How to Use Ba in Chinese Correctly: All Usages + Practice Tips

Once you start pushing toward intermediate Chinese, you’ll discover that there’s more beyond Chinese SVO statements. The one construction you’ll probably hear the most is the Chinese ba ( 把 ) sentence.

In this post, I’ll walk you through what you need to know about how to use ba in Chinese.

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How to Use “Ba” in Chinese

In Chinese grammar, 把 (bǎ) is used when you want your sentence to focus on the result or effect of an action. It has no equivalent in English grammar and completely changes the order of the sentence.

把 sentences are often used in situations where you could say, “The subject took the object and did something to it.” When you use 把, you have to remember to put your object before the verb.

Take this sentence for example:

她把饺子吃掉了。
(tā bǎ jiǎo zi chī diào le.)
She ate up the dumplings.

This follows the basic order of a 把 sentence:

Subject (她) + 把 + Object (饺子) + Verb (吃掉了)

There are a lot of sentences in Chinese that sound more natural if you use 把, but you can usually get by without it. That said, Chinese has at least one common verb where you just can’t use normal English word order: 放  (fàng) meaning “put.”

Here’s an example:

我把书放在桌子上。
(wǒ bǎ shū fàng zài zhuō zi shàng.)
I put the book on the table.

Use 把 to Emphasize What Happened to an Object

Unlike SVO statements which answer “What did the subject do?”, 把 sentences answer the following questions:

• “What did the subject do to the object?”
• “What happened to the object?”

And going back to our earlier example, “She ate up the dumplings” works well to answer both questions.

In other words, you should only use 把 when the object has undergone some change or has been strongly affected by the action.

Chinese textbooks and grammar books will sometimes refer to this as “affectedness” or “disposal.”

This is why our example sentence uses 吃掉了 instead of simply 吃了, as 吃掉了 implies a greater effect on the object.

In most 把 sentences:

1. The action is complete. You can see the result of the verb’s action. 

2. The effect is complete. The entire object has experienced the effect. 

In the case of our dumpling example, the dumplings have undergone a change (from not being eaten to all of them eaten up).

There are certain verbs that lend themselves particularly well to the Chinese 把 construction, such as:

Chinese	Pinyin	English
放	fàng	To put
卖	mài	To sell
变成	biàn chéng	To turn into
翻成	fān chéng	To translate

Here are some sentence examples:

我把我的电脑卖了。
(wǒ bǎ wǒ de diàn nǎo mài le.)
I sold my computer.

他把水变成酒。
(tā bǎ shuǐ biàn chéng jiǔ.)
He turned the water into wine.

Another component of a 把 sentence is that you need to indicate how the verb was carried out, or at least clearly show the action is complete.

Some examples that show completion are the complements 好 (hǎo) and 完 (wán), as in:

我们把作业做好了。
(wǒmen bǎ zuò yè zuò hǎo le.)
We finished the homework.

他把苹果吃完了。
(tā bǎ píng guǒ chī wán le.)
He ate the apple.

Verbs followed by a directional complement also tend to work well with 把 sentences.

One example:

她把桃子摘下来了。
(tā bǎ táo zi zhāi xià lái le.)
She picked the peach.

Notice that the direction won’t always translate into English.

On the other hand, verbs that describe events like thinking, feeling or perceiving, such as 知道 (zhī dào) — know, 喜欢 (xǐ huān) — like, and 看 (kàn) — look, are almost never used with 把 because the object remains unaffected. It would be strange to say, “She took the dumplings and liked them.”

Use 把 When the Object Has Already Been Defined

Because of the special meaning of a 把 sentence, only certain kinds of objects can be used in them. In most 把 sentences, both the speaker and the listener know the object being talked about.

This is another way of saying that the object needs to be “definite.” Think about whether you could use the word “the” with the object. If you can’t, 把 isn’t going to work.

Suppose you wanted to tell your coworker what you ate for lunch, for example.

In this situation, you can tell your coworker:

我吃饺子了。
(wǒ chī le jiǎo zi.)
I ate dumplings.

