chinese essay writing structure

Improve Chinese Essay Writing- A Complete How to Guide

Last updated: June 6, 2019
Learn Chinese

Writing can reflect a writer’s power of thought and language organization skills. It is critical to master Chinese writing if you want to take your Chinese to the next level. How to write good Chinese essays? The following six steps will improve Chinese essay writing:

Before You Learn to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

Before you can write a good essay in Chinese, you must first be accustomed with Chinese characters. Unlike English letters, Chinese characters are hieroglyphs, and the individual strokes are different from each other. It is important to be comfortable with writing Chinese characters in order to write essays well in Chinese. Make sure to use Chinese essay writing format properly. After that, you will be ready to improve Chinese essay writing.

Increase Your Chinese Words Vocabulary

With approximately 100,000 words in the Chinese language, you will need to learn several thousand words just to know the most common words used. It is essential to learn as many Chinese words as possible if you wish to be a good writer. How can you enlarge your vocabulary? Try to accumulate words by reading daily and monthly. Memory is also very necessary for expanding vocabulary. We should form a good habit of exercising and reciting as more as we can so that to enlarge vocabulary. Remember to use what you have learned when you write in Chinese so that you will continually be progressing in your language-learning efforts.

Acquire Grammar,Sentence Patterns and Function Words

In order to hone your Chinese writing skills , you must learn the grammar and sentence patterns. Grammar involves words, phrases, and the structure of the sentences you form. There are two different categories of Chinese words: functional and lexical. Chinese phrases can be categorized as subject-predicate phrases (SP), verb-object phrases (VO), and co-ordinate phrases (CO). Regarding sentence structure, each Chinese sentence includes predicate, object, subject, and adverbial attributes. In addition, function words play an important role in Chinese semantic understanding, so try to master the Chinese conjunction, such as conjunction、Adverbs、Preposition as much as you can. If you wish to become proficient at writing in Chinese, you must study all of the aspects of grammar mentioned in this section.

Keep a Diary Regularly to Note Down Chinese Words,Chinese Letters

Another thing that will aid you in becoming a better writer is keeping a journal in Chinese. Even if you are not interested in expanding your writing skills, you will find that it is beneficial for many day-to-day tasks, such as completing work reports or composing an email. Journaling on a regular basis will help you form the habit of writing, which will make it feel less like a chore. You may enjoy expressing yourself in various ways by writing; for instance, you might write poetry in your journal. On a more practical side of things, you might prefer to simply use your journal as a way to purposely build your vocabulary .

Persistence in Reading Everyday

In addition to expanding your view of the world and yourself, reading can help you improve your writing. Reading allows you to learn by example; if you read Chinese daily, you will find that it is easier to write in Chinese because you have a greater scope of what you can do with the vocabulary that you’ve learned. Choose one favorite Chinese reading , Read it for an hour or 2,000 words or so in length each day.

Whenever you come across words or phrases in your reading that you don’t understand, take the time to check them in your dictionary and solidify your understanding of them. In your notebook, write the new word or phrase and create an example sentence using that new addition to your vocabulary. If you are unsure how to use it in a sentence, you can simply copy the sample sentence in your dictionary.

Reviewing the new vocabulary word is a good way to improve your memory of it; do this often to become familiar with these new words. The content of reading can be very broad. It can be from novels, or newspapers, and it can be about subjects like economics or psychology. Remember you should read about things you are interested in. After a certain period of accumulation by reading, you will greatly improve your Chinese writing.

Do Essay Writing Exercise on a Variety of Subjects

As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.” In order to improve your China Essay Writing , you should engage in a variety of writing exercises. For beginners, you should start with basic topics such as your favorite hobby, future plans, favorite vacation spot, or any other topic that you can write about without difficulty.

For example :《我的一天》( Wǒ de yì tiān, my whole day’s life ),《我喜欢的食物》( Wǒ xǐhuan de shíwù, my favorite food ),《一次难忘的旅行》( yí cì nánwàng de lǚxíng, an unforgettable trip ) etc.

Generally the writing topics can be classified into these categories: a recount of an incident,a description of something/someone, a letter, formulate your own opinion on an issue based on some quote or picture etc.

Takeaway to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

Keep an excel spreadsheet of 口语(Kǒuyǔ, spoken Chinese) –书面语(Shūmiànyǔ, written Chinese) pairs and quotes of sentences that you like. You should also be marking up books and articles that you read looking for new ways of expressing ideas. Using Chinese-Chinese dictionaries is really good for learning how to describe things in Chinese.

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How do native speakers structure their essays?

When analyzing Chinese speeches or essays, I often have difficulty understanding how their the authors organized their ideas.

In North America, for example, a common template for writing an essay is the five-paragraph essay . This organizes the paragraphs and the sentences within each paragraph. Most English-language writing in academia follows a somewhat similar structure to this.

Do Chinese follow any particular structures when planning speeches or essays? Are there any ancient scholars who heavily influenced this structure?

whoa, nice question. i really hope someone can dig up some information about this. – magnetar Commented Dec 25, 2011 at 21:13
1 You might want to provide some examples. It might be that the authors really didn't follow any specific structures, either because they are very good at their job, or because they are utterly incompetent. – Wang Dingwei Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 0:58
1 I have never seen a five-paragraph essay in English-speaking media. It's more like training wheels for high school writers. – K Man Commented Nov 16, 2019 at 13:31
very helpful, i really liked it. thank you. you helped me a lot on my essay – verynicepost Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 13:21

2 Answers 2

The Chinese have a device called 起承转合 . First you start (起) narrating on some topic. Then you continue (承) to develop the topic with added material. Then you turn (转) the narrative, either by seeking different aspects, or creating conflicts and resolving them. Finally you conclude (合) the topic.

Often it goes like this:

It also work in poems and songs. Here is a modern example, a song by by 张玮玮, titled 《织毛衣》

This idea has its classic roots, so we can see it being used in classical poems as well. For example, 《登高》 by 杜甫, my all time favorite:

It's rather akin to the Hollywood three-act structure , where you plan the plot, develop the plot, reach the climax, then draw the happy ending.

Note that it's just one of the common devices that could be used on any type of writing. As for scientific theses, I think most of them try to follow western standards.

also interesting to consider possible influence of 八股文 /时文 on this kind of organization... – Master Sparkles Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 22:00
@MasterSparkles Yeah how can we forget 八股文 ? Though it's almost certainly dead, it did have served its time. – Wang Dingwei Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 0:23
yup, it has a largely deserved bad rep, but it's hard to imagine that baguwen training didn't strongly influence late Qing reformers' ideas about what to replace the form with. The Wikipedia article weirdly fails to mention Dr Benjamin Elman's "A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China" - late chapters of which detail baguwen's downfall. I don't know if anyone has gone back and studied if/how that influence played out regarding teaching Chinese composition. – Master Sparkles Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 1:02

In university I had to write quite a few essays in Chinese, they follow the same basic structure of introduction, point 1, point 2, point... conculusion.

I have also spent time correcting thesis and academic writing and it's pretty much identical to in the West.

One point about learning to write better in Chinese that my wife taught me; don't get hung up on how to write something properly in Chinese. Thing about exactly what you want to say in your native tongue (English etc.) and then think about how to translate that into Chinese rather than going for the tricky approach of trying to get your point across in Chinese.

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The Guide to Writing Your First Mandarin Essay

When you want to be able to make writing your first Mandarin essay nice and easy, it pays to put plenty of thought and effort into the preparation. As the old saying goes ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail.’ To give you plenty of food for thought we’ve put together everything you need to know to get things moving. All you need to do is work through the following steps, and you’ll be submitting your essay in no time at all.

Check you understand the basics

There are so many things you have to think about when writing an essay, particularly when it’s not in your native language. But as with any cognitively demanding task, the process for getting started is always the same. Check you understand the following basics and you’ll be heading in the right direction:

Do you know what the question means?
Have you made a note of the final submission date?
Make sure you read some past examples to get a feel for what’s expected of you
Do you understand the question that has been set?
Do you know who you can talk to if you need advice along the way?
Are there any restrictions on the dialect you should be aware of?

Once you can write the answers to the above down on a single side of the paper, you are ready to tackle the main part of the problem: putting pen to paper.

Set aside time to write

The chances are that you’re not going to be able to pen the entire essay in a single sitting, and that’s okay. It’s nothing to be ashamed of or to worry about, and it’s natural that you need to work across multiple days when writing your first essay.

If you want to be able to make great progress, the most important thing is sticking to a routine. You need to have consistency in your application, and you need to be able to know when you are at your most productive. It’s no good staying up late one night and then carrying on early the next morning. You’d be far better off writing for the same amount of time but on two successive afternoons. Think about how your studies fit in with the rest of your daily life, and then choose the time that seems most appropriate. If you box it off and decide it’s only for writing, you’ll be in a great routine before you even know it.

Clear space so you can focus

As well as having time to write each day, you need a place to write too. The world is full of distractions (most of them are digital and social) so that means you’re going to want to keep yourself to yourself, and your phone in a different room. It might seem a little boring or uncomfortable at first, but you need to practice the habit of deep work. It’s what will allow you to create the most in the shortest time — ideal if you want to have plenty of time leftover to spend doing the other things that matter to you.

Have a daily word count in mind

Telling yourself that you want to write an essay today is one thing, but if you’re really going to push yourself to stick to your goal then you need to get quantitative. If you have a word count in mind that you need to hit, then it will prevent you from giving up and throwing in the towel the minute you start having to think and concentrate more than feels normal. Just like working out in the gym, it’s the temporary moments of extra effort that really drive the big differences. It’s when you’ll see the biggest improvement in your writing ability, and the lessons you teach yourself will stay with you for years to come. Ideal if you want to become a fluent Mandarin writer, as well as an engaging face-to-face speaker.

Read widely to provide context

When you’re immersed in an essay it can be all too easy to become blinkered and fail to pay attention to everything else that’s going on around you. Of course, you want to be focused on the task at hand, but you don’t want to be single-minded to the point of ignoring other great learning resources that are just a click away.

Reading widely is one of the best ways to improve your essay writing because it exposes you to techniques and approaches used by the best of the best. You’re not expected to be able to instantly write like a native speaker after an hour of reading. But what you will be able to do with consistent application is build up confidence and familiarity with written Mandarin. Over time this will reflect on the quality and depth of your writing as you gradually improve and take onboard lessons you’ve learned.

Take a break before you proofread

Last but not least, you need to remember that essay writing is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s all about taking the time to get things written before you hand them in, not racing through to try and finish on time. If you want to get the most out of your writing you need to take a day off between finishing your draft and proofing it. That way your brain will have had plenty of time to reflect on the work you’ve produced, and you’ll be able to spot many more little mistakes and places for improvement than you would if you proofed right away.

Final Thoughts

Writing Mandarin is a challenging task that will test your language skills and make you think hard about how to apply what you’ve learned so far. It might be slow going to begin with, but that’s great as it means you’re pushing your limits and building on your existing skills. If you want to be able to master Mandarin, you need to persevere and stay the course. Once you do, you’ll start to improve a lot faster than you expect.

By Diana Adjadj | A Super Chineasian

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How to Write a Good Chinese Essay

Posted by Lilian Li 17949

For any kind of language, the essay is the most difficult thing to do in the exam. Generally speaking, writing articles is just to tell a story, after you make the story clear, the article also is finished. But it also different with speaking. A good article is like a art, is worth for people to appreciate, to taste. But how to accomplish such a good art? I think the most important thing is the three points: attitude, subject matter, emotional.

A good beginning is half done. For writing, material selection and design are not the start. The most important thing still is to adjust their mentality as well. When you decided to write, then dedicated yourself to write, not half-hearted, and your thinking nature won't be upset. Once the train of thought was interrupted, your speed will be slow and the point will be word count. So how can you write down a interesting article with a good quality? All in all, attitude is can decide the success or failure of the articles.

Subject is the biggest problem in our writing. It is from life, but not all people can observe life, experience life. The only point is to write the true things, maybe not so tortuous plots, but can write a really life. Moreover, when you get the subject, there are some tips for students to pay attention:

1. Make the topic request clear: The article should around the topic, pay attention to the demand of genre and number of words, some restrictive conditions and avoid distracting, digression.

2. Determine the center, choose the right material. To conform to the fact that a typical, novel, so it’s easy to attract the attention of people.

3. Make a good outline, determine the general, write enough words.

4. Sentence writing smooth, there is no wrong character, no wrong grammar in article.

Emotion, it is very important. If we compared an article to be a human. So emotion is his soul. Man is not vegetation, when they meet something, there must be personal thoughts and feelings. Sometimes it also tend to have their own original ideas. If you can put your own thoughts, feelings and insights into the article, then this article will be very individual.

Chinese essay is not just meaning some simple Chinese characters and make a simple sentences, it needs the Chinese grammar and sentence structure, if you don't familiar with Chinese grammar, you can learn our Chinese grammar course .

