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Chinese Grammar-A1:Confused about when to use or skip是Shi？

To be or not to be?

It's really confusing when you use “”是shi“” in Chinese.

This article will help you get it clearly

The verb to be is not used in Chinese the same way as it is in English. In Chinese, 是 (shì) is for connecting nouns, and is generally not used with adjectives.

Basic Usage:

Structure

The structure for connecting nouns with 是 (shì) is:

Noun 1 + 是 + Noun 2

This is equivalent to "Noun 1 is Noun 2" in English.
Chinese does not conjugate verbs. That is, the form of the verb is the same no matter who is doing it. In this case, it is always 是 (shì) and never changes. As you can see, it's easy to form simple sentences expressing to be in Chinese. The only tricky thing about 是 (shì) in Chinese is that it's used to link two nouns, so you can't rely too much on translating directly from English when it comes to expressing the English verb "to be" in Chinese.

Examples

我是学生。Wǒ shì xuésheng.I am a student.
你是 John 吗？Nǐ shì John ma?Are you John?
他们是有钱人。Tāmen shì yǒuqián rén.They are rich people.
你是老板吗？Nǐ shì lǎobǎn ma?Are you the boss?
这是我男朋友。Zhè shì wǒ nánpéngyou.This is my boyfriend.
那是你们公司吗？Nà shì nǐmen gōngsī ma?Is that your company?
你妈妈是老师吗？Nǐ māma shì lǎoshī ma?Is your mother a teacher?
这都是你的钱。Zhè dōu shì nǐ de qián.This is all your money.
那是什么菜？Nà shì shénme cài?What food is that?
我也是他的朋友。Wǒ yě shì tā de péngyou.I am also his friend.

Other Uses of 是 (shì)

Be careful and take note. As you can see above, 是 (shì) is only used to link two nouns. It cannot be used to link a noun and an adjective. This is a very common mistake for people just beginning to learn Chinese. For that kind of sentence, you'll want to use a different structure with the linking word 很 (hěn).

In Chinese it is also possible to use the phrase "是不是 (shì bu shì)?" It can be used at the beginning or end of a sentence. It's meaning is quite similar to the English expressions "right" and "aren't you?" This is very useful if you want to express concern for a person, or if you want to mix up your sentence structure a bit and make it more interesting. The 是不是 (shì bu shì) pattern is also part of affirmative-negative questions.

Another way to use 是 (shì) is to use it as a tag question. You can add “是吗?” (shì ma?) to the end of a question to mean the English equivalent of: "is it" or "yeah?" Using this in a question usually allows the speaker to get a confirmation answer.

Examples