Grammar of Unit 4

Asking "how much/many" with 多 and 几

In Chinese, there are two main ways to ask "how much/how many", depending on the context and the estimated quantity of the answer.

1. 多 duō before an adjectival verb

The adjectival verb 大 dà can be translated as "to be big" in the sense of size and age.
中国很大。 China is big.
大人 Adults.

Note: "to be old" is said 老 lǎo.

In Chinese, the word "to be numerous" 多 duō can also be translated as "how?" when it comes before an adjectival verb:
中国人很多。 Chinese people are numerous.
你多大？ How old are you? (literally: "You are how old?")

This use of the verb 多 makes it possible to form questions that are hard to translate into English, but which do exist in Chinese:
她多美？ "How pretty is she?"
他多好？ "How kind is he?"

The answer to the question "How old are you?" 你多大？ is formed without a verb:

Example: "I am 17 years old": 我十七岁。 Wǒ shíqī suì.

岁 suì is used only for years of age.

2. 几 jǐ

When addressing a child, you can also say 你几岁？ Nǐ jǐ suì ?
In fact, the question word "how many?" 几 jǐ is used when the answer is estimated to be less than 10 (roughly). For an answer greater than ten, there is another question word formed with 多 duō. But we will look at this in more detail in another lesson.

Building numbers up to 99

You learned the numbers from 0 to 10 in the vocabulary. It is fairly easy apart from writing zero: 零 líng but it can also be written 〇 which is simpler, but less traditional. In HSK level tests, zero is written 零, so you must master it in this form.

Chinese people also use (and even often) Indo-Arabic numerals. But you need to know the Chinese numerals, which are also commonly used.

After 10, the sequence is fairly logical:
11 十一
12 十二
13 十三
...
19 十九
Then: 20 二十
21 二十一
22 二十二
etc.

It is very easy and there is nothing special, except that you must not add a "one" from 10 to 19: 一十， 一十一, etc.

The alternative-interrogative question

We have seen the complete question, formed by placing 吗 ma at the end of a sentence, and the incomplete question, formed with a question word (谁？ shéi ?, 什么？ shénme ?).

There is another structure for the complete question, which consists of doubling the verb by alternating it with the negation:

For example, the question with 吗 ma :
他是老师吗？ Is he a teacher?
can perfectly well be formed as:
他是不是老师？ Is he a teacher?

This structure is called the alternative-interrogative question.

What is the difference between the question with 吗 ma and the alternative-interrogative question?

    There are two differences, a small one and a bigger one:
  • the small difference is that the alternative-interrogative form is used a little more in speech, and the question with 吗 ma is used more in writing.
  • the more important difference is that you cannot use an adverb (很，也) with the alternative-interrogative form.

So the following sentence is correct:
她也姓李吗？ Tā yě xìng Lǐ ma ? Is she also called Li?
but the following sentence is wrong:
她也姓不姓李？ Tā yě xìng bú xìng Lǐ ?

Last remark: in an alternative-interrogative question, if a verb is disyllabic (made of two syllables) like 高兴 gāoxìng "to be happy" or 客气 kèqi "to be polite", only the first syllable of the first verb is used (usually, as it is not mandatory):
她高不高兴？ Tā gāo bù gāoxìng ? Is she happy?
but you can perfectly well say:
她高兴不高兴？ Tā gāoxìng bù gāoxìng ? Is she happy?

Examples taken from the dialogue:
你是不是中学老师？ Nǐ shì bú shì zhōngxué lǎoshī ? Are you a secondary school teacher?

The adjective before the noun

In Chinese, the adjective (or the determiner) is placed always before the noun it qualifies. It is the same logic as the particle 的 (determiner + 的 + determined), but the latter implies a comparison, a "setting apart" of a group.

Examples taken from the dialogue:
中学老师 zhōngxué lǎoshī : secondary school teacher (literally: "secondary-school teacher")
大学老师 dàxué lǎoshī : university teacher

With the 的 :
中学的老师 zhōngxué de lǎoshī : secondary school teacher (when you want to distinguish it from other levels).

Here we find the reverse structure of English: the determiner (中学 or 大学is placed before the determined (老师).