At last, adhere to write diary at ordinary times, it can practicing writing. Try to read some good articles, good words and good paragraphs with a good beginning and end. Learn to accumulate and draw lessons from them.

If you are interested in our Chinese grammar course, you can try our one online free trial , you will enjoy it.

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How to Become a Rockstar Chinese Writer

The importance of learning Chinese writing

Nowadays more and more people are beginning to learn Chinese. For the most part, they are only focusing on learning how to speak Chinese. But concerning using this language, they also need to learn Chinese writing. Writing can reflect a writer’s power of thought and language organization skills. It is critical to master Chinese writing if you want to take your Chinese to the next level.

How to write good Chinese essays? The following five steps will improve your Chinese writing.

Become familiar with the Chinese Character Writing

In order to write a good Chinese essay, a fundamental step is to be familiar with Chinese characters. Chinese characters are different when you compare them to English letters. Chinese characters are hieroglyphs and each stroke of a Chinese character is different from the next stroke. Familiarity of Chinese character writing is indispensable for anyone who wants to write nice Chinese essays.

Increase Your Vocabulary

The Chinese language includes 100,000 vocabulary words. If you want to just know the most used words you still need to learn several thousand words. A good writer needs to acquire as many words as possible. How can you enlarge your vocabulary? The best method is to listen, read and learn as much Chinese as possible. Don’t forget to apply what you have learned to your Chinese writing so that you can make continual progress.

Acquire Grammar and Sentence Patterns

Chinese grammar and sentence patterns need to be acquired in order to improve your Chinese writing. Generally speaking, grammar consists of words, phrases and sentence structure. In terms of single words, Chinese words can be classified as lexical and functional words. In terms of phrases, Chinese phrases can be divided into CO (co-ordinate phrases), SP (subject-predicate phrases), and VO (verb-object phrases). In terms of sentence patterns, a Chinese sentence includes subject, predicate, object, adverbial, attribute and complementary. All of the above grammar points are necessary to study if you want to learn how to write in Chinese.

Persistence in Reading Everyday

Reading can broaden one’s horizon, and it can aid their writing. Reading everyday is a great way to help people learn how to have good Chinese writing ability. The content of reading can be very broad. It can be from novels, or newspapers, and it can be about subjects like economics or psychology. Remember you should read about things you are interested in. After a certain period of accumulation by reading, you will greatly improve your Chinese writing.

Do Writing Exercise on a Variety of Subjects

Practice makes perfect. Apply this proverb in Chinese writing. You need to do a lot of writing exercises to make your Chinese writing excellent. It has been suggested to begin with simple subjects, like personal hobbies, future dreams or anything else that can be understood easily. Students with more experience can write about more complicated topics like economics, politics and society. You should consider all these aspects, because doing writing exercise on a variety of subjects can help improve a person’s writing ability.

General Chinese (Beginner Level) General Chinese (Intermediate Level)

Chinese character: 春 (chūn) spring (beginner), quote of the week (feb. 10, 2010), 中国工人入选时代周刊 chinese worker selected as time magazine’s “person of the year”, video lesson: 购物 (gòuwù) shopping (beginner), answer to chinese terms of endearment: who is your “爱人(àiren)”, 富有的乞丐 (fùyǒu de qǐgài) a rich beggar (intermediate), top 7 ways for making self-introduction in chinese, benefits of studying chinese, must know chinese internet slang (elementary), chinese characters (beginner), 4 thoughts on “how to become a rockstar chinese writer”.

should add some pictures to make it interesting!

Hi Deynika. Thanks for your advice, we will try to add some interesting pictures in our posts.

I love chinese writing and it is a lot interesting. Can you send a list of chinese words to improve vocabulary? Thanks

You can check out our blog, it introduces many interesting words, slang and useful expressions. In addition, we offer many video lessons to help you improve vocabulary. Hope it will help.

7 Tips to Help You Improve Your Chinese Writing Skills

Dec 16, 2020 | Guest Blogs & Media

Learning a foreign language involves two important aspects: learning to speak in the target language and learning to write. When it comes to learning Chinese, both these aspects can be very difficult for English speakers. Learning vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation so that you can express your thoughts in Chinese decently is challenging enough. When you write, however, the task becomes even more difficult because the Chinese writing system is completely different from that in English or any other language of European origin.

7 Tips to Help You Improve Your Chinese Writing Skills

First, let’s make it clear that writing doesn’t necessarily mean handwriting. Writing is just a process of creating written text, no matter how you do it. If we consider writing in this context, it will be not that different from speaking Chinese, with the only difference that you should write things down instead of saying them. Nevertheless, you need to know the rules of Chinese writing, be able to create logically correct sentences, and choose the right words and characters depending on the context.

Here are some tips that will help you improve your Chinese writing skills so that you will know what things you should focus on and what common mistakes you need to avoid.

1. Read in Chinese

Reading and writing are two interconnected skills. If you don’t read enough, you won’t know what proper Chinese writing looks like, and you won’t be able to write well. First, reading can help you develop a better feel for the Chinese language. Secondly, it will enable you to memorize the right sentence structure and improve your style.

It’s also important to choose the right content for reading. If you already have some basic writing skills, think of how you’re going to use Chinese and choose sources accordingly. For example, if you need it for work, you may read articles and books related to your industry. If you’re a beginner, choose anything that you can read: newspapers, educational articles, or even children’s books.

2. Don’t translate word by word

When learning some European languages, you may think in English and then translate your thoughts. Sometimes, you can even translate word by word and use the same word order. For example, this approach may sometimes work when learning Swedish. Although translating word by word is generally a bad practice, some languages enable you to use it from time to time.

This is not the case with the Chinese language. If you try to translate something directly, you will fail with a 99% probability, the result will look terrible and sound awkward. You cannot simply write English sentences with Chinese characters so we recommend that you always think of the general meaning first and then communicate it in Chinese, using the right sentence structure and vocabulary.

3. Don’t focus on details and translate the general meaning first

When it comes to writing in Chinese, the biggest challenge is that it’s almost impossible to provide a precise translation and to create a well-written Chinese text at the same time. Therefore, your task is to balance translation and grammar properly.

We recommend that you translate the general meaning first. Don’t be afraid of using clumsy constructions and don’t think of how it will sound in Chinese. Once you’ve communicated the right meaning, forget about the original text and work on the Chinese translation. Modify and polish it, add idioms, and make sure that the final text will look well and be grammatically correct. While editing the Chinese translation, you may need to change the original meaning a little, but there’s nothing wrong with it.

4. Always check the context

When working with similar languages, you may often write a lot of text and then look up just a few words to translate your thoughts properly. You won’t be able to write this way in Chinese because you need to take into account many factors. You cannot simply look for a dictionary translation and expect that a certain word is used in the same way as the corresponding English word.

First of all, you should make sure that the Chinese word has the same meaning in this context. Secondly, you should check how this word is used in sentences so that you can also use it properly. Besides, you should think of how this word will look when used with other words from the sentence.

5. Write what you know and avoid what you don’t

It’s important not to lose your motivation and not to get discouraged by the fact that you don’t know how to write something. Sometimes, you can communicate the right meaning by using words that you know, instead of trying to get it exactly right and getting stuck.

For example, you may want to write that rooms in China are small, without knowing how to write “small” or “in.” In this case, you may either give up or approach this task creatively. For instance, you can say “not big” instead of “small,” while using “in” may be unnecessary, and your sentence may look better without it. For example, the sentence “中国的房间不大” communicates the right meaning and doesn’t require you to use unknown words.

6. Don’t over complicate your writing

Sometimes, people who learn Chinese think that their writing will look more impressive if they use complex sentences and difficult words. Such an approach can turn your writing into a complete disaster. If your Chinese is far from perfect, we recommend that you keep it simple and focus on delivering the right meaning. As your knowledge expands, your written Chinese will also become less colloquial, but it’s a continuous process that takes a lot of patience.

7. Practice, practice, practice!

Practice makes perfect, so make it a habit to write a little every day, on any topic you like – from describing how your day went to inventing stories with new words.

Wrapping Up

Although learning Chinese can be very challenging, you will be able to improve your writing skills if you focus on the right aspects and avoid some common mistakes. For instance, you should always pay attention to the context so that you can choose the right words. You should also read in Chinese as often as you can. Don’t try to impress your readers with overcomplicated sentences and practice a lot. Practice makes perfect, or as the Chinese say, 熟能生巧!

by Rhonda Martinez

Rhonda Martinez is a content writer at legitwritingservices.com , a website that publishes reviews of essay writing services and articles dedicated to studying and essay writing. Rhonda writes in-depth articles and loves analyzing information. She contributes to a bunch of different language learning blogs and never stops learning languages herself.

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How to Write a Chinese Essay

by That's Mandarin | Dec 16, 2020

As a Chinese student, learning how to write an essay in this language is very important. After all, how else are you going to express yourself? Writing is one of the ways professors use to teach this language because writing helps with the retention of information.

The more essays you write, the better you get at communicating with Chinese. To write a good essay, you first have to reach a high language mastery level.

Do you admire the students who write seamless Chinese essay? If you do, then you should know that you too can achieve this level of proficiency. In the meantime, don’t be afraid to pay for your essay if you cannot write it on your own. Online academic writers are a resource each student should take advantage of.

Here are tips to help you get better at writing essays in Chinese.

Learn New Chinese Words

The key to communicating in a new language is learning as many words as you can. Take it upon yourself to learn at least one Chinese word a day. Chinese words are to essay writing what bricks are to a building. The more words you have, the better you get at constructing meaningful sentences.

Case in point, if you’re going to write a Chinese sentence that constitutes ten words, but you don’t know the right way to spell three of those words, your sentence might end up not making sense.

During your Chinese learning experience, words are your arsenal and don’t forget to master the meaning of each word you learn.

Read Chinese Literature

Reading is the most effective way of learning a new language. Remember not to read for the sake of it; find out the meaning of each new word you encounter. When you are an avid reader of Chinese literature, nothing can stop you from writing fluent Chinese.

In the beginning, it might seem like you’re not making any progress, but after a while, you will notice how drastically your writing will change. Receiving information in Chinese helps your brain get accustomed to the language’s sentence patterns, and you can translate this to your essays.

Be extensive in your reading to ensure you get as much as possible out of each article. Remember that it’s not about how fast you finish an article, but rather, how much you gain from the exercise.

Translate Articles from your Native Language to Chinese

Have you ever thought about translating your favorite read to Chinese? This exercise might be tedious, but you will learn a lot from it. The art of translation allows you to seamlessly shift from one language’s sentence pattern into the other. The more you do this, the easier it will be for your brain to convert English sentences into Chinese phrases that people can comprehend.

You can always show your Chinese professor your translations for positive criticism. The more you get corrected, the better you will get at translation. Who knows, you might actually like being a translator once you graduate.

Final Thoughts

Writing in Chinese is as foreign as writing in any other language you’re not familiar with. Despite the unfamiliarity, however, it is possible to get better at it with practice. Read as many Chinese articles as you can and make sure you learn at least one new Chinese word each day. In no time, you’ll be at pro at writing Chinese essays.

Adrian Lomezzo | Guest Author at That's Mandarin Blog

by Adrian Lomezzo

Adrian Lomezzo is a freelance writer. Firstly, he has been developing as a content manager and working with different websites, and the main goal of his was to develop the content making it in the first place. Secondly, Adrian had a big desire to help students and adults in self-development in this field and teach them to improve their skills. As a lover of traveling, he did not want to be in one place, and became a writer who could be closer to everyone, and share precious information from the corners of the world.

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StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

How to Write in Chinese – A Beginner’s Guide

You probably think learning how to write in Chinese is impossible.

And I get it.

I’m a native English speaker, and I know how complex Chinese characters seem.

But you’re about to learn that it's not impossible .

I’ve teamed up with Kyle Balmer from Sensible Chinese to show you how you can learn the basic building blocks of the Chinese written language, and build your Chinese vocabulary quickly.

First, you’ll learn the basics of how the Chinese written language is constructed. Then, you’ll get a step-by-step guide for how to write Chinese characters sensibly and systematically .

Wondering how it can be so easy?

Then let’s get into it.

Don't have time to read this now? Click here to download a free PDF of the article

By the way, if you want to learn Chinese fast and have fun, my top recommendation is Chinese Uncovered which teaches you through StoryLearning®.

With Chinese Uncovered you’ll use my unique StoryLearning® method to learn Chinese through story… not rules.

It’s as fun as it is effective.

If you’re ready to get started, click here for a 7-day FREE trial.

How To Write In Chinese

Chinese is a complex language with many dialects and varieties.

Before we dive into learning to write Chinese characters, let’s just take a second to be clear exactly what we’ll be talking about.

