3 Patterns That Unlock 80% of Chinese

Three patterns, that's it. That's the difference between someone who memorizes Chinese for years and still freezes mid-sentence, and someone who builds sentences on the fly after, you know, a single afternoon. And if you grew up hearing Cantonese at home, well, you've been sitting on the answer to fluent Mandarin your whole life without even knowing it. See, most people treat Chinese like a memory game. You know, thousands of characters, you know, endless vocabulary lists, you know, sentences you drill, you know, forget and then drill again. But here's what nobody, you know, actually talks about, right? Chinese isn't actually random. It's one of the actual most logical languages on the planet. And after reverse engineering over, you know, 2,000 sentence structures with my team, we found that just three core patterns generate roughly 80% of everything you'll ever need to say. And just by teaching students these three patterns, they already get a lot more Chinese down in a session than, you know, months of learning. Because once you see these patterns, you stop memorizing and you start building. I'm Sheldon. My team and I have helped over 600 Cantonese Americans learn Mandarin and improve Cantonese. And we don't teach memorization. We teach pattern recognition. And so hopefully, you know, learning that today will be able to help you too. All right, let's get into it. So pattern number one is called STPVO blueprint. Very long, but let's be honest. When you first start to learn Chinese, what was the scariest part? For most people, it wasn't the tones. It was the grammar. Because you feel like you memorize hundreds of rules, verb charts, and conjugation tables just to say, you know, I'm eating an apple. But you don't actually need any of that. You need one structure. And that structure is actually much simpler than English. See, in English, you answer four questions to make a sentence. Who? The person. What did they do? The action. Where the location happened. And when. For example, I read a book at home yesterday. Or yesterday, I read a book at home. Notice how English lets you scatter time and place around whenever you want. English has a lot more ambiguity in its grammar structure. Whereas Chinese is a lot more strict, which actually makes it so that once you know the rules, you just follow the rules and you're good. In Chinese, you set the stage before the action happens. Time and place always come before the verb. Think of it like a movie director yelling, you know, lights, camera, action. You establish the scene and then you roll. So let me kind of get a bit more specific. It goes subject, time, place, verb, object. Or STPVO for short. Subject, time, place, verb, object. Let's see it in action. In Mandarin. 我昨天在家看书。 我昨天在家看书. Okay? 我 is I. 昨天, yesterday. 在家, at home. 看 means to look or to read. And then 书 means book. Okay? Now that same sentence in Cantonese, because I know we have a lot of Cantonese to Mandarin people, is 我昨天在家看书。 I, yesterday, at home, read book. Okay, so notice that both Cantonese and Mandarin follow the exact same structure. It's because they're both Chinese languages. And so that's why I always say like, Cantonese speakers can learn Mandarin a lot faster. It's because they literally have the exact same operating back end, just different words, different bricks. So why is the single rule so powerful and so important in Chinese? Well, it's because it kills the translation trap. When you think in English, and you try to translate into Chinese, a lot of learners, what happens is they end up getting stuck. English grammar is really flexible. You can put time at the beginning or at the end. And so your brain tries to mirror that flexibility in Chinese, and it jams it in. And as a result, you know, you might have sentences that sound kind of funky, awkward. But knowing the framework, just knowing the base framework of Chinese grammar, you're no longer translating, you're just slotting things in. Subject goes here, time goes here, place goes here, verb goes here, object goes here. Done. And so I want you to early on in your Chinese learning journey, think of Chinese like a game of Mad Libs, right? You have five slots, just fill them in order, and the logic never breaks. And so it's like, you don't need to memorize a bunch of different rhymes and structures. You're just mastering that one sentence frame, which generates thousands of possibilities. And that's kind of the big difference here is, you learn that one frame, you pretty much get everything. You know what I mean? Where this pattern might feel limiting is that, naturally, we know that real life is not just a single action, right? We don't just say, I went home. We normally stack actions together in English or in Chinese. Rather than saying, I went home, it's, you know, I went home to sleep. So how do you connect multiple actions without everything falling apart? And this is where understanding the structure in Chinese helps a lot, and makes it actually