Daniel from Melbourne told his Chinese teacher, Ms. Belina in class, “Wǒ zuótiān tīqiú dào shù shànɡ. (我昨天踢球到树上。)” Belina knew that Daniel wanted to say he kicked the ball on the tree, but he didn’t express it correctly. So she taught him that the correct way to say it should be, “Zuótiān wǒ bǎ qiú tī dào le shù shànɡ. (昨天我把球踢到了树上。)”
Why Belina used “把” in this sentence?
In Chinese sentence structure, sentences with “把” are often used. The word “把” is used to emphasize the result of a behavior or the way of an act, which simply means: What does A do to B? “do to” this pattern can be roughly interpreted to “把”. In a common sentence structure, it is subject + predicate (verb) + object, but with the word “把” you can put the object before the predicate (verb).
Common sentence structure: subject+verb phrase +object
The “把” sentence structure: subject+把+object+verb phrase
Let’s do the following quiz together.
1. Change the sentences to the “把” structure.
Wǒ chī le pínɡɡuǒ.
(1) 我 吃 了 苹果。
Yún dǎnɡzhù le tàiyánɡ.
(2) 云 挡住 了 太阳。
2. Use the “把” sentence structure to translate the sentence into Chinese.
(1) I put the book on the desk.
3. Rearrange the following words to form a correct sentence.
xiǎomāo bēizǐ bǎ dǎsuì le
(1) A. 小猫 B. 杯子 C. 把 D. 打碎 E. 了
4. Change the affirmative sentence to negative sentence.
Jiějie bǎ chuānɡhù dǎkāi le.
(1) 姐姐 把 窗户 打开 了。
