Why Chinese Needs Two Syllable Words

Have you ever noticed that many Chinese words have flexible lengths? That means that they can sometimes be one-syllable words and at other times be two-syllable words. In this video, we'll explore the reasons behind this phenomenon and how native Chinese speakers decide between using one-syllable or two-syllable words.

⚡️ Time code:

00:00 Intro
00:50 70% of Chinese Words have fixable lengths
01:40 Why Chinese Needs Two-Syllable Words
04:35 Difference Between One and Two-Syllable Words
10:35 Thank you for watching to the end!

References:
黃麗君、端木三（2013）。現代漢語詞長彈性的量化研究。語言科學 12(1): 8-16。
竺家寧（2017）。《古音之旅 》修訂再版。台北市：萬卷樓。

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[Shih-HsiangCheng]

As a native Chinese speaker, I still learn a lot from Grace's channel. I never noticed such differences exist between one and two syllable versions of a word. Very interesting and informative video!

[DadInTaiwan]

我已經住在台灣十五年了，但是關於這個主題， 這是我第一次聽到那麼清除的解釋，謝謝老師

[mucanan]

As someone who started studying mandarin two years ago, this particular question is one I had for very long and couldn't get an answer to. Eventually I sort of figured it out by myself, so it's nice to know that I was mostly right. I will share this video with anyone who's starting to learn this language.

[maximilianisaaclee]

Wow, this is an amazing lesson. As a half native speaker, I've sometimes struggled to understand or even explain to people about when and why to use single-syllabled and double-syllabled words, because sometimes I do use the single syllable words when I'm writing poems, and I never understood this flexibility which doesn't seem to be the case for most other languages.

I love your lessons as a traditional Chinese writing user, always learning something new even when I'm already a Mandarin speaker. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. 😊

[bruh]

I'm learning mandarin but I'm also really interested in the language linguistically so your channel is perfect, I really like that you go into detail about the linguistics behind the language and not just give "practical" language information

[minangaymoi]

This is one of the smart video I have ever seen. You cannot image how much we love you and how deep we respect you Grace. You make Chinese language become more interesting and adorable.❤❤❤❤❤

[serveyourname]

Oh my Grace, how talented you are for teaching Chinese in such an efficient fashion! Your content is the best ever so far, I reckon. So logical and informative 👍

[adrielalves]

best explanation for this question i've ever seen!!

[rineatorise]

The "rhythm of chinese" part is an eye opener! Many things make much more sense now lol. Thank you so much for the video!

[tomatoxfairy]

As a native speaker, this blew my mind. Didn't realise I was speaking in a rhythm unconsciously. Once you used 3 syllables in the example, it just sounded so wrong.

[benzvd]

In Japanese and Korean, they also use many Chinese two-syllable words and pronounce these in Sino-Japanese / Sino-Korean reading. When using as monosyllabic words, the words aren't usually not pronounced the Sino way but native words are used instead of Chinese loan pronunciation.

[_caniche_]

"She wants what?! " I chuckled at the dramatisation. 😅
Thank you for the great explanation, as always

[TulekBehar]

I have been waiting for this topic for 6 years now. Thank you teacher Grace

[trevor]

ahhh Grace! i have been wondering this for a long time! thanks for making this video!

[janereggievia]

It's amazing how you use interesting way to teach this! As a Chinese tutor and also speaker (Mandarin is my second language), I realised there are so many things in Chinese language that tricky to teach. For example like word "就“, many of my students ask for the meaning in our first language (Indonesian), I went straightly to your channel to explain in a fun way. 多谢你啦, Grace! 🙏🏻💛

[benzvd]

This concept also applies to Thai language
Afraid กลัว = หวาดกลัว, เกรงกลัว
Forget ลืม = หลงลืม
Learn เรียน = เรียนรู้

[davyant]

Thank you so much! Grace is the best chinese teacher in youtube all of time!

[valovanonym]

I think that's one of the key factors that make me like chinese a lot: even if your vocabulary is not fully developed, you can speak and be understood, you will just be less precise

[JacobYuanHang]

I feel that rhythm part is pretty important, for just a common example it’s common to hear 别忘了 or 不要忘记了，but not as common to hear 别忘记 and especially not common to hear 不要忘

[magdolnavida]

Great video, thanks! The fourth was my nightmare question for some time when I began to learn Chinese, but I also quite figured it out... I used to use the 1+2 or 2+1 combo, but I watched tons of c dramas and I (my ears), let's say, began to sense or feel how it really works...
Finally I got a clear answer, thank you, was really great to hear those infos... Will share them!🤗