I learnt mandarin from scratch (as my degree) so I thought I'd chip in with a helpful hint about Chinese.
As a starter, learn to make and distinguish tones from each other. Then learn possessives, which open the road up to relative clauses and adverbs.
I tell you this because Chinese verbs don't conjugate at all. There is a sense of 'completion' (look up "le" (δΊ†) particle) but it can be used in any of the tenses you mentioned above. Far more important is word order and sentence structure.
It's a super rewarding language and fascinating as a linguist. I hope you enjoy learning it!
tramliner22 karma
I learnt mandarin from scratch (as my degree) so I thought I'd chip in with a helpful hint about Chinese.
As a starter, learn to make and distinguish tones from each other. Then learn possessives, which open the road up to relative clauses and adverbs.
I tell you this because Chinese verbs don't conjugate at all. There is a sense of 'completion' (look up "le" (δΊ†) particle) but it can be used in any of the tenses you mentioned above. Far more important is word order and sentence structure.
It's a super rewarding language and fascinating as a linguist. I hope you enjoy learning it!
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