{"id":5356,"date":"2011-11-17T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T15:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=5356"},"modified":"2011-11-17T09:54:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T14:54:46","slug":"chinese-possessive-grammar-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/chinese-possessive-grammar-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Using the “\u7684” Modifier for Possessive Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0\"\"<\/a>As your Chinese improves, adding complexity to your sentences can be tricky without the proper grammar tools. Especially when it comes to descriptions of particular nouns. Fortunately for you, showing ownership or possession in Chinese is quite easy to do grammatically using the modifier \u201c\u7684”.<\/p>\n

The Chinese particle “de”<\/strong>\u00a0(\u7684) is most commonly used as a possessive modifier. It can be used between two nouns to indicate a relationship of possessor \/ possession. It\u00a0is roughly equivalent to the contraction “X’s” in English (his\/hers, yours, mine, my ours), where X is the subject. I liken it to the Spanish “de” (del or de la) in which it refers to “of the”, but remember the modifier precede the “de” not follows it.<\/p>\n

The most basic example of which uses “mine” with a possessive \u7684:<\/p>\n

English: My friend.<\/p>\n

Chinese: \u6211\u7684<\/strong>\u670b\u53cb.<\/p>\n

Pinyin:\u00a0W\u01d2 de p\u00e9ngyou.<\/p>\n

This works for nouns in general, including pronouns, people, places and objects. Simply insert the \u201c\u7684” between two nouns or subjects and first subject modifies <\/em>the second. “\u7684” can be used in varying complexities of sentences with multiple subjects, nouns and even adjectives:<\/p>\n