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How to express possibility in Mandarin Chinese?

By: Lina Shen Fri Aug 30 2024
Mandarin chinese
Auxiliary Verbs

To express possibility in Mandarin, you can use the helping verbs 会 (huì), 能 (néng), 可以 (kěyǐ), and the adverbs 也许 (yěxǔ), 可能 (kěnéng), and 肯定 (kěndìng).

Consider this:

  • I might like to have a cookie.

  • Will Sharon come to the party?

  • It’s going to rain tomorrow, I’m pretty sure.

  • Can I have a piece of cake?

  • Thomas will surely buy the book that you want.

What do we have here? This is not a bizarre dialogue or a collection of random conversational statements. The common thread here is that all of these statements express possibility. Possibility, potentiality, chance, permission, and probability can be tricky subjects to capture all at once. Remember when you asked your teacher if you could go to the bathroom and she looked at you suspiciously and said, “I don’t know, can you?”

Fortunately, this topic is pretty straightforward in Mandarin Chinese.

Table of Contents

    How to express possibility with the auxiliary verbs 会 (huì) and 能 (néng) / 可以 (kěyǐ) in Mandarin Chinese?

    The auxiliary verbs 会 (huì) , 能 (néng) / and 可以 (kěyǐ) are just as frequent in Mandarin Chinese as their equivalents are in English. Let’s first take a look what they mean:

    • 会 (huì)
      will happen or will be
    • 能 (néng)
      have the ability to do or be, or have permission to do or be
    • 可以 (kěyǐ)
      have permission to do or be

    How to express possibility with 会 (huì)?

    The auxiliary verb 会 (huì, will) is used to express that something will happen in the future. The negative form is 不会 (búhuì, will not).

    For example, when you want to know whether it will rain this afternoon, 会 (huì) is the right word to use:

    • 今天下午会下雨吗?

      (Jīntiān xiàwǔ huì xiàyǔ ma?)

      Will it rain this afternoon?

    To answer the question above, we can simply use 会 (huì, will) or 不会 (búhuì, will not).

    Let’s look at more examples with the pattern shown below:

    Positive Sentence: subject + 会 (huì) + verb/adj. + (object)

    Negative Sentence: subject + 不会 (búhuì) + verb/adj. + (object)

    • A: 爸爸，我把花瓶打碎了，妈妈会生气吗？

      (Bàba, wǒ bǎ huāpíng dǎ suì le, māma huì shēngqì ma?)

      Dad, I broke the vase. Will Mom be mad?

      B: 不会。

      (Búhuì.)

      (She) will not.

    • 明天不会下雪。

      (Míngtiān búhuì xiàxuě.)

      It (very likely) will not snow tomorrow. (The speaker is confident to a degree.)

    • 你放心吧，她会参加你的生日派对。

      (Nǐ fàngxīn ba, tā huì cānjiā nǐde shēngrì pàiduì.)

      (You) Relax! She will attend your birthday party.

    • 今年夏天我会去中国。

      (Jīnnián xiàtiān wǒ huì qù zhōngguó.)

      I will go to China this summer.

    How to express possibility with 能 (néng) / 可以 (kěyǐ)?

    The auxiliary verbs 能 (néng) and 可以 (kěyǐ) can be used in a question ending with 吗 (ma) or in a positive or negative sentence to express possibility/permission. If they are used in a question, it is equivalent to questions like “Is it possible for someone to do something?” or "May I/you/anybody do something?" in English. To answer these questions, we simply use 能 (néng, can/may) / 可以 (kěyǐ, can/may) or 不能 (bù néng, can't/may not) / 不可以 (bù kěyǐ, can't/may not). If the auxiliary verbs are used in a positive sentence, they are equivalent to “someone may (has the permission to) do something.” In a negative sentence, they mean “someone may not / cannot (is not allowed) to do something.” In this pattern, 能 (néng) and 可以 (kěyǐ) are interchangeable.

    Question: subject + 能 (néng) / 可以 (kěyǐ) + verb + (object) + 吗 (ma) ?

