The word guóbǐn actually refers to any official state guest, not just an ambassador. (The word for "ambassador" is dàshǐ) The translation "Ambassador Hotel" has been used for years by that hotel and, although inaccurate, has been retained in this text.

Dàfàndiàn means "great hotel" or "grand hotel." It is commonly used in the names of Taiwan and Hong Kong hotels.

Náli, nàli, and zhèli are common variants of nǎr, nàr, and zhèr in non-Peking dialects of Standard Chinese. The forms with r are Peking dialect forms.

Compare:

Notice the difference in tone "between nǎr and náli. This is because -li has a basic Low tone, and the first of two adjoining Low-tone syllables changes to a Rising tone: nǎ + -lǐ = náli.

The possessive relationships in péngyou jiā, "friend's house," nǐ péngyou jiā, "your friend’s house," and tā jiā, "his house," are unmarked, while the English must include -'s or the possessive form of the pronoun ("your," "his".) In Chinese, possessive relationships may be expressed by simply putting the possessor in front of the possessed when the relationship between the two is particularly close, like the relationship between a person and his home, family, or friends.

Péngyoude dìzhǐ: "The marker -de in this phrase is Just like the English possessive ending -'s. With the exception of close relationships, this is the usual way to form the possessive in Chinese.

Unlike the English -'s ending, -de is also added to pronouns.

You are learning possessive phrases in which the marker -de is used (tāde dìzhǐ) and some possessive phrases which do not contain -de (nǐ péngyou jiā). There are certain reasons for the inclusion or omission of -de. If a close relationship exists between the possessor and the possessed, the marker -de might not be used. If a phrase is long and complex, as Lǐ Xiānsheng péngyoude tàitai , the marker -de is used to separate the possessor from the possessed.

But these are not hard and fast rules. The use or omission of -de is not determined solely by the number of syllables in a phrase or by the closeness between the possessor and the possessed, although both of these considerations do play a Mg part in the decision.

While some common nouns are usually used without -de "before them, most nouns are more likely to be preceded by -de, and many even require it. Dìzhǐ, "address," is the only noun you have learned which REQUIRES the possessive marker -de added to the possessor. But other nouns such as jiā are not always preceded by -de. This is also the case with nouns indicating personal relationships, like fùmǔ, "father," and tàitai "wife." Péngyou, "friend,"xuésheng," student and lǎoshī "student are commonly used without -de, but may also be used with the marker.

You might expect the question Nǐ péngyoude dìzhǐ...? to "be completed with a word such as shénme?, what. However, the incomplete form given in this exchange, with the voice trailing off, inviting completion, is also commonly used.

Addresses: The order in which addresses are given in Chinese is the reverse of that used in English. In Chinese, the order is from the general to the specific: country, province or state, city, street name, street number.

-hào: A street number is always given with the bound word -hào, "number," after it. ^[4]

Ba is a marker for a question which expresses the speaker's supposition as to what the answer will be. It is the type of question which asks for a confirmation from the listener.

There are three ways to translate the two questions in exchanges 6 and 7 into English:

Each translation reflects a different degree of certainty on the part of the speaker. (While the differences in certainty are expressed in English by variation in wording, they can be expressed in Chinese by intonation.) You will probably find that the "isn’t it", "aren't you" translation fits most situations.

The short answer shìde is an expanded form of the short answer shì, with the same meaning: "Yes, that's so." Shìde is also the word used for the "yes" in the military "Yes, sir."

Nà(nèi): In the subject position, nà (nèi), "that," and zhè (zhèi), "this," may be used either as free words or as bound words, with -ge following.

Compare:

However, the question form nǎ- (něi-) is a bound word.

Wǔguānchù, "defense attache’s office," literally means "military attache's office."

Zài gōngzuò: Compare these two sentences:

The sentence Tā zài Táinán gōngzuò seems to have two verbs: zài, "to be in/at/on," and gōngzuò," to work." But there is only one verb in the translation: "He works in Tainan." The translation reflects the fact that zài loses its full verb status in this sentence and plays a role like that of the English preposition "in" The zài phrase in Chinese, like the "in" phrase in English, gives more information about the main verb gōngzuò; that is, it tells where the action takes place. "He works," and the work takes place "in Tainan." In sentences like this, the word zài is a prepositional verb. Most relationships expressed by prepositions in English are expressed by prepositional verbs in Chinese.

