A Chinese sentence may be either a simple sentence, or a complex

sentences, made of more than 2 simple sentences. To begin with, let’s talk
about simple sentence and the components that make them:

Simple Sentence Pattern

A simple sentence will usually include at least two parts, the subject and
predicate. A common sentence structure is in three parts: subject + predicate
(verb) + object.

Unlike English, most of the time in a simple Chinese sentence, the predicate
is a verb, although sometimes it can be an adjective. For this guide we will
refer to the predicate as a verb, unless stated otherwise.

This is known as the trunk of a simple sentence.

Trunk Examples
(我) 的妈妈 [已经] 去 <过> (你) 的学校了。 My mother has been to your
school.
The trunk of this sentence is:
妈妈 + 去 + 学校
subject + verb + object

Simple sentence components

Although subject + verb + object is the main part of a sentence, simple
Chinese sentences can be made up of the following 6 components:

Subject 主语 (zhǔ yǔ): a person or thing that is being discussed, described, or

dealt with.
Predicate 谓语 (wèi yǔ): part of a sentence containing a verb that relates to
the subject.
Object 宾语 (bīn yǔ): a noun governed by a verb.
Attributive 定语 (dìng yǔ): modifies an adjective or noun.
Adverb 状语 (zhuàng yǔ): modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb expressing a
relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc
Complement 补语 (bǔ yǔ): complete the meaning of the predicate (verb).

Simple Sentence Examples

Subject + Verb + Object
The subject, predicate (verb) and object are the major components of every
sentence.

我爱他 (wǒ ài tā) I love him

Subject + Adverb + Verb + Object

我只爱他 (wǒ zhǐ ài tā) I only love him
Subject + Adverb + Verb + Attributive + Object
我只爱我记忆中的他 (wǒ zhǐ ài wǒ jì yì zhòng dì tā) I only love my memories of
him.

Subject + Adverb + Verb + Complement + Object

我以前爱过他 (wǒ yǐ qián ài guò tā) I loved him before.
Sentence Order
Let’s look at a simple Chinese sentence in more detail and break down each
component and how to use them.

The following sentence shows all 6 components in the correct sentence order:

(定语) 主语 [状语] 谓语 <补语> (定语) 宾语。

(Attrib) Subject [Adv] Verb (Attrib) Object.

Chamcen told me that When she was at school, the teachers taught the
students to separate each component using mathematical equations to help
them remember each part of the sentence.

Here are the symbols they used:

Subject (主语) with ‘ = ‘

Predicate/Verb (谓语) with ‘ – ‘
Object (宾语) with ‘ ~ ‘
Attributive (定语) with ‘ ( ) ‘
Adverb (状语) with ‘ [ ] ‘
Complement (补语) with ‘ < > ‘
Here is an example of a sentence using the symbols to separate each
component:

Note that auxiliary words 助词 (zhù cí) such as “的, 地, 得, 着, 了 and 过” are
not marked as sentence components.
新鲜的水果不断地从国外送进农贸市场。(xīn xiān de shuǐ guǒ bù duàn de
cóng guó wài sòng jìn nóng mào shì chǎng.) The fresh fruit has been sent to
the farm products market continuously.
Here’s a breakdown of each component in this sentence:

Subject ‘ = ‘ is sb/sth stated. In the eg, it is 水果 (fruit).

Predicate ‘ – ‘ is action. In this eg, the verb is 送 (sent).
Object ‘ ~ ‘ is sb/sth that the action affects. In the eg, the object is 市场
(market).
We will now look at attributives, adverbs and complements in more detail:

Attributives in Chinese Sentences

Anattributive ‘ ( ) ‘ is an additional component of the subject (主语) and object
(宾语) to modify. In this eg, the attributives are 新鲜 (Fresh) and 农贸 (farm
trader’s).
The position of such attributives should be before the subject, in this case 水
果 (fruit), and the object, which is 市场 (market).
Between the attributive and the subject and object, is the ‘的’ particle. 的 is the
mark of an attributive, although the ‘的’ particle is not used for some
attributives.

Examples of attributives with the 的 particle

（美好）的时光总是过得很快。 ( (měi hǎo) de shí guāng zǒng shì guò de hěn
kuài.) Good times always go by quickly. (Time flies when you’re having fun)
（桌子上）的花开了。( (zhuō zi shàng) de huā kāi le) The flowers on the
table blossomed.
An example of attributives (without 的)

他喜欢上了（那个）（红头发）女孩。(tā xǐ huan shàng le (nèi gè) (hóng tóu

fa) nǚ hái.) He is falling in love with that red haired girl.

Adverbs in Chinese Sentences

Adverbs ‘ [ ] ‘ are additional components of a predicate (clause with a verb),
used to modify the verb.
The position of the adverb should be before the verb. Generally, the adverb is
between the subject and the verb, but sometimes it can be placed before the
subject.
Between the adverb and verb, there is sometimes a 地 (de) particle. 地
modifies the adverb to become ‘ verb + ly ‘.
Adverb Examples

他[快速]地打开了盒子。(tā kuài sù de dǎ kāi le hé zi.) He opened the box

quickly.
他[总是]写信给我。(tā zǒng shì xiě xìn gěi wǒ.) He always wrote letters to me.

