Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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想 — Want a Verb, Miss a Person
想 — 想做一件事，想念一个人
想 + verb is a wish: 我想吃火锅. 想 + person is an ache: 我想你了. The meaning turns on what you put after it.
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Memory hook
想 + verb = want to · 想 + noun = miss
Wishes and aches
Tap any line. Check what follows 想 — a verb makes a plan, a noun makes it hurt.
Tap any line to hear it
Wish, ache, or thinking it over?愿望、想念，还是在考虑？
No pressure — just making it stick.
我今天晚上____吃火锅。
Wǒ jīntiān wǎnshang ____ chī huǒguō.
Tonight I want to eat hotpot.
Which reply fits?
我____我家的狗狗。
Wǒ ____ wǒ jiā de gǒugou.
I miss my family's dog.
我周末想去商场买____衣服。
Wǒ zhōumò xiǎng qù shāngchǎng mǎi ____ yīfu.
This weekend I want to go to the mall and buy two items of clothing.
What's stopping the trip?
——明天想一起去游泳吗？——我____。
— Míngtiān xiǎng yìqǐ qù yóuyǒng ma? — Wǒ ____.
“Want to go swimming together tomorrow?” — “Let me think about it.”
Your turn — say it
老师，我肚子疼，我想去厕所！
Teacher, my stomach hurts — I need the bathroom!
Your turn — say it
我想你了。
I miss you (now).
This lesson's characters
An eye, a tree and a heart — then a pig under a roof, and someone finally resting.
to want to; to miss; to think
形meaning + sound
The top half, 相, is an eye beside a tree — to look something over — and it lends the sound. The bottom is the heart. What the eye took in once, the heart keeps replaying: that is 想. All three of this lesson's meanings live in the picture — wanting (the heart leaning toward it), missing (the heart replaying it), thinking (the heart turning it over). You met this heart under 怎 a few lessons ago; it has been busy.
home; family
会two ideas joined
A pig under a roof. In the old courtyards the pig lived inside the walls — savings, dinner and central heating in one animal — so a roof with a pig under it meant a household. 家 is home and family in a single character, and 想家 is missing everything under that one roof. Pig optional these days.
to rest
会two ideas joined
A person leaning against a tree — the oldest picture of a break anyone ever drew. 休息 adds 息, breath settling back to the heart, but 休 alone already says it: somebody, a tree, nothing that needs doing. 我周末想在家休息 — no tree required; the leaning is the point.
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- Before bed: one honest 我想…… about tomorrow, one about a person far away. Notice you used the same word for a plan and an ache.
- Next lukewarm invitation, deploy 我想想。 — the politest maybe in Mandarin. Nobody is fooled; everybody is comfortable.
- 想 wishes; 要 insists. When your wishes are ready to place orders, 要 is waiting in HSK2.