Lesson 2. Grammars to BE or NOT to Be

One of the simplest and yet the most important structure in Chinese language is the following: Noun + Verb + noun It is the same as English.  The first noun is subject, the verb describes action, and the last noun serves either as object or complement.  For example: I love books.He hates math.  Similar to that of English, the most frequently used verb of such structure in Chinese is also verb BE, the emphasis of this class. 1. 是 shi4  This is only form of verb Be in Chinese, independent of tense, subjects, or single/plural forms. 2. 不 bu4  不 means No  It is used to present negative. 3. 不是 bu2 shi4  Please notice that the tone of 不 changes to 2 instead of 4 when used as not in front of 是. Again, unlike English where not follows verb be不 precedes是 in Chinese. Examples: 4. 我是中国人 wo3 shi4 zhong1 guo2 ren2  I am Chinese. 5. 他们不是学生 ta1 men bu2 shi4 xue2 sheng1  They are not students.