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Mandarin Chinese Articles

How to use verbal predicates in Mandarin Chinese?

By: Grace Zhang Fri Aug 30 2024
Mandarin chinese
Sentence Structure

In Mandarin Chinese, there are simple and complex verbal predicates; simple verb predicates consist of one verb and complex ones consist of more than one verb. You may ask, what is a predicate? Well, a sentence usually consists of two major parts: subject and predicate. For example, in “He runs” or “He is ready,” “he” is the subject (topic) and “runs” or “ready” is the predicate (or comment).

Verbal predicates are predicates made of verbs, like the first example above. Here it is in Mandarin: 跑步 (Tā pǎobù, He runs), 跑步 (pǎobù) is a verbal predicate, describing what the subject,  (), does.

Complex verbal predicates in Mandarin Chinese fall into two categories: serial verbal chains and pivotal structures.

Verbal predicates in Mandarin are similar to English in terms of word order (subject + verbal predicate). For example: 妈妈来了 (Māma lái le, Mom came). However, the Mandarin verbs don't change in form to express different times of action, like they do in English (e.g., “He goes,” “He went,” “He has gone”).

Verbal predicates are an essential part of Mandarin, so it is important for you to get to know how to use them like a pro. Let’s dive in and start to crack this!

Table of Contents

    How to use simple verbal predicates in Mandarin Chinese?

    The pattern for a simple verbal predicate is as follows,

    subject + verbal predicate (+ object)

    Some verbs can be used without an object (the person or thing that receives the action of the verb), while others have an object. For example:

    他天天跑步

    (Tā tiāntiān pǎobù.)

    He runs every day.

    属于我们这一组。

    (Tā shǔyú wǒmen zhè yī zǔ.)

    He belongs to our group.

    他晚上学习

    (Tā wǎnshàng xuéxí.)

    He studies at night.

    学习汉语

    (Tā xuéxí Hànyǔ.)

    He learns Chinese.

    In the first sentence, 跑步 (pǎobù) is a verb that tends to come without an object. In the second sentence, 属于 (shǔyú) is a verb that must go with an object (e.g., “our group” in the above sentence). There are also verbs which can go with or without an object — they are flexible. For example, 学习 (xuéxí) is used without an object in the third sentence above, but with an object in the fourth sentence.

    In the table below, you can see which verbs go with or without an object:

    Object structure
    Example verbs

    Verbs that must have no object

    • Verbs with an internal “verb + object” structure (i.e. within the verb itself there is a verb + object combination):

      • 播音 (bōyīn, broadcastbroadcast voice)
      • 点名 (diǎnmíng, roll call call names)
      • 防疫 (fángyì, epidemic preventionprevent an epidemic)
      • 上班 (shàngbān, go to workattend a shift)
      • 唱歌 (chànggē, singsing a song)
    • Others (similar to the English counterparts):

      • 休息 (xiūxi, rest)
      • 失败 (shībài, fail)
      • 退却 (tuìquè, retreat)
      • 启程 (qǐchéng, set off)
      • 游行 (yóuxíng, march)
      • 工作 (gōngzuò, work)
      • (, to be dead)
      • (huó, to be alive)

    Verbs that must have an object

    成为 (chéngwéi, become), 懒得 (lǎndé, too lazy to do something), 属于 (shǔyú, belong)

    Note: this type of verb is limited in number.

    What are the tense and aspect of a verbal predicate in Mandarin Chinese?

    The tense of a verbal predicate indicates the location of an action in time and the aspect indicates how that particular action is manifested with time. Tenses and aspects in Mandarin Chinese are represented through adding other words to the sentence. For example, to describe a completed action, we can add the aspectual particle  (le) at the end of a verb (e.g., 他走了 (Tā zǒule, He went away)). For time, we can use time words, such as 现在 (xiànzài, now), 过去 (guòqù, past), 将来 (jiānglái, future), 今天 (jīntiān, today), 昨天 (zuótiān, yesterday),
    明天 (míngtiān, tomorrow), or helping verbs, like (huì, will).

    Tense
    Example

    Past tense

    昨天在餐馆吃饭

    (Tā zuótiān zài cānguǎn chīfàn.)

    He ate at a restaurant yesterday.

    Present tense

    现在在餐馆吃饭

    (Tā xiànzài zài cānguǎn chīfàn.)

    He is eating at a restaurant now.

    Future tense

    明天在餐馆吃饭

    (Tā míngtiān huì zài cānguǎn chīfàn.)

    He will eat at a restaurant tomorrow.

    To describe aspect, we can use particles like  (zài) / 正在 (zhèngzài) /  (zhe),  (le)/  (guo) etc. and time words, like 常常 (chángcháng, often), etc.

    Aspect
    Example

    Perfective

    他去图书馆

    (Tā qù túshūguǎn le.)

    He went to the library.

    Continuous

    正在图书馆。

    (Tā zhèngzài túshūguǎn.)

    He is in the library.

    Imperfective (habitual)

    常常去图书馆。

    (Tā chángcháng qù túshūguǎn.)

