zhongwen-obsidian/Prepositions.md

#preposition #construction

In English, prepositional expressions provide extra information related to a sentence's main verb:

• I study in the library.
• I study from morning until night.
• I study with my friends. These three phases specify, respectively, place, time and company (wrt. studying).

To do this in Chinese, we use the "prepositional construction". These come before the verb.

Location #在 #locative

The first type of preposition is place, which uses 在 + location/Locatives.

subject + (在 + location) + (verb + object)
          (  Location   )

For example:

1. 他在书店买书。 tā zài shūdiàn mǎi shū He is buying books in the bookshop.
2. 你弟弟在我这儿看杂志。 nǐ dìdi zài wǒ zhèr kàn zázhì Your brother is reading magazines at mine. (1) has a real world place as the location, but (2) has a derived locative from attaching 这儿 to 我 (since 我 is not a locative, thus 在 cannot take it as an object).

Origin #从 #locative

Origin prepositions can be created with the preposition 从cóng, "from", + location/locative:

subject + (从 + location) + (verb + object)
          (    Origin   )

Examples:

1. 她从中国来。 tā cóng Zhōngguó lái She is coming from China.
2. 我从家去。 wǒ cóng jiā qù I'm going from my house.
3. 你从我这儿去。 nǐ cóng wǒ zhèr qù You're going from mine.
4. 她从老师那儿去。 tā cóng lǎoshī nàr qù She is going from the teacher's place.

[!warning] 从 is not a verb Unlike 去 and 来, 从 is not a verb - it is a preposition. Thus, it cannot stand on it's own without another verb. You cannot say "他从中国".

Destination

We can use 从 to describe an origin and destination - to (verb) from somewhere to somewhere:

(从 + location) + verb + location
(    Origin   )          (Destination)

Examples:

1. 她从中国去美国。 tā cóng Zhōngguó qù Měiguó She goes from China to the US.
2. 他从我这儿去书店。 tā cóng wǒ zhèr qù shūdiàn He goes from mine to the bookshop.
3. 他从宿舍去你去你那儿。 tā cóng sùshè qù nǐ nàr He goes from the dormitory to your place.
4. 他从我这儿去你那儿。 tā cóng nǐ zhèr qù nǐ nàr He goes from mine to yours. (He goes from me to you.)
5. 他从哪儿去王老师那儿？ tā cóng nǎr qù Wáng lǎoshī nàr From where does he go to Teacher Wang's?

Benefactor #benefactor #给

A benefactor preposition uses 给gěi, "on behalf of somebody"/"for someone's benefit". This is called the benefactor preposition. For example:

1. 我给弟弟买画报。 wǒ gěi dìdì mǎi huàbào I'm buying a pictorial for my little brother.
2. 古波不给爸爸写信。 Gūbǒ bù gěi bàba xiě xìn Gūbǒ doesn't write his father.
3. 老给我们介绍中国吗？ lǎoshī gěi wǒmen jiěshào Zhōngguó ma Is the teacher going to teach us about China?
4. 我妈妈常给我介绍女朋友。 wǒ māma cháng gěi wǒ jièshào nǚ péngyou My mother often introduces me to girls.

Only some verbs can take this 给 pattern. Some key ones to remember are:

1. 给 (someone) 买 (something) #买
2. 给 (someone) 写信 #写
3. 给 (someone) 介绍 （something/someone) #介绍