Pronouns & 是 shì (to be) / 有 yǒu (to have)
Pronouns & 是 shì (to be) / 有 yǒu (to have)
This is where Chinese grammar starts feeling refreshingly light: verbs never conjugate for person, number, or tense — you learn one form and use it forever. There's just one catch: 是 (shì) covers far less ground than English "to be".
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Verbs never conjugate — not for person, not for tense
我是, 你是, 他是, 我们是, 你们是, 他们是 — all identical
I am, you are, he is, we are, you are, they are
This is a huge simplification compared to English, which changes "to be" five different ways (am/is/are/was/were). Chinese verbs have exactly one form, full stop — 是 (shì) is 是 whether the subject is 我 (I), 你 (you), or 他们 (they), and whether you're talking about today, yesterday, or next year. Tense and completion are shown with separate time words or particles (like 了 le, met in later lessons) instead of changing the verb itself.
他/她/它 are three different characters — but one identical sound
他 (he), 她 (she), 它 (it) — all pronounced tā
he, she, it
Spoken Mandarin makes no distinction at all between "he", "she", and "it" — they're all tā. The difference exists only in writing, via the character's left-hand radical: 亻(person) for 他 (he), 女 (woman) for 她 (she), and 宀-related forms for 它 (it, for animals/objects). This means listening comprehension never requires guessing gender — but reading and writing do.
是 shì is for identity only — not for description
我是学生 (I am a student) — but 我很高 (I am tall), never 我是高
I am a student — I am tall
This is the single most important thing to unlearn about English "to be". 是 (shì) links a noun to a noun — identity, category, classification: 我是学生 (wǒ shì xuésheng, "I am a student"). Adjectives, though, act as verbs all by themselves and never take 是 in a plain statement: "I am tall" is 我很高 (wǒ hěn gāo), literally "I very tall" — inserting 是 here (我是高) sounds like broken Chinese. The 很 (hěn, "very") is often just a grammatical placeholder here, not necessarily emphatic.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- I
- English
- you
- English
- he
- English
- she
- English
- it
- English
- we
- English
- you (plural)
- English
- they
- English
- to be (identity only)
- English
- to not be
- English
- to have / there is
- English
- to not have / there isn't