CHAPTER ONE
Word order
(1) Basic word order
The basic word order in English is Who, What, Where, When. The basic word order in Chinese is Who, When, Where, What.
English: We ate lunch at McDonaldâs at 1:00 yesterday afternoon.
Chinese: We yesterday afternoon at 1:00 at McDonaldâs ate lunch.
WÇmen zuĂłtiÄn xiĂ wÇ yĂŹdiÇn zhĆng zĂ i MĂ idÄnglĂĄo chÄ«le wÇfĂ n.
æ仏æšć€©äžćäžçčéćšéșŠćœćł ćäșćé„ă
English: We saw a Chinese movie at that movie theater Saturday evening.
Chinese: We Saturday evening at that movie theater saw a Chinese movie.
WÇmen xÄ«ngqÄ«liĂč wÇnshang zĂ i nĂ ge diĂ nyÇngyuĂ n kĂ nle yĂge ZhĆngguĂł diĂ nyÇng.
æ仏ææć
æäžćšéŁäžȘç”ćœ±éąçäșäžäžȘäžćœç”ćœ±ă
(2) Action and location: someone does something somewhere
English: Who, what, where, (when)
Chinese: Who, (when) where, what
English: I eat dinner at home.
Chinese: I at home eat dinner .
WÇ zĂ i jiÄli chÄ« wÇnfĂ n.
æćšćź¶éćæé„ă
English: I study in the library.
Chinese: I at the library study.
WÇ zĂ i tĂșshĆ«guÇn niĂ nshĆ«.
æćšćŸäčŠéŠćż”äčŠă
(3) Action and time: when somebody does something
English: Who, what, (where) when
Chinese: Who, when, (where) what
The time WHEN something happens always comes before the verb.
English: I get up at 8:00.
Chinese: I at 8:00 get up.
WÇ bÄdiÇn zhĆng qÇchuĂĄng.
æć
«çčéè”·ćșă
English: I eat breakfast at 8:30.
Chinese: I at 8:30 eat breakfast.
WÇ bÄdiÇn bĂ n chÄ« zÇofĂ n.
æć
«çčććæ©é„ă
(4) Word order for expressing WHEN something happened
The biggest, most general time words come first in Chinese:
English: day, month, year
Chinese: year, month, day
English: Saturday, October 1, 1949 (Founding of the PRC)
Chinese: 1949, October 1, Saturday
YÄ«jiÇsĂŹjiÇniĂĄn, shĂyuĂš yĂhĂ o, xÄ«ngqÄ«liĂč
1949ćčŽ10æ1æ„ïŒææć
ă
English: 8:00 a.m. on July 4, 1820 (Americaâs First Independence day)
Chinese: 1820, July 4, at 8:00 a.m.
YÄ«bÄĂšrlĂngniĂĄn qÄ«yuĂš sĂŹhĂ o, zÇoshang bÄdiÇn zhĆng.
1820ćčŽ7æ4æ„ïŒæ©äžć
«çčéă
(5) Word order for duration of time: how long someone did something
The word order for expressing the length or duration of time is very different from expressing the time when an action occurred. Here, the length of time of an action can come at the end of the sentence, whereas this can NEVER happen with expressing WHEN something occurred.
I slept eight hours of sleep.
WÇ shuĂŹle bÄge zhĆngtou (xiÇoshĂ) de jiĂ o.
æçĄäșć
«äžȘé怎 (ć°æ¶) çè§ă
OR, if you are stating t...