Complements in Chinese Sentences

A complement ‘ < > ‘ is another component of a verb and is mostly used for
explanations.
The complement should be after a verb or an object.
Complement Examples
学生们绕着操场跑了<五圈>。(xué sheng men rào zhe cāo chǎng pǎo le wǔ
quān.) The students ran 5 laps around the playground.
我已经吃<完>晚饭了。(wǒ yǐ jīng chī wán wǎn fàn le）I have already finished
my supper.
鸟儿自由地飞翔<在蓝天中>。(niǎor zì yóu fēi xiáng zài lán tiān zhōng.) The
bird flew freely in the blue sky.

5 Simple Examples of Chinese Sentence Structure

Here are 5 really simple sentence structures to get you started.

1. Subject + Verb: “nĭ chī”

“Nĭ” means “you” and “chī” means “to eat .” So this means “you eat.”

2. Subject + Verb + Object: “nĭ chī fàn”

nĭ means “you” and “chī” means to eat and “fàn” means “food” or “rice.”

So this means “you eat food.” Or “you are eating.”

But if the tense of eat/chī isn’t clear, then how do Chinese people communicate?

The answer is that it’s implied from the context. If they want to be clearer, they provide more
details like in the next example.

3. Subject + Time + Verb + Object: “nĭ jīn tiān chī fàn”

“jīn tiān” means “today,” so this means “today you eat rice/food.”

If the person wants to clarify the tense, instead of changing the verb “chī” which means “to eat,”
they add the time after the noun.
This is what I meant when I said there are no tenses or conjugation. The verb “chī” has a timeless
quality about it, sort of like an element in chemistry.

4. Subject + Verb + Object + ma: “nĭ jīn tiān chī fàn ma”

Adding “ma” at the end converts a sentence into a question. So this means “today do you eat
rice?”

You can use this for any question that has a yes/no answer. (So you wouldn’t be able to use it for
something like “what do you think of this food?”)

Isn’t this much simpler than English? How would you go about explaining to an English learner
how they can ask a question?

5. Subject + Time + Verb: “nĭ jīn tiān chī”

This means “you eat today.” We’ve removed the word “fan”, which is implied.

Chinese people love to be concise, so if they can communicate the same thing with less they say
less.

Background
English is classified as an Indo-European language. This language family includes a lot
of languages spoken in the western world, including the romance languages (such as
Spanish, French, and Portuguese) as well as the Slavic languages (such as Russian,
Czech, and Polish), and many others. All of these languages have common
grammatical features which include conjugating verbs for different tenses, following
specific rules about subject-verb agreement, and adding endings to words to make
them plural.

Chinese is not part of the Indo-European family at all. Instead, it is classified as a Sino-
Tibetan language, and, unsurprisingly, its grammar is quite different from the grammar
of those European languages you may have encountered before. Still, Chinese
grammar may surprise you with its pleasing simplicity and consistent logical structure.

As a language, Chinese (quote famously) does not have an alphabet. Instead,

characters known as “hanzi” (汉字) are used to express the different sounds of the
language. These characters can also be written using the roman letters in a system
called “pinyin.” All beginners should learn pinyin first. Pinyin is provided for all Chinese
characters that appear in A1 and A2 grammar points.

The Basics
There are a number of misconceptions about Chinese grammar, the most egregious
being that "Chinese has no grammar." If Mandarin Chinese truly had no grammar, you
could make no grammar mistakes, and no learners would ever struggle with it. We will
start this overview by looking at some specific areas of Chinese grammar that can
sometimes trip up beginners.

Word Order

For many simple cases, the basic sentence structure of Chinese is the same in Chinese
as it is in English. Both languages use a subject-verb or subject-verb-object (SVO)
formula for making simple sentences. This familiar pattern means that you shouldn't
have much trouble with word order at first.

Subject-Verb Examples:

Subject Verb Translation

你Nǐ 吃。chī. You eat.

他Tā 笑。xiào. He laughs.

我Wǒ 去。qù. I go.

Subject-Verb-Object Examples:
 Subject Verb Object Translation

我Wǒ 吃chī. 肉。ròu. I eat meat.

你Nǐ 喝hē 水。shuǐ. You drink water.

他Tā 说shuō 中文。Zhōngwén. He speaks Chinese.

More examples can be found on our basic word order page.

As sentences get more complex, you'll note that Chinese word order does, in fact,
diverge significantly from English word order, even for some relatively simple
sentences. For help with those, check out our articles on time words, locations of
actions, using simple adverbs correctly, and making simple noun-adjective sentences.

Questions

Simple sentences can be turned into yes/no questions by adding 吗 (ma) to the end of
simple statements. For each of the following, you could make a simple statement by
dropping 吗 (ma).

他 是 老师 吗 ？ questionTā shì lǎoshī ma?Is he a teacher?

你 喜欢 咖啡 吗 ？ questionNǐ xǐhuan kāfēi ma?Do you like coffee?
他 是 机器人 吗 ？ questionTā shì jīqìrén ma?Is he a robot?

