Passive sentences make up a big and important part of modern Chinese. There are generally two types: Marked Passive Sentences and Unmarked Passive Sentences. We have talked about Marked Passive…
Passive sentences are commonly used in Chinese and can cause confusion for foreign learners who are not accustomed to them. To assist in decoding this unique sentence construction, we will…
Discovering the nuances of language is a fascinating journey, especially when it comes to understanding how different cultures express similar ideas. Take, for instance, the concept of "often" in English…
When it comes to mastering Mandarin Chinese, learning the nuances of vocabulary is a crucial step towards fluency. One such challenge involves two words that often perplex even advanced learners:…
If you're learning Chinese, you might have heard the words "本来" (běn lái) and "原来" (yuán lái) being used in daily conversations to talk about something's original state or how…
If you're learning Chinese, you'll come across the character 把(bǎ) early on, and it's important to understand its uses. Besides its common role in sentence structure, 把 also functions as…
In my first year as a high school Chinese teacher in India, I noticed that sometimes my students giggled when I spoke. At first I thought it was my Chinglish…
The Chinese are famously pretty vague in giving answers. As most will readily admit, they prefer to offer estimations rather than specifics, especially if there may be consequences involved. Instead…
As you get a little more confident with learning Chinese, some of the initial problems such as tones, characters and strange pronunciations the mouth seems to refuse to make start…