how to make imperatives / commands??
israelyplane
May 15, 2010 at 05:53 AM posted in General Discussionmy question is, how do i make imperatives in chinese?
for example;
Learn!
Do it!
Come!
Listen to me!
is there a certain word that i should add before the verb to make it imperative command?
what about negatives (bei)
i heard someone say that u have to add ni bi xi + verb
please help
danchao
July 14, 2010 at 02:43 AM
Yeah, 吧 is more of a suggestion. A stronger imperative would simply to say the command without modifiers, just like in English. For example, “Go talk to him" would be "去跟他讲话!" qu4 gen1 ta1 jiang3 hua4.
Or you could add a subject in the sentence, and it would still be an imperative
“你过来!" ni3 guo4 lai2: You come over here!
The strongest imperative of all, of course, is when your parents say your full name, also just like in English.
georgeconk
July 13, 2010 at 01:02 PM
我觉得吧的用是“let's go", more a suggestion than a command. 比如说 “我们走吧”。 Is that right？
snorkeler
July 13, 2010 at 01:54 AMJohn DeFrancis says that adding ba turns a verb into an imperative.
Wǒman shuō ba Let's talk!