First, you’ll be learning about Mandarin Chinese , the “standard” dialect. There are 5 main groups of dialects and perhaps 200 individual dialects in China & Taiwan. Mandarin Chinese is the “standard” used in Beijing and spoken or understood, by 2/3 of the population.

Second, there are two types of Chinese characters: Traditional and Simplified . In this article, we’ll be talking about Simplified Chinese characters, which are used in the majority of Mainland China.

There is an ongoing politicised debate about the two kinds of characters, and those asking themselves: “Should I learn traditional or simplified Chinese characters?” can face a difficult choice.

For more on difference between Simplified and Traditional characters read this article
To learn more about “the debate” read this excellent Wikipedia article
If you want to switch Simplified characters into Traditional, you might like the fantastic New Tong Wen Tang browser plugin

First Steps in Learning Chinese Characters

When learning a European language, you have certain reference points that give you a head start.

If you're learning French and see the word l'hotel , for example, you can take a pretty good guess what it means! You have a shared alphabet and shared word roots to fall back on.

In Chinese this is not the case.

When you're just starting out, every sound, character, and word seems new and unique. Learning to read Chinese characters can feel like learning a whole set of completely illogical, unconnected “squiggles”!

The most commonly-taught method for learning to read and write these “squiggles” is rote learning .

Just write them again and again and practise until they stick in your brain and your hand remembers how to write them! This is an outdated approach, much like reciting multiplication tables until they “stick”.

I learnt this way.

Most Chinese learners learnt this way.

It's painful…and sadly discourages a lot of learners.

However, there is a better way.

Even without any common reference points between Chinese and English, the secret is to use the basic building blocks of Chinese, and use those building blocks as reference points from which to grow your knowledge of written Chinese.

This article will:

Outline the different levels of structure inherent in Chinese characters
Show you how to build your own reference points from scratch
Demonstrate how to build up gradually without feeling overwhelmed

The Structure Of Written Chinese

The basic structure of written Chinese is as follows:

I like to think of Chinese like Lego . .. it's very “square”!

The individual bricks are the components (a.k.a radicals ).

We start to snap these components together to get something larger – the characters.

We can then snap characters together in order to make Chinese words.

Here's the really cool part about Chinese: Each of these pieces, at every level, has meaning.

The component, the character, the word… they all have meaning.

This is different to a European language, where the “pieces” used to make up words are letters.

Letters by themselves don't normally have meaning and when we start to clip letters together we are shaping a sound rather than connecting little pieces of meaning. This is a powerful difference that comes into play later when we are learning vocabulary.

Let's look at the diagram again.

Here we start with the component 子. This has the meaning of “child/infant”.

The character 好 (“good”) is the next level. Look on the right of the character and you'll see 子. We would say that 子 is a component of 好.

Now look at the full word 你好 (“Hello”). Notice that the 子 is still there.

The character 好 is built of the components 女 and 子.
The character 你 is built from 人 + 尔.
The word 你好 in turn is constructed out of 你 + 好.

Here's the complete breakdown of that word in an easy-to-read diagram:

Now look at this photo of this in real life !

Don't worry if you can't understand it. Just look for some shapes that you have seen before.

The font is a little funky, so here are the typed characters: 好孩子

What components have you seen before?

Did you spot them?

This is a big deal.

Here's why…

Why Character Components Are So Important

One of the big “scare stories” around Chinese is that there are 50,000 characters to learn.

Now, this is true. But learning them isn't half as bad as you think.

Firstly, only a few thousand characters are in general everyday use so that number is a lot more manageable.

Second, and more importantly, those 50,000 characters are all made up of the same 214 components .

And you already know one of them: 子 (it's one of those 214 components).

The fact that you can now recognise the 子 in the image above is a huge step forward.

You can already recognise one of the 214 pieces all characters are made up of.

Even better is the fact that of these 214 components it's only the 50-100 most common you'll be running into again and again.

This makes Chinese characters a lot less scary.

Once you get a handle on these basic components, you'll quickly recognise all the smaller pieces and your eyes will stop glazing over!

This doesn't mean you'll necessarily know the meaning or how to pronounce the words yet (we'll get onto this shortly) but suddenly Chinese doesn't seem quite so alien any more.

Memorising The Components Of Chinese Characters

Memorising the pieces is not as important as simply realising that ALL of Chinese is constructed from these 214 pieces.

When I realised this, Chinese became a lot more manageable and I hope I've saved you some heartache by revealing this early in your learning process!

Here are some useful online resources for learning the components of Chinese characters:

An extensive article about the 214 components of Chinese characters with a free printable PDF poster.
Downloadable posters of all the components, characters and words.
If you like flashcards, there's a great Anki deck here and a Memrise course here .
Wikipedia also has a sweet sortable list here .

TAKEAWAY : Every single Chinese character is composed of just 214 “pieces”. Only 50-100 of these are commonly used. Learn these pieces first to learn how to write in Chinese quickly.

Moving From Components To Chinese Characters

Once you've got a grasp of the basic building blocks of Chinese it's time to start building some characters!

We used the character 好 (“good”) in the above example. 好 is a character composed of the components 女 (“woman”) and 子 (“child”).

Unlike the letters of the alphabet in English, these components have meaning .

(They also have pronunciation, but for the sake of simplicity we'll leave that aside for now!)

女 means “woman” and 子 means “child”.
When they are put together, 女 and 子 become 好 …and the meaning is “good”.
Therefore “woman” + “child” = “good” in Chinese 🙂

When learning how to write in Chinese characters you can take advantage of the fact that components have their own meanings.

In this case, it is relatively easy to make a mnemonic (memory aid) that links the idea of a woman with her baby as “good”.

Because Chinese is so structured, these kind of mnemonics are an incredibly powerful tool for memorisation.

Some characters, including 好, can also be easily represented graphically. ShaoLan's book Chineasy does a fantastic job of this.

Here's the image of 好 for instance – you can see the mother and child.

Visual graphics like these can really help in learning Chinese characters.

Unfortunately, only around 5% of the characters in Chinese are directly “visual” in this way. These characters tend to get the most attention because they look great when illustrated.

However, as you move beyond the concrete in the more abstract it becomes harder and harder to visually represent ideas.

Thankfully, the ancient Chinese had an ingenious solution, a solution that actually makes the language a lot more logical and simple than merely adding endless visual pictures.

Watch Me Write Chinese Characters

In the video below, which is part of a series on learning to write in Chinese , I talk about the process of actually writing out the characters. Not thousands of times like Chinese schoolchildren. But just as a way to reinforce my learning and attack learning Chinese characters from different angles.

My Chinese handwriting leaves a lot to be desired. But it's more about a process of reinforcing my language learning via muscle memory than perfecting my handwriting.

You'll also hear me discuss some related issues such as stroke order and typing in Chinese.

The Pronunciation Of Chinese Characters

The solution was the incredibly unsexy sounding… (wait for it…) “phono-semantic compound character”.

It's an awful name, so I'm going to call them “sound-meaning characters” for now!

This concept is the key to unlocking 95% of the Chinese characters.

A sound-meaning character has a component that tells us two things:

the meaning
a clue to how the character is pronounced

So, in simple terms:

95% of Chinese characters have a clue to the meaning of the character AND its pronunciation.

到 means “to arrive”.

This character is made of two components. On the left is 至 and on the right is 刀.

These are two of the 214 components that make up all characters. 至 means “to arrive” and 刀 means “knife”.

Any idea which one gives us the meaning? Yup – it's 至, “to arrive”! (That was an easy one 🙂 )

But how about the 刀? This is where it gets interesting.

到 is pronounced dào.

刀, “knife” is pronounced dāo.

The reason the 刀 is placed next to 至 in the character 到 is just to tell us how to pronounce the character! How cool is that?

Now, did you notice the little lines above the words: dào and dāo?

Those are the tone markers, and in this case they are both slightly different. These two characters have different tones so they are not exactly the same pronunciation.

However, the sound-meaning compound has got us 90% of the way to being able to pronounce the character, all because some awesome ancient Chinese scribe thought there should be a shortcut to help us remember the pronunciation!

Let's look at a few more examples of how 刀 is used in different words to give you an idea of the pronunciation.

Even if sometimes:

the sound-meaning character gives us the exact sound and meaning
or it gets us in the ballpark
or worse it is way off because the character has changed over the last 5,000 years!

Nevertheless, there's a clue about the pronunciation in 95% of all Chinese characters, which is a huge help for learning how to speak Chinese.

TAKEAWAY : Look at the component parts as a way to unlock the meaning and pronunciations of 95% of Chinese characters. In terms of “hacking” the language, this is the key to learning how to write in Chinese quickly.

From Chinese Characters To Chinese Words

First we went from components to characters.

Next, we are going from characters to words.

Although there are a lot of one-character words in Chinese, they tend to either be classically-rooted words like “king” and “horse” or grammatical particles and pronouns.

The vast majority of Chinese words contain two characters.

The step from characters to words is where, dare I say it, Chinese script gets easy!

Come on, you didn't think it would always be hard did you? 🙂

Unlike European languages Chinese's difficulty is very front-loaded.

When you first learn to write Chinese, you'll discover a foreign pronunciation system, a foreign tonal system and a very foreign writing system.

As an English speaker, you can normally have a good shot at pronouncing and reading words in other European languages, thanks to the shared alphabet.

Chinese, on the other hand, sucker-punches you on day one… but gets a little more gentle as you go along.

One you've realised these things:

there aren't that many components to deal with
all characters are made up of these basic components
words are actually characters bolted together

…then it's a matter of just memorising a whole bunch of stuff!

That's not to say there isn't a lot of work involved, only to say that it's not particularly difficult. Time-consuming, yes. Difficult, no.

This is quite different from European languages, which start off easy, but quickly escalate in difficulty as you encounter complicated grammar, tenses, case endings, technical vocabulary and so on.

Making words from Chinese characters you already know is easy and really fun . This is where you get to start snapping the lego blocks together and build that Pirate Island!

The Logic Of Chinese Writing

Here are some wonderful examples of the simplicity and logic of Chinese using the character 车 which roughly translates as “vehicle”.

Water + Vehicle = Waterwheel = 水 +车
Wind + Vehicle = Windmill = 风＋车
Electric + Vehicle = Tram/Trolley = 电＋车
Fire + Vehicle = Train = 火＋车
Gas + Vehicle = Car = 汽＋车
Horse + Vehicle = Horse and cart/Trap and Pony = 马＋车
Up + Vehicle = Get into/onto a vehicle =上＋车
Down + Vehicle = Get out/off a vehicle =下＋车
Vehicle + Warehouse = Garage = 车＋库
To Stop + Vehicle = to park = 停＋车

Chinese is extremely logical and consistent.

This is a set of building blocks that has evolved over 5,000 years in a relatively linear progression. And you can't exactly say the same about the English language!

Just think of the English words for the Chinese equivalences above:

Train, windmill, millwheel/waterwheel, tram/trolley, car/automobile, horse and cart/trap and pony.

Unlike Chinese where these concepts are all linked by 车 there's very little consistency in our vehicle/wheel related vocabulary, and no way to link these sets of related concepts via the word itself.

English is a diverse and rich language, but that comes with its drawbacks – a case-by-case spelling system that drives learners mad.

Chinese, on the other hand, is precise and logical, once you get over the initial “alienness”.

Making The Complex Simple

This logical way of constructing vocabulary is not limited to everyday words like “car” and “train”. It extends throughout the language.

To take an extreme example let's look at Jurassic Park .

The other day I watched Jurassic Park with my Chinese girlfriend. (OK, re -watched. It's a classic!)

Part of the fun for me (annoyance for her) was asking her the Chinese for various dinosaur species.

Take a second to look through these examples. You'll love the simplicity!

T Rex 暴龙 = tyrant + dragon
Tricerotops 三角恐龙 three + horn + dinosaur
Diplodocus 梁龙 roof-beam + dragon
Velociraptor 伶盗龙 clever + thief + dragon (or swift stealer dragon)
Stegosaurus 剑龙 (double-edged) sword + dragon
Dilophosaurus 双脊龙 double+spined+dragon

Don't try to memorise these characters, just appreciate the underlying logic of how the complex concepts are constructed .

(Unless, of course, you are a palaeontologist…or as the Chinese would say a Ancient + Life + Animal + Scientist!).

I couldn't spell half of these dinosaur names in English for this article. But once I knew how the construction of the Chinese word, typing in the right characters was simple.

Once you know a handful of characters, you can start to put together complete words, and knowing how to write in Chinese suddenly becomes a lot easier.

In a lot of cases you can take educated guesses at concepts and get them right by combining known characters into unknown words.

For more on this, check my series of Chinese character images that I publish on this page . They focus on Chinese words constructed from common characters, and help you understand more of the “building block” logic of Chinese.

