City University of Hong Kong CLASS CLASS
Making Sense of Grammar
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asked Dec 26, 2020 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by Ariel (34,480 points) | 281 views

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conjunction followed by conjunctive: 只要zhǐ yào…就jiù…

只要你愿意学,我就教你。

Zhǐ yào nǐ yuàn yì xué,wǒ jiù jiāo nǐ。

As long as you are willing to learn, (then) I’ll teach you.

Note that只要zhǐ yào…就jiù… only occurs with a positive meaning. If what is said is negative in tone, 要是 yào shì will have to be used instead of 只要zhǐ yào

要是你还是吃(得)那么多,你就瘦不下来/瘦不了。

Yào shì nǐ hái shì chī (de)nà me duō ,nǐ jiù shòu bú xià lái /shòu bú le 。

As long as you eat so much, you won’t get any thinner.

[1] Yip, P. C., Rimmington, D., Xiaoming, Z., & Henson, R. (2009). Basic Chinese: a grammar and workbook. Taylor & Francis.
answered Dec 26, 2020 by Ariel (34,480 points)

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