Chinese pivotal sentences with 请、让、叫

Original Chinese study material with English explanations. Simplified Chinese with pinyin; beginner, intermediate and advanced are editorial difficulty labels.

In a pivotal construction, the person after the first verb is also the understood subject of the next verb: I ask him; he helps. 请 is often a polite request; 让 can mean let or have someone do something.

我请他帮忙。

Wǒ qǐng tā bāngmáng.

I ask him to help.

老师让我们先读课文。

Lǎoshī ràng wǒmen xiān dú kèwén.

The teacher has us read the text first.

叫 can mean call or tell someone to do something, depending on the construction. The middle person performs the second action.

Try it

Who reads in 老师让我们读课文？

1. We do
2. Only the teacher
3. No one

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