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Lesson 13. Grammars to BE or NOT to Be
One of the
simplest and yet the most important structure in Chinese
language is the following:
Noun + Verb +
noun
It is the same
as English. The first noun is subject, the verb describes
action, and the last noun serves either as object or
complement. For example: I love books. He hates math.
Similar to that of English, the most frequently used verb of
such structure in Chinese is also verb BE, the emphasis of this
class.
1.
是 shi4
This is only
form of verb Be in Chinese, independent of tense, subjects, or
single/plural forms.
2.
不 bu4
不 means no. It is used to
present negative.
3.
不是 bu2 shi4
Please notice that the tone of不
changes to 2 instead of 4 when used as not in front of 是.
Again, unlike English where
not follows verb Be, 不 precedes是 in Chinese.