a lot simpler than English. Because this brings us over to pattern number two in Chinese, which is called the action chain. So we've got the master blueprint for a single action, but like we said, right? Real life, we string actions together, right? I went home to sleep. Right? Two actions there. And this is where English gets harder. Because in English, we connect actions with tiny filler words. To, by, with, in order to, right? I call these kind of like ghost words, right? They exist in English, but they actually have no direct match in Chinese. If you try to translate them, you end up spinning your wheels looking for a Chinese word that just doesn't work the way you expect. And that's actually what happens to a lot of learners from what we see. They think, okay, I went home to sleep. How do I say to sleep? They know sleep is 睡觉, but they don't know the word for to. I don't know. And they get 我回家 to 睡觉, which is not right. But Chinese actually makes it a lot simpler for you. You just list the actions in the order they happen in real life. You don't need a to, or a by, or a with, you just list them out. So let me give you an example. I went home to sleep. What actually happens in real life? First, you go home, then you sleep. So Chinese just says, cool, stack them. That's it. Just string the verbs together in order. That's how Chinese works. Right? In Cantonese, the exact same, right? Mandarin, for go home, the sleep in Mandarin, right? So you see, it's the exact same. Here's another example, right? Now you notice in English, the sentence is actually a little backwards. In reality, you board the plane first, then you arrive in China. But it says, I went to China by plane. So it's a little bit backwards, but Chinese just follows the order. So 我 is I, Mandarin, the exact same in both Cantonese and Mandarin, just different pronunciation. But notice here, okay, there's no by plane, and notice how it follows the order exactly. It's not, I travel to China by plane. It's just, I sit on a plane, go to China. It's very, very like, like if you look at, like think back to like caveman ancient times, people who were like the first speakers of this language, just like observing, and exactly what they observe is exactly what happened. And then that became the language. It's kind of funny, but that's literally it, honestly. Here's another example, I eat with chopsticks. So notice here, English puts the 土 in the end. But in real life, well, how do you eat with chopsticks? Well, the first thing you do is, you use the chopsticks, and then you eat, right? So it's the using chopsticks first. That's the order of the actions. So just literally follow that order in Chinese. 我用筷子食饭。 我爱用筷子用筷子。 Use chopsticks, 食饭, eat food, 吃饭. So I use chopsticks to eat food. Very straightforward, right? No connectors or anything between, no like switching up the order. Because in English, you would say I use chopsticks to eat food, right? But then you got to put different connectors in, or use I eat food using chopsticks. There's two options there. There's no two options in Chinese, just use that one option. You know what I mean? Very straightforward. And so the key pattern to remember is like, English always needs these, what's called preposition words or ghost words, right? To, by, with. Chinese just removes it, and stacks the verb in real life order, okay? Now here's where it gets, you know, very, very important to understand, is it makes sense always. You can chain three, four, five actions together. For example, I flew to China to see my friend perform a dance. Real life timeline. Ride plane, go to China, see friend perform dance. 我坐飛機去中國看朋友表演跳舞。 The exact same. So 我 is I, Mandarin 我. 坐飛機,坐飛機, is that in the plane? 去中國,去中國, to China, 看朋友,看朋友, look at my friend, 表演跳舞,表演跳舞, perform dance, right? So you see, it's the exact order, exactly. You just stack them. You could have 10 actions in there if you have enough actions in there, you know what I mean? So like, very key thing, okay? Four verb phrases, zero prepositions. You're really narrating reality exactly as it unfolds, and that's how Chinese works. Probably asking, you know, Sheldon, is this, is Chinese a fancy timeline? Yes, it literally is. It's just like narrating a movie in real time. Just imagine back then, you know, the caveman Chinese people, person go here, person go here, person go here. That's the language, okay? If you're a Cantonese speaker who wants to learn Mandarin, we have a free guide with kind of everything that kind of shows you how to map Cantonese to Mandarin, as well as improve your Cantonese. I'll link to that down below. Check that out. It is super helpful. I put a lot of stuff in there for you guys. Now you've got the stage and the script, okay? Pattern one, pattern two. But before we get to the final pattern, there's one crucial upgrade that kind of ties everything that we've learned so far together. So right now you can set the scene with subject, time, place, verb, object, and then chain the actions together so you