For most beginners of Chinese language learning, the top concern should be how to learn Mandarin quickly and firmly. In this lesson, two useful expressions often used in daily conversation will be illustrated in meanings and applications to the beginners to improve their Chinese language learners. The first one is 是…的, which is often seen when you are talking with Chinese people like 我是去年九月份来中国的.

The structure 是…的emphasizes the time, location, manner, purpose, subject and object of an act that has already taken place or completed. The point that needs much attention is that 是can be omitted in the formative sentence but can’t be omitted in the negative sentence. For examples, we can omit 是in the formative sentence 他们是从美国来的but can’t do the same in the negative sentence 她不是一个人来的，是跟朋友一起来的.

In the learning process, some students study in qualified Mandarin program may often hear people say我是在北京学的汉语, which is also an important language point for the pattern 是…的. If the verb takes a noun as its object, the object is often placed after 的. Let’s take a dialogue as an example to illustrate it. A：你怎么去上海的？B：我坐飞机去的上海.

Another important and frequently applied Chinese expression is 一…就…, which is to link a complect sentence to indicate certain conditions which can be classified into two types. First of all, you need to know the two parts after 一and就are two acts. For the first condition, it is used to connect the sentence to indicate the second act immediately follows the first act. Accordingly, you can say他一到中国就给我打了个电话in which 打电话and到中国are closely connected.

However, for some sentences like 中国人一听就知道你是老外, the meaning is totally different with the sentence above. In this case, the first act is the condition or the cause of the second act like 我一感冒就咳嗽.