Questions about verbs, their characteristics and their specific use.
Questions tagged [verbs]
137 questions
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Is there a way to respond to 你做什么工作？starting with 我做...？
For many questions in Chinese, it's best to respond by repeating the verb. Here's a few I just made up:
Q: 你是哪儿国人？ A: 我是中国人。
Q: 刘老师找什么？ A: 刘老师找她的老公。
Q: 她有老公吗？ A: 对，她有老公。
Q: 小王怕什么？ A: 小王怕狗。
And I can think of many others (你想吃什么？…
Becky 李蓓
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Are there transitive/及物动词 or intransitive/不及物动词 verbs in Chinese?
Problem: Lately I started to get concerned if there are pure transitive or intransitive verbs in Chinese. At first look, there are many verbs that do not require an immediate object/宾语 like 睡觉 or 吃饭. These are mostly called separable verbs/离合动词,…
minerals
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Can you combine sentence structures to denote an extremely short duration?
So I learned recently that you can do two things in Chinese
repeat the verb (such as in 看看)
append 一下 to the verb to denote a shorter duration (in this case,
look for a moment).
I was just wondering, can you use both at once? For example, could I…
Kevin Mills
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How is 住 used as a suffix in a verb phrase
What meaning does 住 have when used as part of a verb phrase?
她把花盆送到他面前。
哈利愣住了，大家都看着他。
It's clear from the meaning of 愣 that Harry didn't know what to do with the flower pot and was staring off blanking into space (发呆了). Could 着 also be used after 愣?…
chugadie
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what is the grammar form where 找 is used twice in the sentence 林先生找工作找了多长时间?
I'm learning Chinese by studying Zhongwen Red (中文 Red).
I've come across the following sentence: 林先生找工作找了多长时间? This sentence is from http://www.zhongwenred.com/R67.html.
This webpage spaces out the words and translates it like the following:
林 先生…
illabout
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What does "中" as an independent verb means?
I found one 明星 saying this on Youtube: "我中了，我中了." ； https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4egudxwbdI (4:27)。I have tried asking this to tutor online, and he answered: 中 means:
-to hit (the mark)
-to be hit by
-to suffer
-to win (a prize, a lottery)
And…
AmyG
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What is the meaning of 背会?
I have encountered the following sentences in my textbook, which use 背会.
我还没背会这篇文章。
今天不背会这篇课文就不回家。
But what does 背会 mean? The textbook seems to say it means memorize, but of all the dictionaries I have and from the result I googled, it seems that…
Blaszard
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Do you use 有 if you speak about 头疼?
最近我常常会莫名其妙的头疼
I've encountered this sentence and I'm wondering why there's 会 used here. Would this sentence be correct without 会?
Would this sentence be correct? 我常常头疼
Would this sentence be correct? 我头疼
I'm asking because my first thought about…
musialmi
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What's the correct word order and why? Should it be 红中国茶 or 中国红茶？
So, since 红 is a verb, it should precede any other attributive.
Still, if I Google both phrases, it seems that the latter form is prevalent.
Simullacra
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The difference between 送 ,带 and 捎
I know that they all mean something like "to bring something to someone" and 送
also means "to see someone out" and "to give sm a present"
but what is the difference between these three verbs in these sentences?
1)他给我带来一些东西.
2)他给我捎来一些东西.
3)他给我送来一些东西.
Екатерина Арбузова
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How do you handle separable verbs or phrasal verbs in Chinese?
Looking at phrasal verbs:
Check out my new computer.
They can be "separable" too:
Check my new computer out.
Does Chinese have this sort of feature? If not, what does it do instead? If so, generally how does it…
Lance
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When can I use 起来 to say "to begin"?
Once I thought that 起来 meant "to begin" but could be used only in situations when something is going up or taken up (just as characters say). But it's not true. There are:
笑起来,
藏起来,
吃起饭来,
others.
On the other hand, I wanted to say "I also started…
musialmi
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transitive verb in Mandarin:外遇李小姐
Is 外遇 used correctly as a transitive verb in the following sentence?
王先生外遇李小姐。
Apollyon
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How do I determine whether a Chinese verb is transitive and/or intransitive?
I face this problem a lot. I want to use a verb, e.g. 寻找 = "to search" (but it could be any other verb), and want to know if it's a transitive and/or intransitive verb in Chinese (i.e., whether or not it take an object); it could be either. For 寻找…
Becky 李蓓
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Should I use 为 instead of 是 to mean "is" on a date?
Suppose that the following example:
报名截止日期为2月17日。
In these cases that take a date as the predicate, I usually see 为 instead of 是. Both mean "is" and I already learned 为 is more formal than 是.
However, I feel I have only seen 为 if it takes a date…
Blaszard
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