Zài Měiguó Guówùyüàn gōngzuò means either "work at the State Department" (i.e., at main State in Washington, D,C.) or "work in the organisation of the State Department" (no matter where assigned). Here the expression is translated loosely as "work with the State Department," meaning "in the organization.

Purpose: When lái, "to come," is followed by another verb, the second verb expresses the purpose of the subject's coming. The "purpose of coming" may be emphasized by the shì...de construction, with the marker shì before the verb lái:

Niàn shū: Niàn by itself means "to read aloud." When followed by an object, the expression means "to study." Shū is "book(s)," but niàn shū simply means "to study." Shū is used as a general object, standing for whatever is being studied.

Niàn lìshǐ: When you are talking about studying a particular subject, niàn is followed by the name of that subject rather than by the general object shū.

To have the meaning "to study," niàn must be followed by either the general object shū or a specific object such as the name of a subject.

Verb types: Zuò, "to do," and niàn (shū), "to study," are action verbs. Both are made negative with bu when referring to actions not yet finished Both may take completion le_or its negative méi.

Xüé, "to study" （an action verb): You will recognize xüé from the word for "student," xüésheng. Xüé may refer to acquiring either knowledge or a skill. For example, you can xüé history, economics, a language, piano， and tennis. On the other hand, niàn is used for "study" in the sense of taking a course or courses in a field of knowledge. Niàn is not used for a skill.

In some contexts, the verb xüé means "to learn." The following sentence may be interpreted two ways, depending on the situation.

Zhōngwén is used for either the Chinese spoken language or the written language， including literature. In general, use xüé for "learning" to speak Chinese and niàn for "studying’ Chinese literature.

Huì, "to know how to," "can," is an auxiliary verb. It is used before the main verb to express an attitude toward the action or to express the potential of action. Xiǎng, "to want to," "would like to," is also an auxiliary verb. "Should," "must," and "may" are other examples of auxiliary verbs. All auxiliary verbs in Chinese are state verbs, which means that bù is always used to make them negative. Auxiliary verbs never take the aspect marker le for completed action, regardless of whether you are talking about past, present, or future.

When the marker le is used, it is the aspect marker for new situations.

Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎn, "工 can speak a little": The word yìdiǎn, literally "a dot," functions as a noun. It is used in a sentence to mean "a little bit" where a noun object, such as Yīngwén, "English," might be used.

Yìdiǎn may not be used directly after an auxiliary verb, which must be followed by another verb.

Shuō, "to speak," "to talk," is another example of a verb which must always have an object. Shuō must be followed by either:

Bú huì: The short yes/no answer to a question containing the auxiliary verb huì is formed with huì rather than with the main verb.

Zhōngguó huà: This expression refers only to the spoken language, in contrast to Zhōngwén, which refers to both the spoken and written language.

Literally, náli means "where." As a reply to a compliment, we have translated náli as "not at all." In China, it has traditionally been considered proper and a matter of course to deny any compliment received, no matter how much truth there is to it. Many people still regard xièxie "thank you," as an immodest reply to a compliment, since that would amount to agreeing that the compliment was completely correct.

Jiù, "only": As was noted in Unit 3, notes on Nos. 8-9, jiù meaning "only" is not as widely understood as zhǐ. The last sentence in exchange 9 could Just as well be Wǒ zhǐ huì shuō yìdiǎn.

In the Peking dialect of Standard Chinese, which is the model for grammatical patterns presented in this course, the -de of a shì...de construction comes between the verb and its object. The object, therefore, is outside the shì...de construction. Compare "I studied here" with "I studied English here":

However, you may hear some Standard Chinese speakers who place the object inside the shì...de construction.