    He often goes to the library.

    What are series of verbs (verbal chains) in Mandarin Chinese?

    Complex verb predicates fall into two categories, one of which is called a “serial verb construction” (连动式  (liándòngshì)). It is made up of two or more verbs associated with the same subject without any commas (in writing) or pauses (when talking) or coordinators (e.g., “and”, “but”) in between. While in English we use “and” often, in Mandarin it is not necessary (e.g. the first sentence in the following examples). The actions can happen one after another or occur at the same time. One action can be the purpose, the manner, or the instrument of the other action. The pattern is:

    subject + verb 1 (+ object) + verb 2 + other elements

    我们唱歌跳舞

    (Wǒmen chànggē tiàowǔ.)

    We sing and dance.

    → The two actions occur at the same time, but there is no “and” in between the two verbs.

    学校上课

    (Wǒ qù xuéxiào shàngkè.)

    I go to school to attend classes.

    → The latter action is the purpose of the former one.

    看书

    (Wǒ tǎngzhe kànshū.)

    I lie down and read a book.

    → The former action is the manner or instrument of the latter one (i.e. “I read a book lying down”).

    Tip

     (le) is not used after the first verb in a serial-verb sentence, except when the first action is immediately followed by the second one. For example:

    他吃饭就给我打电话。

    (Tā chī le fàn jiù gěi wǒ dǎ diànhuà. )

    He called me right after he ate his dinner.

    There is more about the serial verb constructions, so why don’t you check our post?

    What are pivotal sentences in Mandarin Chinese?

    Another type of complex verbal predicate in Mandarin is a pivotal sentence (兼语式 (jiānyǔshì), which has the following pattern:

    subject + verb 1 + object/subject + verb 2 + other elements

    Subject
    Verb 1
    Object/subject
    Verb 2
    Other element
    Translation

    ()

    He

    (hǎn)

    yell

    儿子

    (érzi)

    son

    回家

    (huíjiā)

    go home

    吃饭

    (chīfàn)

    eat

    He called his son home for dinner.

    The “pivotal” refers to 儿子 (érzi), which is the object of  (hǎn) and at the same time the subject of 回家 (huíjiā). That is, there are “sub-sentences” embedded in the sentence. The object of the first sub-sentence 儿子 (érzi) is also the subject of the second sub-sentence. The verbs for pivotal sentences are those with the meaning of “make / ask someone to do something.” For example,
    (ràng, let), (jiào, call), (pài, send), (qǐng, ask - polite form), 要求 (yāoqiú, request), 同意 (tóngyì, agree), among others.

    The negative form of a pivotal sentence is:

    subject + (, not) / (méi, not) / 没有 (méiyǒu, not) + verb 1 + object/subject + verb 2 + other elements

    爸爸同意我晚上出去。

    (Bàba bù tóngyì wǒ wǎnshàng chūqù.)

    Dad doesn't allow me to go out at night.

    请他来参加我的生日晚会。

    (Wǒ méi qǐng tā lái cānjiā wǒ de shēngrì wǎnhuì.)

    I didn't invite him to my birthday party.

    The pivot construction can also contain more than one "pivot" word or continue to take extra verbal chain construction, and thus become even more complex.

    老师大家教室上课

    (Lǎoshī ràng wǒ jiào dàjiā huí jiàoshì shàngkè.)

    The teacher asked me to call everyone back to the classroom.

    There are three sub-sentences here in the above sentence:

    • Pivotal 1:

      • 老师 (lǎoshī ràng wǒ, the teacher asked me)
    • Pivotal 2: 大家

      • 大家 (wǒ jiào dàjiā, I called everyone)
    • Verb chain: 回 … 上课

      • 大家教室上课 (dàjiā huí jiàoshì shàngkè, everyone went back to the classroom)

    (, I) is a pivotal component: it is the object of (ràng, asked) and at the same time the subject of (jiào, call). Similarly, 大家 (dàjiā, everyone) is also a pivotal: it is the object of (jiào, call) and subject of (huí, go back).

    Tip

    The difference between the verb chain structure and the pivotal structure is that the subject (and the object if any) in a verb chain sentence are the same person, while the subject and the object refers to different persons in pivotal sentences.

    To sum up

    In Mandarin Chinese, verbal predicates consist of a simple form, as well as a complex form.

    The simple form of verbal predicates follows the following pattern:

    subject + verbal predicate (+ object)

    The complex forms of verbal predicates include the following two:

    • Series of verbs (verbal chain)

      subject + verb 1 (+ object) + verb 2 + other elements

    • Pivotal sentence

      subject + verb 1 + object/subject + verb 2 + other elements

    Verbal predicates often express tense and aspect through adding other words to the sentence. This present post talks about the past, present and future tenses, as well as perfective, imperfective, and continuous aspects.

    Okay, now it is time to put what we have talked about above into action. Our exercises are set for you to try out what you know and practice how to use verbal predicates in Mandarin. Go on, check it out!

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    How to use verbal predicates in Mandarin Chinese~Activities

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