How to use 是 (shì, “to be”) in Mandarin Chinese？

This is probably one of the very first questions that you’d encounter in your journey of Chinese learning, and here we have you all covered! Let’s start with the basics:

Like in English, you would say, “I am teacher” (with no “a”) in Mandarin. And if you want to ask someone “Are you a teacher?” you would say:

Did you notice that you don’t have to change the word order to make a yes-no question in Mandarin? All you need to do is add a 吗 (transcribed ma) at the end of a statement to turn that into a yes-no question. What’s even better is that you do not need to conjugate 是 (transcribed shì) or any verbs for past/future in Mandarin. Sounds great, right?

However, there is a catch: you cannot use 是 (shì) with adjectives, which is probably one of the most common mistakes learners make. For example,

Instead of this, what you’re supposed to say is:

Why? Let’s read on!

是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) is a verb that connects two, nouns but remember, nouns and pronouns only, never adjectives. For example,

Here, 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) connects 他 (transcribed tā, meaning “he”) and 老师 (transcribed lǎoshī, meaning “teacher”). You can think of 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) as the “=” sign. What you’re saying is that 他 (transcribed tā, meaning “he”) = 老师 (transcribed lǎoshī, meaning “teacher”). And if you want to make a negative sentence, simply add 不 (transcribed bù, meaning “not”) before 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”), like this:

Like we said at the beginning of this post, we don’t need to change the word order to make a yes-no question in Mandarin. All you do is add a 吗 (transcribed ma) at the end of a statement. If you’re feeling fancy, you can also use the A-not-A structure, where you repeat the 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”):

So you’re literally saying, “Is he or is he not a teacher?” Easy right?

Now that we discussed the role of 是 in these sentences, you may have seen structures where 是 in structures like these is omitted. This is done mainly in spoken language and you may want to read our post on nominal predicates that explains this in more detail.

是 in most cases is not obligatory. There are two cases in which 是 cannot be omitted:

• With demonstrative adjectives:

  这是手机。

  Transcription: Zhè shì shǒu jī.

  Translation: This is a cell phone.

• When we classify an item to a category:

  苹果是一种水果。

  Transcription: Píng guǒ shì yī zhǒng shuǐ guǒ.

  Translation: Apples are a kind of fruit.

In many ways, 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) acts like “be” in English, but do not use 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) with adjectives.

是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) can also be attached to the end of a sentence to make a tag question. Tag questions with 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”) are for confirmation of a previous statement. To make a tag question with 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”), we can use either 是吗 (meaning shìma) or 是不是 (meaning shìbùshì). For example,

Or:

Now, let’s talk about something that’s a bit more challenging.

是...的 (shì…de) structure is quite versatile. It is similar to the “it is…that…” pattern in English. You can use that to emphasize when, where, how, with who, etc. an event occurred. However, 是...的 (meaning shì…de) cannot be used to emphasize the grammatical object in a sentence. Look at the following example sets: the first sentence is how you’d normally say it, and the second is how you use the 是...的 (meaning shì…de) structure to emphasize part of the sentence.

• When?

  我去年学中文。

  Translation: Wǒ qùnián xué Zhōngwén.

  ⇩

  我是去年学中文的。

  Transcription: Wǒ shì qùnián xué Zhōngwén de.

  Translation: I studied Chinese last year.

• Where?

  他在北京学中文。

  Translation: Tā zài Běijīng xué Zhōngwén.

  ⇩

  他是在北京学中文的。

  Transcription: Tā shì zài Běijīng xué Zhōngwén de.

  Translation: He studied Chinese in Beijing.

• How?

  他跟李老师学中文。

  Translation: Tā gēn Lǐ lǎoshī xué Zhōngwén.

  ⇩

  他是跟李老师学中文的。

  Transcription: Tā shì gēn Lǐ lǎoshī xué Zhōngwén de.

  Translation: He studied Chinese with teacher Li.

• Subject

  他打我。

  Translation: Tā dǎ wǒ.

  ⇩

  是他打我的。

  Transcription: Shì tā dǎ wǒ de.

  Translation: He hit me.

• Adjectives

  这些观点很正确。

  Translation: Zhèxiē guāndiǎn hěn zhèngquè.

  ⇩

  这些观点是很正确的。

  Transcription: Zhèxiē guāndiǎn shì hěn zhèngquè de.

  Translation: These points of view are quite right.

• Action

  我学英国文学。

  Translation: Wǒ xué Yīngguó wénxué.

  ⇩

  我是学英国文学的。

  Transcription: Wǒ shì xué Yīngguó wénxué de.

  Translation: I study English literature.

Remember, since 是...的 (meaning shì… de) cannot be used to emphasize a grammatical object, you cannot say:

As you can see in all these examples, 是...的 (transcribed shì…de) is a very useful structure. You simply add 是 (transcribed shì) right in front of the phrase you want to emphasize, and 的 (transcribed de) at the end of the sentence. And in all those cases, you can even drop the 是 (transcribed shì)! Just make sure you never drop 的 (transcribed de)! This structure is quite useful, right?

You should not use 是 (transcribed shì) to express that something exists in / on / at a place:

We can see the basic pattern is: subject + 在 (transcribed zài) + location. 在 (transcribed zài) is the only verb needed here.

You could also read our post on 在 (zài) where we discuss how 是 (transcribed shì) cannot be used to express existence in a place!

Finally, in Mandarin, there are no counterparts to the "there is / are" pattern in English. 有 (transcribed yôu, meaning “to have”) will cover it all. So remember, when talking about "there is something at some place," the Mandarin sentence will be structured like "some place has something."

In this post, we discussed one of the most important verbs in Mandarin: 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”). It is like the English “be” in many ways, but the most important difference is that you don’t use that for connecting adjectives. The 是...的 (transcribed shì...de) structure is useful for emphasizing a particular part of a sentence.

Do not use 是 (transcribed shì) to express existence in / on / at a place nor to express “there is / are.”

Alright, that’s pretty much everything you need to know about 是 (transcribed shì, meaning “be”)! Now try out our exercises to see how much you’ve learned!