But if your coworkers already know which dumplings you’re referring to (for example, you already had a prior discussion about the soup dumplings you made last night and brought to work), then you can say:

我把饺子吃了。
(wǒ bǎ jiǎo zi chī le.)
I ate the dumplings.

How to Negate 把 Sentences

The most important note for negating these sentences is that the negation must come before 把.

This is because, again, the purpose of 把 sentences is to explain what happened to an object. Putting the negation word after 把 would mean that nothing happened to the object—it just doesn’t work.

To form the negative of a 把 construction, you’ll often see 没有 (méi yǒu) or its shortened form 没, which are used to negate something that happened in the past:

我没有把书还给他。
(wǒ méi yǒu bǎ shū huán gěi tā.)
I didn’t give the book back to him.

你没把你的房间打扫干净。
(nǐ méi bǎ nǐ de fáng jiān dǎ sǎo gān jìng.)
You didn’t clean your room.

For present and future timeframes, you can use either 不要  (bù yào) or 别  (bié) to negate the sentence in the manner of a command:

不要把钱借给他。
(bù yào bǎ qián jiè gěi tā.)
Don’t lend him money.

你别把我的房间弄乱了！
(nǐ bié bǎ wǒ de fáng jiān nòng luàn le!)
Don’t you mess up my room!

How to Use 把 with Two Objects

It is possible, depending on your verb, that a 把 sentence will have both a direct object and an indirect object. The latter option is typically introduced by 给  (gěi) — to, for.

Common verbs that have two objects include:

Chinese	Pinyin	English
卖	mài	To sell
送	sòng	To deliver, give
拿	ná	To take
递	dì	To hand over
借	jiè	To borrow, lend
还	huán	To give back, return
介绍	jiè shào	To introduce

Take this sentence as an example:

她把房子卖给新婚夫妇了。
(tā bǎ fáng zi mài gěi xīn hūn fū fù le.)
She sold the house to the newlyweds.

That example follows the formula for using 把 with two objects:

Subject (她) + 把 + Direct Object (房子) + Verb (卖) + 给 + Indirect Object (新婚夫妇)

Here are more examples, with the two objects in bold:

他把那个礼物送给了他的女朋友。
(tā bǎ nà ge lǐ wù sòng gěi le tā de nǚ péng yǒu.)
He gave that gift to his girlfriend.

我要把你介绍给汉语老师。
(wǒ yào bǎ nǐ jiè shào gěi hàn yǔ lǎo shī.)
I’m going to introduce you to the Chinese teacher.

How to Ask Questions Using 把

You can use any of the three typical Chinese question formations with 把.

First, you can use a question particle, like this:

你把作业写了吗？
(nǐ bǎ zuò yè xiě le ma?)
Have you done your homework?

You can also use a question word (like “who” or “when”):

她把我的手机放在哪里了？
(tā bǎ wǒ de shǒu jī fàng zài nǎ lǐ le?)
Where did she put my phone?

Or you can use the positive and negative verb form, as in 有没有 (yǒu méi yǒu) or 要不要 (yào bù yào), and place it in front of 把:

你要不要把饺子吃完？
(nǐ yào bú yào bǎ jiǎo zi chī wán?)
Are you going to finish the dumplings?

Notice that in each of these questions, the basic 把 structure is unaffected and does not affect the question structure either. Simply put the question particle, word or words where they would normally go in the sentence.

How to Practice Using “Ba” in Chinese

Here are some practical ideas you can try to start using 把 sentences in your conversations:

Walk yourself through your daily routine

As you get ready in the morning, there are all sorts of things you do to objects.

Try talking your way through your routine in Chinese. And if you don’t live alone, consider keeping the conversation in your head!

我把脸洗干净了。
(wǒ bǎ liǎn xǐ gān jìng.)
I washed my face clean.

我把鸡蛋煎好了。
(wǒ bǎ jī dàn jiān hǎo le.)
I finished frying the eggs.

我把钥匙放在口袋里。
(wǒ bǎ yào shi fàng zài kǒu dài lǐ.)
I put my keys in my pocket.

Practice with a language partner

把 sentences also work nicely with imperatives or commands. It follows the same basic formula as above, just without a subject.

