HSK | CHINESE | PINYIN | P.O.S | ENGLISH | Audio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 中 | zhōng | n. | middle; center | |
1 | 国 | guó | n. | country; nation | |
1 | 中国 | Zhōngguó | pn. | China | |
1 | 人 | rén | n. | people; person | |
1 | 中国人 | Zhōngguórén | pn. | Chinese (people) | |
1 | 是 | shì | v. | to be |
If we want to introduce our nationalities in Chinese, we can use this structure:
So "country name + 人" suggests one's identity of having this country's nationality. And if we want to say our hometown, for example which city or province we are from, we can use this structure:
So "state/province/city... + 人" suggests one's identity of being from the state/province/city...Here are some examples:
shì 是 to be
Generally, 是 can be translated as "to be" in English, but "to be" in English cannot be directly translated into 是 for every situation. We can use 是 to introduce one's nationality(or other identity, title...) in Chinese.
The 是 Sentence Structure, shìzìjù 是字句 is one of the most common sentence structures in Chinese, if not the most common one. The 是 Sentence Structure goes like this:
The example we learned today is the first use of the 是 Sentence Structure, and that is when:
(1) A "belongs to" the category, group or definition of B, and
(2) B tells about A's identity or nature.
For example,
A | 是 | B | |
wǒ 我 I |
shì 是 am |
Yīngguórén 英国人 British |
。 |
wǒ 我 I |
shì 是 am |
Běijīngrén 北京人 Beijinger |
。 |
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