Chinese · Beginner

Chinese Sentence Patterns for Beginners: Stop Memorising Phrases, Start Building Them

Most beginner phrasebooks hand you hundreds of fixed Chinese sentences and hope some of them match the moment you are in. They rarely do. A much faster route is to learn the handful of sentence patterns those phrases are built from, then swap in your own words. This lesson gives you ten of the most useful Mandarin patterns and shows how they carry you through travel, restaurants, shopping, hotels and emergencies.

Why patterns beat phrase lists

A memorised phrase works in exactly one situation. Excuse me, where is the train station? helps you find the train station and nothing else. Learn the frame underneath it instead, Excuse me, where is ___?, and the same sentence finds you the toilet, the metro, the hotel and the pharmacy.

Mandarin is especially well suited to this approach. Verbs do not change their endings for person or tense, nouns do not change for plural, and question words simply sit where the answer would go. Once a pattern is in place, you really can swap one word and have a new, correct sentence.

The video below introduces the pattern-based approach used in the course. Watch it first, then use the rest of this page as your written reference.

Ten patterns that do most of the work

Each pattern below is followed by two example sentences in characters, pinyin and English. Read the pinyin aloud and notice how little changes between the two examples: usually a single word.

Asking where something is

请问 (qǐngwèn) literally means “may I ask” and makes any question to a stranger polite. Notice that 在哪儿 (zài nǎr, “is where”) comes after the place, not before it.

Saying what you would like, and asking for it

我想 is softer and describes an intention. 我要 is direct and is exactly what people use when ordering at a counter. Neither is rude in a shop or restaurant.

Prices and availability

有没有 asks “have or not have”, which is why it needs no extra question word at the end.

Permission, preferences and restrictions

The difference between the last two matters at a restaurant. 我不吃 says you don’t eat something; 我不能吃 says you can’t, which signals an allergy or a medical reason and is taken more seriously.

When something is wrong

Tones carry meaning in every one of these patterns, so if they still feel unreliable, our guide to the four Mandarin tones is worth working through alongside this lesson.

One set of patterns, eight real situations

The point of a pattern is that it travels. Here are the same frames applied to eight situations you will actually meet, plus a few fixed expressions that every learner needs.

Pinyin for the fixed expressions: xièxie, bú kèqi, duìbuqǐ, méi guānxi, fúwùyuán, mǎidān, kōngtiáo huài le, fāshāo le, jiùmìng, qiánbāo diū le, zài shuō yí biàn. The last one, 可以再说一遍吗？, may be the most valuable sentence in this whole lesson, because it keeps a conversation going when you miss something.

Numbers, times and prices

Prices and times come up in almost every situation above, and they are where beginners trip most often. Three things make them much easier.

Common mistakes

Beyond the textbook: Chinese internet slang

The course also covers 30 slang terms people use in online chat, an area textbooks almost never touch. Here are a few widely used ones, so you recognise them when you see them in messages and comments.

Practice

Say each answer out loud before checking it. Build it from the patterns rather than trying to remember it.

Answer 4 is the test of whether the pattern has clicked: you met 大一点的 earlier and only had to swap 大 for 小. To keep growing the words you can drop into these frames, our Chinese vocabulary resources are organised by topic.

Frequently asked questions

Should a beginner learn Chinese phrases or grammar first?

Sentence patterns sit between the two, which is why they work so well at the start. Each one is a small piece of grammar you can use straight away, without first studying the grammar as a system.

Is this Mandarin or Cantonese?

Everything on this page is Standard Mandarin, the official language of mainland China and Taiwan and the variety taught in almost all Chinese courses.

Do I need to read Chinese characters to use these patterns?

No. You can speak every sentence here from the pinyin alone. Characters are included so you start recognising common ones, such as 我, 不 and 吗, on signs and menus.

How many patterns do I need for daily life?

Far fewer than most learners expect. The ten on this page already cover asking for directions, ordering, shopping, checking into a hotel and handling a problem. Each new word you learn multiplies what they can do.