Lesson 13. Grammars – to BE or NOT to Be

One of the simplest and yet the most important structure in Chinese language is the following:

Noun + Verb + noun

It is the same as English. The first noun is subject, the verb describes action, and the last noun serves either as object or complement. For example: “I love books.” “He hates math.” Similar to that of English, the most frequently used verb of such structure in Chinese is also verb BE, the emphasis of this class.

1. 是 shi4

This is only form of verb Be in Chinese, independent of tense, subjects, or single/plural forms.

2. 不 bu4

不 means “no”. It is used to present negative.

3. 不是 bu2 shi4

Please notice that the tone of不 changes to 2 instead of 4 when used as “not” in front of 是.

Again, unlike English where ‘not’ follows verb ‘Be’, 不 precedes是 in Chinese.

Examples:

4. 我是中国人 wo3 shi4 zhong1 guo2 ren2

I am Chinese.

5. 他们不是学生 ta1 men bu2 shi4 xue2 sheng1

They are not students.