What you will be able to do
- Test any candidate sentence against the three conditions: definite object, disposal verb, verb with a tail.
- Recognise the patterns where 把 is compulsory: 放在, 送给, 翻译成.
- Place 没, 别 and modal verbs in front of 把, never after it.
- Give everyday instructions with 把: 把门关上, 把这个吃完.
Chinese words in this text can be activated to show a dictionary gloss.
in practice
The frame
Subject + + Object + Verb + something else
- 。 Wǒ bǎ mén guānshang le. — I shut the door.
- 。 Qǐng bǎ shū fàng zài zhuōzi shang.
- 。 Tā bǎ wǒ de shǒujī ná zǒu le.
The object has left its normal place after the verb and moved in front of it. What the sentence is now about is not the action in the abstract but what happened to that particular thing.
Three conditions, all of which must hold
1. The object is definite. Both speakers know which one. means the book, the one in the room, the one just mentioned. A brand-new indefinite object cannot take : is right, is not.
2. The verb disposes of something. The action has to do something to the object — move it, change it, finish it, break it. Verbs that merely relate the subject to the object are excluded: , , , , , and the verbs of perception and . is not a sentence.
3. The verb cannot stand bare. Something must follow it, because the whole point is the outcome. Any of these will serve:
- a resultative complement: , , ,
- a directional complement: , ,
- , , or plus its own object: , ,
- alone, if the result is obvious:
- a reduplicated verb or : ,
is ungrammatical for this reason, and so is .
Where is not optional
Some verbs already need something after them — a place, a recipient, a resulting form. There is then no room left behind the verb for the object, so the object must move in front, and becomes compulsory.
- 。 Qǐng bǎ shū fàng zài zhuōzi shang. — is not available.
- 。 Wǒ bǎ zhè běn shū sòng gěi tā le.
- 。 Qǐng bǎ zhè jù huà fānyì chéng Zhōngwén.
These three — , , — are worth memorising as fixed shapes. They are the clearest proof that is grammar and not decoration.
Negation, modals and adverbs
Everything of that kind stands in front of .
- 。 Wǒ méi bǎ zuòyè jiāo gěi lǎoshī. — Not .
- 。 Bié bǎ chuānghu guānshang.
- 。 Nǐ yīnggāi bǎ yào chī le.
- 。 Wǒ yǐjīng bǎ xíngli sòng dào lóuxià le.
Note that the negative of a completed sentence uses and drops the , exactly as any other completed action does.
Four sentences learners write and native speakers do not
- ✗ 。 — learning is not disposal. Say .
- ✗ 。 — seeing is not disposal. Say .
- ✗ 。 — the verb has no tail. Say .
- ✗ 。 — indefinite object. Say .
What it is actually for
Once the conditions are met, is the ordinary way to give an instruction about a specific thing, and it is everywhere in spoken Chinese: 。 。 。 。 。 A learner who avoids does not sound cautious; they sound as though they cannot ask anyone to do anything.
How to work through it
Three conditions, one testread
Read the conditions, then run each of these past all three and say which one it fails: 我把书看。 我把一本书买了。 我把他知道了。 我把门关上了。 Only the last survives.
Verbs that want a 把vocabulary
Every one of these does something to its object, which is why they turn up in 把 sentences constantly. Learn each with the tail it usually wears: 放在, 关上, 拿走, 交给, 送给, 打开, 翻译成, 忘了.
The three compulsory shapessentence
Say six sentences, two on each pattern: 把…放在…, 把…送给…, 把…翻译成…. Then try to say the same thing without 把 and watch each attempt fail — that failure is the lesson.
Judge the 把 sentencequiz
Fourteen items. Eight judge a 把 sentence and name the condition it breaks; four place 没, 别 or a modal correctly; two rewrite an ordinary sentence as a 把 sentence and back again.
Ask for six things to be donespeaking
Give six instructions out loud, all with 把: shut the door, turn off the phone, put the book on the table, take the luggage downstairs, finish the medicine, write your name here. Then repeat all six as prohibitions with 别.