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Answering Questions with Verbs

Beginner 1 • 13 Words

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In English, answering a yes or no question is as simple as saying - well, 'yes' or 'no'. In Chinese though, there isn't a word that can be understood exactly like 'yes' or 'no'. Instead, answering a question means repeating the verb being asked about. Sound tricky? It's actually really straightforward. Get to seeing some examples and practicing yourself in this FluentU audio slideshow.

Vocab
Dialogue
Comments

		Word	Definition	Fluency
		你 nǐ (pronoun) you	(pronoun) you
		是 shì (verb) to be	(verb) to be
		英国人 yīng guó rén (noun) British person	(noun) British person
		Statement + 吗 Statement + ma (part.) comes after a statement to create a question	(part.) comes after a statement to create a question
		中国人 zhōng guó rén (noun) Chinese person	(noun) Chinese person
		我 wǒ (pronoun) I; me	(pronoun) I; me
		不 bú (adv.) not; don't (2nd tone when followed by a 4th tone)	(adv.) not; don't (2nd tone when followed by a 4th tone)
		他 tā (pronoun) he; him	(pronoun) he; him
		美国人 měi guó rén (noun) American person	(noun) American person
		她 tā (pronoun) she; her	(pronoun) she; her
		韩国人 hán guó rén (noun) South Korean person	(noun) South Korean person
		他们 tā men (pronoun) they; them	(pronoun) they; them
		她们 tā men (pronoun) them; they (female)	(pronoun) them; they (female)

？

Are you British?

。

I am.

？

Are you Chinese?

。

I'm not.

？

Is he American?

。

Yes.

？

Is she Korean?

。

She's not.

？

Are you British?

，

。

Yes, I'm British.

？

Are they Korean?

，

。

Yes, they're Korean.

？

Are they American?

，

。

No, they're not American.

Answering Questions with Verbs

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