The productivity means the ability of the language to produce the new words. Language is developing with the development of the society. When you learn Mandarin, you can learn some new words produced because of social development. Meanwhile, the production of the new words often based on the original words. For instance, the basic word 天 can produce words like 天空、天鹅、今天, which are often see when you learn Mandarin. Accordingly, the foreign learners can make use of this feature to remember more new Chinese words.

After linguists proposed the features of language, many scholars thought the productivity does not suitable for Chinese words, especially for the functional words. When you study in Mandarin language program, you should know the productivity is related to the structure of words but not the history or whether it is widely used. Therefore, even though many words have the nature of productivity, foreign students who learn Mandarin should know not all words have this nature like functional words 很、呢、都. Therefore, the productivity is only the basic feature of the words.