Another important question particle for beginners to understand is 呢 (ne). 呢 (ne) is

simply added after a topic to turn it into a "what about...?" question. This is useful in
conversations to say things like "what about you?" or "what about my money?" This
particle is simply tagged onto a subject to form the question.
 我 吃饭 了 。 你 呢 ？Wǒ chīfàn le. Nǐ ne?I've eaten. What about you?
 北京 下 雨 了 。 上海 呢 ？Běijīng xià yǔ le. Shànghǎi ne?It's raining
in Beijing. How about Shanghai?
你 说 他们 可以 去 。 我们 呢 ？Nǐ shuō tāmen kěyǐ qù.
Wǒmen ne?You said they can go. What about us?

There are of course other ways to form questions. In English, we use question words,
commonly referred to as the "5 W's and 1 H" (what, where, who, when, why, how), to
make questions. These question words also exist in Chinese, but their placement within
a sentence in Chinese is different from English. The structure of a question in Chinese
follows the same structure as a normal statement.

For example, in English the structure of the question "Who are you?" puts the question
word "who" at the beginning of the sentence. If the person answering this question says,
"I am Li Li" we can see that the answer to the question comes at the end of the
sentence. In Chinese, the structure of the question to learn someone's name is "You are
who?" So the question follows the same structure as the answer (subject-verb-object).
This works for all kinds of other questions too. For example, in Chinese, to ask "What is
it?" you literally say, "It is what?"

 什么shénmewhat
 哪里 / 哪儿nǎlǐ / nǎrwhere
 谁shéiwho

 什么时候shénme shíhouwhen
 为什么wèishénmewhy

 怎么zěnmehow

Possession

Possession can be shown using the particle 的 (de). This character functions the same
way as an apostrophe-"s" does in English and is added after the "owner," before the
"thing owned." One interesting result of this extremely versatile system is that you don't
need separate words for "my" or "your" or "his"; you just follow the words for "I" or "you"
or "he" with a 的 (de).

 小李 的 手机Xiǎo Lǐ de shǒujīXiao Li's cell phone

 我 的 手机Wǒ de shǒujīMy cell phone
  公司 的 老板gōngsī de lǎobǎnthe company's boss
 他 的 小狗Tā de xiǎogǒuHis puppy

Possession can also be expressed with 有 (yǒu), the Chinese verb meaning "to have."
Just like we can say in English "I have the tickets" or "she has the camera," 有 (yǒu) can
indicate this type of possession.

我 有 钱。Wǒ yǒu qián.I have money.

 他 有 两 个 女儿 。Tā yǒu liǎng gè nǚér.He has two daughters.

你 有 工作 吗？Nǐ yǒu gōngzuò ma?Do you have a job?

Negation

The same basic word order holds true when using the negative. Simply put the word 不
(bù) before verbs and adjectives. This functions much like the word "not" in English.

我 不 喝酒 。bù hējiǔ.She doesn't drink alcohol.

 他们 不 想 工作 。Tāmen bù xiǎng gōngzuò.They don't want to work.
 她 不 漂亮 。Tā bù piàoliang.She is not pretty.

When talking about what you do not "have," you use the word 没 (méi) instead of 不
(bu). It is placed right before the verb 有 (yǒu) to form the "do not have" phrase 没有
(méiyǒu). This allows you to say sentences like "Walter doesn't have a car" or "Voltron
doesn't have the books."

我 没 有 手机 。Wǒ méi yǒu shǒujī.I don't have a cell phone.

 我们 没 有 房子 。Wǒmen méi yǒu fángzi.We don't have a house.
 他们 公司 没 有 电脑 。Tāmen gōngsī méi yǒu diànnǎo.Their
company doesn't have computers.

Aspect

As we mentioned already, there is a silly notion floating around that Chinese has no
grammar. While this belief is false, it probably stems from the fact Chinese has no
formal tenses to express events that took place in either the past or the future. Instead
of tense, the language makes use of time words and puts more emphasis on aspect.
You don't need to worry about this in the beginning; just remember to use time words to
make clear when something happened, and the aspect thing will come with time. (Hint:
aspect involves the particle 了 (le), which you'll be spending more time with later.)

Parts of Speech

All words can be classified into parts of speech to define what roles the words play in
sentences. Here, we will briefly recap how these different parts of speech work in
English, and explain how the same rules apply to Chinese grammar.

Nouns are commonly referred to as "person, place, or thing" words. As you start
learning more Chinese vocabulary, many of the words you will learn will be nouns.
These will make up the subjects and the objects of the sentences you study.

Verbs are words that describe actions (sometimes mental or abstract rather than
physical). Chinese does not conjugate verbs. Chinese verbs stay the same, regardless
of when the action takes place or who performs it.

Here are some good verbs for beginners to start learning:

 是 (shì) - verb for "to be"

 在 (zài) - verb for "to be located"
 有 (yǒu) - verb for "there is / there are"
 叫 (jiào) - verb for "to be called"
 去 (qù) - verb for "to go"

Adverbs are words that modify verbs and adjectives. In Chinese, the
adverb always goes before the verb or adjective. Instead of saying "I run also," proper
grammar in Chinese would be "I also run." It's very consistent in Chinese.

