Chinese Language Learning Program Lesson 62 –Sentence pattern with “bèi” in Chinese

Chinese Language Learning Program

Lesson 62 – Sentence pattern with “bèi” in Chinese

Hello, everyone. It’s been a while. Welcome back. This is Baixue’s Chinese Language Learning Program. Today, we will talk about Sentence pattern with “bèi” in Chinese.

The sentence structure with " bèi "

“bèi” is used as a preposition in sentences. And “bèi” means “by”. Let’s talk about these sentences.

( A ) The subject in the sentence with " bèi "

The subject in the sentence with "bèi" is usually at the beginning of the sentence. It is usually a person/persons or a thing/things which is/ are the receiver(s) of the verb predicate.  

For example:

1. yán shí bèi hǎi shuǐ fǔ shí le.

     岩   石   被   海    水   腐 蚀 了。

   (The rocks were eroded by sea water)

2. nà běn shū bèi tā kàn wán le.   

    那   本    书   被  他 看     完 了。

    (That book is finished by him.)

(B) The predicate of the sentence with “bèi”

1. The feature of the sentence with “bèi” is that the subject of the sentence is the receiver of the verb predicate. This means that the verb of the sentence has to be a transitive verb.

For example：

(1). nà gè niú nǎi píng zi bèi wǒ rēng le.

   那  个  牛   奶    瓶  子  被  我   扔   了。

  (That milk bottle was thrown by me.)

(2). nà shàn chuāng hù bèi wǒ guān le.

   那    扇        窗       户  被   我    关   了。

   (That window was closed by me.)

The objects of "throw" and "close" are "that milk bottle" and "that window".

2. You can put “suǒ (所)” or “gěi (给)” in front of the transitive verb

For example:

(1). wǒ bèi zhè yī qíng jǐng suǒ gǎn dòng, qíng bù zì jīn

       我   被   这 一   情    景     所   感      动，   情   不 自禁

       de jiā rù dào tā men de hang liè zhōng.

       的  加 入  到   他  们   的     行   列     中。

       (I was touched by this scene, and cannot help joining to them.)

(2). hái zi bèi tā gěi guàn huài le.

        孩 子 被 他  给    惯      坏   了。

       (The child was spoiled by him.)

3. The predicate of the sentence is generally not a simple predicate verb. Usually the predicate is followed by le(了) , guò(过) , object, complement, etc to show the result of the verb, the extent or the time of the verb.

“le” and “guo” in the sentence indicate that the action is the past tense. The action produced by the verb is finished.

For example:

(1). nà běn shū bèi tā kàn wán le.  

       那   本    书   被  他  看    完  了。

     (That book is finished by him.) (auxiliary “le”)

(2). wǒ de tóu bèi zú qiú zá guò.

       我  的  头   被  足  球  砸   过。(auxiliary “guo”)

     (My head was hit by soccer.)

(3). tā bèi wǒ shuō pà le.   (jié guǒ bǔ yǔ)

      他  被  我    说    怕 了。(结   果   补 语)

     (He was scared by what I said.) (resultative complement)

(4). tā bèi qì dé bù dé le. (chéng dù bǔ yǔ)

      他 被  气  得  不 得了。(  程     度  补 语)

     (He was so angry.) (degree complement)

(C ) the object of the sentence with " bèi " 

The predicate in the sentence with " bèi " can have object in the following circumstances:

1. the object is part of the subject or belong to the subject of the sentence.

shū bèi xué shēng ná zǒu liǎo yī běn.

  书  被    学      生     拿   走   了  一   本。

(One of the books was taken by a student.)

2. the object is the result of the subject dominated by the verb.

tā bèi wǒ men xuǎn wèi bān zhǎng.

他 被   我    们     选     为   班     长。

(He was choosen as our class president.)

3.  subject is where the verb happens.

yang tái shàng bèi duī le hěn duō zá wù.

   阳   台     上      被   堆 了  很    多   杂  物。

(The balcony was piled by a lot of things.)

bèi is also a preposition which is just like ba. So bèi can have its own object. And this object can be omitted. For example:

wǒ de zì xíng chē bèi (shuí) tōu zǒu liǎo.

  我 的自   行     车  被    (谁)    偷    走   了。

(My bike was stolen by (someone).)

Usually a complete sentence is more stringent follow the "Subject + predicate (Verb) + Object" sequence structure. The sentence with “bei” is a feature of the object in advance, so its order is “Subject + 'bei' + (object of “bei”) + predicate (Verb) + object of the verb or complement”. It means “by”.

Ok, as we can see that the sentence with “bei” is a little bit complicated. I hope I make this lesson clearly enough to be understood. If you have any questions about the sentences with “bèi”, please leave me a message and I will response to you ASAP.

Ok, that is all for today. We will talk about how to switch sentence with ba to sentence with bei and vice versa.

xiè  xiè!

 谢   谢 ! (Thanks!)

xià  cì  jiàn 

 下  次  见!  (See you next time!)