Editing Standard Chinese (section)

== Grammar ==
{{main|Chinese grammar}}

Chinese is a strongly [[analytic language]], having almost no [[inflectional morpheme]]s, and relying on word order and [[grammatical particle|particle]]s to express relationships between the parts of a sentence.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=159}}
Nouns are not marked for [[grammatical case|case]] and rarely marked for [[grammatical number|number]].{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=11–12}}
Verbs are not marked for [[agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] or [[grammatical tense]], but [[grammatical aspect|aspect]] is marked using post-verbal particles.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=12–13}}

The basic word order is [[subject–verb–object]] (SVO), as in English.{{sfnp|Lin|1981|p=19}}
Nouns are generally preceded by any modifiers ([[adjective]]s, [[possessive]]s and [[relative clause]]s), and verbs also generally follow any modifiers ([[adverb]]s, [[auxiliary verb]]s and prepositional phrases).{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=24–26}}

{{fs interlinear|lang1=zh|lang2=zh-Latn-pinyin|indent=3
|他 为/為 他的 朋友 做了 这个/這個 工作。
|Tā wèi tā-de péngyǒu zuò-le zhè-ge gōngzuò.
|He for he-GEN friend do-PERF this-CL job
|'He did this job for his friends.'{{sfnp|Lin|1981|p=169}}
}}

The predicate can be an intransitive verb, a transitive verb followed by a direct object, a [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] (linking verb) {{transliteration|zh|shì}} ({{lang|zh|是}}) followed by a noun phrase, etc.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|p=141}}

In predicative use, Chinese adjectives function as [[stative verb]]s, forming complete predicates in their own right without a copula.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=141–143}} For example,
{{fs interlinear|lang1=zh|lang2=zh-Latn-pinyin|indent=3
|我 不 累。
|Wǒ bú lèi.
|I not tired
|'I am not tired.'
}}

Chinese additionally differs from English in that it forms another kind of sentence by [[Topic-prominent language|stating a topic and following it by a comment]].{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=15–16}} To do this in English, speakers generally flag the topic of a sentence by prefacing it with "as for". For example:
{{fs interlinear|lang1=zh|lang2=zh-Latn-pinyin|indent=3
|妈妈/媽媽 给/給 我们/我們 的 钱/錢, 我 已经/已經 买了/買了 糖果。
|Māma gěi wǒmen de qián, wǒ yǐjīng mǎi-le tángguǒ(r)
|Mom give us REL money I already buy-PERF candy
|'As for the money that Mom gave us, I have already bought candy with it.'
}}

The time when something happens can be given by an explicit term such as "yesterday", by relative terms such as "formerly", etc.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|pp=320–320}}

As in many east Asian languages, [[Chinese classifier|classifier]]s or measure words are required when using [[numeral (linguistics)|numeral]]s, [[demonstrative]]s and similar quantifiers.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|p=104}}
There are many different classifiers in the language, and each noun generally has a particular classifier associated with it.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|p=105}}
{{fs interlinear|lang1=zh|lang2=zh-Latn-pinyin|indent=3
|一顶 帽子, 三本 书/書, 那支 笔/筆
|yī-dǐng màozi, sān-běn shū, nèi-zhī bǐ
|one-top hat three-volume book that-branch pen
|'a hat, three books, that pen'
}}

The general classifier ''ge'' ({{lang|zh-Hans|个}}/{{lang|zh-Hant|個}}) is gradually replacing specific classifiers.{{sfnp|Li|Thompson|1981|p=112}}

In [[word formation]], the language allows for [[Compound (linguistics)|compounds]] and for [[reduplication]].