You have also seen zài used as a prepositional verb in the sentence nǐ zhù zài náli? "Where do you live?" --literally, "You live at where?" Notice that in this sentence the prepositional verb phrase zài náli comes after the main verb zhù. In the sentence Nǐ zài náli gōngzuò? the prepositional verb phrase zài náli conies before the main verb gōngzuò. Many things, such as stress, contrast, and other objects in the sentence, can influence the order of the prepositional verb phrase and the main verb.

In some cases, either order may be used, as in Nǐ zài náli zhù? or Nǐ zhù zài náli?. In other cases, the word order is fixed, as in Nǐ zài náli gōngzuò? For text examples, it will be pointed out whether or not the word order may be changed, and the reasons will be given.

Tā bú zài Táiběi gōngzuò, "He doesn't work in Taipei": In this sentence, the negative adverb bù comes before the prepositional verb zài (which starts the complete predicate zài Táiběi gōngzuò, not before the main verb gōngzuò. This makes sense, for you are not saying "He does NOT WORK," but you are saying "He does NOT work IN TAIPEI."

The plural pronouns are formed by adding -men to the singular pronouns

(You have already seen these pronoun forms used as possessives: "my," "our," etc. Later you will find that they are also used as objects: "me," "us," etc.)

Háizi: Chinese nouns have the same form for singular and plural.

Háizi may be either "child" or "children."^[5]Usually the context will make clear whether a noun should be translated as singular or as plural, but not always. Chinese does not require that the matter be pinned down to the same extent that English does.

Wǒmen yǒu háizi is a perfectly good sentence, even though the only accurate translation is the clumsy "We have one or more children." We would prefer to have enough information to translate it either as "We have a child" or as "We have children."

At times this ambiguity is an advantage. When you ask Nǐmen yǒu háizi ma? you do not, after all, know whether you are referring to one child or to more than one child. To cover both bets in the same way in English, we have to say "Do you have any children?"

Méiyou: All the verbs discussed so far form the negative with bù, with the single exception of yǒu, "to have," which has the irregular negative form méiyou.

In Peking speech, jǐ-, "how many," is usually used only when the number expected in an answer is about 10 or less. In many other parts of China, speakers use jl- no matter how large a number is expected in the answer.

Counters: In Chinese, a noun cannot be counted or specified (i.e., used with něi- "which," nèi-, "that," zhèi-, "this") without the addition of a bound word, a counter, to indicate the sort of thing being specified or counted. English has a few such counters, as "head" in "how many head of cattle" and "loaves" in " seven loaves of bread."

The counter used in a particular instance depends on the noun "being specified or counted. Many nouns have special counters. You have already learned the polite counter for persons, -wèi. Other special counters refer in some way to the kind of thing the noun represents. The word for "hotel," for instance, has a special counter -jiā, "house," used for counting or specifying business establishments.

The general counter -ge is used with nouns that do not have special counters. For example, there is no special counter for the word pùbù, "waterfall," so you would say yíge pùbù, "one waterfall." You have already found the general counter -ge in specifying expressions such as něige háizi, "which child," and zhèige fàndiàn,"this hotel."

You may find that, in colloquial speech, nouns that have special counters are sometimes used with -ge anyway, but this tendency is looked down upon by many speakers.

Here are the numbers 1 through 10 with the counter -ge:

yíge liǎngge sānge sìge wǔge liùge qíge báge jiǔge shíge

The number 2 has a special form before a counter: liǎng-. Notice that the words for 1, 2, and 8 have Rising tones before -ge, because -ge is basically a Falling-tone syllable. (See also Unit 5, notes on No. 9 and No. 10.)

Nán- nǚ-: The "bound words nán- "male," and nǚ-, "female," are often used in compounds; for example, nánpéngyou, "boyfriend," and nǚtóngzhì "(woman) Comrade."

"And": In Chinese, a word for "and" is not needed between parallel phrases like liǎngge nánháizi, yíge nǚháizi "two boys, (and) one girl."

A pause is usual between the two phrases, but even the pause is sometimes omitted.

