How to use verbal predicates in Mandarin Chinese?

In Mandarin Chinese, there are simple and complex verbal predicates; simple verb predicates consist of one verb and complex ones consist of more than one verb. You may ask, what is a predicate? Well, a sentence usually consists of two major parts: subject and predicate. For example, in “He runs” or “He is ready,” “he” is the subject (topic) and “runs” or “ready” is the predicate (or comment).

Verbal predicates are predicates made of verbs, like the first example above. Here it is in Mandarin: 他跑步 (Tā pǎobù, He runs), 跑步 (pǎobù) is a verbal predicate, describing what the subject, 他 (tā), does.

Complex verbal predicates in Mandarin Chinese fall into two categories: serial verbal chains and pivotal structures.

Verbal predicates in Mandarin are similar to English in terms of word order (subject + verbal predicate). For example: 妈妈来了 (Māma lái le, Mom came). However, the Mandarin verbs don't change in form to express different times of action, like they do in English (e.g., “He goes,” “He went,” “He has gone”).

Verbal predicates are an essential part of Mandarin, so it is important for you to get to know how to use them like a pro. Let’s dive in and start to crack this!

The pattern for a simple verbal predicate is as follows,

Some verbs can be used without an object (the person or thing that receives the action of the verb), while others have an object. For example:

In the first sentence, 跑步 (pǎobù) is a verb that tends to come without an object. In the second sentence, 属于 (shǔyú) is a verb that must go with an object (e.g., “our group” in the above sentence). There are also verbs which can go with or without an object — they are flexible. For example, 学习 (xuéxí) is used without an object in the third sentence above, but with an object in the fourth sentence.

In the table below, you can see which verbs go with or without an object:

The tense of a verbal predicate indicates the location of an action in time and the aspect indicates how that particular action is manifested with time. Tenses and aspects in Mandarin Chinese are represented through adding other words to the sentence. For example, to describe a completed action, we can add the aspectual particle 了 (le) at the end of a verb (e.g., 他走了 (Tā zǒule, He went away)). For time, we can use time words, such as 现在 (xiànzài, now), 过去 (guòqù, past), 将来 (jiānglái, future), 今天 (jīntiān, today), 昨天 (zuótiān, yesterday),
明天 (míngtiān, tomorrow), or helping verbs, like 会 (huì, will).

To describe aspect, we can use particles like 在 (zài) / 正在 (zhèngzài) / 着 (zhe), 了 (le)/ 过 (guo) etc. and time words, like 常常 (chángcháng, often), etc.

Complex verb predicates fall into two categories, one of which is called a “serial verb construction” (连动式  (liándòngshì)). It is made up of two or more verbs associated with the same subject without any commas (in writing) or pauses (when talking) or coordinators (e.g., “and”, “but”) in between. While in English we use “and” often, in Mandarin it is not necessary (e.g. the first sentence in the following examples). The actions can happen one after another or occur at the same time. One action can be the purpose, the manner, or the instrument of the other action. The pattern is:

There is more about the serial verb constructions, so why don’t you check our post?

Another type of complex verbal predicate in Mandarin is a pivotal sentence (兼语式 (jiānyǔshì), which has the following pattern:

The “pivotal” refers to 儿子 (érzi), which is the object of 喊 (hǎn) and at the same time the subject of 回家 (huíjiā). That is, there are “sub-sentences” embedded in the sentence. The object of the first sub-sentence 儿子 (érzi) is also the subject of the second sub-sentence. The verbs for pivotal sentences are those with the meaning of “make / ask someone to do something.” For example,
让 (ràng, let), 叫 (jiào, call), 派 (pài, send), 请 (qǐng, ask - polite form), 要求 (yāoqiú, request), 同意 (tóngyì, agree), among others.

The negative form of a pivotal sentence is:

The pivot construction can also contain more than one "pivot" word or continue to take extra verbal chain construction, and thus become even more complex.

There are three sub-sentences here in the above sentence:

• Pivotal 1: 我

  • 老师让我 (lǎoshī ràng wǒ, the teacher asked me)

• Pivotal 2: 大家

  • 我叫大家 (wǒ jiào dàjiā, I called everyone)

• Verb chain: 回 … 上课

  • 大家回教室上课 (dàjiā huí jiàoshì shàngkè, everyone went back to the classroom)

我 (wǒ, I) is a pivotal component: it is the object of 让 (ràng, asked) and at the same time the subject of 叫 (jiào, call). Similarly, 大家 (dàjiā, everyone) is also a pivotal: it is the object of 叫 (jiào, call) and subject of 回 (huí, go back).

In Mandarin Chinese, verbal predicates consist of a simple form, as well as a complex form.

The simple form of verbal predicates follows the following pattern:

The complex forms of verbal predicates include the following two:

• Series of verbs (verbal chain)

  subject + verb 1 (+ object) + verb 2 + other elements

• Pivotal sentence

  subject + verb 1 + object/subject + verb 2 + other elements

Verbal predicates often express tense and aspect through adding other words to the sentence. This present post talks about the past, present and future tenses, as well as perfective, imperfective, and continuous aspects.

Okay, now it is time to put what we have talked about above into action. Our exercises are set for you to try out what you know and practice how to use verbal predicates in Mandarin. Go on, check it out!