4. Family Members & "是" (To Be)

New Vocabulary

Character	Pinyin	Literal Character Meaning	English Usage
是	shì	be	am/is/are
弟弟	dìdi	younger + younger	younger brother
哥哥	gēge	older + older	older brother
谁	shéi	who	who
绿	lǜ	green	green
吕	lǚ	(surname)	surname Lü

Possessive Phrases with Family Members

Chinese	Pinyin	Character-by-Character	English Usage
我妈妈的	wǒ māma de	I + mother + mother + possessive	my mom's
我的妈妈	wǒ de māma	I + possessive + mother + mother	my mom
他的妈妈	tā de māma	he + possessive + mother + mother	his mom
她的爸爸	tā de bàba	she + possessive + father + father	her dad
我们的妈妈	wǒmen de māma	I + plural + possessive + mother + mother	our mom
他们的妈妈	tāmen de māma	he + plural + possessive + mother + mother	their mom

Important Sentence Patterns

Chinese	Pinyin	Character-by-Character	English Usage
他是我的弟弟	tā shì wǒ de dìdi	he + be + I + possessive + younger + younger	He is my younger brother
我是哥哥	wǒ shì gēge	I + be + older + older	I am the older brother
我是Jack	wǒ shì Jack	I + be + Jack	I am Jack
他是谁？	tā shì shéi?	he + be + who	Who is he?
他们是谁？	tāmen shì shéi?	he + plural + be + who	Who are they?

Pronunciation Notes

J, Q, X with ü Sound

Character	Pinyin	Notes
绿	lǜ	Uses ü sound
吕	lǚ	Uses ü sound

• The ü sound is written as 'u' after j, q, x
• The dots are only written in other cases (like in 吕 lǚ)

Grammar Points

1. 是 (shì) Usage:    - Links subject with predicates    - Used for identification    - Cannot be used alone like English "yes"

2. Possession Patterns:    - Both Person + family member + 的 and Person + 的 + family member are correct    - 们 (men) indicates plural    - 的 (de) indicates possession

Looking Ahead

Next concept: 认识 (rèn + shi) = recognize + know → to know/recognize someone

Common Pattern Notes

• Family terms are doubled (弟弟, 哥哥) with second character in neutral tone
• Possessive marker 的 comes after the owner
• Plural marker 们 comes after the pronoun
• Question word 谁 (shéi) comes at the same position as the answer would be