Lesson 7: Basic Verbs and Daily Activities

Vocabulary: Common Verbs and Nouns

Chinese	Pinyin	English
吃	chī	to eat
喝	hē	to drink
睡觉	shuì jiào	to sleep
起床	qǐ chuáng	to get up
去	qù	to go
回	huí	to return, go back
做	zuò	to do
工作	gōng zuò	to work / job
学习	xué xí	to study
看	kàn	to watch / to look
听	tīng	to listen
说	shuō	to speak / to say
饭	fàn	food, meal, rice
中文	zhōng wén	Chinese (language)
电影	diàn yǐng	movie
音乐	yīn yuè	music
学校	xué xiào	school
时候	shí hou	(a point in) time, moment

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Basic Sentence Pattern: Subject + Verb + Object (SVO)

Chinese sentences often follow the Subject + Verb + Object (SVO) structure.

Examples:

• 我吃饭。
  (Wǒ chī fàn.) → I eat (a meal).
• 他学习中文。
  (Tā xuéxí Zhōngwén.) → He studies Chinese.
• 我们看电影。
  (Wǒ men kàn diàn yǐng.) → We watch a movie.
• 她听音乐。
  (Tā tīng yīn yuè.) → She listens to music.

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Adding Time Expressions

You can add a time expression before the verb to describe when something happens.

Structure:

[Subject] + [Time] + [Verb] + [Object]

Examples:

• 我早上七点起床。
  (Wǒ zǎo shang qī diǎn qǐ chuáng.) → I get up at 7 in the morning.
• 她晚上十点睡觉。
  (Tā wǎn shàng shí diǎn shuì jiào.) → She sleeps at 10 in the evening.
• 我们中午十二点吃饭。
  (Wǒ men zhōng wǔ shí èr diǎn chī fàn.) → We eat lunch at 12 noon.

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Talking About Where You Go

To say you are going somewhere, use the structure:

[Subject] + 去 (qù) + [Place]

You can add a time expression too:

[Subject] + [Time] + 去 (qù) + [Place]

Examples:

• 我去学校。
  (Wǒ qù xué xiào.) → I go to school.
• 她早上八点去工作。
  (Tā zǎo shang bā diǎn qù gōng zuò.) → She goes to work at 8 a.m.
• 你什么时候回家？
  (Nǐ shén me shí hou huí jiā?) → When do you go home?

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Notes

• 吃饭 (chī fàn) is often used without specifying what kind of meal. It means “to have a meal” in general.
• 去 (qù) means “to go,” and 回 (huí) means “to return” or “to go back.”
• You can always place time expressions before the verb.
• Verbs do not change form based on subject or tense in Chinese. Instead, tense is usually indicated with time words or context.

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Exercises