每日中文 Daily ZhongWen

17 Chinese Grammar Points about 有


  • 1. 有 - Verb| Possession: "to have"
    有 can express possession, meaning "to have". It is the most basic meaning of this verb.
  • 2. 有 - Verb| Existence: "there be"
    有 as a verb can also express existence. This is similar to "there be" in English.
  • 3. 有 - Adj.| "some"
    As an adjective, 有 can be placed in front of "person", "time", and "place" to refer to certain part of group, meaning "some".
  • 4. 有 - Adj.| To refer to a particular "one"
    有 can refer to a particular thing or occasion while avoiding to state exactly.
  • 5. Adj.| 有一次/回:"once"
    有 can refer to a certain time in the past. 有一次 or 有一回 means "once".
  • 6. Adj. phrases| 有 + object
    有 can be placed before an abstract noun to form a phrase.
  • 7. Negation| 没有
    没/没有 is the negative form of 有.
  • 8. Negation| 从来 + 没有 "never"
    从来, meaning "always", can be placed in front of 没有 to emphasize the negation.
  • 9. Negation| 再也 + 没有 "never,no-again"
    再也,meaning 'again', can be placed in front of 没有 to emphasize the negation.
  • 10. 有 - + 什么"What",谁"Who"
    有 with question words,such as 什么/谁, can form content questions.
  • 11. 有 - + 多少/几个 "How many"
    Not like in English, question words in Chinese are not placed at the beginning of a sentence. In Chinese, the basic word order of an interrogative sentence is no difference from that of a declarative sentence.
  • 12. Questions| +没有/吗?
    没有 or 吗 can be added to the end of a 有-sentence to form a question. 有-sentence indicates "possession" or "existence".
  • 13. 有点儿 means "a bit" in English.
  • 14. Comparison|有/没有-那么+Adj.
    有-那么+Adj. can be used to ask a comparison question.
    没有-那么+Adj. expresses a negative comparison.
  • 15. Comparison|没有比 + Object + 更 + Adj.
    没有比-更+Adj. means "nothing more than" in comparisons.
  • 16. Conjunction|还有
    还有 can express "and" in a sentence. 还有 normally starts a completely new sentence or clause.
  • 17. Affirmative-negative: 有没有,是否有
    有没有 or 是否有 are used especially to express doubts. It can be translated to "whether or not; if" in English.