Learning Chinese: introduction to Chinese grammar

Chinese grammar is quite simple: no gender (masculine/feminine), no number (singular/plural), no conjugation — words are all invariable. This is why word order is very important and, as we will see later, follows a logical order (though one that is often the reverse of ours). Context plays an important role in knowing, for example, whether we are talking about one thing or several.

The simple sentence in Mandarin Chinese

In Mandarin Chinese, the simple sentence is built on the pattern:

The adjectival verb

But here's the first surprise: 好 "to be well, to be good" is what we call an adjectival verb, that is, the adjective "good" already carries within it the verb "to be". So you must not add an auxiliary verb to adjectives in Chinese.
The peculiarity of these adjectival verbs (to be well, to be tired, to be happy, etc.) is that in the affirmative they imply a comparison. Thus: 我好， Wǒ hǎo, is not a complete sentence and would translate as "I am well, whereas ..." ("you are not well", for example, to finish the sentence).

To remove the comparison and make a complete sentence, you must add the adverb 很 hěn.

So the sentence "I am well" is written: 我很好 Wǒ hěn hǎo.

So does this sentence translate as "I am well." or as "I am very well"? In writing, the difference is impossible to tell, so there is ambiguity. In speech, however, if the 很 hěn is not stressed, it means "I am well."
Listen:   

If the 很 hěn is stressed, then it means "I am very well."
Listen:   

No conjugation

In Chinese, there is no conjugation:
我很好。 Wǒ hěn hǎo. I am well.
你很好。 Nǐ hěn hǎo. You are well.
他很好。 Tā hěn hǎo. He is well.

The interrogative sentence

In Mandarin Chinese, the yes/no question (total interrogation) is built very simply:

Example: 你好吗？ Nǐ hǎo ma ? Are you well?

Note:

  1. since this is not an affirmative sentence, the adjectival verb (好 hǎo "to be well") does not imply a comparison. So there is no need to add 很 hěn. If you do add it, it then means: "Are you very well?" 你很好吗？ Nǐ hěn hǎo ma ?
  2. in Chinese questions, there is no subject-verb inversion. The sentence structure stays the same: "subject + verb + object".

The adverb 也

也 yě is an adverb meaning "also", "too". Like all adverbs in Chinese, it goes before the verb, or before one or more other adverbs that come before a verb. This is a general rule of Chinese grammar.

Example: 我也很好。 I am (very) well too.

As you can see in the example, "me too" has no verb in English, but works with a verb in Chinese. In Chinese, you absolutely must repeat the verb. 我也。 is impossible. Why? Because in Chinese, an adverb always works with a verb.

Finally, if several adverbs follow one another, 也 always comes first:
你很不客气，他也很不客气。 You are not at all (very not) polite, and neither is he.

A small note 也不 translates as "neither / not either" in English.