Word order

Also known as: sentence order,

(yx) and

(cx).

You may have heard that word order in Chinese is very similar to that of English, and
compared to a language like Japanese, it is. Fairly quickly, though, you'll start to realize
that there are quite a few ways that the word order of even relatively simple sentences
simply don't match in Chinese and English. The honeymoon is over; you're going to have
to work just a little bit to master Chinese word order.

The Basic SVO Sentence

On this level, Chinese word order very closely matches English word order. "SVO" stands
for "Subject-Verb-Object" . For extremely simple sentences like "I love you" or "he eats
glass," the word order of Chinese matches that of English, literally, word for word. Keep in
mind that "SVO" doesn't include little details like articles (a, the, etc.) or prepositions (to,
for, etc.).
Subject + Verb + Object
SVO word order exampes
Subject Verb Object

This concept shouldn't take long at all to master. This makes sense "by default" for English
speakers.

Adding extra information to a sentence

More details can be added to the basic sentence structure. How to do this is demonstrated
below.

Placement of time words in a sentence

Time words, the WHEN part of a sentence, have a special place in Chinese. They usually
come at the beginning of a sentence, right after the subject. Occasionally you'll see them
before the subject, but the place you won't be seeing them is at the end of the sentence
(where they frequently appear in English).

Placement of Time Words

Subject Time when Verb phrase

Placement of place words in a sentence

When you want to tell WHERE something happened in Chinese (at school, at work, in
Vegas, on the bus, etc.), you're most often going to use a phrase beginning with

. This

phrase needs to come after the time word (see above) and before the verb. Pay attention to
this last part: before the verb. In English, this information naturally comes after the verb,
so it's going to be difficult at first to get used to saying WHERE something happened
before saying the verb.

Subject

Placement of place words

Time when Place word Verb phrase

1980

For some common exceptions to this word order, please see the following section.

Exceptions to the normal placement of place words

There are some special verbs which seem to be allowed to break the rules (see also location
complements). For these special verbs, the WHERE information comes after the verb
rather than before. It's important to remember that these verbs are exceptions. If you're
not sure where the place phrase should go, it's usually safer to put it before the verb. This
is the normal way to modify a verb in Chinese.

Subject

Exception to place word location in sentences

Time when Place word Verb phrase Place word

Placement of duration in a sentence

Whenever you talk about FOR HOW LONG, you're getting into duration. It's not the same

as a regular time word; it has its own rules.

Subject

Time when

Placement of duration
Place word Verb phrase Place word

Time duration

Placement of manner in a sentence

Manner refers to HOW you do something, as in quietly, quickly, angrily, drunkenly, etc.
This can be done adverbially (before the verb), but it's worth remembering that a
complement works very well too.

Subject

Placement of manner
Time-when
Manner Place word

Verb

It is worth noting that "manner" is not something you'll want to add to every sentence. You
will see it, but it's not the most common way to add more detail to a verb.

Placement of instrument in a sentence

OK, now we're getting a little out there. Rarely are you going to want to cram so much
information into a simple sentence, but for the sake of argument, we're going to give it a
go. This is the USING WHAT part of a sentence - called the instrument. In English, this is
often placed at the end of the sentence and preceded by 'with'. In Chinese, it comes before
the verb and is preceded by

.
Placement of instrument

Subject

Time when

Manner

Place word

Instrument

Verb

Time
duration

Placement of target in a sentence

Target is about who or what the verb is aimed at. This includes doing things for or on

behalf of someone, or towards people or objects.

Placement of manner
Time
when

Subject

Placement of

Manner

Location

Instrument

Verb
phrase

Target

Time
duration

in a sentence

behaves like other adverbs, but if the sentence also contains

or

should

appear before them.

Before

Before

Before

and

Mnemonic Trick
One way to remember the word order in Chinese is the order in which things have to
happen. For example, time has to pass before you can be at a place, so that goes first. You
have to be at a place before you can do anything there, so the location comes before the
verb. You need the instrument before you can use it, so that comes before the verb as well.
Adverbs and complements are a little more difficult, but since they have to do with the verb
itself, they go around the verb, either before or after it, depending on their role. Hopefully
this little trick helps you remember the order of words in Chinese, but remember,
practicing with Chinese speakers and hearing them make these sentences is a great tool to
use as well.

Using question words in a Chinese sentence

You can insert question words (often called wh-words in English) into the structures
above to form questions. Forming questions in Chinese is more straightforward than in

English. In English you have to move the question word to the front of the sentence,
whereas in Chinese it stays put in the sentence. All you have to do is replace the element
you'd like to ask about with an appropriate question word.

Subject

Time
when

Manner

Placement of question words

Place
Instrument Target
Word

Verb

Time
duration

Order of attributives
Sometimes, a noun will have more than one detail that you want to express. When this is
the case, Chinese has a specific order for the attributives that describe the noun. It's
important to keep this order in mind as you are describing something.
Order: 1) Possessives such as "my", "his", or "Sarah's". 2) Demonstrative pronouns (

/ ),

number, and measure word. 3) Any adjectives that you want to use to describe the noun. 4)
The noun or noun phrase
Remember, it isn't necessary to include every single one of these attributes, but when they
are all present , this is the order that they should come in. If some are missing, just jump
over that section and move onto the next. The examples below will help make this clearer.

Examples

See Also

Sentence Patterns
Placement of question words

References
1. For more information on the SVO concept, see the Wikipedia article Subjectverb
object.

Sources and further reading

Books
A Practical Chinese Grammar For Foreigners (

) (pp. 228 - 329)

buy
Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 19 - 23) buy
Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 90) buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 102) buy
Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 2 (pp. 89-90, 318-21) buy
Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 17 - 22) buy
New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (

1) (pp. 10, 123) buy

New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (

1)(2nd ed) (pp. 142 - 143) buy

Structures of Mandarin Chinese for speakers of English

(pp. 1 - 27) buy
40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (

40

(p. 488)buy (Order of

40

(pp. 62, 110-1)buy

Attributives)
40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (

Videos
Yoyo Chinese: Chinese Word Order 001
Yoyo Chinese: Chinese Word Order 002
Yoyo Chinese: Chinese Word Order 003

Websites
Wikipedia: Chinese grammar