Lesson3: I’m a beauty!

If there is a verb we need to learn first, I will say it’s definitely 是(shì). As a verb, it’s usually translated into ‘to be’. One thing surprised me was one of my American student didn’t understand what ‘to be’ is. I spent a lot of time on explaining it’s ‘am, is, are’. As I mentioned before, there is no verb conjugation. So 是(shì) is the only word for ‘am, is, are’ in Chinese. It’s often used as:

Subject + 是(shì) + Object.

Generally, the usage is quite similar as English. I will say it’s quite boring. But in this sentence pattern, the object should be a noun not an adjective. Now let’s practice a little. Here is some words:
我(wǒ)      I
你(nǐ)      you
他(tā)      he
这(zhè)      this
那(nà)      that
中(zhōng)国(guó)人(rén)    Chinese people
美(měi)国(guó)人(rén)      American people
美(měi)女(nǚ)         beauty
帅(shuài)哥(gē)       handsome guy
傻(shǎ)子(zi)         fool
天(tiān)才(cái)        genius

Make creative sentences as much as possible.

我(wǒ)是(shì)美(měi)女(nǚ)！

The reason why I selected 是 today is not just because the verb ‘to be’. It’s ‘yes’ in Chinese, too. How important that is! Technically, any yes-no question can be answered as ‘是’. Every time my teacher or boss talk to me, I will continuously say:  ‘是’, ‘是’, ‘是’ with a sincere face, which can make their speech as short as possible.

BTW, the title is just an example sentence. I didn’t mean it.