can tell someone what happened in the perfect order, but you can't tell them why it happened or kind of like what went wrong. And so, you know, how do we do that? You know, to sound human, we need logic bridges, which explains, you know, why we did certain things. So in English, the way it works is the cause and effect works like this. We say, for example, because I was hungry, I ate. We drop the so, right? Because technically it's because I was hungry, so I ate. We drop that, right? Just because I was hungry, I ate. Chinese, you know, coincidentally works just like math or coding, which sounds like we're a bunch of nerds. I'm a nerd. But it does. It literally is if-then. If any of you guys are familiar with coding, it's just an if-then statement. If this happens, then that. So to explain logic bridges in Chinese, let's look at how they work in English. A classic sentence. This is something that all of our parents said to us growing up. If you finish your homework, then you can go play, okay? If you finish homework, then you can use the Wi-Fi, right? That's a classic example growing up, right? If you finish homework, you can use internet. Now in English, it's technically if-then, but we don't need the then. So we could say, if you finish homework, you can go play. In English, we have flexibility to take out that second part, the result of that cause statement. The cause statement is if you do this, then you can do that. In English, you can take it out, okay? Now in Chinese, we don't allow you to take out the then or the if. So those must always be there. Besides that, it works the exact same way. So let's look at our earlier example, right? I went home to sleep. Let's upgrade it. Because I was tired, I went home to sleep, okay? So now in Chinese, the way it'd be is because so. So because I was tired, so I went home to sleep, right? That's the cause and then the effect, cause and the result, okay? We need to have that word there to indicate it. So in Mandarin, So... So the key thing to remember about this is that Chinese is very like... It has rules and it just sticks to the rules, okay? It wouldn't make sense if you took it out. Whereas English, what actually makes English hard for a lot of people I talk to them is that English allows a lot of leeway and has a lot of exception cases. Chinese doesn't have as many, which makes it strict. But once you learn the rules, it's easy. You know what I mean? Now another really useful pattern that a lot of people need early on is understanding how to use the word but in Chinese, right? And in Cantonese, we use 但是 in Mandarin, we use 但是 And it works very similar to English. So for instance, I took a plane to China to see my friend, but they weren't there. Notice here, okay? 我 becomes 我 I 坐飛機 Uh, sat on a plane. 去中國 To China 見朋友 To see my friend. 但是 But, okay? 佢唔喺度 佢唔喺 They weren't there, right? And so you notice it's the exact same thing. I went to see a friend, but they weren't there. It works the exact same way as English. This is an extremely useful one to know. Everyone could use one because it helps you express a lot more, okay? Okay, cool. So now you have how's the stage, right? The STPVO, set the framework of the scene. And you know how to stack actions together. You know how to use logic bridges to kind of add more thought to it. But the last one is expressing how time works in Chinese and how time factors into the sentence. This is the most important pattern of all of Chinese. And it's the one that a lot of people get confused at because English has a whole like conjugation framework. Whereas Chinese keeps it super simple. If you speak English, you know that verbs change shape depending on time. For example, a drive became drove or becomes driving. And what happens is people who try and learn Chinese, they think that same logic applies for Chinese when it really doesn't. And that's the part that makes Chinese actually not as hard as you think. Because here's how Chinese actually handles time. You don't change the verb. You just change the context around it using tiny powerful words called particles. Think of your base sentence as like a raw photo, right? Particles are like the Instagram filters, right? You snap like the LA Instagram filter on your photo or whatever like that. And it looks like it's taken in LA or something like that. It changes the whole meaning without touching a single other word. So let's look at the three filters that kind of control time in Chinese, okay? So filter number one is right now or what's called the progressive filter. To say something is happening right now, you add one particle. That's it. In Mandarin, the particle is sai. And in Cantonese, the particle is called gan. And the difference is that in Mandarin, it goes before the verb. In Cantonese, it goes after the verb. So for instance, sister is reading the newspaper. Does anyone need to read the newspaper anymore? Whatever, okay? Maybe I'm old. Ah, I'm old. Okay, anyway. 