Sentence Structure in Chinese

What is the most common sentence order in Chinese?

📌 Time + Subject + How + Location + Action

* Time words can either go after the subject or before the subject.
* If you want to specify the direction, the directional word should come after ‘how’ and before ‘location’.

昨天我搭火車车去上海見见朋友
Zuótiān wǒ dā huǒchē qù Shànghǎi jiàn péngyǒu
I took a train to Shanghai to meet friends yesterday.

早上媽媽妈妈開車开车去超市買東西买东西
Zǎoshang māma kāichē qù chāoshì mǎi dōngxīdōngxi
Mom drove to the supermarket to buy things this morning.

Two common sentence structures

📌 Subject – Verb – Object (SVO)

Like English, Chinese usually uses the form Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). The subject is the noun or pronoun that performs the action described by the verb. The verb is the action or state of being that the subject is performing or experiencing. The object is the noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb.

For example, in the sentence “She eats an apple,” “She” is the subject, “eats” is the verb, and “an apple” is the object. The subject “She” is performing the action of eating, and the object “an apple” is what she is eating.

📕 How about adjectives?

他tā做zuò完wán工作gōngzuò了le他tā做zuò完wán工作gōngzuò了le
He finished the work.

我wǒ見jiàn過guò那個nàge人rén我wǒ见jiàn过guò那个nèige人rén
I’ve met that guy.

📌 Topic – Comment

In this structure, the sentence starts with a “topic,” which is the main idea or subject that the speaker wants to discuss. The topic is often a noun phrase, and it is sometimes followed by a particle, such as “about,” “regarding,” “concerning,” or “with respect to,” that indicates that what follows is a comment on the topic.

The “comment” is the part of the sentence that provides more information about the topic, such as an opinion, a description, a fact, or an explanation. The comment may consist of one or more clauses, and it often contains the verb that describes the action or state related to the topic.

工作gōngzuò他tā做zuò完wán了le工作gōngzuò他tā做zuò完wán了le
He finished the work.

那個nàge人rén我wǒ見jiàn過guò那个nèige人rén我wǒ见jiàn过guò
I’ve met that guy.

有關yǒuguān那nà本běn書shū的de資料zīliào都dōu放fàng在zài圖書館túshūguǎn有关yǒuguān那nèi本běn书shū的de资料zīliào都dōu放fàng在zài图书馆túshūguǎn
The information about that book is all kept in the library.

📕 Why do we need Topic-comment structure?

Which one is better? 

Since the Chinese sentence structure follows the S-V-O order, which is very similar to English, most people find it easier to learn, and that’s why it’s taught earlier in textbooks. However, the S-V-O structure can be lengthy, and it may not always be the most natural way to express oneself in conversational Chinese. In casual conversations, native speakers prefer to use the topic-comment structure for its simplicity and directness.

In the topic-comment structure, the object can often serve as the topic, which means that it’s easy to convert an S-V-O structured sentence to a topic-comment structure by moving the object to the beginning of the sentence.

The most important aspect of the topic-comment structure is that you can drop the subject when it’s clear from context. This is a common practice in casual conversations.

S-V-O
你nǐ吃chī飯fàn了le嗎ma？ 你nǐ吃chī饭fàn了le吗ma？
Have you eaten？
⬇️
Topic-Comment 
飯fàn你nǐ吃chī了le嗎ma？ 饭fàn你nǐ吃chī了le吗ma？
Have you eaten？
⬇️
Drop the subject when it’s clear from context
飯fàn吃chī了le嗎ma？ 饭fàn吃chī了le吗ma？
Have you eaten？

The above three sentences are all correct and good, but if you ask me which one is better, my answer is:

Can I always use S-V-O?

Yes, of course you can. However, it’s still essential to learn the T-C structure, so that you can understand what people are saying. It’s also important to note that dropping the subject in English turns the sentence into a command, but this is not the case in Chinese.

In fact, there is one situation where I strongly recommend using the T-C structure!

Greetings and Wishes

最近zuìjìn好hǎo嗎ma？ 最近zuìjìn好hǎo吗ma？
How have (you) been recently?

飯fàn吃chī了le嗎ma？ 饭fàn吃chī了le吗ma？
Have you eaten？

生日shēngrì快樂kuàilè！ 生日shēngrì快乐kuàilè！
Happy birthday!