Shi nánháizi, shi nǚháizi? In Chinese, an "or" question (i.e., a question asking which of two alternatives is true) may be asked simply by stating the two alternatives with a pause between. In this kind of question, the verb must appear in each alternative. (You will learn other ways of making "or" questions in later modules.)

Dōu may usually be translated in a sentence as "all (of)," or, if it refers to only two things, as both (of)." Literally, dōu means "in all cases," "uniformly," "entirely," "completely." Since it is an adverb), it must be placed after the subject of a sentence and before the verb (like the adverb yě, "also".)

Literally, the phrase nǐ jiāli means "in your home" (jiā, "home"; -li, "in"）. In this sentence it is extended to mean "the people in your home, " that is, "your family."

Nǐ jiāli - yǒu - shénme rén? Phrase by phrase, this question is: "In your family - there are - what people?,’ The word "family" can be taken to mean either all your relatives or only those living in your household.

By itself, the verb yǒu means "to "be," "to exist." You have now seen it translated two ways:

In exchange 8, the verb yǒu in the answer is translated as "there's." Some English speakers may find this translation too colloquial. The answer can also be translated Just by listing the family members, with no verb in the English, as was done in exchange 9« Chinese almost always keeps the verb in the answer to a question, while English tends to leave it out.

How to say "and": Chinese has several words for "and." Gēn is the word for "and" when joining nouns or noun phrases. Yě is the word for "and" when Joining verbs, verb phrases, or whole sentences:

Chinese tends to use a word for "and" when the noun phrases being Joined are not parallel and not to use one when the phrases are parallel:

While "and" is often omitted in Chinese, it may be added for emphasis between nouns and between noun phrases just as in English.

Jiù, "only," "Just," is an advert (like yě and dōu. The use of jiù to mean "only" is probably mostly confined to the Peking dialect.^[6] Speakers from other parts of the country will not necessarily use jiù to mean "only" or understand it as such. A more widely used and understood word for "only" is zhǐ. Thus the answer in exchange 9 could also be: Zhǐ yǒu wǒ fùqin, mǔqin.

Chinese is much more precise than English in its terms for family members. There is not Just one word for "brother," or "sister" but words for "older brother," "younger brother," "older sister," and "younger sister."

When referring to both older and younger sisters, the term jiěmèi is used. When referring to both older and younger brothers, the term xiōngdì is used. When referring to sisters and brothers, the phrase xiōngdì jiěmèi is used.

Chinese also distinguishes between grandparents on the father's side of the family and grandparents on the mother's side:

The syllable wài- in wàizǔfù and wàizǔmǔ literally means "outer" or "outside."

These sentences refer to future time, but lái is not a future-tense form. Strictly speaking, Chinese verbs do not have tenses. The same form of the verb can be used in present, past, and future contexts.

We translated the sentence Tā zài Táinán gōngzuò. as "He works in Tainan" assuming a present context. But in a past context we could translate It as "He worked in Tainan; and in a future context we could translate it as "He will work in Tainan." The verb form gōngzuò does not tell you what time is being talked about. You have to look elsewhere for that information, perhaps to a time expression like "last year" or "now" or "tomorrow," or to the conversational setting.

Aspect: Le is an aspect marker. Through the use of and other one-syllable markers (de, zhe, ne, guo), the Chinese language indicates whether the occurrence being talked about is completed, ongoing, about to occur, or experienced for the first time. Aspect markers may also be used to indicate whether the whole situation in the sentence is a new, changed situation.

"Completion" and "new situation" are not tenses but aspects. Aspect is a way of talking about events or activities in relation to time. While tenses categorize action in terms of features such as completeness and change. Aspect markers are very different from tense markers because the same aspect may be used in past, present, and future contexts. We may speak of an action that will be completed as of a future time, for example, or of a situation that was new as of a past time. English communicates these ideas to a certain extent through the use of many different tenses for the verb (future perfect, simple past, etc,). Chinese does this through the use of aspect markers and time words. The verbs themselves do not change form.

Le is used in exchange 2 to indicate two aspects-completion and new situation, (it is, however, often used to indicate only one aspect.)

