English speakers often like to connect sentences together with "so..." and also try to do this in Chinese with the word 所以 (suǒyǐ). In reality, they should mostly be using 那么 (nàme).

Structure

When expressing "so...," you can use 那么 or 那 in order to begin a judgment or result from previous context. An example of this in English would be: "so, what should we do?"

Examples

他不听，那我应该怎么办？ Tā bù tīng, nà wǒ yīnggāi zěnmebàn? He wouldn't listen. So what should I do?
你说这个办法不行，那你有别的办法吗？ Nǐ shuō zhège bànfǎ bù xíng, nà nǐ yǒu bié de bànfǎ ma? You said this idea is not going to work. So do you have any other ideas?
大家都到了，那么我们开始吧。 Dàjiā dōu dào le, nàme wǒmen kāishǐ ba. Everybody is here, so let's begin.
雨停了，那我们走吧。 Yǔ tíng le, nà wǒmen zǒu ba. The rain has stopped, so shall we leave?
你说得有道理，那么就这么办吧。 Nǐ shuō de yǒu dàolǐ, nàme jiù zhème bàn ba. What you said makes sense, so let's just do that.
他学过十年中文？那他的中文说得很好吧？ Tā xué guo shí nián Zhōngwén? Nà tā de Zhōngwén shuō de hěn hǎo ba? He's studied Chinese for ten years? So he must speak Chinese really well, then?
他表现不错，那么让他通过吧。 Tā biǎoxiàn bùcuò, nàme ràng tā tōngguò ba. He performed well, so let's let him pass.
会议时间已经确定了，那你快点去安排吧。 Huìyì shíjiān yǐjīng quèdìng le, nà nǐ kuài diǎn qù ānpái ba. The meeting time has been set, so please arrange it soon.
他们没有提前通知我们，那么这是他们的责任。 Tāmen méiyǒu tíqián tōngzhī wǒmen, nàme zhè shì tāmen de zérèn. They didn't notify us in advance, so this is their responsibility.
实现这个目标应该不难，那么我们一起努力吧。 Shíxiàn zhège mùbiāo yīnggāi bù nán, nàme wǒmen yīqǐ nǔlì ba. It shouldn't be difficult to reach this goal, so let's all really make an effort.

Expressing "then…" with "name"

Contents

Structure

Examples

See also

Sources and further reading

Books