A Practical Grammar of Modern Chinese
Moodle (asynchronous) + EXAM final
Advanced · Year 2
2 teaching periods · 13 weeks + exam
40% quizzes · 60% final exam
Course Description
This online course is designed for second-year undergraduate students majoring in Chinese language who have completed the beginner Chinese language courses (Integrated Chinese 1 & 2) in their first year. It is also suitable for East Asian Studies Master's students and students from other disciplines who have a solid foundation in Chinese, have chosen Chinese as one of their minors, and have passed the minor exam (in Finnish or English) as well as a placement test (in Chinese) before enrolment.
The course offers a systematic, research-grounded treatment of Mandarin Chinese grammar. Its core textbook is Liu Yuehua et al., 实用现代汉语语法 (A Practical Grammar of Modern Chinese), 2001 revised edition — the standard reference grammar in contemporary Chinese linguistics. Over thirteen teaching weeks, students will work through five major areas of the grammar:
- Word classes and their grammatical functions
- Phrase structure and internal syntactic relations
- Sentence components — subject, predicate, object, attributive (定语), adverbial (状语), complement (补语)
- Special sentence types — 是…的, 把, 被, existential, serial-verb, and pivotal (兼语) constructions
- Complex sentences and discourse-level grammar
Unlike other intermediate Chinese grammar offerings, this course has a dual focus on practical competence and metalinguistic knowledge. In weekly quizzes and in the final exam, students are assessed not only on their ability to produce grammatically correct Chinese, but also on their ability to analyse Chinese grammar using the terminology and concepts of modern Chinese linguistics — semantic orientation, aspectual class, grammaticalisation, the adverbial-vs-complement asymmetry, deictic anchoring, and so on. Error analysis is drawn systematically from 汉语病句900句 (900 Common Errors in Chinese), a corpus of typical mistakes made by English-speaking learners.
All teaching is delivered asynchronously through Moodle. Each teaching week consists of approximately five chapter-length study modules — an HTML lecture page and an associated multiple-choice quiz for each chapter, with roughly 100 quiz items per week. Weekly quizzes contribute 40% of the final grade; a comprehensive electronic final exam in the EXAM system contributes the remaining 60%.
Assessment at a Glance
Each weekly quiz package must be completed by Sunday 23:59 of that teaching week.
Items test both grammar application and linguistic analysis, with error-identification questions drawn from 汉语病句900句.
Covers the full syllabus: word classes, phrase structure, sentence components, special sentence types, and complex sentences.
Students may book their sitting any time during 7 Dec – 20 Dec 2026.
Provisional Semester Plan
The following plan shows the teaching schedule for Autumn 2026, including the two teaching periods, the mid-term break, and the exam window. Each teaching week comprises approximately five chapter-level study modules (HTML lecture + quiz) drawn from the indicated sections of Liu Yuehua (2001). Each week's quizzes are due Sunday 23:59 EET/EEST.
