Mandarin Chinese is one of the two most spoken native languages in the world and is fast becoming a global language. Chinese is the only language in the world that has more than three thousand years of continuous written documentation. It is widely borrowed from in what is called the Sinosphere, and its influence, especially in terms of loan words and writing systems, can be easily detected in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. There are many fascinating stories about Chinese to share; however, since you have picked up this book, we assume that you do not need convincing and are already interested in learning more about the Chinese language and Chinese culture. It is important to note that, contrary to popular misconceptions, Chinese does have grammar, just like every other language in the world. Chinese grammar is neither simpler nor more complicated than other grammar systems, it is just a bit different.

The development of this book began with a concerted effort to present Chinese grammar in an easily accessible way by focusing on the detection of patterns as well as the differences and similarities between Chinese grammar and the English grammar that the reader is already familiar with. The features of this grammar book, which are designed to ensure easy navigation and accessibility, are as follows:

Content:

• plain language without theoretical jargon;

• comprehensive coverage of the Chinese sound and writing systems;

• a glossary at the beginning of the book to introduce basic terms;

• a comprehensive index at the end of the book to provide easy access to specific grammar points and keywords;

• exercises at the end of chapters that allow students to apply what they have learned and verify their knowledge of the chapters, as well as reinforce learning outcomes;

• online answer keys to the exercises and additional appendixes to assist students’ self-study at www.cambridge.org/ZhuHuang.

Format:

• clear learning goals at the beginning and a brief summary at the end of each chapter to help readers quickly grasp the main points of the chapter;

• Tip, NOTE, Attention, and Alert! boxes are provided to emphasize common errors as well as to provide guidance for understanding challenging grammatical points;

• succinct tables for improving comprehension and providing an overall picture;

• both simplified and traditional characters are provided for examples, with the format of the traditional characters following the simplified characters (简/繁). Only one form will be provided when the same character is used for both simplified and traditional character sets. This provides ease of access to readers by providing the writing system that they are more comfortable with, while also giving interested readers the ability to explore the differences between the two writing systems.

To create a friendly reading environment, we have invited two “bright” fellow students to accompany you on your journey of learning grammar. You will get to know more about Xiaoming (小明) (lit. “little bright”) and Xiaoliang (小亮) (lit. “little light”) through reading example sentences in the book. We think that you will find them to be engaging, although not always diligent. There are also some examples with interesting and easy-to-read sentences that are made of common words and some fun tongue twisters in the exercises. We hope that all of these features will help you to find both fun and fulfillment in learning Chinese grammar.

Most of all, do bear in mind that the best way to learn grammar is to speak more! Please make sure that you practice making sentences with the grammar you have learned and talk to your classmates or teacher. If you are self-studying, try to construct a dialogue with Xiaoming or Xiaoliang based on what they say in the book.

This grammar book can supplement any textbook used in Chinese language classes, or it can stand alone as a textbook for a class on Chinese grammar. It can also serve as a reference book for beginner- to higher-level students, as well as Chinese language instructors teaching at those levels. The structure of this book allows students some flexibility to tailor and self-pace their study plan, including heritage learners who may have already mastered some grammatical points. As a student grammar book, the grammatical discussion in this volume is limited in scope and depth by design. For students and teachers who need more comprehensive coverage, we recommend A Reference Grammar of Chinese (Huang and Shi, Reference Huang and Shi2016).

Dr. Yongping Zhu began drafting this book in 2008 with students’ needs in mind and Dr. Chu-Ren Huang joined the effort around 2014. Our long-distance collaboration led to rendezvous at various places in China and the US, but was also constantly delayed by duties at our home institutions. During this long process, in addition to remaining focused on providing comprehensive coverage of linguistic facts with concise and transparent explanations, we have also had the advantage of receiving feedback from different sources. Students from our targeted readership (i.e., those who have studied Chinese for one to five years) have helped us to draw a clear roadmap for readers to navigate with ease. Experienced Chinese instructors have helped us to hone our writing more concisely. For content development, we have drawn on our experience of teaching Chinese as a second language and conducting linguistic research for the past 30 years, as well as the accumulated knowledge of the field. We hope that our readers find this book to be the key required to unlock boundless knowledge of the Chinese language.