Positive, negative and question form of 是

In Chinese, 是 (to be) is an easy but very important grammar. In this video, you are going to learn 3 forms of 是.

The affirmative form: S + 是 + N.

The negative form: S + 不是 + N.

The question form: adding “吗” to the end of a sentence, so the form is: S + 是 + N + 吗?

Notes

In Chinese, you don’t need to change the form of “是” according to the tense or plural nouns.

Many English speakers made mistakes when they say “I am busy” in Chinese. Actually, we don’t say the “是” between Subject and adjective. You don’t need to translate “is” to “是”. So “I am busy”, we say “我忙”。

When you want to express “I am doing…”, you don’t need to say “是”. In this situation, just say “S+V”. For example, “I am jumping.”, you can say “我跳”.

Wǒ shì lǎoshī. 我是老师。 I am a teacher.

Tā shì zhōnɡɡuó rén. 他是中国人。 He is Chinese.

Lucy shì wǒ de mèimei. Lucy是我的妹妹。 Lucy is my sister.

Wǒ bú shì měiɡuó rén. 我不是美国人。 I am not an American.

Tāmen bú shì xuéshenɡ. 他们不是学生。 They are not students.

Wǒ de mèimei bú shì Amy. 我的妹妹不是Amy。 My sister is not Amy.

Nǐ shì zhōnɡɡuó rén mɑ? 你是中国人吗？ Are you Chinese?

Tā shì lǎoshī mɑ? 她是老师吗？ Is she a teacher?

Zhè shì nǐde mèimei mɑ? 这是你的妹妹吗？ Is this your sister?