Here, it indicates that the person has come, meaning that the action is completed, and that the person is now here, a changed situation. When the marker le refers to both these aspects, we call it "combined le." Combined le can be thought of as a telescoping of the completion le followed by a new-situation le: le le becomes le. In the next two units, you will see the marker le used to Indicate each of these aspects separately.

Negative of combined le: Compare these affirmative and negative forms:

Notice that the marker le does not appear in the negative answer in the exchange.

Hái: The negative of a sentence containing combined le_ will include the adverb hái, "yet," as well as the negative méi(you). In English, the "yet" is frequently left out.

Like other adverbs such as yě, hái always precedes the verb, although not always directly. Elements such as the negatives and méi may come between an adverb and a verb,

Méiyou, "not have" is used to negate the aspect of completion; that is, to say that a certain event did not take place. Méiyou may be shortened to méi. Here are three possible negative answers to the question.

Tā lái le ma? "Has he come?"

Position of time words: Time phrases occupy the same position in a sentence as adverbs such as yě and hái between the subject and the verb.

(shì)...de: ^[7] This is another way to indicate the aspect of completion. The aspect marker le and the pattern (shì...de) perform different functions and convey different meanings. This is how they are different:

The aspect marker le or its negative méi (you) is used when the center of interest is whether or not an action took place. For example, if you do not know whether Mr. Sun came or not, you would ask:

and you would be answered either

or

In this question and answer, you use le or its negative méi(you) because the focus is on whether the action took place or not.

The purpose of the (shì)...de construction, on the other hand, is to focus on additional information about a completed action; that is, the construction is used when the center of interest is NOT whether or not a certain action took place.

For example, once it has been established that Mr. Sun did in fact come, the (shì)...de construction will probably be used for any additional questions and answers about his coming. For example:

These questions and answers use the (shì)...de construction because you already know that Mr. Sun came and now you are asking for additional information about his visit. Many types of additional information can be focus points for which the (shì)...de construction is used.

In Tā shi shénme shíhou láide? the additional information is the time when something happens.

In Tā shi yíge rén láide ma? the information asked for is the manner in which something takes place.

Other possible focus points are place, cause of action, goal of action, and performer of action.

Now let's take a look at how shì and de function separately in this construction. The verb shì, coming before the phrase which is the center of interest, serves as a signal that what follows is emphasised. The verb "to "be" is often used in a similar way in English to mark the center of interest:

Another way of showing the center of interest in English is by word stress. Here is a comparison between focusing in Chinese with (shì)...de and focusing in English with stress:

The marker de coming after the verb indicates completion. When the marker de is not used in the sentence, that sentence no longer describes a completed event. The marker shì by itself emphasizes something about the action.

Compare these sentences:

For the time being, you will not use shì without de.

The negative form of the (shì)...de construction is bú shi...de . Compare this with the negatives you have already learned:

Notice that in a (shì)...de construction the negative bú precedes the verb shì rather than the main verb. Short answers are also formed with shì rather than with the main verb:

The (shì)...de construction is not used in every completed-action sentence containing a time, place, or manner phrase. If the center of interest is still whether or not the action took place, le is used. If, for example, you knew that someone was expected to come yesterday and you wanted to find out only whether he actually did come, the conversation might go as follows:

Literally, yíge rén means "one person." When the expression is used to describe how someone does something, translate it as "alone"

The word for "day" is the bound word -tiān. To ask "what day" (literally "which day"), the bound word něi- "which," is combined with the bound word -tiān, "day": něitiān (like něiguó, "which country").

Some speakers say the -tiān in these words in the Neutral tone: qiántian,zuótian, jīntian, míngtian, hòutian.

The shì...de construction is used to focus on place expressions as well as on time and manner expressions.

Days of the week:

Until now, you have always seen jǐ, "how many," at the beginning of a word (jǐge háizi, jǐwèi xiānsheng, jǐhào). In xīngqījǐ, -jǐ is at the end of the word. In both places, occupies the position of a number and acts like a number: xīngqījǐ, "What number day of the week?"

The word for "year," -nián is a bound word (like the word for "day," -tiān). The question word něinián, "which year," is formed with the bound word něi "which."

The year is given as a sequence of digits, so that 1972, Yījiǔqīèrnián would literally be "one-nine-seven-two year." In a sequence of digits, the word èr- (not liǎng- is used for 2, and the words for 1, T, and 8 keep their basic high tones. (See notes on No. 10 for cases in which these tones change.)

Months:

Since the names of the months are formed with numbers, jǐ- "how many," is the appropriate question word to use for "what month." Jǐ- is used in Běijīng to ask for a number expected to be around 10 or 11.

Notice the tones on the words for 1, 7 and 8, which most Peking speakers pronounce as Rising before Falling-tone words such as yüè. The syllable -yī- in the word for "November," however, is usually pronounced with the High tone: shíyīyüè (See the notes on No, 10 for a summary of tone changes.)

Days of the month are expressed by the number of the day followed by the bound word -haò. You will remember that -hào is also used in giving addresses.

In asking about days of the month, "how many," is used, even though the question may be answered by a number as high as 31. The month and day of the month may be given together. For example:

Nǐ duō dà le? "How old are you?" literally means "How big (in years of age) are you?" This is a common way to ask a person's age. The question is appropriate for asking the age of a child or a young adult, but the expression is not considered polite enough for asking an older adult his age. (More formal ways to ask a person's age will be introduced on the C-2, P-2, and drill tapes.)

The marker le_which ends these sentences calls attention to the fact that something is true now that was not true before.

	Note
	Ages may also be asked and given without using the new-situation le.

Le has only this new-situation meaning in these sentences. It has no meaning of completion, since in fact, there is no completed event.

One way to reflect the new-situation le in the English translation is to add the word "now": I'm 35 now." Essentially, however, "new situation" (sometimes called change of state") is a Chinese grammatical category with no simple English equivalent.

The marker le for new situations is always found at the end of a sentence and is sometimes called "sentence le."

Notice that neither answer contains a verb. The verb that has been left out is yǒu "to have." The verb may not be left out in the negative: Wǒ méiyou sānshiwǔ. "I’m not 35."

-suì: In the traditional Chinese system of giving ages, a person is one -sui old at birth and becomes another -suì old on the New Year's following his birth. A baby born the day before New Year's would thus be two -suì old on the day after his birth. Most Chinese, however, have now switched to the Western style of computing age and use -suì just as we use years old.

The word -suì like the word -hào, is a bound word shoving what kind of thing a number is counting.

In a date or address you are listing a number and use èr for 2, while in giving an age you are counting an amount of something and use liǎng: liǎngsuì, "two years old."

The word dōu is used when "both" or "all" would probably not be used in English, namely, when expecting different information about each of the things (or persons) being discussed. "All" tends to be collective, asking or telling about something the members of a group have in common. Dōu can be distributive, asking or telling something about the members of a group as individuals.

Yí, qí, bá: In the spoken language of Peking, the basic High tones of yī, qī and bā usually change to Rising tones before Falling-tone words (such as -hào, yüè, and -suì). This change is most common when the complete number given has only one digit. When there are two or more digits, the qī and bā of numbers ending in 7 and 8 are more likely to have Rising tones than the yī of numbers ending in 1 (which is usually in the High tone).

Compare:

In all cases, the High tone is more likely to be kept in rapid speech. You may also encounter speakers who never make changes in the tones of yī, qī and bā.

Remember that, in the digit-by-digit form of giving the year, the numbers 1, 7, and 8 keep their basic High tones: Yījiǔbāliùnián 1986.

In the Chinese system of expressing relative time in terms of days and years, only one pair of terms is not parallel: zuótiān "yesterday," and qǜnián "last year."

Expressions like duó jiǔ, "how long," and yìnián "one year," called duration phrases, come after the verb.

	Note
	"One day" is yìtiān. The tone on yī changes to Falling before a High-tone.

Notice the contrast with time-when phrases, like shénme shíhou, "when," and jīnnián "this year," which come before the verb.

If a duration phrase is used with the verb zhù, this phrase preempts the position after the verb; and any place phrase, like zài Běijīng, must come before the verb.

Yìnián: In telling how many years (giving an amount) no counter is used. The tone on yī, "one," changes to Falling before a Rising tone.

Liǎngtiān: -tiān, "day," like -nián, "year," is used without a counter. When telling how many of something, the number 2 takes the form liǎng. (See Unit 3, notes on Nos. 3-4.)