Grammar Reference
Chinese Grammar — Free Online Mandarin Lessons
Mandarin Chinese grammar is fundamentally different from European languages — and for most learners, it is simpler. There is no verb conjugation: the word 吃 (chī, eat) looks identical whether the subject is I, you, he, or we. There are no tenses built into the verb — time is expressed through adverbs (昨天 yesterday, 明天 tomorrow) and aspect markers (了, 过, 着). There are no articles, no grammatical gender, and no plural endings.
What Chinese grammar does rely on is word order and context. Mandarin is a topic-prominent, Subject-Verb-Object language: information flows in a consistent sequence, and the position of a word in a sentence determines its grammatical role. Time and place expressions almost always appear before the verb — a pattern that is rigid, predictable, and once learned, deeply logical.
The lessons below cover the foundational building blocks: from the smallest unit of meaning (morphemes) through to complete sentence patterns, verb aspects, and compound word formation. Each lesson uses real examples with Chinese characters, pinyin romanisation, and English translations so you can see every rule in action.
Grammar Lessons
Six core topics — start with Basic Grammar if you are new, or jump to any topic below.
The core characteristics of Mandarin: no conjugation, no tenses, no articles — and why word order is everything.
Read lesson →The smallest meaningful units in Chinese. Understand morphemes and you can decode thousands of new words.
Read lesson →How Chinese words are built from morphemes — compounding, affixation, and the major word classes.
Read lesson →A deep dive into the six types of compound structures that generate most of the Chinese vocabulary.
Read lesson →Basic sentence patterns, sentence-final particles, and the 把/被/比 structures every learner must know.
Read lesson →Chinese verbs never change form — but aspect markers 了/着/过/在 express time and state with precision.
Read lesson →