| Week | Dates | Focus area | Liu Yuehua sections (indicative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| TEACHING PERIOD I · 31 Aug – 25 Oct | |||
| 0 | 25–30 Aug | Orientation & diagnostic | Course introduction; diagnostic quiz; review of Year-1 material |
| 1 | 31 Aug – 6 Sept | Verbs and verb categories (动词) | 第一单元 · Ch 2: verb subclasses, transitive / intransitive, action vs. stative; reduplication |
| 2 | 7–13 Sept | Modal verbs (能愿动词) | 第一单元 · Ch 2: 能, 会, 可以, 要, 应该, 必须, 愿意, 敢, 肯 — semantic differences |
| 3 | 14–20 Sept | Adverbs (副词) | 第一单元 · Ch 6: classification; 都, 也, 又, 再, 就, 才, 刚, 已经, 曾经 |
| 4 | 21–27 Sept | Prepositions and conjunctions | 第一单元 · Ch 7 & 8: 在, 把, 被, 对, 向, 跟, 由; coordinate and subordinate conjunctions |
| 5 | 28 Sept – 4 Oct | Aspect: 了, 着, 过 | 第一单元 · Ch 10: perfective 了; durative 着; experiential 过; the liǎo / le distinction |
| 6 | 5–11 Oct | Structural and modal particles | 第一单元 · Ch 10: 的, 地, 得 (structural); 吗, 呢, 吧, 啊 (modal / sentence-final) |
| 7 | 12–18 Oct | Sentence components I — subject, predicate, object, attributive | 第三单元 · Ch 1–3: 主语, 谓语, 宾语, 定语 and their types |
| 8 | 19–25 Oct | Sentence components II — adverbial, complement | 第三单元 · Ch 4–5: 状语; seven types of 补语 (结果, 趋向, 可能, 情态, 程度, 数量, 介词短语) |
| MID-TERM BREAK · 26 Oct – 1 Nov | |||
| TEACHING PERIOD II · 2 Nov – 6 Dec | |||
| 9 | 2–8 Nov | Special sentences I | 第四单元 · Ch 1–3: 是-句, 有-句, 连动句 (serial verb), 兼语句 (pivotal), 存现句 (existential) |
| 10 | 9–15 Nov | Special sentences II | 第四单元 · Ch 4–5: 把-句 (disposal), 被-句 (passive), 是…的 (cleft-focus), double-object |
| 11 | 16–22 Nov | Questions, imperatives, comparison | 第四单元 · Ch 6–8: yes/no, A-not-A, wh-questions; rhetorical questions; imperatives; 比, 跟, 没有 comparison |
| 12 | 23–29 Nov | Complex sentences | 第五单元 · Ch 1–3: coordinate / subordinate relations; correlative pairs (因为…所以, 虽然…但是, 只要…就); conditional, concessive, purposive clauses |
| 13 | 30 Nov – 6 Dec | Contracted sentences, discourse, review | 第五单元 · Ch 4: 紧缩句; topic continuity, ellipsis, discourse-level particles; semester synthesis |
| EXAM WINDOW · 7 Dec – 13 Dec | |||
| EXAM | 7–13 Dec | Comprehensive final exam (60%) | Covers Weeks 1–13. Closed-book electronic exam via UTU EXAM system. Students book their slot in advance. No re-sits inside this window. |
Chapter-level topics within each teaching week are listed in the Moodle course outline and may be adjusted slightly during the semester. Any changes will be announced on Moodle at least one week in advance.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify and correctly use the word classes of modern Mandarin and understand their distributional constraints.
- Analyse Chinese sentences into their components (subject, predicate, object, attributive, adverbial, complement) using standard 对外汉语教学语法 terminology.
- Produce and analyse special sentence types — 是…的, 把, 被, existential, serial-verb, and pivotal constructions — with accuracy and stylistic awareness.
- Recognise and repair the typical grammatical errors made by English-speaking learners of Chinese, drawing on the error taxonomy of 汉语病句900句.
- Discuss Chinese grammatical phenomena using modern linguistic concepts (aspect, semantic orientation, deixis, grammaticalisation, information structure).
Required Materials
- 刘月华、潘文娱、故 (2001). 实用现代汉语语法（增订本）. 北京：商务印书馆. — core reference grammar
- 程美珍 (1997). 汉语病句900句 · Error Analysis of 900 Sample Sentences. 华语教学出版社. — error-analysis source for weekly quizzes
Both textbooks are provided to registered students via Moodle. These materials are copyrighted and are for your sole academic use; redistribution is not permitted.
Grading Scale
| Grade | Range |
|---|---|
| 5 · Excellent | 90–100% |
| 4 · Very Good | 80–89% |
| 3 · Good | 70–79% |
| 2 · Satisfactory | 60–69% |
| 1 · Pass | 50–59% |
| 0 · Fail | Below 50% |
- Opettaja
Jiaqi Guo