Level 1 Lesson 14.1 – There Is A Piece of Clothes in His Hand

Grammar 1: Locality Noun in Chinese - 里 · HSK 1

There are many types of Nouns in Chinese, with Locality Noun being one of them.

A Locality Noun in Chinese suggest a specific direction or location. It helps us know to which direction of a place/item, or which location/part of a place/item we are talking about.

For example Locality Noun 里 lǐ suggests the inside part or the inside area of some place or some object.

We put the Locality Noun 里 after a place/object like this:

Place/Object + 里

First with Place + 里

• fángzi li
  房子里
  the inside area of (a/the) house/apartment
• jiāli
  家里
  the inside area of (a/the) home
• xuéxiào li
  学校里
  the inside area of (a/the) school
• shāngdiàn li
  商店里
  the inside area of (a/the) store
• shūdiàn li
  书店里
  the inside area of (a/the) bookstore

Then with Object + 里

• diànnǎo li
  电脑里
  the inside area/part of (a/the) computer
• shǒu li
  手里
  the inside area/part of (one's) hand
• wǎn li
  碗里
  the inside area of (a/the) bowl
• bēizi li
  杯子里
  the inside area of (a/the) cup/glass
• pánzi li
  盘子里
  the inside area of (a/the) plate

Be careful that for Proper Nouns such as 中国 China, 北京 Beijing, 英国 Britain, we cannot put a Locality Noun after them. So we cannot say these phrases:

• Zhōngguó li 中国里 the inside of China
• Běijīng li 北京里 the inside of Beijing
• Yīngguó li 英国里 the inside of Britain.

We need to say these phrases instead:

• zài Zhōngguó
  在中国
  in China
• zài Běijīng
  在北京
  in Beijing
• zài Yīngguó
  在英国
  in Britain

Grammar 2: Existential Sentence in Chinese with 有 (I) · HSK 1

Existential Sentence in Chinese suggests the existence of something/someone at/in/on somewhere. It suggest similar meaning as "there is/are something at/in/on somewhere" sentence in English, only with different structure.

We learned that 有 yǒu means to have; to own, in an Existential Sentence it means to exist.

The structure of an Existential Sentence in Chinese with 有 goes like this:

Place/Object + (Locality Noun) + 有 + Object

• xuéxiào li yǒu liǎngwèi lǎoshī
  学校里有两位老师。
  there are two "wei" (of) teacher in the school
• shāngdiàn li yǒu sāntái diànnǎo
  商店里有三台电脑。
  there are three "tai" (of) computers in the store
• wǒ shǒuli yǒu yíjiàn yīfu
  我手里有一件衣服。
  there is a "jian" (of) clothes in my hand
• bēizili yǒu yìxiē kāfēi
  杯子里有一些咖啡。
  there is some coffee in the cup

For negative sentences we put méi 没 before yǒu 有

• pánzili méiyǒu cài
  盘子里没有菜。
  there is no dish in the plate
• wǎnli méiyǒu dōngxi
  碗里没有东西。
  there is no "things" in the bowl

Grammar 3: Existential Sentence with Time Word · HSK 1

An Existential Sentence with Time Word does not use Locality Words such as yǒu 有, because Time Words do not suggest Location. The structure goes like this:

Time Word + 有 + Object

For example:

• yìnián yǒu shí'èrge yuè
  一年有十二个月。
  there are 12 months in a year
• sān yuè yǒu sānshí yī tiān
  三月有三十一天。
  there are 31 days in March

Grammar 4: Measure Words in Chinese (V): 杯, 盘, 碗 · HSK 1

Just like in English we can say a bowl of something, a cup/glass of something and a plate of something, these tableware can also be used as Measure Words in Chinese.

• yìbēi kāfēi
  一杯咖啡
  a cup of coffee
• yìbēi shuǐ
  一杯水
  a glass/cup of water
• yìpán cài
  一盘菜
  a plate of vegetable
• yìwǎn mǐfàn
  一碗米饭
  a bowl of cooked rice