Here are some good adverbs for beginners to start learning:

 都 (dōu) - adverb for "all"

 也 (yě) - adverb for "also"
 太 (tài) - adverb for "too," as in "excessively"

Adjectives are words that describe nouns. Chinese has some unique rules about how
adjectives interact with different nouns and verbs.

Here are some good adjective rules for beginners to start learning:

 Simple sentences with adjectives

 是 (shì) - the verb for "to be"

Conjunctions are words that join two thoughts together in a sentence. The three most
common ones in English are "and," "but," and "or." As you learn more about these
conjunctions in Chinese, you will discover that they're each a little different from their
English equivalents.

Here are some good conjunctions for beginners to start learning:

 和 (hé) - conjunction for "and"

 还是 (háishì) - conjunction for "or"

Articles are kind of a confusing concept in English, but the main English articles are
"a," "an," and "the." We use them when saying things like "I have a laptop" or "open the
door." In Chinese, articles don't exist. There is no word for "a" or "the" in Chinese.

Numbers are the words we use to express specific quantities. We use numbers to
express value, time, and other important functions in our lives. They can be used for all
of these same functions in Chinese.

Here are some good number structures for beginners to start learning.

(Date and/or time of day +) x 点

Sometimes people use the longer 点钟 (diǎnzhōng) instead of just 点 (diǎn), but you're
fine using the short form.

Examples

If you want to include more specific information, start with the day or date, followed by
the general time of day, with the exact clock time last. (This is the big-to-small pattern.)
This is how Chinese gets around the need for "a.m." or "p.m.": use 上午 (shàngwǔ) for
times in the morning, and 下午 (xiàwǔ) for times in the afternoon.
 九 点jiǔ diǎn9 o'clock
 上午 七 点shàngwǔ qī diǎn7 o'clock a.m.
 下午 四 点xiàwǔ sì diǎn4 o'clock p.m.
 中午 十二 点zhōngwǔ shí'èr diǎn12 o'clock noon
 明天 晚上 七 点míngtiān wǎnshang qī diǎn7 o'clock p.m. tomorrow
evening
9 月 9 号 早上 六 点jiǔ yuè jiǔ hào zǎoshang liù diǎnSeptember 9th, 6
o'clock a.m.
 星期三 上午 九 点Xīngqīsān shàngwǔ jiǔ diǎnWednesday at 9 o'clock
a.m.

Note that two o'clock is 两点 (liǎng diǎn), not 二点 (èr diǎn). (For more information on
when to use 两 (liǎng) vs. 二 (èr), see our article on comparing "er" and "liang").

"Twelve o'clock," however, is still 十二点 (shí'èr diǎn).

Half Hours
Half hours are added after 点 (diăn) and are indicated with 半 (bàn).

Structure

x点+半

Examples

五 点 半wǔ diǎn bàn5:30

 下午 两 点 半xiàwǔ liǎng diǎn bàn2:30 p.m.
 星期天 上午 十 点 半Xīngqītiān shàngwǔ shí diǎn bànSunday at 10:30
a.m.
 昨天 晚上 七 点 半zuótiān wǎnshang qī diǎn bàn7:30 yesterday evening
 今天 下午 四 点 半jīntiān xiàwǔ sì diǎn bàn4:30 p.m. this afternoon.

As a beginner, that should be all you need. If you've mastered all of these structures
and want to get a little more advanced, see structure of times (advanced).
HSK Notes

Dates are arranged from largest unit to smallest: year, month, day.

x年+y月+z日

So April 1st, 2019 is 2019年4月1日 (èr-líng-yī-jiǔ nián Sìyuè yī rì).

Note that 号 (hào) is commonly used in spoken Mandarin instead of 日 (rì):

x年+y月+z号

The above example becomes: 2019年4月1号 (èr-líng-yī-jiǔ nián Sìyuè yī hào). In

written Chinese, however, you will see 日 (rì) rather than 号 (hào).

Examples

 1868 年 1 月 18 号Yī-bā-liù-bā nián Yīyuè shíbā hàoJanuary 18, 1868

 1910 年 8 月 9 号Yī-jiǔ-yī-líng nián Bāyuè jiǔ hàoAugust 9, 1910
 2001 年 7 月 20 日èr-líng-líng-yī nián Qīyuè èrshí rìJuly 20th, 2001
 1 月 1 日 是 新年。Yīyuè yī rì shì Xīnnián.January 1st is New Year's Day.
 12 月 24 日 是 平安夜。Shí-èryuè èrshí-sì rì shì Píng'ān
Yè.December 24th is Christmas Eve.
 10 月 1 号 我们 去 上海。Shíyuè yī hào wǒmen qù Shànghǎi.We will
go to Shanghai on October 1st.
我 1990 年 7 月 出生。Wǒ Yī-jiǔ-jiǔ-líng nián Qīyuè chūshēng.I was
born in July 1990.
你 的 生日 是 11 月 11 号吗？Nǐ de shēngrì shì
Shíyīyuè shíyī hào ma?Is your birthday November 11th?
 我 2006 年 4 月 17 号 认识 了 他。Wǒ èr-líng-líng-
liù nián Sìyuè shíqī hào rènshi le tā.I met him on April 17, 2006.
 1980 年 9 月 4 号 我们 结婚 了。Yī-jiǔ-bā-
líng nián Jiǔyuè sì hào wǒmen jiéhūn le.We got married on September
4th, 1980

Translating from Chinese

“All you need is Google Translate!” is the answer I got somewhat jokingly when I
mentioned the problems I came across when translating Chinese. It can be true:
sometimes the automatic translator works really well, like when translating instructions
for washing a T-shirt or putting together a piece of furniture.