把 + Object + Verb

Have your language partner boss you around for a while, while you get up and carry out the actions.

把灯打开。
(bǎ dēng dǎ kāi.)
Turn on the light.

把笔放在椅子上。
(bǎ bǐ fàng zài yǐ zi shàng.)
Put your pen on the chair.

把碗擦好。
(bǎ wǎn cā hǎo.)
Wipe the dishes clean.

Another thing you should be doing alongside practicing with your language partner is consuming authentic Chinese content so you can see how native speakers use 把 in context. You can use an online program like FluentU for this. Just look up 把 in the video-based dictionary and you’ll find tons of native videos that use it.

Tell a story—with feeling!

Chinese speakers don’t just use 把 sentences at random—they have a reason. And one of those reasons is to make a conversation sound more dramatic.

There’s a whole book about this by Zhuo Jing-Schmidt, actually, should you be looking for a (long) diversion from your studies. So think of something exciting that happened recently! And then think about how you could tell a simple version in Chinese with a 把 sentence:

昨天我去商城。有人碰了我一下。
(zuó tiān wǒ qù shāng chéng. yǒu rén pèng le wǒ yī xià.)
I was going into the mall yesterday. Someone bumped into me.

我转眼看。小偷把我的钱包偷走了！
(wǒ zhuǎn yǎn kàn. xiǎo tōu bǎ wǒ de qián bāo tōu zǒu le!)
I turned and looked. A thief had stolen my purse!

把 Practice Quiz

Each of these sentences are in the normal SVO sentence structure. Rewrite them to be in a 把 sentence structure, then check your answers below.

Note that all of these are correct in both sentences, but in the first version, the focus is on the action. The second sentence focuses on what happens to the object.

1. 我喝了咖啡。(wǒ hē le kā fēi.) — I drank coffee.

2. 他丢了钥匙。(tā diū le yào shi.) — He lost the keys.

3. 妈妈收拾了房间。(mā ma shōu shi le fáng jiān.) — Mom tidied the room.

4. 我们修好了电脑。(wǒ men xiū hǎo le diàn nǎo.) — We fixed the computer.

5. 老师已经批改了作业。(lǎo shī yǐ jīng pī gǎi le zuò yè.) — The teacher has already corrected the homework.

6. 我放书在桌子上。(wǒ fàng shū zài zhuō zi shàng.) — I put the book on the table.

7. 小狗咬坏了鞋子。(xiǎo gǒu yǎo huài le xié zi.) — The puppy chewed up the shoes.

8. 他写完了信。(tā xiě wán le xìn.) — He finished writing the letter.

9. 我忘了带手机。(wǒ wàng le dài shǒu jī.) — I forgot to bring my phone.

10. 弟弟吃光了蛋糕。(dì di chī guāng le dàn gāo.) – My little brother ate up the cake.

 

Answer key:

1. 我把咖啡喝了。(wǒ bǎ kā fēi hē le.) — I drank the coffee.

2. 他把钥匙丢了。(tā bǎ yào shi diū le.) — He lost the keys.

3. 妈妈把房间收拾了。(mā ma bǎ fáng jiān shōu shi le.) — Mom tidied the room.

4. 我们把电脑修好了。(wǒ men bǎ diàn nǎo xiū hǎo le.) — We fixed the computer.

5. 老师已经把作业批改了。(lǎo shī yǐ jīng bǎ zuò yè pī gǎi le.) — The teacher has already corrected the homework.

6. 我把书放在桌子上了。(wǒ bǎ shū fàng zài zhuō zi shàng le.) — I put the book on the table.

7. 小狗把鞋子咬坏了。(xiǎo gǒu bǎ xié zi yǎo huài le.) — The puppy chewed up the shoes.

8. 他把信写完了。(tā bǎ xìn xiě wán le.) — He finished writing the letter.

9. 我把手机忘了带。(wǒ bǎ shǒu jī wàng le dài.) — I forgot to bring my phone.

10. 弟弟把蛋糕吃光了。(dì di bǎ dàn gāo chī guāng le.) — My little brother ate up the cake.

 

Congratulations! You now have a better understanding of the Chinese 把 construction so you can speak Mandarin more fluently.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)