TAKEAWAY : Chinese words are constructed extremely logically from the underlying characters. This means that once you've learned a handful of characters vocabulary acquisition speeds up exponentially.

How To Learn Written Chinese Fast

Before diving into learning characters, make sure you have a decent grounding in Chinese pronunciation via the pinyin system.

The reason for this is that taking on pronunciation, tones and characters from day one is really tough.

Don't get me wrong, you can do it. Especially if you're highly motivated. But for most people there's a better way.

Learn a bit of spoken Chinese first.

With some spoken language under your belt, and an understanding of pronunciation and tones, starting to learn how to write in Chinese will seem a whole lot easier.

When you're ready, here's how to use all the information from this article and deal with written Chinese in a sensible way.

I've got a systematic approach to written Chinese which you can find in detail on Sensible Chinese .

Right now, I'm going to get you started with the basics.

The Sensible Character System

The four stages for learning Chinese characters are:

Sounds technical huh? Don't worry, it's not really.

This part of the process is about choosing what you put into your character learning system.

If you're working on the wrong material then you're wasting your efforts. Instead choose to learn Chinese characters that you are like to want to use in the future.

My list in order of priority contains:

daily life: characters/words I've encountered through daily life
textbooks: characters/words I've learnt from textbooks
frequency lists: characters/words I've found in frequency lists of the most common characters and words

2. Processing

This is the “learning” part of the system.

You take a new word or character and break it down into its component parts. You can then use these components to create memory aids.

Hanzicraft.com or Pleco's built-in character decomposition tool are fantastic for breaking down new characters. These will be helpful until you learn to recognise the character components by sight. These tools will also show you if there are sound-meaning component clues in the character.

Use the individual components of a character to build a “story” around the character. Personal, sexy and violent stories tend to stick in the mind best! 🙂 I also like to add colours into my stories to represent the tones (1st tone Green, 2nd tone Blue etc.)

After the “input” and the “process”… it's time to review it all!

The simplest review system is paper flashcards which you periodically use to refresh your memory.

A more efficient method can be found in software or apps that use a Spaced Repetition System, like Anki or Pleco .

An important point: Review is not learning .

It's tempting to rely on software like Anki to drill in the vocabulary through brute-force repetition. But don't skip the first two parts – processing the character and creating a mnemonic are key parts of the process.

It isn't enough to just learn and review your words… you also need to put them into use !

Thankfully, technology has made this easier than ever. Finding a language exchange partner or a lesson with a cost-effective teacher is super simple nowadays, so there's no excuse for not putting your new vocabulary into action!

The resources I personally use are:

Spoken – iTalki
Written – Lang-8
Short form written – WeChat / HelloTalk

Importantly, whilst you are using your current vocabulary in these forms of communication, you'll be picking up new content all the time, which you can add back into your system.

The four steps above are a cycle that you will continue to rotate through – all the corrections and new words you receive during usage should become material to add to the system.

To recap, the four steps of systematically learning Chinese characters are:

By building these steps into your regular study schedule you can steadily work through the thousands of Chinese characters and words you'll need to achieve literacy.

This is a long-haul process! So having a basic system in place is very important for consistency.

You can find out a lot more about The Sensible Chinese Character Learning System and how to write in Chinese here .

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Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning mandarin, 20 tips and tricks to improve your chinese writing ability.

Image from The Simpsons S13E4: A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love.

Writing is an important part of learning Chinese. The written word allows us to communicate online, record our thoughts and opinions and share them with others.

Writing is also an important part of many professional applications of learning Chinese, such as communication with colleagues, partners or clients. Finally, writing is also a part of many proficiency tests.

Writing in Chinese is different compared with most other languages in that there is a dual challenge learning both to write characters and to compose text. These are two completely different skills.

In this article, I will focus on composing text. For more about learning to write characters, please read this article: My best advice on how to learn Chinese characters .

My best advice on how to learn Chinese characters

Writing as a process rather than a product

Many students and teachers treat writing as a product, putting emphasis on the text itself. This effect is often enhanced by setting a grade on a writing assignment and then moving on to the next unit.

Writing is better viewed as a process, where what you write is just a milestone on your journey towards better writing ability. This usually means that you write fewer texts, but that you work more with each one. The goal is learning, after all, not writing a certain number of characters.

It should come as no surprise that I like writing; I have spent many thousands of hours writing in a foreign language (a lot of English, much Chinese and almost no French). Naturally, this website is in English, but isn’t called “Hacking English”, so I will focus on Chinese here. I have actually published a few articles in Chinese here as well, this one about using adventure text games being the most recent one . The advice in this article is based on my own experience with writing in foreign languages, as well as reading and research into second language writing.

I have divided the writing process into three phases:

Before writing
During writing
After writing

How to improve your Chinese writing ability: Before writing

Familiarise yourself with text type and genre – When reading, pay attention to the genre and how it works, A formal email, a shopping list and a doctoral dissertation are very different types of texts. A few questions to ask yourself are: What function does the text serve? Are there any formal characteristics of this type of text in Chinese? How is information organised in this type of text? The answers can be different in Chinese compared with your native language. For example, writing emails is very different in different languages when it comes to how to start, end and so on. Sometimes you can find information about this online as well, so it can be worth studying a bit. I actually asked a question about this on Stack Exchange back in 2012.
Write about topics you care about – When choosing what to write, the most important consideration is what you want to communicate to others. Writing requires concentration and effort, which is harder to muster if you feel the task is boring or meaningless. We all like different things, so it’s hard to give general advice, but topics related to your own life, your experiences and opinions are good places to start. A journal or diary is great because it provides a never-ending sequence of events to write about! If you find it hard to come up with topics, here are some suggestions: 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind , 49 ESL Writing Topics , the Book of Questions .
Keep it on the write level – While you should write about things you care about, keep it realistic. As a rule of thumb, do not try to write about things you are not already reading about with some confidence and fluency. Don’t write about spaceflight if you’re not already comfortable reading about it in Chinese; stay away from writing fiction heavy on descriptions of places and events if you’re not reading such stories a already. I’ve done my fair share of writing beyond my level and it’s not worth it. You will spend many times longer on each text, but you don’t learn more. As I said before, writing is the result of learning, not the cause of it.

How to improve your Chinese writing ability: During writing

Organise your thoughts by writing a simple outline – When it comes to writing clearly, much of the thought-process is the same no matter what language you’re writing in. It’s hard to write coherent and easy-to-read text even in your native language if you yourself only figure out what you want to say as you go along. Needless to say, it’s even harder in a foreign language! Write a simple outline before you start. This can be a handful of bullet points.
Write a full draft, then polish – Inexperienced writers often get stuck in details immediately. What should the title be? How should it be worded? Does A make a better title than B? These things will emerge later. Instead of focusing on details from the start, write a draft first. This version is probably quite bad, relatively speaking, but fortunately, you don’t need to show this to anyone! Once you have a draft, you can go through the text again and take care of those details you skipped earlier. Choosing a title is easier after you have a draft, for example. Now that you know what the whole text is like in general, it will be much easier to work with and you also don’t feel stupid after spending one hour and having only written two sentences.

Don’t make your text more complicated than you have to – Some students (including my past self) try to write more advanced Chinese than they can handle, thinking that throwing in more advanced words will impress people ( chengyu is a good example of this ). This almost never works and is generally a bad idea. Your goal should be to use to write as clearly as possible, using language you already know. This is also what the receiver will care about. Even on a proficiency exam, using difficult words just for the sake of it will not raise your score, especially if you use them incorrectly. Advanced readers are also very sensitive to uneven writing, so if your level is at the lower-intermediate, occasionally throwing in very hard words will just show that you used a dictionary and don’t really know what you’re doing. Teachers of all languages can testify to how easy it is to see through this, even if students (especially kids) are baffled by how easy the teacher can tell.

Use double translation if you want to be sure you’ve found the right word – This is when you look up a word in Chinese, then feed the result back to the dictionary and translate back to your native language. If the result seems reasonable, it’s probably the word you’re looking for. Let’s say you want to translate “beam”, as in “beam of light”. You look it up and get 横梁. You put it in your text and causes great confusion, some amusement and a bit of frustration for your Chinese teacher. If you had translated it back to English, you would have seen that 横梁 means “beam; transom; crossgirder; girder” .

How to improve your Chinese writing ability: After writing

Towards better writing ability in Chinese

This article contains tips and tricks I have collected over my 20+ years of writing in a foreign language. These are insights I wish I would have come to earlier, but that I hope will help you on your quest for better writing ability in Chinese.

This is also the advice that I give to students in the university courses I teach that focus on writing, all collected in one place with easy references to further reading. I realise that there’s more here than most of you probably bargained for, but as should be clear by now, I not only love to write, I also love writing about writing!

What’s your best tips for writing in a foreign language? Do you have any other tips beyond what I mention here? What advice would you offer other people who have just started writing in Chinese? Leave a comment below!

Editor’s note: This article was written in February 2021 and replaces several old articles with partially overlapping content. Comments from these other articles have been moved here.

12 comments

I can have great joy writing in whatever language. The issue is normally to sit down and do it.

I agree that it’s best to write about what you care about, but have once fallen in the trap of writing about something that I cared about too much for an English exam. The structure of my story came apart from wanting to but too much into the article.

If you want to say a lot about a certain topic but can’t due your level of the language, it can be frustrating.

I’m currently on a roll with my Lang-8 entries about San Francisco/California botany. It’s very easy to get specific (I can talk about one species of plant per entry), and some people seem to be interested in the topic, especially since it’s very easy for me to add personal touches (for example, when I talked about lupines, I uploaded some photos my father took of the lupines growing in my family’s backyard). I could make many, many entries about this topic (for example, I might make a follow-up entry about the lupines explaining WHY they are in the backyard).

Sounds great! Seems like an inexhaustible source of topics. I was on a roll with more than one entry per day for a while, but then… I stopped. I’ve been doing other things, but writing sentences now and then should be possible.

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If you asked me what is one of the tedious and frustrating things about Chinese, I would say it’s how some words (but not all) can act as verbs, adjectives AND nouns, and how any given dictionary would fail to mention this or give examples of its different uses.

Take the word 轰动 for example.

My ABC dictionary says it’s an adjective (stative verb) but then goes on to define it as: “cause a sensation; make a stir”.

My PlC dictionary gives these two examples: 轰动全国 — cause a sensation throughout the country 全场轰动 — make a stir in the audience (or in the hall) Hmm…I wonder why the position of 轰动 is switched in both of these very similar constructions?

CC dictionary says it means “to cause a sensation”.

Finally, my ADS dictionary, says it’s a Noun and means “sensation”.

Now, accepting for a moment that 轰动 can be all three (verb, adjective, and noun), why doesn’t each dictionary state this simple fact?

–Daniel

Chinese, like English, often allows the grammatical identify to be defined by context. And in other cases, we add a suffix to mark a change in grammatical function.

In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs do use suffices to migrate a root word and in some cases to clarify role (which seems to originate from Latin).

A noun such as ‘work’ is also the verb ‘work’, whereas ‘working’ or ‘worked’ can be adjectives. And a verb such as ‘do’ can become a noun infinite ‘to do’ or noun gerund ‘doing’

All those suffix shifts are extremely difficult to the Chinese learner of English. Being able to not bother with them may actually be an eventual blessing.

There are words in Chinese that tend to be strictly one function — mostly conjunctions and prepositions.

I heartily agree with all of these tips (even as I admit that I sometimes stray from them myself out of frustration or because I’m pressed for time).

I try to cultivate curiosity about connotations and Chinese vocabulary, and let myself get sucked into Wikipedia, so that I can get myself into good habits. I find Wikipedia an excellent source both for the types of words which are often not in dictionaries, examples of words being used in context, and more detailed explainations of a word than most dictionaries provide.

It’s also exciting on the rare occasion I find a Chinese word/phrase/chengyu which describes exactly what the original writer expresses in English, but more concisely and elegantly.

Regarding #4, I tend to do a lot of double translation to verify both meaning and usage. Relying solely on translation from Chinese to English without verification by going from English to Chinese can lead to technically correct translation that is still a bit odd.

In any event, the need to spend so much time with dictionaries can be a bit tedious and daunting, and a struggle at first. But it is well worth it.

Feels a bit weird to respond to your comment six years later, but I have now updated the article and included double translation as well! It’s something I often recommend students doing and I should of course have mentioned it in the old article as well. Thanks for reminding me about it, even if it took me many years to actually do something about it! 🙂

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Olle, how do you feel about intermediate/advanced learners writing their outlines or drafts in their native language and then moving to Chinese? Is there research that suggests when this is/isn’t helpful, or when it might be time to move on from this habit, and how?

I doubt there is direct research that can conclusively answer this question, but I see no problem with writing an outline in one’s native language. We’re talking about few words that aren’t going to influence sentence structure or word choice once you get down to actually writing the text. If it’s easier to arrive at a clear structure by doing so in your native language, then do that!

