The 把 sentence: doing something to an object
特殊句型 / special sentence patterns
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
The 把 sentence moves the object before the verb to stress what is done to that object and the result: it gets moved, changed, finished, broken…
Three golden rules:
1. The object is definite (we know which one): 把这些书, 把我的行李.
2. The verb can never stand alone: it needs something after it (了, a result complement, a direction, reduplication…). ✓ 把门关上 / 把饭吃完了.
3. The verb must be a concrete action affecting the object. You can't say ✗ 把中文喜欢.
Compare: 我搬了箱子 (I moved some boxes) → 我把箱子搬到楼上了 (I moved the boxes upstairs): the focus is on what happened to the boxes.
Examples
请把门关上。
Qǐng bǎ mén guānshang.Please close the door.
我已经把行李收拾好了。
Wǒ yǐjīng bǎ xíngli shōushi hǎo le.I've already packed my luggage.
你把这些旧衣服扔了吧。
Nǐ bǎ zhèxiē jiù yīfu rēng le ba.Just throw away these old clothes.
他把房间打扫得很干净。
Tā bǎ fángjiān dǎsǎo de hěn gānjìng.He cleaned the room really well.
Common mistakes
✗ 我把饭吃。 → verb with nothing after it. ✓ 我把饭吃完了。
✗ 我把一本书看完了。 → indefinite object. ✓ 我把那本书看完了。
✗ 我把他认识了。 → 认识, 喜欢, 知道, 是, 有 don't work with 把.