The bǎ Sentence Construction
In lesson 26 we learned about an unusual grammatical particle bǎ (把).
Let’s step back and look at the basic Chinese sentence structure.
- subject-verb-object
This sentence structure is easy for us English speakers because English follows the same pattern. Unlike German and Japanese which is …
- subject-object-verb
Well, the bad news is that Chinese can go both ways. Chinese speakers can use the bǎ (把) particle to invert the basic sentence structure to subject-object-verb
“Why”, You might ask, “would they want to do that?” The primary reason is that Chinese does not permit verb modifiers to follow an object. This means, for example, a sentence like “Throw the ball to the catcher” is not allowed in mandarin. Because “to the catcher”, follows the object (ball).
For a clear, written description, you can checkout the Chinese Grammar Wiki
For a video discription, Learn Chinese Now does a pretty good job of explaining how this works. Below are the examples used in the video
Pinyin | Chinese | English | |
---|---|---|---|
Wǒ bǎ zhè běn shū gěi nǐ | 我把这本书给你 | I will give you this book. | |
Bǎ mén guānshàng | 把门关上 | Close the door | |
Bǎ bèizi fàng zài zhuōzi shàng | 把被子放在桌子上 | Put the quilt on the table | |
Bù bǎ bèizi fàng zài zhuōzi shàng | 不把被子放在桌子上 | Don’t put the quilt on the table | |
Méiyǒu bǎ bèizi fàng zài zhuōzi shàng | 没有把被子放在桌子上 | Did not put the quilt on the table | |
Bǎ zhè jù huà fānyì chéng zhōngwén | 把这句话翻译成中文 | Translate this sentence into Chinese |
Twin Cities Chinese Tutor Also does a good job of explaining how this works. Below are the examples used in the video
Pinyin | Chinese | English | |
---|---|---|---|
Tā chīle wǒ de bīngjīlíng | 她吃了我的冰激凌 | She ate my ice cream | |
Tā bǎ wǒ de bīngjīlíng chīle | 她把我的冰激凌吃了 | She ate my ice cream | |
Tā bǎ shū fàng zài wǒ de zhuōzi shàng | 她把书放在我的桌子上 | She put the book on my desk | |
Wǒ bǎ shū kàn wánliǎo | 我把书看完了 | I finished reading the book. | |
Wǒ bǎ shū hái gěi tāle | 我把书还给她了 | I returned the book to her. | |
Wǒ bǎ huā sòng sòng gěi tā | 我把花送送给她 | I sent the flowers to her. | |
tā bǎ yī fēng xìn jì gěile wǒ | 她把一封信寄给了我 | She sent a letter to me. |