I’m willing to bet that you too have found that at times the translations on packaging or
pamphlets from items Made in China are a bit wacky, and the same goes for the famous
“fortune cookies”.

Most of the times though things aren’t so easy: translating from one language to another
is always a complex process, but with Chinese it could be even more difficult than we
think. In order to maintain the creativity, appropriateness and readability of the original
text, the translator must often make choices, adaptations, additions and cuts: a last step
from the translator is transforming simple translation from one language to another into
a rewriting, more like an adaptation to a different media than a simple “change of
clothes” for the text.

This example is perhaps the best fit for the Chinese language: like the cinematographic
adaptation of a film can tell the same story, but with images, sounds, movements and
lights instead of doing so with words, a written Chinese text – with its characters,
“intuitive” structures and rather “debatable” grammatical rules – can be transformed into
a written text in a language such as English, where every verb tense has its specific
function, each aspect is explained and explainable, every rule is firm even with its
exceptions.

Essentially there are two fundamental operations when translating:

understanding the original text and then rewriting it.

During the first phase, it is essential to fully understand what the text’s author means to
say, why they have chosen certain words instead of others, what their style is; then it’s
time to rewrite the text, trying to “re-dress” those ideas, concepts, stories in a different
set of clothes, in a different setting while keeping the substance intact as much as
possible.

Yan Fu (严复 Yán Fù, 1853–1921) said there are three challenges when translating a
text: the first in being faithful to the original text信 (xìn); the second is expressing
yourself clearly 达 (dá) and elegantly 雅 (yǎ).

In this article we’ll look at the options for a balanced translation, which renders the
sense of the original text to the reader, seeking to understand how it’s possible to
transmit the original meaning between two different languages and keeping its form and
style as much as possible.

Phase one: understanding the text

1. Look for known words

A sad reality for those who have been learning Chinese, even for many years, is that in
every new text there will always be words you’ve never seen before. A good strategy to
help in understanding the text is to first identify the words you know: at times this is all
that is needed to get an idea of the general meaning of the text and the purpose of the
words you don’t know yet.

In a Chinese text the characters aren’t normally separated like our words are: this is
quite the challenge for beginners, a little less for those who already know a fair amount
of characters. Setting aside the classic texts, where there isn’t even any punctuation,
these days punctuation is also quite often used rather “arbitrarily” (I hope I’m not the
only one who has come across entire paragraphs with only a final period).

But what should you look for first? I start with words with a grammatical function such as
the “three de” (的、得、地), 了 (le), 过 (guo), the particles 吗 (ma)、吧 (ba)、呢 (ne),
frequently used conjunctions and adverbs such as 但是 (dànshì), 可是(kěshì), 而且
(érqiě), 非常 (fēicháng), or 比较 (bǐjiào).

Isolating these parts of the text, even circling or highlighting them to separate them from
the “blocks” in order to break down the phrases, you will already have a general idea of
the structure of the text you’re facing.
Numerals are also easy to identify, and often indicate the time in which an action takes
place: at times, when at the beginning of a text it says that something has happened
“three years ago”, then you know that the whole account is in the past – and you will not
find any further indications.

An additional difficulty with Chinese is that there aren’t any conjugations and
declinations: on one hand this greatly simplifies the grammar, on the other, when
translating, there’s an enormous ambiguity to compensate for, since in English one can’t
be so “vague” with verb tenses and agreement with the other parts of the phrase.

Another trick is to look for repeating characters, which will likely be the key words of the
text in question.

A basic thing to remember is that in Chinese words don’t have an exclusive grammatical
function. The same word can be a verb, adjective, noun or adverb.

For example, when in English we find a word that ends in –ing, we can reasonably
assume that we’re dealing with a verb (but pudding is a not too tasty kind of dessert).

In Chinese there’s no such certainty: rather, one of the basic differences with our own
language is that words can often play any grammatical role within a phrase.

Here’s a simple example: 好 (hǎo), good/well, is one of the first characters that
you learn.

You already know that 你好 (nǐ hǎo), which we translate as “hello”, literally means “you
(are) well”; 好吃 (hǎochī) is good (to eat), 好看 (hǎokàn) is beautiful (“good to see”), 好
玩儿 (hǎowánr) means amusing (“good to play”), but in an expression such as 好贵啊
(hǎo guì a!) it instead means “how much”, “a lot”: wow, it costs so much!

If instead we say 这个问题好回答 (zhège wèntí hǎo huídá), which means “this is an
easy question to answer”, then 好 means “what one does easily”, but in a phrase like 我
做好了 (wǒ zuòhǎo le) expresses the completion of an action (“I finished”, literally “I did
it with a good result”).

