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All the Grammar of Chinese Happens at the Phrase Level

So you've been learning Mandarin Chinese. And you've come to the conclusion that, wow, this language is so easy! Nouns never change gender, there are no plurals and no declensions. Verbs never change conjugation or tense, and I just add the same handful of particles to change the meaning of all verbs.

But why then when you speak to Chinese people they give you the strangest looks, as if you're speaking an alien language? You're pretty sure you got your pronunciation and tones right, but they still have no idea what you want to say?

Mandarin Chinese is easy — up to a limit. Since Chinese has very little that changes at the word level, like European languages, it makes syntax that much more important. In other words, all the grammar of Chinese happens at the phrase level!

The reason why you're getting strange looks is probably because you're putting Chinese words in the wrong order. Not only that but sometimes English (along with other European languages) require a lot more words to describe what can be said with very few syllables in Mandarin Chinese. Always try to deconstruct what you want to say into the fundamental units, then reconstruct these into a Chinese way of saying them.

If Chinese word order is something you struggle with:

We strongly recommend checking out the Get Speaking Mandarin course from Outlier Linguistics. It was created by capable linguists, designed to teach you the ropes of Mandarin grammar (and, by extension, word order!) through the context of practical, natural sentences. By the time you're finished, you'll have learned everything you need to have basic conversations in Mandarin.

How Adding Different Elements Affects Word Order

Mandarin Chinese is classified as an SVO (subject + verb + object) language. This is a very common word order found in many languages such as English and the Romance languages. Because of this, you might think word order rules are similar in Chinese and English. That’s correct to some extent, however, when you start adding elements such as time, place, and manner words into the sentences, the order of Chinese words can change drastically.

General Rule 1: in a series of items, always state the largest item or container first: year > month > day, country > region > town. English tends to do the opposite.

General Rule 2: always think of time as progressing vertically from top to bottom: last month (up/上), next month (down/下). English tends to think of time as progressing horizontally or forward.

1. Placement of Time (Subject + Time Word + Verb + Object): In Chinese, time words are placed at the beginning of a sentence, before or right after the subject. NEVER put them at the end of a sentence.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
我一月去夏威夷。	wǒ yíyuè qù xiàwēiyí.	I January go Hawaii.	I went to Hawaii in January.
一月我去夏威夷。	yíyuè wǒ qù xiàwēiyí.	January I go Hawaii.	In January, I went to Hawaii.

Alternatively:

2. Placement of duration phrases (Subject + Place Word + Verb + Duration Phrase): Three years, a month , or four hours are not time words but phrases that indicate duration. When you are talking about duration, it has its own word order rules. The phrase is complementary to what has just been stated.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
她在美國住了八年。 她在美国住了八年。	tā zài měiguó zhùle bā nián.	She LOC U.S. live-[already] eight years.	She has lived in the U.S. for eight years.

Alternatively:

3. Placement of Location (Subject + Time + Location + Verb) : Usually, Location is placed between Time and the verb. Note: this requires a good deal of practice to get used to it.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translate	English
我昨天在家看電視。 我昨天在家看电视。	wǒ zuótiān zài jiā kàn diànshì.	I yesterday LOC home watch TV.	I watched TV at home yesterday.

Alternatively:

• Exceptions: Some verbs encode Location as a bound complement due to the meaning of the verb. What these verbs share in common is that they are single syllable verbs: 留 (stay +Loc), 放 (put +Loc), 住 (live +Loc), 裝 (pack +Loc), 關 (be enclosed +Loc), 坐 (sit +Loc), 站 (stand +Loc), 躺 (lie +Loc). If you add a resulting complement to these verbs (下/到/著/了/過/起來/...), then you need to move the Location and Object before the verb.

• Here is an example of a single syllable verb 住 followed by the Location. At the end of this article, we'll show you how to move things when a verb like this has a resulting complement.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
他們住在巴黎。 他们住在巴黎。	tāmén zhù zài bālí.	They live LOC Paris.	They live in Paris.

Alternatively:

4. Placement of manner: Manner deals with HOW you do something, as in quickly, happily, silently, secretly, etc. It’s good to remember that “manner” is usually an adverbial (an adverb or even a whole adverb clause) and is not necessary for the core meaning of the sentence. These are optional, but they have their appropriate slot for insertion in a sentence:

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
他買到食物後開心地走了。 他买到食物后开心地走了。	tā mǎidào shíwù -hòu kāixīn de zǒule.	He buy-[achieve] food -afterwards happy-[ly] leave-[already].	He left happily after having bought food.

Alternatively:

If you delete this adverbial, you should fill this empty slot with 就:

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
他買到食物後就走了。 他买到食物后就走了。	tā mǎidào shíwù -hòu jiù zǒule.	He buy-[achieve] food -afterwards [then] leave-[already].	He left after having bought food.

Alternatively:

5. Placement of instrument: Instrument refers to USING WHAT to do something. It’s usually placed before the verb and is preceded by 用 (to use) in Chinese, whereas, in English, it’s often seen at the end of the sentence and preceded by ‘with’.

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
她用刀子切菜。 她用刀子切菜。	Tā yòng dāozi qiē cài.	She INSTR knife cut veggies.	She cuts veggies with a knife. (Literally: She uses a knife to cut veggies.)

Alternative:

Topic-Comment Relation Sentences

Mandarin Chinese isn't the easiest language to classify when it comes to word order. As a topic-prominent language, sentences around topics are emphasized rather than subjects and objects, which can sometimes make it hard to identify the subject in a sentence. For example:

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Translation	English
麵包還有很多。 面包还有很多。	miànbāo hái yǒu hěn duō.	Bread still EXIST very much.	There is still a lot of bread [left].

Alternatively:

If you directly translate from English but switch the first two words, it would be: