fractions and to make approximations. 1. 基数词 (jī shù… Read More
I previously wrote an article that focused on sentence patterns for beginners, 10 Essential Chinese Sentence Patterns Every Beginner Should Know. Hopefully, you’ve covered those 10 patterns, and it’s time to move on to more intermediate sentence patterns. 1. 是……的(de) to emphasize 是 (shì) can be omitted from the sentence. The phrase in between 是… Read More
A couple of months ago, I sent out an email asking what people’s biggest problems were or are with studying Chinese. I was overwhelmed by the responses I received from users of all levels and I have managed to whittle down everyone’s replies down to these 10 questions. Some of these learning problems came up… Read More