    Positive sentence: subject + 能 (néng) / 可以 (kěyǐ) + verb + (object)

    Negative sentence: subject + 不能 (bù néng) / 不可以 (bù kěyǐ) + verb + (object)

    Question (to ask for possibility / permission)
    To answer the question positively
    To answer the question negatively

    我可以/能吃一块披萨饼吗？

    (Wǒ kěyǐ/néng chī yíkuài pīsàbǐng ma?)

    May I have a piece of pizza?

    可以。

    (Kěyǐ.)

    (Yes, you) may.

    or:

    能。

    (Néng.)

    (Yes, you) may.

    不可以。

    (Bù kěyǐ.)

    (No, you) can't.

    or:

    不能。

    (Bù néng.)

    (No, you) can't.

    他可以/能坐在这儿吗？

    (Tā néng/kěyǐ zuò zài zhèr ma?)

    Is it alright if he sits here?

    能。

    (Néng.)

    Sure.

    or:

    可以。

    (Kěyǐ.)

    Sure.

    不能。

    (Bù néng.)

    (No, he) can't.

    or:

    不可以。

    (Bù kěyǐ.)

    (No, he) can't.

    你明天可以/能早点来学校吗？

    (Nǐ míngtiān néng/kěyǐ zǎodiǎn lái xuéxiào ma?)

    Can you come to school earlier tomorrow? / Is it possible that you can come to school earlier tomorrow?

    能。

    (Néng.)

    (Yes, I) can.

    or:

    可以。

    (Kěyǐ.)

    (Yes, I) can.

    不能。

    (Bù néng.)

    (No, I) can't.

    or:

    不可以。

    (Bù kěyǐ.)

    (No, I) can't.

    我们可以/能一起学汉语吗？

    (Wǒmen kěyǐ/néng yìqǐ xué hànyǔ ma?)

    Is it possible that we study Chinese together?

    可以。

    (Kěyǐ.)

    (Yes,) sure.

    or:

    能。

    (Néng.)

    (Yes,) sure.

    不可以。

    (Bù kěyǐ.)

    (No, we) can't.

    or:

    不能。

    (Bù néng.)

    (No, we) can't.

    Positive sentence
    Negative sentence

    你可以/能在这里停车。

    (Nǐ kěyǐ/néng zài zhèli tíngchē.)

    You may park here.

    他不能吃太多甜食。

    (Tā bùnéng chī tàiduō tiánshí.)

    He can’t have too much dessert.

    How to express possibility with an adverb in Mandarin Chinese?

    The Mandarin adverbs 可能 (kěnéng, maybe, perhaps) and 也许 (yěxǔ, maybe, perhaps) and 肯定 (kěndìng, definitely) and 一定 (yídìng, definitely) are used before a verb or an adjective to express possibility.

    How to express ‘maybe’ / ‘perhaps’ with 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ)

    Follow the structures below to use the adverbs 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ) to express “maybe/perhaps” in Mandarin Chinese.

    Positive sentence: subject + 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ) + verb/adj. + (object)

    Negative sentence: subject + 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ) + 不 (bù) + verb/adj. + (object)

    • 他可能/也许喜欢喝咖啡。

      (Tā kěnéng/yěxǔ xǐhuan hē kāfēi.)

      Maybe he likes to drink coffee.

    • 他可能/也许不喜欢这本小说。

      (Tā kěnéng/yěxǔ bù xǐhuan zhè běn xiǎoshuō.)

      Perhaps he doesn’t like this novel.

    Please note that when we refer to a future situation, we can add 会 (huì, will) between 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ) and the verb to emphasize the possibility for future. It is optional to add 会 (huì, will) into the sentence though. Let's look at the following two sentences:

    • 我可能/也许下午(会)去图书馆。

      (Wǒ kěněng/yěxǔ xiàwǔ (huì) qù túshūguǎn.)

      Maybe I will go to the library this afternoon.

    • 明天的天气可能/也许不(会)冷。

      (Míngtiān de tiānqì kěnéng/yěxǔ bù (huì) lěng.)

      Maybe it won’t be cold tomorrow.

