Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
No sign-up needed, but nothing is saved. Sign up free and your progress and mistake book are kept — carry on from any phone or computer.
This practice works best alongside a lesson: to really get this grammar, book one and your teacher explains it and practises it with you.
是……的 (2) — Who Did It
「是……的」句（二）— 强调施事：是谁买的？
The 是……的 spotlight turns on the person: 这个包是谁买的？——是我男朋友买的。 Credit, blame and the family accounts of who does what.
Sign up free — just an email. Your wrong answers go into your mistake book, and you can carry on on another device.
Sign up / sign inCloned voice — synthesised in a real teacher's timbre, not a recording of her.
Memory hook
O + 是 + who + V + 的
Who did it
Every line pins an action on a person. Listen for the doer sitting between 是 and the verb.
Tap any line to hear it
Whose name goes on it记在谁的名下
No pressure — just making it stick.
这个包是____买的？——是我男朋友买的。
Zhè ge bāoshì ____ Mǎi de? — Shì wǒ nánpéngyou mǎi de.
Who bought this bag? — My boyfriend did.
Your boyfriend cooked, not you. Which reply is honest?
Who made the call?
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
碗____我洗的，是我妈妈洗的。
Wǎn ____ Wǒ xǐ de, shì wǒ māma xǐ de.
The bowls weren't washed by me — my mum did them.
Your turn — say it
是我男朋友买的。
My boyfriend bought it.
你的房间是谁打扫的？——是我____打扫的。
Nǐ de fángjiān shì shéi dǎsǎo de? — Shì wǒ ____ Dǎsǎo de.
Who cleaned your room? — I did it myself.
Fill in the family ledger: who did each thing?
Tap a word to fill the next gap; tap a filled sentence to clear it. Every word is used once.
Word bank
0/5The chores, in pictures看图说家务
No pressure — just making it stick.
Four household jobs from the deck. Match each picture, then say 是谁做的？ and answer it.
Tap a picture, then choose its word. Picked wrong? Tap that picture and choose again. Match all the cards to finish.
Your turn — say it
晚饭是谁做的？——是我做的。
Who made dinner? — I did.
This bag — I didn't buy it.
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
Your turn — say it
饭是妈妈做的，碗是爸爸洗的。
Mum cooks, Dad does the dishes.
This lesson's characters
Three from the ledger: buying, washing, and the bowl that has to be washed.
to buy
会two ideas joined
The traditional 買 is a net 网 over a cowrie shell 贝: gathering up shells, the money of ancient China, to trade. The simplified 买 kept only a hook of the net and rewrote the bottom as 头 — the picture is gone but the price is not. Add a lid and you get 卖 mài, to sell: the same shells, going the other way. 是谁买的？ is the question at the heart of every purchase.
to wash
形meaning + sound
Water 氵 and 先 for the sound — to wash. 洗碗 washes the bowls, 洗衣服 the clothes, 洗澡 yourself, 洗手 your hands before dinner. In a household ledger 碗是谁洗的 is the line most often answered with a sigh.
bowl
形meaning + sound
石 says what a bowl was made of before porcelain; 宛 gives the sound exactly. A bowl is also the measure word for what it holds — 一碗米饭, 一碗面 — and 洗碗 is the chore that follows every 做饭. 碗是谁洗的？ is asked in every kitchen in China.
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
- Tonight at dinner, keep the ledger out loud: 饭是谁做的？碗是谁洗的？ Then answer the deck's real question — 你们家谁最累？
- Compare the two spotlights you now own: 我是七点起的床 lights the time; 饭是我做的 lights the person. Same 是……的, aimed differently.
- Take credit once this week in Chinese: 这是我做的。 It is a good sentence to own.