In its most basic form, Chinese word order is very similar to English word order. These similarities definitely have their limits, though; don't expect the two languages' word orders to stay consistent for anything past the very basic sentence orders outlined below.
The most basic word order in Chinese is:
You can form very simple sentences with just two words.
| Subject | Verb | Translation |
|---|---|---|
|
你们 |
吃。 |
You eat. |
|
他 |
笑。 |
He laughs. |
|
我 |
读。 |
I read. |
|
你 |
去。 |
You go. |
|
你们 |
看。 |
You look. |
|
你 |
来。 |
You come here! |
|
我 |
说。 |
I speak. |
|
孩子 |
哭。 |
Children cry. |
|
谁 |
要 学？ |
Who wants to study? |
|
谁 |
想 玩？ |
Who wants to play? |
A basic sentence usually has an object, and is formed with this structure:
This is the same as in English, and is commonly referred to as SVO word order. You can express a huge variety of things with this simple structure.
| Subject | Verb | Object | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
他们 |
吃 |
肉。 |
They eat meat. |
|
你 |
喝 |
茶 吗？ |
Do you drink tea? |
|
我 |
去 |
学校。 |
I go to school. |
|
他 |
说 |
中文。 |
He speaks Chinese. |
|
你 |
喜欢 |
孩子 吗？ |
Do you like kids? |
|
我们 |
要 买 |
电脑。 |
We want to buy a computer. |
|
你们 |
想 吃 |
中国 菜 吗？ |
Do you want to eat Chinese food? |
|
我 |
爱 |
你 和 爸爸。 |
I love you and dad. |
|
他们 |
要 做 |
什么？ |
What do they want to do? |
|
你 |
想 去 |
什么 地方？ |
What place do you want to go? |
Despite the convenient word order similarities highlighted above, things start to break down as soon as you start adding in such simple sentence elements as the "also" adverb 也 (yě), a time word, or a location where something happened.
Don't worry; the more complicated Chinese structures aren't hard, they're just different! (If Chinese word order were really the same as English word order, that would be just a little too convenient, wouldn't it?)