Every time I mention how I struggle with Chinese grammar, people inevitably say something like:<\/p>\n
Isn’t Chinese grammar similar to English?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here’s my answer:<\/p>\n
No, not really.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hey, since you know a whole bunch of Kanji from Japanese, and you speak English, learning Chinese should be a snap, right?<\/p>\n
No, not really.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To illustrate, here’s a sentence I ran into during some light reading.<\/p>\n
\u4f60\u60f3\u628a\u4ed6\u5e26\u5230\u4ec0\u4e48\u5730\u65b9\u53bb\uff1f- Where do you think you’re taking him?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If you assume that the grammar is similar to English and translate the words literally, you get something like this:<\/p>\n
You think (direct object) him, take where go?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wow, that doesn’t look like very good English, does it? I mean there’s a verb at the end and something similar the \u300c\u3092\u300d particle! But it’s not like Japanese either, since the main verb isn’t “go” but “think”. It’s Chinese sentence structure, which so far I’ve managed to break down into the following rules.<\/p>\n
Rules for Chinese sentence structure<\/b><\/p>\n
\n
- Order the words so that it “sounds” natural depending on what words you’re using.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
In fact, I’ve given up in trying to break things down logically. My current method of learning essentially boils down to behavioral training and osmosis. It works but it’s not something you can really teach or explain. “Hey, just go with it” doesn’t sound very good. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every time I mention how I struggle with Chinese grammar, people inevitably say something like: Isn’t Chinese grammar similar to English? Here’s my answer: No, not really. Hey, since you know a whole bunch of Kanji from Japanese, and you … Continue reading