Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

48 Talking about movement, directions, and means of transportation 48.1 Talking about ‘going’ and ‘coming’ Expressions used to t ...

talking about turning 48.2 48.1.2 talking about ‘going to’ a destination 到 destination 去 dào destination qù to [a destination] g ...

talkiNG aBoUt moVemeNt, direCtioNS, aNd meaNS oF traNSPortatioN 48.5 or 拐 (direction) guǎi (direction) 拐北。 Guǎi běi. Turn north. ...

talking about means of transportation 48.5 The expression used to describe riding on a vehicle depends upon the vehicle. For veh ...

talkiNG aBoUt moVemeNt, direCtioNS, aNd meaNS oF traNSPortatioN 48.6 48.6 asking about locations and asking for directions 48.6. ...

talking about directional movement 48.8 (对不起，)我不知道。 (對不起，)我不知道。 (Duìbuqǐ,) wǒ bù zhīdao. (Sorry,) I don’t know. 48.7 Asking for ...

talkiNG aBoUt moVemeNt, direCtioNS, aNd meaNS oF traNSPortatioN 48.8 The directional suffix always ends in 来/來 lái ‘to come’ or ...

49 Talking about clock time and calendar time 49.1 Clock time 49.1.1 talking about hours There are two Mandarin words for ‘hour’ ...

talkiNG aBoUt CloCk time aNd CaleNdar time 49.1 To indicate half a minute or half a second, place 半 bàn before the word for minu ...

Clock time 49.1 2:02 两点零二分 兩點零二分 liǎng diǎn líng èr fēn To indicate half past the hour, use 半 bàn. 6:30 六点半 六點半 liù diǎn bàn The ...

talkiNG aBoUt CloCk time aNd CaleNdar time 49.1 Pattern 2 差 chà x 分 fēn x 点/點 diǎn (钟/鐘 zhōng) (lit. ‘lacking x minutes, x o’clo ...

Calendar time 49.2 49.1.5 the location of clock time phrases in the sentence Clock time, like all phrases that indicate the time ...

talkiNG aBoUt CloCk time aNd CaleNdar time 49.2 49.2.1 years 49.2.1.1 Counting years and asking about the number of years To cou ...

Calendar time 49.2 49.2.1.4 asking about years To ask about a year, say: 哪年？ nǎ nián? or něi nián? which year? 你是哪年毕业的？ 你是哪年畢業的？ ...

talkiNG aBoUt CloCk time aNd CaleNdar time 49.2 49.2.2.3 the names of the months January 一月 yīyuè July 七月 qīyuè February 二月 èryu ...

Calendar time 49.2 To ask about the number of days, say: 几天？幾天？ jǐ tiān? how many days? (small number expected) 多少天？ duōshǎo tiā ...

talkiNG aBoUt CloCk time aNd CaleNdar time 49.2 49.2.4.3 referring to days before and after today 大前天 dà qiántiān three days ago ...

Calendar time 49.2 To ask about complete dates, say: 哪年几月几日？ or 哪年几月几号？ 哪年幾月幾日？ 哪年幾月幾號？ nǎ nián jǐ yuè jǐ rì? nǎ nián jǐ yuè jǐ ...

50 expressing obligations and prohibitions 50.1 Expressing obligations 50.1.1 expressing strong obligations: must Here are the w ...

expressing obligations 50.1 应当/應當 yīngdāng is more formal than 应该/應該 yīnggāi and can be used in formal texts including legal doc ...