40 expressing additional information
Mandarin uses the following expressions to provide additional information.
40.1 也 yG ‘also’
也 yě is an adverb and is always followed by a [prepositional phrase +] verb or verb phrase.
也 yě can be used to introduce additional information about the subject of the sentence.
张美丽学英文。她也学日文。
張美麗學英文。她也學日文。
Zhāng Měilì xué Yīngwén. Tā yě xué Rìwén.
Zhang Meili studies English. She also studies Japanese.
也 yě can be used to indicate that two different subjects share similar characteristics or perform
the same action.
张美丽很高。她妹妹也很高。
張美麗很高。她妹妹也很高。
Zhāng Měilì hěn gāo. Tā mèimei yě hěn gāo.
Zhang Meili is very tall. Her younger sister is also very tall.
张美丽学英文。她妹妹也学英文。
張美麗學英文。她妹妹也學英文。
Zhāng Měilì xué Yīngwén. Tā mèimei yě xué Yīngwén.
Zhang Meili studies English. Her younger sister also studies English.
C15.2.1
40.2 还/還 hái ‘in addition, also’
还/還 hái is an adverb and is always followed by a [prepositional phrase +] verb or verb phrase.
还/還 hái overlaps in meaning with 也 yě, but they are not identical in function. 也 yě introduces
any kind of new information. 还/還 hái only introduces new actions or situations.
还/還 hái can be used to introduce additional actions performed by the subject.
他要学中文，还要学日文。
他要學中文，還要學日文。
Tā yào xué Zhōngwén, hái yào xué Rìwén.
He wants to study Chinese, (and) he also wants to study Japanese.
他买了一条裤子，还买了一件衬衫。
他買了一條褲子，還買了一件襯衫。
Tā mǎi le yī tiáo kùzi, hái mǎi le yī jiàn chènshān.
He bought a pair of slacks, and in addition he bought a shirt.