姐姐在看報紙 In Cantonese, 姐姐睇緊報紙 So let's compare. In Cantonese, 姐姐 In Mandarin becomes 姐姐 The exact same, okay? Now in Cantonese, the verb for to look is tai. In Mandarin, it's kan. Just different words here, but same meaning. It's like how America uses the subway, UK uses tube, okay? But notice here, okay? In Cantonese, the word gan comes after the verb. So it's 睇緊, okay? That's like looking. That gan acts as the ing, looking. It means happening right now. She's looking at the paper. In Mandarin, it goes before. So that sai before is like the ing in English, like looking, okay? But it goes before the verb. So sai, kan. In Cantonese, it goes after, 睇緊. And then 報紙, 報紙, is just the newspaper, okay? So 姐姐睇緊報紙. In Mandarin, 姐姐在看報紙. Very similar. Here's another one. He's writing a report. 他在寫報告. In Cantonese, 他寫緊報告. So 他 becomes 他, right? Same thing, just kind of like tube and subway. A UK versus American English, just different choice of words. 寫 is to write. In Mandarin, 寫. And then notice in Cantonese, 寫緊. In Mandarin, 在寫. So remember that action right now, particle happens before and when it is after, right? And then 報告 is report. And in Mandarin, 報告, okay? The exact same. So now that you can express right now, let's handle the past, or more accurately, completed actions. This is the same logic as filter number one. You don't change the verb, you just add a particle. And that particle in Mandarin is 了, or in Cantonese, it's 著. Now in Mandarin, the particle goes after the verb, or it goes at the end of the sentence. Whereas in Cantonese, it glues directly to the verb. So let's look at an example. Mom has returned. In Mandarin, 媽媽回來了. In Cantonese, that becomes 媽媽返咗嚟. Okay, so 媽媽 becomes 媽媽. Mom, obviously. 回來 is the verb. In Cantonese, 返嚟 is the same verb, means to return. Now it has to say it's already completed, it's already happened. So in Mandarin, that 了 goes at the end of the sentence. 回來了, or after the verb, it's the same thing here. In Cantonese, right, 返咗嚟. Okay, 返咗嚟. So notice here in Mandarin, the 了 acts like a stamp at the end, right? All done. But Cantonese, that 咗 is, it kind of like jams itself right next to the verb. It actually breaks up that little verb phrase, 返嚟, right? It breaks it up, and it creates kind of like what's called the verb sandwiches. So it becomes 返咗嚟. 返 means to return, right? 嚟 means to come, right? So 返嚟 means to return, come. First you return, and then you come. So 返嚟. That's another video about how Chinese words work, but basically, a compound verb in Chinese is actually just two actions that happen in a row. Here's an example, right? It's the verb for 挑选, right? 挑选 means to pick and choose, because 挑 means to pick, and then 选 means to choose. So 挑选 together is a compound verb, right? It's one, two characters make up a verb, but in reality, it's just two verbs that happen side by side. That's really what that is. And that's how Chinese verbs kind of work. We have a whole video on how Chinese characters work. That's kind of like a little refresher, right? And so in the same way for this one, 返咗嚟, right? Sandwiches itself in between those two verbs right there. Here's another example, okay? He bought coffee. 他买了咖啡 他买了咖啡 In Cantonese, 他买了咖啡 他买了咖啡 So this one's very similar to both Cantonese and Mandarin, because there's only one verb here. So 他 is 他, which means he or she. Chinese is gender neutral. 买 is to buy. 买 in Mandarin. 了 左 comes after the entire verb, but after the first verb in Cantonese. In this case, there's only one verb, right? So 了, and then 咖啡 咖啡 is coffee. Now, in Mandarin, you can also say 他买咖啡了. You can put it at the end of the sentence. It's totally fine. You can put it in either place. Slight different meaning. We're not gonna get into the difference of it in this video, but overall, it's the same meaning of the action of buying coffee was completed. But it's very important, okay? So the particle must touch the verb buy, because you can't hand over the coffee until the buying is done. So the grammar kind of mirrors reality in Chinese. That's why I say Chinese is really literal. The final one is future, things that will happen. So luckily, this is actually where it's the exact same in both Cantonese and Mandarin, and in English. So in English, we indicate future by will, right? I will do it. Cantonese, Mandarin, the exact same, and that word is 会 or 会 in Cantonese. Same character, same position, same logic in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, okay? This is the easiest filter of all three, super straightforward. So it will rain tomorrow. Cantonese. So 明天 tomorrow, Mandarin 明天会 means will, Mandarin 会, and then 落雨 is to rain, Mandarin 下雨. Here's another example, we will meet. So 我哋 is we, Mandarin 我们, 会 is will, Mandarin 会, 见面 is to see, to meet, Mandarin 见面, okay? Same thing. So whatever verb you put after 会 becomes future tense in Mandarin. This one's the easiest one. So that's it for today's video. I hope you have found that helpful. Click here to watch the next video, and click here for a video that you think you'll love. Okay, until next time, 再见!