Still, in a phrase like 他好表现自己 (tā hào biǎoxiàn zìjǐ), 好 is pronounced in the fourth
tone and is a verb – to love: “he loves to show off”. Lastly (but only so that we don’t go
on too long about this), it could be part of other words, like 爱好 (àihào), hobby, 好像
(hǎoxiàng), to seem, 好处 (hǎochu), advantage, and so on.

All this is to say that there are two aspects to understand with every word: the function
and the meaning. Each character/word can have many meanings (some of which can
even be contradictory) and serve multiple functions within a text, so it’s helpful to use
the more common and “precise” words to be able to understand which of the functions
the “complicated” words serve in the text being translated and which is the most suitable
meaning.

Returning to our “search”: in English proper names are characterized by capital letters,
while in Chinese there’s usually nothing like that, but often three characters which don’t
have any meaning connection among themselves are usually a name, while multiple
characters combined into an absurd meaning will likely be a transliteration of a foreign
name.

2. Look for unknown words

Once you identify the words you know, all you have to do is check a dictionary (or
simply Google Translate or Pleco, a very useful Chinese app) and you’ll find the
“missing words”.

It’s best to note down, maybe on the text itself if you have a printed copy, the most
applicable meanings and possible translations, so you will be able to choose the best-
suited word in English without looking them up again once you have a better idea of the
whole meaning.

At times some words composed of multiple characters will not be in the dictionaries
because they’re too new or have been coined by the author: in those cases, it’s often a
good idea to just look at the characters separately to be able to figure out the meaning
of the entire word.

If the text has a title, being able to translate it can be very useful, but often, since
Chinese is a rather “cryptic” language, it isn’t immediately understandable and you’ll
have to read at least the first paragraph to be able to interpret it.

A very useful tip is to not give up at the first sign of difficulty: if you can’t translate a
phrase, often you just need to move on to the next sentence to understand the
preceding one.

3. Ask for help!

A last bit of advice is to consult with teachers and Chinese friends who can help us if we
can’t figure out the meaning of certain expressions. It’s often happened that I wasn’t
able to understand a text because I had never read a certain book or was unaware of a
proverb widely known in China which for some reason I hadn’t learned yet.

Obviously, the internet and especially Baidu, with its immense database of phrases and
possible examples, can be a great help: if you can’t understand what a word means in
our context, just look for another example or sentence and you’ll likely be able to
understand the meaning of the expression based in another phrase that contains it!
Once you understand the meaning of the text, which in my case will be a mess of notes,
arrows and possible meanings, we can then move on to the next phase!

Phase two: rewriting the text

What must be done when rewriting a text in your own language? According to Yan Fu, it
is by staying faithful to the original text, expressing it clearly and with elegance. Often
we see translated texts “built” according to the structure of the original language, not
written in “original” English or seemingly “foreign”: this is because at times the translator
feels too attached to the original text and can’t move away from it, forgetting that, true,
their task is to translate, but to also to “rewrite” into a language that is pleasant to read!

But how can it be done?

A basic rule I saw in the book “Thinking Chinese Translation” by Valerie Pellatt and Eric
T. Liu is that “there should be no ‘can’t’ for the translator”: simply put, the translator is
free to do anything! Let’s look in detail at what can be done in order to make the
translation as pleasant to read as possible.

1. Reorganizing the text

The translator should feel free to recompose the phrase, moving for example something
that in Chinese is put at the end of the sentence to the beginning, if in English it is
required or if it is simply clearer, easier to read or more elegant to do so.

Obviously, this isn’t just limited to the parts of a sentence: if a phrase is too long, it can
be broken up into smaller pieces. On the other hand, if there’s a bunch of small phrases
they can be combined into a more complex phrase if we think that in English “we would
say it like that”.

2. Adding, subtracting, extending, contracting, substituting

This isn’t just a possibility: anyone who has ever translated from Chinese has done it,
even without realizing it. We have added articles, prepositions, endings and verb tenses
that are not there in Chinese because they have to be there in English; added subjects
or verbs that were implied in the original text; we’ve added additional explanations that
weren’t in the text we’re translating (at times adding a note), because they are
necessary for the English reader.

At the same time, we’ve removed, for example, verbs or adjectives that have been
doubled, because there’s no need to repeat them in English, or we’ve substituted them
with other expressions that give the same sense of the doubling.

For example the phrase 去看看 (wǒ qù kànkan) can be translated as “I’ll go see it”.
At the same time we mercilessly take away all expressions that would “burden” the
reading, at times even entire portions of the text: if you think that the English reader
doesn’t need it, just cut it out!

Often, without realizing it, we have also “lengthened” the original phrases to explain
them better or we’ve contracted them because it isn’t necessary in English to dwell too
much on things that perhaps have already been said before. This isn’t a matter of
adding or removing but simply “extending” or “contracting” something already there, in
the original text or, in one word, “adapting” it.

The translator is also free to substitute original expressions with other more correct
ones in the target language, as long as it doesn’t at all change what the author intended
to say in the original text. Generally, you should aim for the functional (or practical)
equivalent, which means finding an expression that corresponds to what should be said
in the same situation, using your own language.

