Language use: grammar, vocabulary and characters
What the language-use section tests
Language use checks grammar, vocabulary, pinyin and character knowledge in discrete items and short contexts: tone choice, measure words, particles, word order, synonyms and character forms.
Core rules and concepts
- Mandarin word order is normally subject–verb–object, with time before verb and place before verb: 我明天在学校看书.
- 是 links nouns; adjectives do not need 是: 她很聪明, not 她是聪明.
- 了 marks a completed action or changed state, not simply past time; 过 marks experience; 着 marks ongoing state.
- 不 negates present/habitual actions and adjectives; 没(有) negates 有 and completed actions.
- Measure words must match nouns: 一个人, 两本书, 三辆车, 四只猫.
- 把 shifts a definite object before the verb: 我把书放在桌子上. 被 marks passive: 书被他拿走了.
- Learn characters by radical, component and stroke order, not as drawings.
Worked example
Choose the best completion: 她昨天____一本书。 Options: 看 / 看了 / 看过 / 看着. Reasoning: 昨天 gives a finished past event; 了 marks completion, so 看了 is best. 看过 means “has read/experienced”, which is possible but less natural with a specific finished event; 看着 is ongoing; 看 lacks the completion marker.
Traps that cost marks
- Using 不 with 有: say 没有, not 不有.
- Adding 了 to every past sentence.
- Confusing 的/地/得.
- Wrong measure word after a number.
- Ignoring tone marks in pinyin.
- Writing a character with the right sound but wrong component.