Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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请 · 让 · 叫 — Getting Someone to Do Something
兼语句——请／让／叫＋人＋做事
老板让我加班, 朋友请我去他家吃饭, 校长叫你去办公室: one person makes another act. The verb in the middle sets the tone — invite, allow, order.
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Memory hook
S + 请 / 让 / 叫 + person + V …
Two doers, one sentence
Eight from the deck. Listen for the verb in the middle — 请, 让 or 叫 — and the person right after it.
Tap any line to hear it
Who makes whom谁让谁
No pressure — just making it stick.
老板____我加班，我很累。
Lǎobǎn ____ Wǒ jiābān, wǒ hěn lèi.
The boss has me working overtime — I'm exhausted.
A friend announces this. Which reply fits the culture?
A Chinese friend invited me to dinner at his home.
Tap the tiles in order — it checks itself when the sentence is complete. Tap a placed tile to take it back.
Your sentence
请你____抽烟。
Qǐng nǐ ____ Chōuyān.
Please don't smoke.
Your turn — say it
今天我请大家吃火锅。
Hotpot tonight is on me.
校长____你去办公室，快去。
Xiàozhǎng ____ Nǐ qù bàngōngshì, kuàiqù.
The headmaster is calling you to the office — hurry.
Pick the pivot verb — or the person — for each line.
Tap a word to fill the next gap; tap a filled sentence to clear it. Every word is used once.
Word bank
0/5Who does what, in pictures看图说兼语
No pressure — just making it stick.
Four scenes from the deck. Match each picture to its word, then say who 请/让/叫 whom.
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
老板让我加班。
The boss has me working overtime.
Please don't smoke in the café.
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
我会让孩子早点儿睡觉。
I'd have the kids go to bed early.
This lesson's characters
The two polite pivot verbs, and the smoke the deck asks you not to make.
to request, to invite, to treat
形meaning + sound
Speech 讠 and 青 for the sound: to ask with words. 请 opens every polite request — 请坐, 请进, 请问 — and in 我请你吃饭 it pays the bill. The same 青 sounds in 清, clear water, and 情, feeling; here it only lends its voice.
to let, to have (someone do); to yield
形meaning + sound
Speech 讠 again — letting someone do something is done with words — and a simplified sound part. The old sense was to yield, to give way: 让一下, excuse me, let me through. From yielding came permitting, and from permitting came arranging: 老板让我加班. One verb from politeness to command.
smoke; cigarette
形meaning + sound
Fire 火 and 因 for the sound: what rises from fire — smoke. 抽烟, 'to draw smoke', is to smoke a cigarette, and 请你不要抽烟 is the sign in every café. 烟 is also the haze over a lake at dawn, and 烟花, fire-flowers, are fireworks.
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
- Decide who in your life gets 请, who gets 让 and who gets 叫 — then say one sentence for each. The temperature is the lesson.
- Say 今天我请大家 once at a real table this month. Mean it, and let them protest.
- Answer the deck's parent question honestly: 我会让孩子……，我不会让孩子…… — and give a 因为 for each.