Chinese-all-day-breakfast/MD/g1-16.md

Prepositional construction with 在 (in, at) and 給 (for, to)

The object of 在 is often a place-word and the object of 給 is often the beneficiary of the action expressed by the predicative verb. In Chinese, a prepositional construction comes /before/ the verb it modifies:

他在銀行工作。
    She works in a bank.
but not 她工作在銀行。

我給你們介紹一下兒。
    Let me introduce you to one another.
but not 我介紹一下兒給你們。

To form a negative sentence, 不 is placed /before/ the prepositional construction:

他不在銀行工作。
我不給你們介紹。
    I am not going to introduce you.

Adverbs such as 常, 都, 也 are also placed /before/ the prepositional construction:

我們都在 City Lit 學院學習漢語。
    We all study Chinese at the City Lit.
你常給你媽媽信嗎﹖
    Do you often write to your mother?
我爸爸也常給我寫信。
    My dad also often writes to me.