To give an example of a functional equivalent, the Chinese 晚安 (wǎn’ān) literally

means “calm night”, but it practically works as the functional equivalent of our
“goodnight”; when translating a person saying 晚安 to their child, we certainly wouldn’t
say “calm night”, but would use the functional equivalent in English, “goodnight”.

In the same way 吃饭了吗? (chīfàn le ma?) quite often doesn’t literally mean “have you
eaten?”, but simply “how’s it going?”, “everything ok?”.

3. Choose!

The author has the possibility, need and responsibility to choose. It’s often not possible
to render all meanings of a word and it is necessary to choose one; we can find various
synonyms for the same term, and it’s up to us to choose the one that’s best suited; we
can change a phrase either greatly or slightly, depending on what effect we want to
give, thereby choosing to also make changes on the style.

For the most part, when we choose to translate an expression there are three situations
that may present themselves:

 There’s a direct and equivalent translation of what we’re looking to translate: no

problem and no headache.

 There’s a similar though not entirely equivalent expression, which perhaps better
renders the original sense while maintaining, up to a certain point, the form that
the author used (for example, a verb that’s similar to the original verb but also
has another meaning that doesn’t completely correspond). There’s a bit to think
about here.

 There is no equivalent expression. What can we do? We have a few options. We

can paraphrase, changing the entire structure of the phrase and text; translate it
 literally, then add an explanation (in the text, in parenthesis or in a note) to help
the reader understand the text; lastly, we can make a loose translation, twisting
the text from its original form while trying to keep its meaning..

Let’s look at an example of a rather complicated translation of a proverb, noting how 正

月十五贴门神—晚了半月 (Zhēngyuè shíwǔ tiē ménshén—wǎnle bànyuè) can be
translated.

1. Literal translation: (it is like) hanging up images of guardian divinities on the

fifteenth day of the first lunar month, half a month late.

2. Substitution: with a different proverb in English, it could be translated as “it’s like

shutting the door after the horse had bolted”.

3. Annotated translation: it is like hanging up images of guardian deities on the

fifteenth day of the first lunar month, half a month later (note: according to Chinese
tradition, images of the two guardian deities were hung on the doors of a house on the
day of the lunar new year to protect the habitation in the year to come).

4. Explanatory translation: it’s too late, like hanging images of the guardian deities so
as to protect the house during the coming year on the fifteenth day of the lunar month
instead of on New Year’s.

5. Loose translation: it’s too late now.

Each option has its own consequences; substitution maintains the characteristic of
“metaphoric language”, finding a functional equivalent of the Chinese expression; while
changing the metaphorical image causes a detachment from what the author has
written, which in the case of translating a literary text might not be a good choice, while
in other cases (for example, in a tourist guide or a non-literary text), it might not be a
problem.

The noticeable limit of a literal translation is the need for the reader to have specific
knowledge in order to understand it; it could be a good choice if it’s assumed that the
reader knows the necessary information needed to understand the meaning of the text
(for example if it has already been explained before or the readers are experts on
Chinese culture).

An annotated translation allows you to keep the text as close as possible to the original,
making available for the reader all the information necessary for a correct
understanding; it has the advantage of not “breaking up” the reading if the reader
doesn’t need the explanation and keeping it handy in case further explanation is
needed.

Translation with explanation extends the text, but provides all necessary information
during the reading, making it more fluent. It could be a problem if one does not want to
expand the text or if it’s simply not possible to do so, or if the added information “makes
it heavier” somehow.

A loose translation cuts out the metaphoric element and simply explains the meaning; it
could be a good choice in non-literary texts where the imagery used isn’t important, but
only what is meant to be communicated.

Obviously the text to be translated determines the option of how it’s best to translate it:
in a novel we would give preference to the author’s style, letting the Chinese culture
shine through rather than “adapting” the text too much; for a travel guide, we could
instead opt for the functional equivalent and simply say things as we would say them in
English.

A word of caution

The translator is free to do everything we mentioned, but must keep in mind that their
task is to stay faithful to the sense of the original text, as well as the style: this means
that it isn’t enough to rewrite what the original author wrote, but one must seek, with
certain precautions, to also render the way in which it was written.

The translator has a large responsibility. Now you too will agree with me… it’s not true
that “All you need is Google Translate!”

The patient work of the translator

After reading Aldo’s part, now it’s mine, Armando’s turn. Enjoy the read!

Translating from any language is without a doubt a difficult task that requires notable
patience and strength of will. A keyword that is very important for any translator is
“read”: before starting any translation, you need to read the original text attentively two
or three times.

You need to read carefully and patiently, and to do so out loud to bring out eventual
sounds and be able to drop into the various atmospheres. Reading out loud is
fundamental! When reading out load we turn up our nose at how we wrote something, it
means that something needs to be changed.

A good translator knows the source language well (Chinese, for example) and must
know the target language even better, which will ideally be their mother tongue. For this
reason, I recommend that you equip yourself with such indispensable tools such as
grammar books, a dictionary and so on.