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How to Write a Chinese Essay?

However, this is not an option.

Chinese essay writing is an important part in GCE O level Higher Chinese Language or Chinese Language exam.

Then, what are the students suppose to write in an essay? For GCE O level Chinese exam in May 2017, many parents complained about the essay questions set were too difficult ( link ). However, this is the direction we are heading in O level Chinese and the students need to level up necessarily.

Before we even talk about what to write, we must first know what will be tested.

For GCE O level Chinese exam , essay writing is in section 2 of Paper 1.

In this section, students are expected to choose to write 1 out of 3 questions, and the 3 questions will be in one of the following categories:

情景文 (Scenario essay writing)
说明文 (Expository)
议论文 (Argumentative)
材料作文 (Material essay writing)

Each category would need students to write the essay using different skill set. Students need to master the required skill set in order to write essays that meet the criteria.

For 情景文 , students need to use the skills of writing 记叙文 and characters descriptions ; for 说明文 , they need to use the skills of expository essay writing ; 议论文 needs the 3 key elements; as for 材料作文 , depending on the question, students will either need to use the skills for 记叙文 or 议论文 .

When students are clear with all these skills, they will find Chinese essay writing a lot more easier. When equipped with these necessary writing skills , they will be able to focus more on acquiring their language skills.

With our help, we are confident that our students are able to master all these essential Chinese essay writing skills.

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9 Tips to Improve Your Chinese Composition Writing

Primary School Chinese Composition

Composition writing is a challenging but key part of the Chinese examination, as it constitutes 20% of the PSLE Chinese grade. Many students struggle with this task as their Chinese proficiency is lacking.

Aiming for a better composition score? Check out our tips below on how to excel in your Chinese composition.

But before you go on reading… You might want to download a pdf copy of this article as it is quite long!

Click the blue download button, enter your email, and the pdf file will be delivered to your inbox! (Remember to check spam!)

Click here to Download

Tip 1: Learn From Past Mistakes

Your past compositions are precious; don’t throw them out! Analyse your mistakes, and identify two to three areas you need to work on. If you have multiple areas to work on, prioritise the ones that will lead to the biggest gain in marks (e.g. between writing out of point and confusing homophones, fix the content issue first as that is more major).

Here are some common mistakes and recommendations on how to address them.


Wrong characters (错别字)	Collate a list of your commonly confused characters for targeted practice. Make use of flashcards, apps, or games to reinforce your learning. Add some fun to your revision, and you can remember better with less effort. Check out our post on learning apps and sites that can help with character recognition and writing.
Awkward expressions (句子不通顺)	When using vocabulary terms you are less familiar with, pay attention to the sentence structure. When in doubt, start by emulating how others use those terms (use it in similar contexts, with a similar phrasing). Go through your past work and make a list of the corrected version of awkward expressions.
Writing out of point	Pay attention to the next tip!

Tip 2: Determine the Theme of Your Composition

Be it the introduction, the body, or the conclusion, your composition should revolve around a theme. Never let your content not go out of point (离题), or your marks will suffer greatly.

Always start by analysing the picture or title to determine the theme. For example, if the title is “这件事改变了我(2023 St Nicholas’ Prelims)”，the central idea would be about an incident and how it has changed you as a person. Generally, it is easier for students to deviate from the theme for title-based compositions, especially if they do not plan their story.

That said, picture compositions can be tricky too: A few themes may be possible as it depends on how you choose to conclude the story (picture 6). For instance, in 2020’s PSLE, an old lady who was counting money at the bus stop fell down unexpectedly. Her notes were strewn all over the floor. Picture 5 shows two schoolgirls helping the old lady up while a youth was trying to pick up the lady’s belongings. Was he planning to steal the money? Or was he a kind-hearted youth trying to help pick up the notes? You need to write in a way consistent with the theme you have chosen.

Tip 3: Choose Your Question Wisely

Consider whether the picture composition (看图作文) or title-based composition (命题作文) is more manageable for you.

There are a few things to consider:

How well do you understand the pictures? Do you have the appropriate vocabulary to describe key events and details depicted in the pictures? How complex are the pictures? E.g. does the location change multiple times?
How well do you understand the key phrase in the title? For instance, if the title is “一件让我印象最深刻的事”, ensure you understand the meaning of 印象 and 深刻if you decide to write this particular question.
Which question do you resonate most with? Do you have any personal experience similar to that in the pictures/what you plan to write for the title-based composition? If so, you will find it easier to complete the essay.

Remember you only have fifty minutes, so play to your strengths and make a decision within the first three minutes. Do not change your mind thereafter, or you will not have sufficient time to complete your composition!

Tip 4: Choose The Correct Point of View

For picture compositions, do not write in the first person if the character is not present in all pictures. In such instances, no matter whose perspective you adopt in your writing, there will be gaps in the story (the narrator cannot be all-knowing). Thus, you should write in the third person.

For title-based compositions, pay attention to the wording. Titles such as “这件事让我明白了耐心的重要(PSLE 2022)” and “一份我最珍惜的礼物(PSLE 2021)” must be written in the first person.

Tip 5: Plan Before You Write

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Before you start writing, craft an outline of your story. This need not be in prose form. It can be simply key words that give you clarity on your story structure. Whilst the stronger ones can wing it without a written plan (they usually have the plan in their heads), everyone else should refer to a plan while writing. The time spent making a written plan should be no more than five minutes, but it goes a long way in enhancing efficiency in your composition writing.

For picture-based compositions, your plan should at least cover the following:

Introduction (开头)
Conclusion (结尾)

For title-based compositions, use the guiding questions to help you plan.

For example, for 一份我最珍惜的礼物 (PSLE 2021), the outline could be:

Introduction （开头）

Describe the present you cherish the most. What is it? Describe its appearance. How is it special?

介绍你最珍惜的礼物（这是什么礼物？外观如何？如何特殊？）

How did you get this present? Who gave it to you?

你怎么得到这份礼物？是谁送的？

Why did you get this present?

为什么会得到这份礼物？

Why do you cherish it so much? What is its significance?

你为什么珍惜这份礼物？它有什么象征意义？

Conclusion （结尾）

Restate how much you cherish this present. Sum up the main points in the body text (e.g. What does it represent? How did it help you grow/change your life?). 再次表明你有多珍惜这份礼物。总结一下以上的要点（如：它代表了什么？如何让你成长/对你的生活有什么积极影响？

Tip 6: Start With a Relevant Introduction

Do not memorise good introductions you have been given and use it word-for-word without thinking. There is no point in including the most beautifully worded description of the weather if the entire story happens indoors and the weather has no influence over the development of the story. Relevance is key.

Likewise, do not try to use a “one-size-fits-all” introduction, such as: “Ring!” The alarm went off…… If you must use a sound, make sure the sound is linked to some event at the story. Else, your introduction will either be excessively long, or appear irrelevant, or have logical gaps as you jumped from the alarm ringing right into the thick of the action.

Whether you start by directly describing the scene/activity (开门见山), by using a flashback, or any other method, what matters most is that your introduction is relevant to the theme.

For flashbacks, note that the ending will need to address the flashback, or bring the readers back to the present (前呼后应). This method will usually add to the word count, so it is not recommended for weaker students who may not have time to complete the essay or check their work.

Tip 7: Flesh Out Your Conclusion

Avoid a situation of having a magnificent start but a skinny end to the story (龙头蛇尾). Kudos to students who take time to craft a killer introduction. However, if the conclusion is weak and abrupt, your readers will end up feeling disappointed.

It is insufficient to simply state how the problem was resolved or what happened at the end. You should also highlight how the characters felt, what lessons the character(s) learnt, what plans they have for the future, and, the most important of them all, highlight the theme. A simple way to address the theme would be to use a relevant proverb, for example:

所谓“天下无难事，只怕有心人”，只要我们勇于挑战自己，世上就没有任何能难倒我们的事。

Tip 8: Revise for Paper 2 and Composition Writing Together

Don’t let your efforts to revise for Paper 2 go to waste! Make sure you master the terms in the textbooks. Make a list of those that are versatile enough to apply to most compositions. For example, transition phrases like “不知不觉 (unknowingly)” and “光阴似箭 (time flies)” can be used in almost any story to describe how time has passed unknowingly or quickly.

Besides mastering terms, make an effort to apply sentence structures and literary devices mentioned in the textbook in your writing. For instance, in Lesson 8 of the Primary 6 Chinese textbook, you can get insights on what similes are and reference the examples in the textbook (6B textbook, p. 23: 美美像一阵风一样冲过来。打针一点儿也不痛，就像蚂蚁轻轻咬了一下。) Even the conjunction questions in Paper 2 can come in handy, if you learn to vary your sentence beginnings by using different connectors.

Tip 9: Keep a Word Bank

Start building a Chinese vocabulary word bank if you do not already have one. Collate the good phrases and idioms used by others. You can start noting down good phrases from the textbook and also from the comprehension passages you have completed. Browse through your classmates’ work and other model compositions and highlight away!

Examples include (bolded):

我准备乘坐巴士去学校时，突然下起倾盆大雨。
老师听到我们说的话后，他怒气冲冲地离开了教室。

For new or unfamiliar phrases, write the entire sentence down for context. Try constructing a similar sentence on your own (get someone who is proficient in Chinese to check this if you can!). Flip through the past year questions and see if you can apply this new phrase to any of the pictures/titles!

Be disciplined and make it a point to compile the phrases regularly. As your word bank grows, you will be empowered with a list of handy phrases which you can then accurately use in your compositions.

When it comes to composition writing, it takes time, practice, and patience to improve. Apply the tips we shared above, and with tenacity and perseverance, you will see the fruits of your labour.

See more related articles and information on Writing Samurai:

9 Tips for PSLE Chinese Oral Exams
9 Exam Smart Tips for PSLE Chinese Paper 2
Top 30 Websites and Apps for Chinese Language Learning

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Chinese Sentence Structure [Complete Guide 2021]

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Sentence structures are important: without grasping them, you won’t have a solid foundation for your foreign language knowledge. Sentence structures vary from language to language. Fortunately, Chinese sentence structure is similar to English. This article will help you get to grips with them.

Simple Sentence Pattern

Chinese sentence structure: sentence pattern

Chinese, like English, is classified as an SVO (subject-verb-object) language, so its basic sentence patterns won’t be too difficult to master. Within the SVO framework, the simplest sentence patterns are as follows:

Subject + Verb
Subject + Verb + Object

wǒ xiǎng nǐ

I miss you.

Subject + Noun

míngtiān léizhènyǔ

A thunderstorm tomorrow.

Subject + Adjective

māmā (hěn) máng

Mom is very busy.

fángzi (bǐjiào) dà

The house is relatively big.

⚠ Note that the Subject + Adjective pattern needs an adverb, such or 很, or 比较.

Take a look at the following chart for more examples.



nǐ chīfàn	wǒ fàngqìle	tā (bǐjiào) piàoliang	jīntiān xīngqíwǔ
You eat.	I gave up.	She is more pretty.	Today is Friday.

wǒ ài nǐ	wǒ zǒule	fángzi (hěn) dà	yòubiān huǒchē zhàn
I love you.	I left.	The house is very big.	The railway station is on the right

tā shuō zhōngwén	nǐmen kàn	māmā (hěn) kāixīn	míngtiān guóqìng jié
She speaks Chinese.	Look!	Mom is very happy.	Tomorrow is National Day.

Chinese Sentence structure: Components

Every sentence should contain at least one subject and one predicate (e.g. SV , SAdj , and SN ), and other components can be added to express more complex meanings. In Chinese, there are six sentence components:

Subject 主语 (zhǔ yǔ): can be a person or a thing.
Predicate 谓语 (wèi yǔ): most of the time the predicate is a verb, but sometimes it can be an adjective, a noun, a noun phrase, or a numeral-measure word
Object 宾语 (bīn yǔ): a noun governed by a verb.
Attributive 定语 (dìng yǔ): modifies a noun, a pronoun or a noun phrase, which should be put before the noun or pronoun .
Adverbial 状语 (zhuàng yǔ): modifies or qualifies an adjective or a verb expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc. , which comes before the adjective or the verb .
Complement 补语 (bǔ yǔ): completes the meaning of the predicate and provides additional information associated with the predicate, such as degree, result, direction, time duration or possibility . The main point in terms of word order is that they occur after the verb .


