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First, thank you to everyone for taking the time to read this question. I am curious whether knowledgeable native speakers could assist me with the following grammar questions:

I am aware of the following rules that apply to Mandarin Chinese Grammar. I believe the sentence types below apply to both English and Mandarin Chinese languages:

NB - These English sentence types are samples pulled from the English Grammar Revolution website on sentence structure. They are not meant to be translated but to provide context so that my questions below are understood as they relate to grammar constructions.

Simple Sentence - A sentence having one independent clause: i.e. I drink tea. (我喝茶).

Compound Sentence - A sentence having at least two independent clauses (joined by either a coordinating conjunction [并列连词] or a semi-colon): i.e. Because he is Chinese so he really likes to eat Chinese food. (my sample - 因为他是中国人所以他很喜欢吃中国菜)

NB - Coordinating conjunctions glue words, phrases, or clauses together.

Complex Sentence - A sentence containing a subordinate clause (a group of words that have subject and verb but does not express a complete thought) and an independent clause.

i.e. I washed the dishes after I ate breakfast. (this is just a sample English complex sentence, not a translation request)

Q1: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese complex sentence here?

Compound-Complex Sentence - A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause.

i.e. I would have purchased the cheese that you like, but it was too expensive. (this is just a sample English Compound-Complex sentence, not a translation request)

Q2: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese compound-complex sentence here?

Q3: Have I missed any major Mandarin Chinese sentence types? I do understand that there are many other phrases (conjunctions that I could have displayed) but I am interested in determining the broader category of sentences available in Mandarin.

For example, the following conjunctions can be used to create more complex sentences. Please feel free to share an example or two using some of these in your answers.

不但。。。而且, 不过, 除了。。。以外, 但是, 跟, 还是, 和, 或者, 可是, 那, 虽然, 所以, 要是, 因为

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  • This question appears reasonable to me, per the help center... "Questions about the Chinese language: This includes, grammar, pronunciation, syntax, etc." If there is any issue please leave a comment letting me know how the question might be better rather than any anonymous down vote. I want to make sure my questions are a good fit for the site and feedback is welcome.
    – Tommie C.
    Commented Jul 5, 2014 at 20:32
  • Is your question asking for examples of Chinese sentences of various types (complex, compound-complex)? Or translations of the English sentence examples ("i.e. I washed..., I would have...")? Either way, I suggest you remove those copied contents since they seem irrelevant to your question but instead causes confusion.
    – Semaphore
    Commented Jul 5, 2014 at 20:36
  • @Semaphore Thanks for the constructive feedback. I hope the edits sufficiently clarify the question.
    – Tommie C.
    Commented Jul 5, 2014 at 21:09
  • 中国饭 should be 中国菜
    – Mou某
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 8:19
  • “不点。。。而且”:do you mean “不但。。。而且”? Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 16:30

1 Answer 1

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UPDATE with answers:

Q0: example of a sample compound sentence

o. 她跳舞, 我歌唱.

Q1: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese complex sentence here?

a. 那是**我遇见她的**房子. (adjectival clause)
b. 我知道**答案是什么**. (noun clause)

Q2: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese compound-complex sentence here?

x. 她跳舞, 我知道**_她跳的_是什么舞**.

(this is partly using o and b)

Q3: Have I missed any major Mandarin Chinese sentence types?

No, I think the three types (simple, compound, complex) are the major ones. Again, compound-complex / complex-compound is just built on compound and complex.

(note: I am not able to make the characters bold or italic in the above sentences)


I will start with your Q3:

I think simple, compound, and complex are the three types. You can count compound-complex / complex-compound as a fourth, but it's really building on compound and complex.

I am inclined to believe that compound sentence and (some of) complex sentence (*) in English tend to be the same thing in Mandarin.

(*) Adverbial_clause

Compare this example:

I ate breakfast before I washed the dishes. (A)

to this one:

I ate breakfast, and I washed the dishes. (B)

The distinction between before (adverb) and and (conjunction) is not so big in Mandarin.


The noun clause and adjectival clause are a different story though.

For noun clause (and an answer to your Q1), if we consider this as complex:

I know who said that.

then we have this complex Mandarin sentence:

我知道是谁说的.

(Note that the addition of and the omission of that, which changes the sentence structure quite a bit. Due to that, I don't know if the Chinese sentence should be counted as complex.)

Similarly, when you think of adjectival clause:

That is the house where I met her.

can be translated to:

那是我遇见她的房子.

Probably that is what makes you think that

the sentence types below apply to both English and Mandarin Chinese languages

As a side note, I think the classification of simple, compound and complex is more or less based on English, like this one.

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  • please see the answers in the update
    – XoXo
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 11:26

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