Moreover, the translator must be patient in another respect: since there are no identical
considerations between different languages, the translator must be willing to bargain.
Translation forces you to choose. Translation is not “to say the same thing in another
language” but as Umberto Eco says, translation is “saying almost the same thing.
Rather, at times, betraying the text is the only way to stay faithful to it. In addition, a
translator must know that each language can have various forms: you could use a high,
low, dignified, prosaic, formal, informal, colloquial, bombastic, plain, literary, or vulgar
style, and so on.

Therefore, a translator must constantly keep up to date and have the tools they need to
do their best work. Tools are indispensable since no translator could ever have an all-
encompassing knowledge.

Translating from Chinese: suggestions for translation

In Chinese, the verb translate uses the character 翻 (fan) “to overturn, to reverse”, but
also means “to multiply”. What I wrote above is even more valid for Chinese: you need
to reverse or overturn a Chinese text to produce an adequate translation.

To translate Chinese well, the only option is to translate for many years, there is no
shortcut. It takes a lot of experience. For students of Chinese, preferably advanced
ones, I’ve indicated points below that can be of help when translating Chinese:

1. Move the main clause to the beginning (in Chinese the main clause usually
comes after);
2. 说 (shuo) “to speak/to say” and such verbs can generally be translated with the
two points “:”;
3. 大 (da) “big” is widely used and can be also be translated as “large”;
4. Proverbs are usually translated in the singular;
5. Inserting the two dots “:” allows you to avoid writing lots of “whys”;
6. You should try to trim words;
7. Keep an eye on repetitions that the original author wanted, which should also be
repeated during translation;
8. There’s no need to dignify or put a vulgar spin on the text according to your
liking;
9. 就 (jiu) more than just translating “then, just”, it would be better to work on the
verb tense in order to express an action consecutive to another;
10. What to cut out: to be able to/to have to (to use the conditional of the verb);
already/by now; demonstrative adjectives (to use articles such as: 这本书 you
can translate as “the book”, because we know what is being spoken of if we use
the determining article; the Chinese instead say “this book”); then; an initial
but/and; subjects;
11. 原来 (yuanlai) 本来 (benlai) “initially, originally, can be translated in many ways,
but I ask you to not use “initially”! You can play with the verb tense, for example
by using the imperfect tense;
12. When it comes to temporals try not to always write “when”: 当他上大学的时候
“dang ta shang daxue de shihou” isn’t translated as “when he went to college”,
but “at college”;
13. 那时侯 (na shihou) “at that moment” at the beginning of a phrase cannot be
translated because it is understood from the context;
14. Chinese temporals are put at the beginning, while in European languages they
may be placed afterwards;
15. Don’t translate the various 继续 (jixu) “continue to” and look for verbs that
internally express the meaning of “to continue to. For example, 继续说 isn’t
“continuing to speak” but rather “to ramble on”;
16. 应该，要，来，去，可以 it’s better that these aren’t translated;
17. 一下儿 isn’t translated as “a little’”;
18. 都 is almost always cut;
19. 听，看，觉得，想 are almost always cut;
20. 开始，起来 are definitely always cut;
21. 竟然 should be removed;
22. Keep an eye out for false friends: 爬床 isn’t “to scale into bed” but “climb into
bed”;
23. 身上，心里，身旁，伸手 should absolutely be removed. The Chinese are firm
when it comes to the use of body parts, for example 脸一下子红了 (lian yixiazi
hong le) “the face suddenly went red”, is translated “suddenly went red”. Or we
see this phrase: 他是一脸无辜的表情 (ta shi yi lian wugu de biaoqing): would
literally be “he had a face with an expression of one without guilt”; while it’s better
put as “he didn’t even flinch”. Another example could be 心里嘿嘿笑个不停 (xinli
hei hei xiao ge bu ting): it would literally be “he couldn’t stop laughing in his
heart”, but could be better translated as “he was cracking up inside”. We can
keep the body part that is named, but only if it’s there! For example 一眼就能看得
出来 (yi yan jiu neng kan de chulai): let’s forget the word “eye” and translate it as
“recognizable in the blink of an eye”. To sum up, you should never translate “the
face”, “the body”, “the hand” and so on;
24. The Chinese passive can become active in European languages and vice-versa;
25. The inversion of adjectives and nouns 恨自己太强的激情 “he hated the urgency
of his passion”;
26. The determiner becomes a name and the determined becomes an adjective;
27. Onomatopoeic sounds can be made with verbs, for example: 嗡嗡地 (wengweng
de) “buzzing”, 咝咝响声 (sisi xiang sheng) “to hiss” or “to whistle”, 嘎吱嘎吱
(gazhi gazhi) “to creak”, 咕嘟咕嘟喝 (gudu gudu he) “to noisily gulp down”; some
onomatopoeic sounds have to also be made in the target language, by
transcribing it in capital letters, for example: 喳一声 (cha yi sheng) “ZAC”;
28. Maybe what I’m about to say is blasphemy but… if you really can’t understand
the meaning of a phrase, don’t scorn Google Translator or Baidu Translator:
these two will at least give you a general idea of the phrase!
29. To conclude, ask somebody Chinese for help and there will always be a benefit.