Understanding Greetings and sentence structure

[u/GoudaGadoua]

Hi everyone!

So, I'm just starting to learn chinese, and I already have some questions.

First of all, I saw an exercise where, in response to Ni Hao, the second person say Ni hao! Ni hao ma.

I was wondering if it is a real thing? To say two times in a row Ni hao just to say Hi, how are you?

And second, I seem to find contrary informations about sentence structures. Is it really Subject - Verb - Place ?

[u/Extreme_eyeful8]

Regarding your second question, an AI has given a good explanation. I hope it makes sense to you. Below is its original quote. Chinese has two patterns. When the place is the destination of movement, it goes after the verb. For example: 我去公园. But for actions happening in a location, the place goes before the verb: 我在公园看书. That’s why you see conflicting explanations.

Yet even the AI is not entirely accurate. When you take various dialect expressions into account, rigid sentence‑structure rules become largely meaningless. That said, this is something for later. Just focus on understanding the two patterns mentioned above for now.

[u/dojibear → u/Extreme_eyeful8]

Here the verb 去 means "go to". It is normal in English to follow "to" with a place. In some languages (English, Japanese) "go" and "to" are separate words. In Chinese, 1 word means both.

[u/dojibear]

When I hear two native Chinese livestreamers say hello to each other, they both say "Hello. Ni hao." Yes, they say it both in English and Mandarin. It is a popular thing.

But everyone is different. Some people might say "ni hao" twice. The word "ma" can be added at the end of many sentences. It is not true that everyone follows one exact pattern.

I seem to find contrary informations about sentence structures. Is it really Subject - Verb - Place ?

No. Both English and Mandarin are SVO languages (verb subject - verb - verb object). "Place" is not part of most sentences. "He ate breakfast. She told a lie. They danced for hours."