The topic-comment structure

In this particular structure of the Chinese language, the usual word order in a sentence (Subject-Verb-Object) is slightly reorganized. The object we are talking about is placed at the beginning of the sentence - in order to emphasize it - rather than after the verb, thus becoming the “topic”,

The second part of the sentence is represented by the “comment”, that is to say by what is said about the “topic.” Topic and comment are separated by a comma. Let’s see some examples of sentences that can be expressed both with the usual SVO word order or the topic-comment structure.

As you can see, in the second example the character 都 (dōu) shows up. It is an adverb and, just like all Chinese adverbs, it always comes before the verb, which in this case is 喜欢 “to like”. 都 means “all” and it is particularly used in the topic-comment structure to summarize something that has already been mentioned previously.

Cover background picture by Kristen Sturdivant (unsplash.com)

comments powered by Disqus