Chinese grammar · 语法
Every grammar point on HSK levels 1, 2 and 3, one page each: the pattern, what it actually means, example sentences with pinyin and English, and the mistakes learners make with it.
209 grammar points, each on its own page.
Chinese asks you to learn almost no forms. Verbs never conjugate, nouns never decline, and nothing agrees with anything else. What it asks instead is that you put the pieces in a fixed order — time before the verb, place before the verb, negation before the verb — and that you learn a small set of particles precisely enough to tell three different 了 apart.
These pages follow the HSK levels because the sequence is a good one: each level is genuinely usable on its own, and each assumes the one before it. Every point gets its pattern, an explanation of what it actually means, examples with pinyin and English, and — where learners reliably trip — the mistake to avoid.
HSK 1 · 54 points
HSK 1 grammar is mostly about word order and a handful of very high-frequency function words. There are no tenses to conjugate and no cases to decline — what you learn instead is where each piece of a sentence goes, and which particle marks what. Get these right and the later levels are additions, not corrections.
Browse the pointsHSK 2 · 77 points
HSK 2 is where sentences start to have texture. Comparisons with 比, experiences with 过, results glued onto verbs, and a set of small adverbs — 就, 还, 再, 已经, 别 — that native speakers lean on constantly and learners tend to leave out. This level rewards reading the examples out loud.
Browse the pointsHSK 3 · 78 points
HSK 3 is the level where Chinese stops feeling like a word-order puzzle and starts feeling like a language with its own logic. 把 and 被 restructure the sentence, potential complements say whether an action can be completed at all, and a set of paired conjunctions lets you build arguments instead of statements.
Browse the pointsRead graded stories that use these patterns, then drill the vocabulary with spaced repetition built on FSRS.