	我		买			衣服。
	wǒ		mǎi			yīfu
I buy clothes.
	我	正在	买			衣服。
	wǒ	zhèngzài	mǎi			yīfu
I am buying clothes.
	我	正在	买		一件红色(的)	衣服。
	wǒ	zhèngzài	mǎi		yī jiàn hóngsè (de)	yīfu
I am buying a red dress.
	我	已经	买	好	那件	衣服(了)。
	wǒ	yǐjīng	mǎi	hǎo	nà jiàn	yīfu(le)
I have already bought that nice dress.
这件	衣服	已经	洗	干净(了)。
zhè jiàn	yīfu	yǐjīng	xǐ	gānjìng(le)
This dress has been washed.
旁边(的)	教室		传	出来	他(的)	笑声。
pángbiān (de)	jiàoshì		chuán	chūlái	tā (de)	xiào shēng
Her laughter came from the classroom next to her.
有(的)	学生	现在	想(得)	太简单。
yǒu (de)	xuéshēng	xiànzài	xiǎng (de)	tài jiǎndān
Some students think simply now.
	小明	激动(地)	说(了）		好多	话。
	Xiǎomíng	jīdòng (de)	shuō(le)		hǎoduō	huà
Xiaoming said a lot of things excitedly.

⚠ Note that the above six components don’t include function words, such as 了, 着, 过, 的, 地, 得, etc.

Please mark all components of each of the following sentences. Highlight to see the answer.

勤奋的哥哥在中国学过三年中文。

qínfèn dí gēge zài zhōngguó xuéguò sān nián zhōngwén

My diligent brother learned Chinese for three years in China.

⇒ “勤奋”— Attributive; “哥哥”— Subject; “在中国” — Adverbial; “学” — Predicate; “过” and “三年” — Complement; “中文” — Object.

中国的风景非常吸引我。

Zhōngguó de fēngjǐng fēicháng xīyǐn wǒ

The view in China attracts me a lot.

⇒ “中国” — Attributive; “风景” — Subject; “非常” — Adverbial; “吸引” — Predicate; “我” — Object.

tā ná chūlái yī zhāng zhǐ

He took out a piece of paper.

⇒ “他” — Subject; “拿” — Predicate; “出来” — Complement; “一张” — Attributive; “纸” — Object.

我妹妹今年考上大学了。

wǒ mèimei jīnnián kǎo shàng dàxuéle

My sister went to college this year.

⇒ “我” — Attributive; “妹妹” — Subject; “今年” — Adverbial; “考” — Predicate; “上” — Complement; “大学” — Object.

Chinese Word Order

In Chinese, one sentence can have different types of adverbials that express time, place, or manner of action, as well as multiple attributives or complements. How to deal with the word order of the more complicated structure?

# Time : a time word that is always adverbial in Chinese sentence has two positions: at the beginning of the sentence or after the subject. You will never see it appearing at the end of the sentence.

Subject + Time + Predicate + Object


我	洗	衣服。
wǒ	xǐ	yīfu
I wash clothes .
他	打	篮球。
tā	dǎ	lánqiú
He plays basketball .

Time + Subject + Predicate + Object


	妈妈	开	会。
	māma	kāi	huì
Mom will have a meeting .
	小花	上	幼儿园。
	Xiǎohuā	shàng	yòu’éryuán
Xiaohua will go to kindergarten .

# Duration : duration is considered as the time measure complement that should be put after the predicate (verb or verb phrase).

Subject + Time + Predicate + Duration + Object


我	看(了)	电视。
wǒ	kàn(le)	diànshì
I watched TV .
他	打	篮球。
tā	dǎ	lánqiú
He plays basketball .
哥哥	学(了)	中文。
gēge	xué(le)	zhōngwén
My brother studied Chinese .
小花	听(了)	歌。
Xiǎohuā	tīng(le)	gē
Xiaohua listened to music .

# Place : generally, the place word is preceded by “在”, such as “在中国/zài zhōngguó/in China”, “在桌子上/zài zhuōzi shàng/on the table”. It is also the adverbial in a sentence, which should be placed between the subject and the predicate. If there is a time word in the sentence, the place word should be after the time word.

Subject + Time + Place + Predicate + Object



我	看了	比赛。
wǒ	kàn(le)	bǐsài
I watched the game .
他	打	篮球。
tā	dǎ	lánqiú
He plays basketball .
哥哥	学了	中文。
gēge	xué(le)	zhōngwén
My brother learned Chinese .
小花	看	电视
Xiǎohuā	kàn	diànshì
Xiaohua was watching TV

⚠ However, there are some exceptions: place words should come after such verbs as 留/liú/stay, 放/fàng/put, 住/zhù/live, 装/zhuāng/pack, 关/guān/be enclosed, 坐/zuò/sit, 站/zhàn/stand, 躺/tǎng/lie : 妈妈住在加拿大。/ māma zhù zài jiānádà / Mom lives in Canada.

# Manner : it indicates the manner of action. Most of these words or phrases are adverbs , so the placement is optional, but they usually precede the verb.

Subject + Time + Place + Manner + Predicate + Object



我	看(了)	一场比赛。
wǒ	kàn(le)	yī chǎng bǐsài
I watched the game .
他	打	篮球。
tā	dǎ	lánqiú
He plays basketball .
哥哥	学	中文。
gēge	xué	zhōngwén
My brother learned Chinese .
小花	看	电视
Xiǎohuā	kàn	diànshì
Xiaohua was watching TV .

# Instrument : it indicates the instrument of action, which is preceded by “用/yòng/use” and comes before the verb.

Subject + Time + Place + Instrument + Predicate + Object



我	切	菜。
wǒ	qiē	cài
I cut vegetables .
他	洗	衣服。
tā	xǐ	yīfu
He to wash clothes .

# Target: it indicates the aim of action, and is usually put before the verb because of its adverbial function.

Subject + Time + Place + Instrument + Target + Predicate + Object



我	切	菜。
wǒ	qiē	cài
I cut vegetables .
他	洗	衣服。
tā	xǐ	yīfu
He used the washing machine to wash clothes .

# Multiple attributives : sometimes nouns can have multiple attributives. They should be used in the following order:

+ Possessives such as “your,” “her,” or “Annie’s.”

+ Demonstrative pronouns

+ Measure word

+ Any adjectives that you want to use to describe the noun

+ The noun or noun phrase



					裙子
					qúnzi
dresses
					电脑
					diànnǎo
computers

Word order in the question sentence

In Chinese, the word order of a question sentence is much easier if you have already mastered the basic Chinese sentence structure. The main point is to place a question word in the place of the thing you want to ask about and there is nothing that needs to be rearranged.


Who	when (time)	where (place)	how (manner)	how (instrument)	to whom (target)	do	for how long (Time duration)	what
	去年	在中国	耐心(地)			学（了）	三个月	中文	？
你		在中国				学（了）		中文	?
你	去年					学		中文	?
你						学		中文	?
你						学		中文	?
你	去年	在中国				学(了)		中文	?
你	去年	在中国							?

Topic-prominent Language

Unlike English (and similarly to Japanese and Korean), Chinese is a topic-prominent language, which means that sometimes the subject of a sentence is different from its topic.


	when	where	degree		result	duration
			很	欣赏			他。
admire very much.
	已经			吃	过(了)。
have eaten the .
	当时		很	喜欢。
liked very much back then.
		在家		画(了)		三天。
painted for three days at home.

As shown above, the topic precedes the subject and is separated from it with a comma. This sentence pattern is great for emphasizing certain information.

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Traditional Chinese text structures and their influence on the writing in Chinese and English of contemporary mainland Chinese students

1997, Journal of Second Language Writing

Related Papers

In his recent studies on classical Chinese text structures and contemporary Chinese composition textbooks, Andy Kirkpatrick claims that Mainland Chinese students are taught to write Chinese compositions in contemporary" Anglo-American" rhetorical style.

Andy Kirkpatrick

International Journal of English Studies

International Journal of English Studies (IJES)

A widespread assumption in the contrastive rhetoric field is the linearity/circularity dichotomy which suggests that Chinese writing is characterized by indirection. This study examines to what extent Chinese university students’ writing differs from that of American students. A total of 200 expository essays (50 by American university students in English, 50 by Chinese students in Chinese, and 100 by beginning and advanced English learners in English) were analyzed. Results indicate that Chinese students, like their U.S. counterparts, also prefer directness in text and paragraph organization, but generally U.S. students tend to be significantly more direct than Chinese students. An examination of modern Chinese writing manuals found that Chinese rhetoricians also encourage directness in structuring expository essays. These findings point to a need for greater awareness of the similarities between writing in “contrasting” languages.

Zhichang Xu

The authors of Chinese Rhetoric and Writing offer a response to the argument that Chinese students' academic writing in English is influenced by "culturally nuanced rhetorical baggage that is uniquely Chinese and hard to eradicate." Noting that this argument draws from "an essentially monolingual and Anglo-centric view of writing," they point out that the rapid growth in the use of English worldwide calls for "a radical reassessment of what English is in today's world." The result is a book that provides teachers of writing, and in particular those involved in the teaching of English academic writing to Chinese students, an introduction to key stages in the development of Chinese rhetoric, a wide-ranging field with a history of several thousand years. Understanding this important rhetorical tradition provides a strong foundation for assessing and responding to the writing of this growing group of students.

Changing English

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

Michael Fuller

(This is just the preface to the first edition. The second edition will come out soon.)

Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture

Zong-qi Cai

This article opens with a reflection on the extrinsic and intrinsic causes of the neglect of Chinese prose in sinological literary studies, followed by the construction of a patterning-based scheme for codifying Chinese prose forms. An in-depth analysis of eight famous texts, drawn from antiquity through the Qing, reveals how continual innovations in extratextual patterning and textual patterning have given rise to manifold and inherently related prose forms over the millennia. The close reading also sheds light on these prose forms' distinctive artistic features, as well as their symbiotic relationships with the three types of genres (narrative, descriptive, and expository) and with broad sociopolitical and cultural developments. It is hoped that these findings will generate serious interest in prose studies among literary sinologists. Keywords Chinese prose forms, Chinese prose art, parallel prose, ancient-style prose, eight-legged essay In Western-language (sinological) studies of Chinese literature, an extraordinary lacuna has eluded the attention of most scholars: the absence of any comprehensive anthology of artistic, nonfiction prose (hereafter just prose), even though prose is an independent literary genre privileged (with poetry) over fiction and drama. Compounding this neglect, all general anthologies of Chinese literature in translation have to date relegated prose to the margins. Monograph studies of Chinese prose art are practically nonexistent. The rich heritage of Chinese prose art has been reduced to mere samples of famous prose works in unguided translations. Thus, as a first step toward restoring prose to its rightful place in sinological literary studies, we have created a comprehensive guided anthology,

Asian Englishes

Ma Qing , Qing Ma

There has been limited research on Chinese English literature (CEL) in the domain of contact literatures. This article reports on a study of a representative Chinese English (CE) literary work well received by a worldwide audience – Qiu Xiaolong’s Enigma of China. With the aim of exploring CE by analysing the unique ‘Chineseness’ in this CE literary work from the paradigms of corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics, the language innovations and sociocultural meanings embedded in different levels of the work are examined. Further, by adopting a corpus-based approach and conducting keyword analysis, a number of language innovations were identified. These included the use of innovative hybrid compounds at the lexis level, the use of hybrid Chinese sentences of parallelism at the syntax level, and the use of discourses on political ideology and employment of ancient Chinese poems at the level of discourse pragmatics. It is argued that these language innovations are manifestations of a transfer of traditional Chinese culture norms and political ideology. The question of how to integrate CE corpus into courses on English creative writing in China is also discussed.

This study looks into the changing voice of Chinese Post--80s' students in English academic writing. Data were collected qualitatively through interviews with four Chinese Post--80s overseas graduate students and through an examination of their English essays with a focus on discursive features. Findings indicate that Chinese Post--80s' voice is changing as a result of their use of linear logical patterns, reduced influence of the ideology of collectivism, and dismissal of the traditional eight--legged essay. The paper offers pedagogical implications for academic writing programs both in China and in the West. Further research on other discursive features employed in Chinese students' English writing is suggested.

This study looks into the changing voice of Chinese Post-‐80s’ students in English academic writing. Data were collected qualitatively through interviews with four Chinese Post-‐80s overseas graduate students and through an examination of their English essays with a focus on discursive features. Findings indicate that Chinese Post-‐ 80s’ voice is changing as a result of their use of linear logical patterns, reduced influence of the ideology of collectivism, and dismissal of the traditional eight-‐legged essay. The paper offers pedagogical implications for academic writing programs both in China and in the West. Further research on other discursive features employed in Chinese students’ English writing is suggested.

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QUEST JOURNALS

Useful Chinese Essay Phrases

July 8, 2020

By Ellen

Nowadays, many international students have decided to study abroad, and China has become a highly popular destination. In universities, essay writing is a basic skill and the “Academic Writing” lectures are always attracting many students to attend.

Here we have summarized some “all-purpose” phrases and sentences which hopefully you would find useful.

