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把 and 被: doing something to an object

把 moves the object in front of the verb to stress what happens to it; 被 flips it round to say who it happened to.

让 — to ask / let someone do somethingHSK 2

让 + person + verb means to have or ask someone to do something: 她让我帮助她.

她让我帮助她。— She asked me to help her.

让 + person + verbHSK 2

让 means to have or tell someone to do something: 医生让我多休息.

医生让我多喝水。— The doctor told me to drink more water.

把 + object + verb(the 把-construction)HSK 3

把 moves the object in front of the verb to stress what happens to it.

我把充电器还给她。— I returned the charger to her.

把 (the 把 construction)HSK 3

把 + object + verb moves the object in front of the verb to show what happens to it — common when handing something over: 把护照给他 (hand him the passport).

我把护照给他。— I gave him my passport.

把 + object + verb + resultHSK 3

The 把 structure moves the object before the verb to show what is done to it, with a result after the verb.

我把衣服和电脑都放进了行李箱。

把 + object + verb + complementHSK 3

The 把 sentence moves the object before the verb to show what you do to it; the verb needs a result or direction after it, e.g. 把门关好 'close the door properly'.

我把包里的东西都拿了出来。 — I took everything out of the bag.

把……当成……HSK 4

"To treat/mistake A for B." 把 moves the object before the verb 当成 (to regard as): 我总是紧张地把油门当成刹车踩。

他把陌生人当成了老朋友。— He mistook the stranger for an old friend.

被视为…… — to be regarded asHSK 6

A written-style passive used for judgments and reputations; 视为 is more formal than 看作 and is common in commentary and academic prose.

他一直被视为这个领域最有希望的年轻人。 — He has long been regarded as the most promising young person in the field.

How to use this page

These 8 patterns all do the same job in Chinese, so they are worth seeing side by side — the differences between them are easier to feel when they are next to each other than when they are spread across six HSK levels. They range from HSK 2–6.

Grammar sticks through reading, not through lists. Each entry links to the reading it was taken from. Skim the page, then go read one of them and come back when a sentence stops making sense.

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