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Pronouns & Basic Sentence Structure
Personal pronouns
自己 (zìjǐ)
oneself / himself / herself
zìjǐ
Reflexive pronoun
您好。
Hello (polite).
Nín hǎo.
Formal 您 (nín) vs informal 你 (nǐ)
包子里有肉。
There is meat inside the bun.
Bāozi lǐ yǒu ròu.
Existential sentence with 有
我请他吃饭。
I invite him to eat.
Wǒ qǐng tā chī fàn.
Pivot sentence: subject → verb → pivot → verb
我给你一本书。
I give you a book.
Wǒ gěi nǐ yī běn shū.
Double-object verb 给 (gěi)
我是昨天来的。
It was yesterday that I came.
Wǒ shì zuótiān lái de.
是…的 construction for focus
我叫明。
My name is Ming.
Wǒ jiào Míng.
Equative verb 叫 (jiào) = to be called
他呢？
What about him? / And him?
Tā ne?
Sentence-final particle 呢 (ne)
她很聪明，他也是。
She is smart; he is too.
Tā hěn cōngming
tā yě shì.
那本书，我已经看了。
That book
I've already read it.
Nà běn shū