Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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是…的 — Spotlighting Yesterday's Details
是…的 — 给昨天的细节打一束光
The event already happened. 是…的 puts one detail — when, where, how, with whom — under the light, and slips 的 between verb and object.
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Memory hook
主语 + (是) + 细节 + 动词 + 的 (+ 宾语)
Memory hook
The spotlight lands right after 是
Details on trial
Tap any line. First find the 的 — then look left: whatever sits after 是 is the detail under the light.
Tap any line to hear it
Frame the detail把细节框起来
No pressure — just making it stick.
你今天是几点起____床？
Nǐ jīntiān shì jǐ diǎn qǐ ____ chuáng?
What time did you get up today?
她____去年去的美国。
Tā ____ qùnián qù de Měiguó.
It wasn't last year that she went to America.
我们是在网上认识____。
Wǒmen shì zài wǎngshàng rènshi ____.
It was online that we met.
你的车坏了，你今天是____来的公司？
Nǐ de chē huài le, nǐ jīntiān shì ____ lái de gōngsī?
Your car broke down — how did you get to the office today?
Which reply fits?
Which detail is under the spotlight?
Your turn — say it
你们是怎么认识的？
How did you two meet?
Your turn — say it
我今天是七点半起的床。
It was at half past seven that I got up today.
This lesson's characters
A net that still looks like a net, the character for getting moving, and the bed you got out of.
net; the internet
象drawn from life
Crossed threads stretched inside a frame — this is a drawing of a net, and after three thousand years it still looks like one. It caught fish first; now it catches everything else: 网上 is online, 上网 is to go online. When you say 我们是在网上认识的, you met inside a net — which, for the internet, is honest.
to rise, to get up
形meaning + sound
走 is the walking radical — a person mid-stride — and it carries the meaning: getting into motion. 己 lends the sound, jǐ turned into qǐ. 起床 is the first walk of the day: up and out of bed. And 一起 yìqǐ, 'together', is literally rising at the same time.
bed
会two ideas joined
Originally written 牀 — the left half was a bed frame drawn stood on end. The modern form is tidier: a piece of wood 木 tucked under a slanting roof 广. Wooden furniture, indoors: a bed. You leave it with 起床 and return to it with 睡觉 — and in this lesson you get asked the exact time of both.
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
- Tomorrow morning, note the clock and say it in the frame: 我是⋯⋯起的床。Yesterday's details are this grammar's home turf.
- The event is old news; 是…的 puts one detail on trial — and the spotlight lands right after 是.
- 是 may vanish in statements and questions. After 不, never: 不是 stays whole.