HSK 4 Grammar 12: Verbs
HSK · HSK · HSK 4 Topic 12 5:41 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
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Eight verb patterns in one lesson. Four causatives, rang, jiao, qing and shi, for making someone do something. Dekan, the everyday it depends on. Haoxiang, the soft hedge, it seems. Zaiyu, the essay verb, the key lies in. Yiwei, the wrong-belief verb. Tongguo, wearing its two hats. Laizi, coming from its source in one compact word. And the dummy lai, standing in for any obvious verb. The exam tests tone and pairing rather than lists, so each pattern here earns its keep inside real sentences.
The causatives slot a person between the verb and what they end up doing. Sort them by tone. Shi is the formal cause: ta de yanjiang shi tingzhong feichang jidong, his speech made the audience very excited. Rang is the neutral make and let: zhe bu dianying rang ren hen gandong, this film is really moving, and ni weishenme bu rang wo qu, why won't you let me go. Jiao is the casual tell, and qing is the polite ask or invite. New at HSK four: the result can be an adjective of feeling, rang ren gandong, shi ren jidong, makes people moved, excites people. And rang covers both make and let, with context deciding which.
Dekan, or yaokan, literally means have to look at, and it is the everyday it depends on. Zhe deikan ni de shijian, that depends on your schedule. Qu bu qu deikan wo de xinqing, whether I'll go depends on my mood. The deciding factor usually carries a question word, deikan tianqi zenmeyang, depends how the weather is, deikan ta yuan bu yuanyi, depends whether he is willing. Watch the pronunciation, because dei here is dei, have to, not the structural de of complements. And when you need a quick fixed reply, kan qingkuang covers it, depends on the situation.
Haoxiang softens a statement to an impression. With a subject, ta haoxiang shi Yingguoren, he seems to be British. Without a subject, haoxiang yao xiayu le, it looks like it's going to rain, where the phrase means it seems that. The word literally means much resembles, and its job is hedging: it signals you are not fully sure, which is softer and safer than a flat statement. Its formal twin is sihu, and the boundary to keep is with yiwei, which we meet shortly: haoxiang is unsure, yiwei is wrong.
Two compact verbs for location questions that are not about maps. Zaiyu pins down where something's essence rests: chenggong zaiyu jianchi, success lies in perseverance; liwu zaiyu xinyi, bu zaiyu guizhong, a gift is about the thought, not the cost. With a person it means is up to: qu bu qu zaiyu ni ziji, whether to go is up to you. Laizi is origin in one tidy word: wo laizi Zhongguo, I'm from China; wo de zhege xiangfa laizi shenghuo, this idea comes from everyday life. It is more formal than cong lai, and it takes its source directly, with no cong in front: laizi Zhongguo is right, cong laizi Zhongguo is wrong.
Yiwei is the dedicated verb for a belief that turned out wrong. Wo yiwei ta shi Deguoren, I thought he was German, and the sentence carries the quiet continuation, he isn't. For a belief you simply hold, use juede or xiang, because yiwei claims you were mistaken; the giveaway opener is wo hai yiwei, I'd assumed wrongly that. Tongguo wears two hats. As a verb, wo tongguo le zhege kaoshi, I passed this exam. As a preposition, women tongguo ta de pengyou zhaodao le ta, we found him through his friend, where it sets up a means before the main clause.
A bare lai can stand in for a more specific verb when the real action is obvious from context. Wo lai ba, let me do it. Ni xie de hao, ni lai ba, you write nicely, you do it. Rang ta ziji lai, let him have a go. This lai does not mean come; it is a placeholder, working like the English I'll get this one at a counter. And the requirement is context: everyone present must know which action is meant, or the lai has nothing to stand for, and you name the verb instead.
Pause and check both. First, no: yiwei marks the belief as wrong, so he was not German. Second, no: the lai at the door is the dummy verb, I'll carry them, not come. The remaining review items: the causatives run shi formal, rang neutral, jiao casual, qing polite; deikan is the it-depends word with dei pronounced have-to; and the corrected sentence is wo laizi Shanghai, because laizi takes its source directly with no cong. Take one pattern from each section into tomorrow's practice.