Chinese Essay Phrases Used in Abstracts

The abstract should explain the purpose, method, results, and conclusion of your research, also highlighting the new ideas that you proposed; and do remember to keep your language concise while writing. The purpose of the abstract is to conclude and summarize the main contents of your essay so that the reader could have a brief understanding without having to read the entire paper. Chinese abstracts are usually around 200 characters.

Research Background, Significance, and Current Situation

Extremely useful/badly needed/affecting people’s lives (1-2 sentences)

对…有贡献	contribute to
主要原因	major cause
至关重要	crucial/essential
重要影响	profound impact
在…中起中心/重要作用	play central/important roles in
X已经被深入研究了其在…中的作用	X has been intensively studied for its role in…
X因其Z性质/特性引起了Y的极大兴趣	X aroused great interest of Y due to its Z nature/characteristics

Proposing the Object of Study

Played a very important role (1-2 sentences)

本文提出了一种针对…来…的方法。	This paper proposes a method/approach focusing on…to…
我们提出了一种…，它使我们能够……	We presented a new…, which enables us to…
本文介绍几种针对…进行改进的…模型。	This paper introduces several improved…models focused on…
X是一种非常有吸引力的方式以/来……	X is a highly attractive method to/for…
但其在…中的潜在作用却鲜为人知。	But little is known about their potential role in…

Purpose of the Study or Study Aim

The role of A in B, perhaps remains to be seen (1 sentence)

本文的意图是……	The intention/purpose of this paper is to…
本文的目的是……	The purpose/goal/objective/object/aim of this paper is to…
本文/研究/试验的主要目标是……	The chief aim of this paper/research (study)/experiment is to…
我们的研究重点是……	Our research focuses on…
该实验旨在回答/解决…的问题	The experiment aims to answer the question/solve the problem of…

Research Methods and Results

Through what means/technique/experiment we achieved what result (several sentences)

为了实现这一目标，我们研究了…的作用。	To achieve this aim, we have examined the role of…
通过这一研究，我们发现/证明/观察到……	Through this study, we found/demonstrated/observed that…
因此，我们的研究使用了X技术/方法/策略来……	Therefore, our study used X technology/method/strategy to…
X技术/方法/策略被用于……检测/识别	X technology/method/strategy was used to detect/identify…
X的效果/作用由Y进行确定/分析/检验	The effects/roles of X were determined/analyzed/examined by Y
然而由于X以及Y, 因此这一问题仍然有待深入研究…	However, due to X and Y, this issue still requires to be further studied…

Research Results

The phenomenon of A in B, shows what the function of B is, theoretical and applied value (1-2 sentences)

本文的发现/结果表明……	The findings/results of this paper indicate that…
本研究证明了X的…能力	This research demonstrates the ability of X to…
本文证明，X能够有效地准确地……	This paper demonstrates that X could effectively and accurately...
X有潜力来/能够……	X has the potential to...

via Pixabay

Chinese Essay Phrases: Main Body

The main body includes the introduction and the main text. The introduction section could use similar phrases that we have just listed, focusing on research objects and purposes. The main text should include research methods, research results, and discussion. Writers should keep their sentences to the point and avoid rambling, also avoid using too much subjective perspective discourses, which shouldn’t be used as arguments as well.

Theoretical Basis, Approaches, and Methods

这是一项基于…的研究。	This is a study that is based on…
我们在研究中采用的方法被称为……	The method used in our study is known as …
我们采用的技术被称为……	The technique that we applied is known as …
我们所述的问题涉及对…的研究。	The problem we have outlined deals with the study of …
我们所做的实验旨在获取关于…的结果。	The experiment we conducted is aimed at obtaining the results of…
实验内容包括……	The experiments included…
我们开展了大量实验以研究……	We conducted many experiments to study…
我们进行了针对X的实验，以测量/衡量……	We conducted experiments focused on X to measure…
我们进行了一系列实验以测试…的有效性。	We ran a series of experiments to test the validity of…
这个例子体现了……	This example illustrates…
这个现象说明了……	This phenomenon shows that…
这个活动表明了……	This activity makes it clear that…

To Express Opinions

就我/个人而言	As far as I’m concerned
不可否认的是	It is undeniable that
一种完全不同的论点/观点/看法是	A completely different argument/perspective/view is
这是一个有争议性的问题	This is a controversial issue

To Emphasis

有充分的理由支持	be supported by sound reasons
发挥着日益重要的作用	play an increasingly important role in
对……有利/不利的影响	have a positive/negative influence on...
考虑到诸多因素	take many factors into consideration
可靠的信息来源	a reliable source of information

Transitional Expressions

比方说/比如/例如	For example/For instance
由此可见	This shows/Thus it can be seen
尽管如此	In spite of this/even so
但是/不过/然而	However/but
另外/此外/除此之外	In addition to/besides
不管怎样/无论如何	At all events/in any case/anyway
最重要的是	Above all/most important of all

Chinese Essay Phrases: Conclusion

At the ending section of the paper, the writer should provide an objective summary, list out the future research objectives and directions, and perhaps look into the future. Keep optimistic even if your experiment results were negative.

本文阐述了关于…的……	This paper illustrates the…regarding…
我们得到了关于…的详细信息/有价值的数据。	We have obtained detailed information/valuable data regarding…
我们所做的研究揭示/验证了……	The research that we have done reveals/confirms that…
我们所做的实验表明/证明……	The experiments that we have done showed/proved that…
通过这项研究/实验，作者认识到……	Through this study/experiment, the author came to realize that…
这项研究/实验得出的结论是……	This study/experiment comes to the conclusion that…

Research Impact and Value

我们的发现/研究结果有助于揭示/解释……	Our findings/research results help to reveal/explain…
这项研究使我们发现……	This study leads us to the discovery of…
这项研究能够解决由X引起的Y问题。	This study can solve the Y problem caused by X.
本文的理论/实际价值在于……	The theoretical/practical value of this paper lies in…

There you go. We hope this article helps you write amazing essays. Best of luck!

Ellen is a language specialist from China. She grew up in the US and received a master’s degree from the St Andrews University of UK. The multicultural experiences attributes to her understanding of the differences and similarities between the English and Chinese language. She currently works as an editor specialized in Language learning books.

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Tag: Essays

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Tags Essays

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Tags Essays , Science

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Essay:《帮忙》 Helping Out

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Post date April 29, 2020
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Post date April 27, 2020
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Post date May 28, 2014
15 Comments on Essay: Desk-chairs of the Future

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52 Comments on Essay: Catching Frogs

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Post date June 11, 2013
24 Comments on Essay: My First Telephone Call

Though the conclusion of this essay might fall a bit flat for all of us who are very used to having a telephone, this is an interesting glimpse into what a monumental rite of passage it is for children in rural areas to have one or use one for the first time.

Essay: Papa, Please Don’t Smoke!

Post date June 3, 2013
17 Comments on Essay: Papa, Please Don’t Smoke!

In this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as “Intermediate”, beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below.

Guest Post: The exam of life

Post date May 6, 2013
26 Comments on Guest Post: The exam of life

Well well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we’ll be reading Rebecca Chua’s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read.

My Gluttonous Elder Brother

Post date January 8, 2013
10 Comments on My Gluttonous Elder Brother

I set out to do a beginner post since I haven’t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally […]

News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations

Post date January 2, 2013
8 Comments on News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations

In the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays (which I did).

Our Family’s Jump Rope Contest

Post date October 2, 2012
17 Comments on Our Family’s Jump Rope Contest

A single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition.

After I Got My New Years’ Money

Post date September 10, 2012
20 Comments on After I Got My New Years’ Money

For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money – it’s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay […]

Essay: A Foolish Affair from my Childhood

Post date August 29, 2012
20 Comments on Essay: A Foolish Affair from my Childhood

This essay is about a kid who takes his father’s advice a little too literally (with amusing results).

Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me

Post date May 3, 2012
18 Comments on Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me

And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I’ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it’s never clarified) homework.

Constructed scripts
Multilingual Pages

Structure of Chinese

Classical chinese (文言).

Until the early 20th century Classical Chinese (文言 wényán), was the main form of writing in China. There many regional variations in the forms of characters, and they also changed over time, but they were standardised during the Qin Dynasty (秦朝 - 221–206 BC). Classical Chinese was also used in Korea, Japan and Vietnam before they adapted Chinese characters to write their own languages and developed their own scripts.

In Classical Chinese most words were monosyllabic and written with a single character. However, during the 1920s a new form of written Chinese modelled on spoken Mandarin was developed with many words with two of more syllables. Most Chinese publications since then have been written in this form, which is known as 白话 [白話] (báihuà), though some Classical Chinese constructions, especially proverbs, are still used.

Size and layout of characters

Every character has to fit into the same amount of space - an imaginary square - no matter how complex it is. This system was established a Prime Minister Li Si (李斯 - c. 280-208BC) during the Qin Dynasty, who is also credited with creating the Small Seal Script (小篆) There are no spaces between characters and the characters which make up multi-syllable words are not grouped together, so when reading Chinese you not only have to work out what the characters mean and how to pronounce them, but also which characters belong together.

How many characters?

The Chinese writing system is an open-ended one, meaning that there is no upper limit to the number of characters. The largest Chinese dictionaries include about 56,000 characters, but most of them are archaic, obscure or rare variant forms. Some scholars suggest up there are up to 90,000 characters, many of which are not listed in dictionaries and were created only for one ruler, person or purpose.

Knowledge of about 3,000 characters enables you to read about 99% of the characters used in Chinese newspapers and magazines. To read Chinese literature, technical writings or Classical Chinese though, you need to be familiar with at least 6,000 characters.

Knowledge of characters alone is not sufficient in order to read Chinese however - you also need to know what they mean in context and when combined together with other characters. For example, the character 快 (kuài) on its own can mean fast, quick, sharp, straightforward, happy or soon. In combination with other characters it can mean others things:

快来 (kuài lái) = come quickly
我很快就来 (Wǒ hěnkuài jiù lái) = I won't be long
他很快就到 (Tā hěnkuài jiù dào) = He is arriving soon
快乐 [快樂] (kuàilè) = happy
快活 (kuàihuo) = delighted
快餐 (kuàicān) = fast food
快速 (kuàisù) = quick
快件 (kuàijiàn) = express delivery / mail

Source: LINE Dict Chinese-English

Chinese characters are written with the following twelve basic strokes:

A character may consist of between 1 and 64 stokes. The strokes are always written in the same direction and there is a set order to write the strokes of each character. In dictionaries, characters are ordered partly by the number of stokes they contain.

The 39-stroke character (3 x thunder) means "the sound of thunder" and is always written doubled (靐靐). The 48-stroke character (3 dragons) means "the appearance of a dragon walking".

Hear a recording of these characters

There are approximately 1,700 possible syllables in Mandarin, if you include the tones - only 400 or so if you ignore the tones. This compares with some 8,000 in English. As a result, there are many homophones - syllables which sound the same but mean different things. These are distinguished in written Chinese by using different characters for each one.

Not all the following characters are pronounced with the same tone, so to Chinese ears they sound different, but to Western ears they probably all sound the same. These syllables can be distinguished in speech from the context and because most of them usually appear in combination with other syllables.

Hear a recording of these characters by 夏绘 (Xinghua)

If you look closely, you might notice that some of the characters above have parts in common. One element that appears in many of them is 旁 (páng), which means beside, one side, other, side or self, but is used here as a phonetic component to indicate that these characters sound something like páng.

Some of the above characters are rarely used, and many usually appear in combination with other characters, and this helps to distinguish them. For example, 'to help' is 幫助 (bāngzhù), and stick is 棒子 (bàngzi).

More examples of homophones

It is even possible to write a text in Chinese using only one sound, pronounced with different tones, of course. This is exactly what Chinese linguist, Zhao Yuanren, did when he wrote the "Story of Shi Eating the Lions" using nothing but the sound 'shi'. The story makes sense in written form, but is impossible to understand when read aloud, unless you have memorised it.

You can see and hear the story on: http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/stonelion.html

Compound words

Many Chinese verbs and adjectives consist of one character (syllable) but nouns often consist of two, three or more characters (syllables):

火车 [火車] huǒchē - "fire vehicle" - train
火山 huǒshān - "fire mountain" - volcano
风水 [風水] - fēngshuǐ - "wind water" - feng shui (rules in Chinese philosophy that govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to patterns of yin and yang and the flow of energy)
香水 xiāngshuǐ - "fragrant water" - perfume
山水 shānshuǐ - "mountain water" - landscape
山猫 [山貓] - shānmāo - "mountain cat" - leopard
猫头鹰 [貓頭鷹] - māotóuyīng - "cat head eagle" - owl
大学 [大學] - dàxué - "great learning" - university
飞机 [飛機] - fēijī - "flying machine" - aeroplane
收音机 [收音機] shōuyīnjī - "receive sound machine" - radio
精神分裂症 jīngshénfēnlièzhèng - "mind split disease" - schizophrenia
电脑 [電腦] diànnǎo - "electric brain" - computer
电话 [電話] diànhuà - "electric speech" - telephone
电车 [電車] diànchē - "electric vehicle" - trolleybus
电影 [電影] diànyǐng - "electric shadow" - film/movie
电路 [電路] diànlù - "electric road" - electric circuit
电视 [電視] diànshì - "electric look" - TV
电池 [電池] diànchí - "electric pool" - battery

Recordings by 夏绘, and Samuel Chong of Abacus Chinese Translation Services

More examples

Direction of writing

Traditionally Chinese was written from right to left in vertical columns. The first publication in Chinese using horizontal (left to right) text was Robert Morrison's Dictionary of the Chinese language , published in 1815-1823 in Macau. The increasing use of words in Western languages, especially English, in Chinese texts from the early 20th century made horizontal texts more popular.

