How do I use the "yinwei... suoyi" structure?

We use this structure when we want to say that occurred because of a.

Let's consider an example in English: "mum gave little brother a present, because he studied hard." In Mandarin, the "yinwei... suoyi" structure swaps the clauses around, into: "because little brother studied hard, mum gave him a present".

That's the basic idea, but let's break it down further so you remember the structure, step-by-step: "yinwei [subject + action], suoyi [subject + action + object + item]."

And that's it. You'll notice that this is quite easy to remember, as the word sequence of the sentence structure mimics English.

MY
Answered by Michael Y. Mandarin tutor

14250 Views

See similar Mandarin GCSE tutors

Related Mandarin GCSE answers

All answers ▸

How do you use position words in Mandarin?


What is the difference between 得 and 地 when describing a verb?


How to write a letter for the reading and writing paper


每年春节,中国人都会在家里过节。What does people in China do during every Chinese New Year? 1- Hanging up Lanterns 2-Visiting Friends 3-Celebrating at home


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning