Lesson 26 – Put it there

Just a couple of guys talking about where to put stuff Download

Grammar Patterns

Using bǎ to emphasize the object

Normally Chinese sentences have the form Subject-Verb-Object, but sometimes is more convenient to mention the object first in order to emphasize it. In the dialog we find the sentence “Bǎ nà běn shū fàng zài zhuōzi shàng”. It is similar to saying “Take that book and put it on the table”. English allows us to reorder the sentence, but we have to use a pronoun (“it” in this case) as a place-holder for the object.


It is grammatically correct to use the Subject-Verb-Object form, “fàng nà běn shū zài zhuōzi shàng”, but it would sound a little strange to Chinese ears.


Another example of this pattern is “Qǐng bǎ qián gěi wǒ”, which is a typical way a Chinese speaker would ask someone to “Please give me the money”.

Difference between miàn and biān

These words are examples of directional suffixes. In other words, they often follow a directional word (such as yòu or shàng) and are equivalent to the English word “side” or “face”. In this context, we can think of biān as meaining “side” and miàn as meaning “face”

Miàn and biān are used interchangeable sometimes, but some combinations are preferred over others. For example to express “on top”, “shàngmiàn” is preferred over “shàngbiān” even though the both mean the same thing.