Sentence with 是 (Shì)

是 (shì) is a kind of ‘be’ in Mandarin, like in English. The following are the three patterns of making sentences with 是, affirmative, negative and interrogative.

The affirmative form: Subject+是+Noun

Examples:

1.我汉语老师。

shì Hànyǔ lǎoshī.

I am a Mandarin teacher.

2.你学生。

shì xuéshēng.

You are a student.

3.她医生。

shì yīshēng.

She is a doctor.

4.他们留学生。

Tāmen shì liúxuéshēng.

They are foreign students.

5.我们印度尼西亚人。

Wǒmen shì Yìndùníxīyǎrén.

We are Indonesian.

The Negative Form: Subject+不+是+Noun

不 (bù) means no, not. You only need to add 不 (bù) after the subject to make a negative sentence with 是.

Examples:

1.我不是汉语老师。

bù shì Hànyǔ lǎoshī.

I am not a Mandarin teacher.

2..你不是学生。

bù shì xuéshēng.

You are not a student.

3.她不是医生。

bù shì yīshēng.

She is not a doctor.

4.他们不是留学生。

Tāmen bù shì liúxuéshēng.

They are not foreign students.

5.我们不是印度尼西亚人。

Wǒmen bù shì Yìndùníxīyǎrén.

We are not Indonesian.

Interrogative Sentence: Subject+是+Noun+吗?

Actually, making the interrogative sentence is very easy, from the affirmative form, you only need to add an interrogative particle 吗 (ma) and a question mark at the end of the sentence, then it becomes a yes/no question sentence.

Examples:

1.你是汉语老师?

Nǐ shì Hànyǔ lǎoshī ma?

Are you a Mandarin teacher?

2.你是学生?

Nǐ shì xuéshēng ma?

Are you a student?

3.她是医生?

Tā shì yīshēng ma?

Is she a doctor?

4.他们是留学生?

Tāmen shì liúxuéshēng ma?

Are they foreign students.

5.你们是印度尼西亚?

Nǐmen shì Yìndùníxīyǎrén ma?

Are you Indonesian?

Filed under: Mandarin Chinese

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