Page:The Chinese language and how to learn it.djvu/88

70 70 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE

IMPERATIVE.

Let the dog be beaten.

就呌人打狗

then call man beat dog.

呌狗挨打

cause dog suffer beat.

INFINITIVE.

To be beaten.

挨打 受打  被打 suffer beat, suffer beat, suffer beat.

To have been beaten.

挨了打了 被打了  受打了

suffer ed beat ed, suffer beat ed, suffer beat ed.

To be about to be beaten.

要挨打了 要受打

want suffer beat ed, want suffer beat.

PARTICIPLE.

Beaten.

打了 挨打了  受打了  被打了

beat ed, suffer beat ed, suffer beat ed, suffer beat

One or other of the above forms, if correctly applied, will suffice to reproduce any mood or tense of the verb that is likely to present itself. If the student will keep these in mind, and will take note of the few hints that follow, he need not trouble himself for some time to come with the intricacies of Chinese grammar.

Note that the pronoun " it " is very seldom used. We could say, }E 4tfe ^ 2fc. "bring it here," but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred |p 3$$ would, be sufficient.

The conjunction "and" is not often required. In the sentence " you and I are invited," the Chinese would commonly say, ffc ^ %$ t T> "you I all invited."