Level 1 Lesson 21.1 – I Go Eat Pizza with My Boyfriend in A Restaurant

Grammar 1: To come to in Chinese: 来 · HSK 1

Today we have a very useful verb - to come to in Chinese: 来 lái. 来 suggest that the direction of traveling is coming towards where we are.

We can use 来 with this structure:

Subject + 来 + Place

For example:

• tā jīntiān xiǎng lái wǒ jiā
  他今天想来我家。
  he wants to come to my house today
• nǐ shénme shíhou lái Zhōngguó lǚyóu
  你什么时候来中国旅游？
  when (are) you com(ing) to China to travel
• Zhāng Lǎoshī xiàge xīngqī bù lái shàngbān
  张老师下个星期不来上班。
  teacher Zhang (is) not com(ing) to work next week

Grammar 2: Compare Verb 来 vs. 去 vs. 回 in Chinese · HSK 1

In Lesson 16 and Lesson 17 we learned the verb qu 去 and the verb huí 回 in Chinese. Lái 来 is similar with them, all three of them indicating direction of travelling.

去 and 来 have the opposite meaning with each other. So they are a pair of Fányìcí 反义词,  Antonyms. Qù 去 mean to go or to go to some place, while 来 mean to come or to come to this place.

As shown in the picture below, if this is your point of view, anyone coming towards you, is 来, to come, and when you are going away from where you are is 去, to go.

And with huí 回, we do not know whether it is to come back or to go back, it could mean either one of them.

Grammar 3: To do something with someone in Chinese with 和 · HSK 1

We have learned hé 和 as a Conjunction in Lesson 20, in today's lesson we'll learn how to use 和 as a Preposition so that we can say to do something with someone in Chinese with 和.

We can follow this structure:

Subject + 和Object¹ + Verb Predicate (+ Object²)

For example:

• wǒ hé wǒde nǚpéngyou qù fànguǎn chī pīsà
  我和我的女朋友去饭馆吃披萨。
  I go to the restaurant to eat pizza with my girlfriend
• tā jīntiān hé nǎn péngyou lái wǒjiā zuò jiǎozi gěiwǒ chī
  她今天和男朋友来我家做饺子给我吃。
  today she comes to my home with her boyfriend to make dumplings for me to eat
• wǒmen jīntiān zài xuéxiào hé Xiè Lǎoshī hē kāfēi
  我们今天在学校和谢老师喝咖啡。
  we drank coffee with Teacher Xie at school today

Grammar 4: Sentence Word Order in Chinese  · HSK 

If a sentence has a lot of information, it has the Subject, Time, Place, other Prepositional Phrase, A Verb Predicate and its Object, the sentence word order can go like this:

Subject + Time Word + Place + Prepositional Phrase + Verb + Object

For example:

• tā zuótiān zài fànguǎn hé nǚpéngyou chī pīsà
  他昨天在饭馆和女朋友吃披萨。
  He yesterday at restaurant with girlfriend eat pizza
• Zhāng Lǎoshī  jīntiān zàijiā hé Xiè Lǎoshī kàn diànyǐng
  张老师今天在家和谢老师看电影。
  Teacher Zhang today at home with Teacher Xie watches movie.