As we all know, compared with other languages, Chinese grammar is very simple. It may be the language with the simplest grammar in the world, or at least one of the languages with the simplest grammar.
For example, the modal verb "是" in Chinese means: 我是(I be), 你是(you be), 他是(he be), 我们是 (we be), 你们是 (you be), 他们是 (they be), 我是(I be) in the past, 你是(you be) now, 他是(he be) in the future, etc. Even if the grammar is not complicated in English, something like this be: I am, you are, he is, we are, they are, I was, you were, they were, he was, I have been, you will be, they would be, etc. There are many different forms of be.
The other thing is tense. For example, English has past tense, past perfect tense, present tense, present continuous tense, future tense, future perfect tense, and so on. I did, I had done, I have done, I do, I am doing, I have been doing, I will do, etc. There is also the subjunctive mood. There are also conjugations for singular and plural verbs: I do, he does, they do.
Chinese is very simple: 我做过（I do before），我早做了(I do earlier time)，我已经做了(I do already)，我正在做 (I do right now)，我一直在做 (I do all the time) ，我将要做 (I do late)，我们做 (we do)，他会做 (He do late)。 Every situation used "做"(do), no matter what tense it is, it is "做"(do), whether it is singular or plural, it is "做"(do).
Then you may ask: Are the English did, do, and will do more accurate than Chinese expressions? Won't. Chinese can use adverbials to resolve tenses: I 做 (do) it yesterday, you 做 (do) it now, we 做 (do) it tomorrow. Sometimes adverbials must be added in English too: We went there Friday. Without this Friday, the listener would not know when you went. Chinese also adds Friday, but Chinese does not need to change the tense of "go": we went yesterday and we will go tomorrow. In English, you need to change go into went. Chinese says the same things as “we go（去） yesterday” and “we go（去） tomorrow”. You are confused? Of course Not.
Another example is nominative case, object case, there are many rules in English. I love him; He loves me. English needs to distinguish between "he/him, love/loves, I/me". It's a lot of trouble. In Chinese it means "我爱他“ （I love him） and "他爱我”（he love me）. Both used Love, no loves needed.
There are unnecessary repetitions here in English: First of all, why do we add s to the verb after a singular noun? It seems unnecessary. Just like the Chinese saying: I love him, he love me, no one would misunderstand.
There is also passive voice. In English, "He was asked; the table is broken; they were moved", be asked, be broken, be moved, are all passive voice: you need to add be (was, is, were), the verb is also Change to past tense. The Chinese is simple: “他被问“（he be asked）; “桌子破了“（the table be broken）; “他们感动了“（they be moved）. People can understand.
Of course, there are some problems with this. For example, the most common mistake Chinese students make is to always use the present tense: We do, we do yesterday, we do tomorrow. There is also no distinction between singular and plural: We do, he do, she do. This is due to the influence of our long-term Chinese grammar. Chinese verbs are not divided into tenses, and there is no distinction between singular and plural.
So why did Chinese develop such a simple grammar? The main reason is that it is very difficult to create pictographic Chinese characters. Each character is the result of at least decades or hundreds of years of natural selection. For example, the word "是" was originally written in bronze.
The upper part is character Morning – 早, formed by 日- Sun, and 十 – means Grass here. In the morning the sun is very low, just like as low as grass.
The lower part is character Foot – 止. Chinese proverb says "A day's plan begins in the morning." Get up early and go out to start working. The ancients believed that this was "yes", which means affirmation and the right thing that a person should do. This is still the literal meaning of "is." But later it was used in modal verbs, which means "I am, you are, he is". In fact, the meaning is similar, that is, "sure or confirm". "I am a student" is a confirmation of identity.
It is conceivable that many people should have created different "是", but in the end most people accepted the current "是" and then it was passed down. This process should have taken at least decades, probably hundreds of years. This is the process of formation of pictographs.
If there are different "be" like English: am, is, are, was, were, have been, will be, etc. Then can Chinese characters create so many "是" characters? Add extra one stroke, two strokes, or remove one stroke or two strokes to the word "是" ? Where to add it? Which stroke could you eliminated? None, because if you do, the character lost its pictography completely.
It is precisely because Chinese characters were not enough that ancient Chinese even had made a character to have multiple meanings: for example, "乐": music, happiness; "差": bad review, errand; "行": action, or bank ; "参": participate, ginseng, etc.
The corresponding Chinese character for do mentioned earlier is "做".
Big seal script of 做
On the left is character Person. The middle is character Ancient, but it means here is a wine measuring vessel made of bamboo, the bottom mouth is the bamboo tube, the top is the bamboo pole and handle. People who are now over 60 years old may have seen such a wine measuring device in the grocery store when they were children. It can measure wine, vinegar, and soy sauce. Grocery stores in remote rural areas may still use it. On the right of the character, a hand (lower part) with a tool, such as a hammer (top part), a person holding the tool to make a wine measurer.
The ancients racked their brains to come up with such a word. It is almost impossible to divide it into present tense, past tense, present continuous tense, perfect tense, etc.
All in all, it is impossible to create different Chinese characters according to different tenses, singular and plural numbers like English. Too much trouble and unnecessary.
The ancestors probably never thought of doing that at all. Since there is only one "是"（be）, our ancestors used the word "是" to express all "是"s with a subject in front. Later, adding time adverbials solved all the problems. For example, "I 是 a student in the past", "past 是" = 是. The singular and plural forms of the present tense have no effect on Chinese verbs: "I 做（do）, we 做." Does it affect understanding? Absolutely not. So why should we impose restrictions on ourselves?
It is easy to spell words in English, such as: do, does, doing, done, did, or work, working, worked, worker, etc. "It is easy to be willful", so many rules are set, some are necessary and some maybe unnecessary, it makes the syntax very complicated. Chinese is forced to set simple grammar because it is impossible to create many forms of one verb due to different tense, and singular or plural in Chinese.
Will such simple grammar in Chinese cause misunderstandings? China’s thousands of years of history tells us: No. So can foreigners understand grammar like Chinese? Yes. For example, "Long time no see" is a typical Chinese expression: no subject, no object, but everyone understands it, and now it has become standard English.
There are many strokes in Chinese characters. If you don’t understand pictograms, it will be very difficult to learn them by rote memorization. Therefore, Chinese characters are considered to be the most difficult language in the world to learn. But if we start from pictograms, Chinese characters become very simple and interesting. The difficulty of creating Chinese characters forced the Chinese language to form a minimalist grammar. Chinese actually has a strong advantage: Chinese characters that look like paintings, plus the simplest grammar.
As long as pictograms are introduced into Chinese teaching, Chinese can become the most beautiful and easiest language in the world.
Written on January 11, 2024
Translated on January 19, 2024
Note: Update information
1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is
Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/
2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is
Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/
You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.
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