Top 5 Mistakes Made by Chinese Learners
Whatever you do, it is inevitable to make mistakes, let alone learning something new, especially a foreign language. Learning Chinese is no exception. Further, even native Chinese speakers make mistakes when speaking or writing. So this often makes the language confusing for learners. So today, I share with you the top 5 mistakes made by Chinese learners.
Author：Lilian
1. No-verb Sentences
For Chinese language beginners, it is hard to accept the fact that in a great deal of Chinese sentences there are no verbs. It is not difficult to understand but difficult to adapt to. Here are how some of these mistakes are made:
Example 1:
English style: I’m 25 years old.
Chinese style: I 25 years old. ( Wǒ 25 suì.我25岁)
If you translate the sentence into Chinese, there is no …show more content…
Chinese style: The weather very nice! (Tiān qì hěn hǎo.天气很好。)
Actually, Chinese people use an adjective functioning as a verb in a statement, without “to be.” In addition, the adjective used as predicate in an affirmative sentence needs a preceding adverb, e.g. “hěn很.” In this case “hěn” should not be stressed and doesn’t mean “very.”
2. Sentence Structure
Your Mandarin teacher always tells you to follow the correct word order, but the truth is it is so hard to keep it right every time you produce a sentence. Here are a few examples comparing the Chinese style of expression to that in English.
Example 3:
English style: What are you going to do tomorrow? I am going to play tennis with Tom at the stadium.
(In English, in our response we would not repeat the word “tomorrow,” leaving it as understood that our reply refers to “tomorrow.”)
Chinese Style: You will do what tomorrow? I tomorrow with Tom at stadium will play tennis.
(Nǐ míngtiān yào zuò shénme? Wǒ míngtiān hé Tom qù tǐyùguǎn dǎ wǎngqiú.
你明天要做什么，我明天和Tom去体育馆打网球。)
Example 4:
English style: My older sister bought me a small black leather handbag
Whatever you do, it is inevitable to make mistakes, let alone learning something new, especially a foreign language. Learning Chinese is no exception. Further, even native Chinese speakers make mistakes when speaking or writing. So this often makes the language confusing for learners. So today, I share with you the top 5 mistakes made by Chinese learners.
Author：Lilian
1. No-verb Sentences
For Chinese language beginners, it is hard to accept the fact that in a great deal of Chinese sentences there are no verbs. It is not difficult to understand but difficult to adapt to. Here are how some of these mistakes are made:
Example 1:
English style: I’m 25 years old.
Chinese style: I 25 years old. ( Wǒ 25 suì.我25岁)
If you translate the sentence into Chinese, there is no …show more content…
Chinese style: The weather very nice! (Tiān qì hěn hǎo.天气很好。)
Actually, Chinese people use an adjective functioning as a verb in a statement, without “to be.” In addition, the adjective used as predicate in an affirmative sentence needs a preceding adverb, e.g. “hěn很.” In this case “hěn” should not be stressed and doesn’t mean “very.”
2. Sentence Structure
Your Mandarin teacher always tells you to follow the correct word order, but the truth is it is so hard to keep it right every time you produce a sentence. Here are a few examples comparing the Chinese style of expression to that in English.
Example 3:
English style: What are you going to do tomorrow? I am going to play tennis with Tom at the stadium.
(In English, in our response we would not repeat the word “tomorrow,” leaving it as understood that our reply refers to “tomorrow.”)
Chinese Style: You will do what tomorrow? I tomorrow with Tom at stadium will play tennis.
(Nǐ míngtiān yào zuò shénme? Wǒ míngtiān hé Tom qù tǐyùguǎn dǎ wǎngqiú.
你明天要做什么，我明天和Tom去体育馆打网球。)
Example 4:
English style: My older sister bought me a small black leather handbag