Learn the exisential "You" sentences
学会有字句

Make "There is/are " sentences in the Chinese language accureately

The Flow of the lesson

You will see five examples sentences and become familiar with the grammar. After you feel comfortable with the grammar, take a mini quiz!

You will read about the form, meaning, and use of the grammar and understand when and how to use it. After reading, take a quiz to check your comprehension.

Now that you have learned the garmmar, you will be asked to make your own "You" sentences in this section. Follow the instructions closely.

Learn
Understand
Do
hover on cards to read more, click on words to go to the sections

Form

The structure of the Chinese "You" sentence is
Place + preposition + 有 + something.

No.1 The order of the place: In Chinese, the place is at the beginning of the langauge.

No.2 The order of the preposition: In English, the prepostion appears BEFORE the place. In Chinese, the prepostion appears AFTER the place.

No.3 The measure words: When you are specifiy the numebr of things, you have to use measure words. "A book" in Chinese is "一本书"，the "本" is necessary.

Meaning

The meaning of Chinese "You" sentences is the same as the "There is/are" sentences in English: it refers to the existence or presence of someone/something in realtion to a place.

Here, the keyword "有" means "exists"."Wait a second..." You might be thinking: Doesn't "有" means have? Sometimes, not here.

There are two different "有"s in the Chinese language.In sentences such as "我有一本书" (I have a book), "有" means have. However, in existential sentences, "有" means "exists". Actaully the literal translation of "房间里有一个人" is "In the rrom, exists a person." We are learning the existential "有".

Use

There are many sentences to express the existence of things. When shall "有" sentences be used?

"有" sentences should be used to describe things that is not a mutual knowledge between the speaker and the listener, or the writer or the reader.

For example, when you are describing a picture you see the other day, you should use "有" sentences to introduce elements in the picture. After all the elements are introduced, they become a common knowledge, and "有" should not be used any more.

Describe your room. Write about what's in your room and their relative location in the textbox below. After you finish writing, click on the "Done!" button to see the description of my room. Compare your paragraph to a sample paragraph, and self check your grammar.