Chinese grammar

The grammars of Chinese dialects resemble each other very much. All examples in this article are presented in modern standard Chinese, the principles described can be largely transferred to other dialects.

Since the Chinese is not a synthetic, but an isolating / analytic language, there is no inflection; the words all have only one single form. In contrast to the Indo-European languages ​​, there is no grammatical tense forms in Chinese. The tense is indicated by simple adverbs, if at all.

From the Indo-European languages ​​, the Chinese also differs by a more nuanced aspect system. This grammatical category is expressed by particles or prepositions.

• 2.1 numerus

Syntax

Chinese has a high complexity with respect to its syntax, because information on the grammatical context in the Chinese sentence but only by the set position (and not by endings and the like ) can be expressed, especially more complex sentences, especially for the non-native listeners are extremely difficult to decode.

Declarative sentences

The basic word order is subject - predicate - object; of course there are also very complex sentences in which this word order but rather extended as varied.

For example, the sentence: He travels to Shanghai.

Interrogative sentences

For question sets an attached interrogative particle is needed, a change in the rate is not applicable. This is the simplest form of a question form in Chinese and is often used. In German, it is comparable to the Annexes of the word or in a declarative sentence.

For example, a question with question particles: Does he drive to Shanghai?

Another way to question education is to replace the unknown part with a question word ( interrogative ), a change in the set is likewise not.

For example, a question with a question word: Wherever he goes?

Another example with a question word: Anyone traveling to Shanghai?

Morphology

Due to the lack of flexion the Chinese appears to be relatively simple compared to inflected languages ​​, at least for someone who is used to such languages ​​, especially: the talk is at the beginning much easier than, for example, for learners of Finnish.

Number

The grammatical category number is only displayed when pronouns and nouns that refer to people, for example in the personal pronouns (们- men are the plural of ):

(*) Although there are different character for him and her, the pronunciation is identical for both. (** )她们is rarely used - and if so, to refer to a group of people, consisting solely of women.