    How to express ‘definitely’ / ‘surely’ with 肯定 (kěndìng) / 一定 (yídìng)

    The adverbs 肯定 (kěndìng) and 一定 (yídìng) are used before a verb to express a very strong assumption, meaning “definitely” or “surely.” Let’s take a look how they are used in a sentence:

    Positive sentence: subject + 肯定 (kěndìng) / 一定 (yídìng) + verb/adj. + (object)

    Negative sentence: subject + 肯定 (kěndìng) / 一定 (yídìng) + 不 (bù) + verb/adj. + (object)

    • 你们肯定/一定很累了吧?

      (Nǐmen kěndìng/yídìng hěn lèi le ba.)

      You must be very tired, right?

    • 他肯定/一定不喜欢数学。

      (Tā kěndìng/yídìng bù xǐhuan shùxué.)

      He definitely doesn’t like math.

    Remember we mentioned adding 会 (huì, will) between 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ) and the verb to emphasize the possibility for future. We can add 会 (huì, will) here between 肯定 (kěndìng) / 一定 (yídìng) and the verb too. Look at these examples:

    • 我明天肯定/一定(会)还你的书。

      (Wǒ míngtiān kěndìng/yídìng (huì) huán nǐde shū.)

      I will definitely return your book tomorrow.

    • 我朋友肯定/一定不(会)来了。

      (Wǒ péngyou kěndìng/yídìng bù (huì) lái le.)

      My friend will definitely not come.

    To sum up

    By practicing these sentence patterns using the key words 会 (huì), 能 (néng), 可以 (kěyǐ), 也许 (yěxǔ), 可能 (kěnéng), and 肯定 (kěndìng), you will be on your way to speaking Mandarin with all kinds of possibilities. Let’s take a look at some final examples to solidify our understanding:

    Expressing possibility in Mandarin Chinese
    Examples

    Using auxiliary verb 会 (huì) to express that something will happen in the future.

    今晚会刮大风。

    (Jīnwǎn huì guā dàfēng.)

    It will be windy tonight.

    你知道他会去中国留学吗？

    (Nǐ zhīdào tā huì qù zhōngguó liúxué ma?)

    Do you know if he will study abroad in China?

    Using auxiliary verbs 能 (néng), 可以 (kěyǐ) in a question ending with 吗 (ma) to ask for possibility/permission. 能 (néng) and 可以 (kěyǐ) are interchangeable.

    A: 妈妈，我能吃饼干吗？

    (Māma, wǒ néng chī bǐnggān ma?)

    Mom, may I have cookies?

    B: (你) 可以吃三块。

    ((Nǐ)kěyǐ chī sān kuài.)

    (You) may have three.

    Using adverbs 可能 (kěnéng) / 也许 (yěxǔ) to express the meaning of “maybe/perhaps.” 可能 (kěnéng) and 也许 (yěxǔ) are interchangeable.

    我也许不去你家了。

    (Wǒ yěxǔ míngtiān bú qù nǐ jiā le.)

    Perhaps I will not come to your house tomorrow.

    他可能生病了。

    (Tā kěnéng shēngbìng le.)

    Maybe he is sick.

    Using adverbs 肯定 (kěndìng) / 一定 (yídìng) to express the meaning of “definitely/surely.”

    你一定饿了吧?

    (Nǐ yídìng è le ba?)

    You are definitely hungry, right?

    我哥哥肯定被炒鱿鱼了。

    (Wǒ gēge kěndìng bèi chǎoyóuyú le.)

    My older brother definitely got fired.

    Perhaps you have mastered what we discussed here (你也许已经学会了 (nǐ yěxǔ yǐjīng xué huì le)); or perhaps you will need a bit more time to digest (你可能需要一些复习 (nǐ kěnéng xūyào yìxiē fùxí)).

    These exercises definitely will help you practice expressing possibility in Mandarin Chinese! 这些练习一定会帮到你! (zhè xiē liànxí yídìng huì bāng dào nǐ!)

    你能做到的！ (nǐ néng zuò dào de, You can do it!)

    And if you would like to know how to express “must” or obligation in Mandarin Chinese, make sure to check out our post!

    Downloadable Resources

    Elevate your language-learning journey to new heights with the following downloadable resources.

    How to express possibility in Mandarin Chinese~Activities

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