Grammar 语法
Chinese verbs do not conjugate, nouns do not take plurals, and nothing has a gender. What is left is word order and a set of small words that do specific jobs. Every point here in plain English, with the pattern and a full page of examples. Search it, in English or Chinese.
是, shì, links a subject to a noun: I am a teacher, this is tea. It is not used with adjectives, because a Chinese adjective already contains the idea of to be. 忙, máng, means busy and also is busy. A bare adjective sounds like the start of a comparison, so a plain description takes 很, hěn, in front, which in that position means little more than is.
The word order mirrors the meaning. With 在 the thing comes first and the place after: the bank is over there. With 有 the place comes first and the thing after: over there, there is a bank. 有 is also the ordinary verb for to have.
Adjectives never change shape in Chinese, so there is no taller or tallest to learn. A comparison is A 比 B adjective, and any amount goes after the adjective. There is no direct opposite of 比: for less, turn the sentence round or use 没有, which reads as does not have as much. 一样 covers sameness and pairs with 跟.
Number, measure word, noun, in that order, and the same after 这, this, and 那, that. English does it with some nouns: a cup of tea, a sheet of paper. Chinese does it with all of them. 个, gè, is the general measure word and is understood almost everywhere, so use it whenever you do not know the right one.
Whatever describes a noun comes before it, joined by 的, de: my book, the teacher's name, the red car. With close relationships and very common pairings the 的 is usually dropped, so my mum is 我妈妈, wǒ māma, and a Chinese person is 中国人.
Nothing in the sentence moves and nothing changes form. 吗, ma, is said with a light neutral tone. The answer echoes the verb or adjective from the question, as it is or with 不 in front, because Chinese has no single word for yes.
English moves its question words to the front: you are going where becomes where are you going. Chinese leaves them in place. To ask a question, say the answer sentence and swap the unknown part for a question word. These questions never take 吗.
不, bù, negates what is generally true or what you intend: I do not drink coffee, I am not going tomorrow. 没, méi, negates what did not happen, and it is the only way to say not have: 没有, méiyǒu. 不有 does not exist.
Chinese has no tenses, so nothing in a verb tells you when something happened. 了 says only that the action is complete, which is why it appears in sentences about the future as readily as the past. At the very end of a sentence it does a second job: it marks a change, saying that something has become true which was not true before.
过 is said with a neutral tone in this job, guo rather than guò, which distinguishes it from the ordinary verb meaning to pass. Unlike 了, it survives the negative: 没去过 keeps the 过, because you are still talking about experience, only the absence of it. The split with 了 lines up with the English difference between went and have been.
会 is a skill you learned: a language, driving, swimming. 能 is whether the circumstances allow it right now, which is why it is also the polite way to ask someone for something. 可以 is permission, whether the rules or the person you are asking allow it. 能 and 可以 overlap in everyday speech, but when you are asking to be allowed to do something, 可以 is the safest.
English puts an adverb after the verb, speaks well. Chinese uses 得 to attach the comment, and what follows it is a plain adjective, so 很 comes back. If the verb has an object, it is usually said first and the verb repeated: 他中文说得很好. This is the second of the three characters said de, and it is not interchangeable with 的.
English is flexible and usually puts the time last: I am going tomorrow. Chinese puts it before the verb, either straight after the subject or at the very start. The usual order is subject, time, place, verb, and you will hear it so often that it soon sounds natural.