Since 1949 horizontal writing has become the standard in the PRC, and all PRC newspapers changed from vertical to horizontal text in 1956, though some headlines are written vertically, as are inscriptions of signs on most state organisations.

The horizontal writing of Chinese is normal in Singapore, and it has been gradually adopted in Hong Kong, Macao and in overseas Chinese communities since the 1990s.

Vertical text remains popular in Taiwan however, though horizontal text is used as well. In Taiwan newspapers and magazines with vertical text, some of the headlines and titles are written horizontally right to left across the top of the main text.

Use of Chinese characters for other languages

Chinese characters are used to write Modern Standard Chinese, which is based largely on spoken Mandarin. Other varities of Chinese, especially Cantonese, are sometimes written with Chinese characters, or with a combination of characters and words in the Latin alphabet. Some of the characters used are archaic or invented specifically for these languages.

Chinese characters have been used to write Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese . They are still used in written Japanese, in combination with hiragana and katakana , and to a much lesser in written Korean, while Vietnamese is now written with the Latin alphabet.

[ contents ]

Sample text in Chinese

Hànyǔ pīnyīn transliteration.

Rénrén shēng ér zìyóu, zài zūnyán hé quánlì shàng yīlǜ píngděng. Tāmen fùyǒu lǐxìng hé liángxīn, bìng yīng yǐ xiōngdì guānxì de jīngshén hùxiāng duìdài.

Hear a recording of this text

Recommended books

Books about Chinese characters and calligraphy Mandarin, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Taiwanese and Cantonese language learning materials

Chinese pages

Written Chinese : Oracle Bone Script , Simplified characters , Bopomofo , Types of characters , Structure of written Chinese , Evolution of characters , How the Chinese script works , Xiao'erjing , General Chinese

Spoken Chinese : Mandarin , Dungan , Wu , Shanghainese , Wenzhounese , Yue , Cantonese , Weitou , Min , Jian'ou , Taiwanese , Teochew , Fuzhounese , Puxian , Hakka , Xiang , Gan , How many people speak Chinese?

Semanto-phonetic writing systems

Akkadian Cuneiform , Ancient Egyptian (Demotic) , Ancient Egyptian (Hieratic) , Ancient Egyptian (Hieroglyphs) , Chinese , Chữ-nôm , Cuneiform , Japanese , Jurchen , Khitan , Linear B , Luwian , Mayan , Naxi , Sawndip (Old Zhuang) , Sui , Sumerian Cuneiform , Tangut (Hsihsia)

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 15.03.23

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Use this tool to add tone marks to pinyin or to convert tone number (e.g. hao3) to tone marks.

Although you can use the red buttons to add tone marks, we highly recommend you use the number method (e.g. hao3) for speed and placement of the accent above the correct vowel. [Hint: Type "v" for "ü"] Note: You do not need to use this tool to enter pinyin in this dictionary.

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A Simple Guide to Chinese Sentences: Structure

A Chinese sentence may be either a simple sentence or a complex sentence, made of more than 2 simple sentences. To begin with, let’s talk about simple sentences and the components that make them:

Simple Sentence Pattern

A simple sentence will usually include at least two parts, the subject, and predicate. A common sentence structure is in three parts: subject + predicate (verb) + object.

Unlike English, most of the time in a simple Chinese sentence, the predicate is a verb, although sometimes it can be an adjective. For this guide, we will refer to the predicate as a verb, unless stated otherwise.

This is known as the trunk of a simple sentence.

Trunk Examples

(我) 的妈妈 [已经] 去 <过> (你) 的学校了。 My mother has been to your school.

The trunk of this sentence is:

妈妈 + 去 + 学校 subject + verb + object

Simple sentence components

Although subject + verb + object is the main part of a sentence, simple Chinese sentences can be made up of the following 6 components:

Subject 主语 (zhǔ yǔ): a person or thing that is being discussed, described, or dealt with. Predicate 谓语 (wèi yǔ): part of a sentence containing a verb that relates to the subject. Object 宾语 (bīn yǔ): a noun governed by a verb. Attributive 定语 (dìng yǔ): modifies an adjective or noun. Adverb 状语 (zhuàng yǔ): modifies or qualifies an adjective, or verb expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc Complement 补语 (bǔ yǔ): complete the meaning of the predicate (verb).

Simple Sentence Examples

Subject + verb + object.

The subject, predicate (verb) and object are the major components of every sentence.

我爱他 (wǒ ài tā) I love him

Subject + Adverb + Verb + Object

我只爱他 (wǒ zhǐ ài tā) I only love him

Subject + Adverb + Verb + Attributive + Object

我只爱我记忆中的他 (wǒ zhǐ ài wǒ jì yì zhòng dì tā) I only love my memories of him.

Subject + Adverb + Verb + Complement + Object

我以前爱过他 (wǒ yǐ qián ài guò tā) I loved him before.

Sentence Order

Let’s look at a simple Chinese sentence in more detail and break down each component and how to use them.

The following sentence shows all 6 components in the correct sentence order:

(定语) 主语 [状语] 谓语 <补语> (定语) 宾语。

(Attrib) Subject [Adv] Verb (Attrib) Object.

Chamcen told me that When she was at school, the teachers taught the students to separate each component using mathematical equations to help them remember each part of the sentence.

Here are the symbols they used:

Subject (主语) with ‘ = ‘ Predicate/Verb (谓语) with ‘ – ‘ Object (宾语) with ‘ ~ ‘ Attributive (定语) with ‘ ( ) ‘ Adverb (状语) with ‘ [ ] ‘ Complement (补语) with ‘ < > ‘

Here is an example of a sentence using the symbols to separate each component:

Note that auxiliary words 助词 (zhù cí) such as “的, 地, 得, 着, 了, and 过” are not marked as sentence components.

新鲜的水果不断地从国外送进农贸市场。 (xīn xiān de shuǐ guǒ bù duàn de cóng guó wài sòng jìn nóng mào shì chǎng.) The fresh fruit has been sent to the farm products market continuously.

Here’s a breakdown of each component in this sentence:

Subject ‘ = ‘ is sb/sth stated. In the eg, it is 水果 (fruit). Predicate ‘ – ‘ is action. In this eg, the verb is 送 (sent). Object ‘ ~ ‘ is sb/sth that the action affects. In the eg, the object is 市场 (market).

We will now look at attributives, adverbs, and complements in more detail:

Attributives in Chinese Sentences

An attributive ‘ ( ) ‘ is an additional component of the subject (主语) and object (宾语) to modify. In this eg, the attributives are 新鲜 (Fresh) and 农贸 (farm trader).

The position of such attributives should be before the subject, in this case, 水果 (fruit), and the object, which is 市场 (market).

Between the attributive and the subject and object, is the ‘的’ particle. 的 is the mark of an attributive, although the ‘的’ particle is not used for some attributives.

Examples of attributives with the 的 particle

（美好）的时光总是过得很快。 ( (měi hǎo) de shí guāng zǒng shì guò de hěn kuài.) Good times always go by quickly. (Time flies when you’re having fun)

（桌子上）的花开了。 ( (zhuō zi shàng) de huā kāi le) The flowers on the table blossomed.

An example of attributives (without 的)

他喜欢上了（那个）（红头发）女孩。 (tā xǐ huan shàng le (nèi gè) (hóng tóu fa) nǚ hái.) He is falling in love with that red-haired girl.

Adverbs in Chinese Sentences

Adverbs ‘ [ ] ‘ are additional components of a predicate (clause with a verb), used to modify the verb.

The position of the adverb should be before the verb . Generally, the adverb is between the subject and the verb, but sometimes it can be placed before the subject.

Between the adverb and verb, there is sometimes a 地 (de) particle. 地 modifies the adverb to become ‘ verb + ly ‘.

Adverb Examples

他[快速]地打开了盒子。 (tā kuài sù de dǎ kāi le hé zi.) He opened the box quickly.

他[总是]写信给我。 (tā zǒng shì xiě xìn gěi wǒ.) He always wrote letters to me.

Complements in Chinese Sentences

A complement ‘ < > ‘ is another component of a verb and is mostly used for explanations.

The complement should be after a verb or an object.

Complement Examples

学生们绕着操场跑了<五圈>。 (xué sheng men rào zhe cāo chǎng pǎo le wǔ quān.) The students ran 5 laps around the playground.

我已经吃<完>晚饭了。 (wǒ yǐ jīng chī wán wǎn fàn le）I have already finished my supper.

鸟儿自由地飞翔<在蓝天中>。 (niǎor zì yóu fēi xiáng zài lán tiān zhōng.) The bird flew freely in the blue sky.

Test Your Understand of Chinese Sentence Structures

Use = – ~ () [] <> to mark the sentence components:

所有同学都做完了数学作业。

Find the trunk of the sentence:

这位美丽的女士是我们医院著名的牙科医生。

This beautiful lady is a famous dentist in our hospital.

Post the answers to the exercises in the comments below and we’ll give you the answers shortly!

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Numerical analysis of hydrodynamic characteristics of two-dimensional submerged structure in irregular waves.

1. Introduction

2. basic method, 2.1. wave–sft–mooring interaction numerical model, 2.2. damping coefficient experiments, 3. calculation and discussions, 3.1. parameter introduction, 3.2. motion response analysis of sft with different section forms, 3.3. mooring analysis of sft with different section forms, 4. conclusions, author contributions, data availability statement, conflicts of interest, appendix a.1. dynamic force of mooring line.

Click here to enlarge figure

Appendix A.2. Coupled Dynamic Analysis

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	Elliptical Section			Twin-Circular Section			Round Rectangular Section
Direction	Surge	Heave	Pitch	Surge	Heave	Pitch	Surge	Heave	Pitch
Coefficient	0.207	0.321	1.861	0.231	0.425	2.009	0.153	0.192	1.581

Item	Value
Space of tension leg (m)	100
Length (m)	90 (TL1 & TL4)/102.6 (TL2 & TL3)
Angle (°)	51 (TL1 & TL4)/32 (TL2 & TL3)
Outer diameter (mm)	816
Wall thickness (mm)	40
Weight in the air (kg/m)	769
Weight in the water (kg/m)	665
Tensile stiffness (N)	1.950 × 10
Bending stiffness(N·m )	8.120 × 10
Inertia force coefficient (kg/m)	1330
Drag force coefficient (kg/m)	501
Pretension (N)	7.596 × 10 (TL1 & TL4)/1.102 × 10 (TL2 & TL3)

	EL	TC	RR
Number of SFT surface grids	96	128	184
Number of water surface grids	400	400	400

	Surge Motion		Heave Motion		Pitch Motion
	Max (+)/Max (−)	Sig. (+)/Sig. (−)	Max (+)/Max (−)	Sig. (+)/Sig. (−)	Max (+)/Max (−)	Sig. (+)/Sig. (−)
TC	1.015	1.009	0.769	0.902	0.994	0.981
EL	1.083	1.029	0.811	0.914	0.982	0.974
RR	1.030	1.028	0.788	0.914	0.976	0.973

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Jin, R.; Zhang, Y.; Zhou, Z.; He, M. Numerical Analysis of Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Two-Dimensional Submerged Structure in Irregular Waves. Water 2024 , 16 , 1693. https://doi.org/10.3390/w16121693

Jin R, Zhang Y, Zhou Z, He M. Numerical Analysis of Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Two-Dimensional Submerged Structure in Irregular Waves. Water . 2024; 16(12):1693. https://doi.org/10.3390/w16121693

Jin, Ruijia, Yu Zhang, Zhibo Zhou, and Ming He. 2024. "Numerical Analysis of Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Two-Dimensional Submerged Structure in Irregular Waves" Water 16, no. 12: 1693. https://doi.org/10.3390/w16121693

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Improve Chinese Essay Writing- A Complete How to Guide

Before You Learn to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

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Keep a Diary Regularly to Note Down Chinese Words,Chinese Letters

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Do Essay Writing Exercise on a Variety of Subjects

Takeaway to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

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