Charlie Brown teaches Chinese sentence structures

I recently wrote an article entitled "The sentence with (the girl with (the dragon tattoo) )" where I spoke about how Chinese sentences are sometimes put together.  I presented a set of 13 examples where I showed how the ability to (mentally) apply brackets to a sentence makes it much easier - indeed makes it possible! - to understand what is being written.

What I didn't want to give is the impression that these structures are not common - in fact it was because they are so common that I decided to write about them in the first place.

So, to make my point (and to make it in a fun way) I paged through a Chinese version of the Peanuts cartoon strip, starring our little hero Charlie Brown.  Here are some frames which give more examples of  "(require brackets)'d sentences"   :-)

By the way, if you're not at the level of reading as many Chinese characters as this, don't worry about it. Focus on the English versions of the sentences, to start to get a feel for how they are constructed in Chinese.

(click on the images for clearer shots)

Frame 1:

This first frame is a great example of just how long the 'middle' phrases can be, and if you don't spot the opportunity to put in some brackets, then the sentence is going to seem like garbage (like it did with me, when I first saw this frame):

我要告诉你一些我以前从来没对任何人讲过的事情

我要告诉你一些(我以前从来没对任何人讲过)的事情

I want to tell you some (...) things

I want to tell you some (I have never told anyone before) things

I guess the clue is that after the words 一些 ('some') it seems to immediately begin a new sentence (我以前 ...) without any preposition or conjunction. That should get you thinking about brackets!

Frame 2:

你能不能把它放在一个我能想起来的地方？

你能不能把它放在一个(我能想起来)的地方？

Can you put them in a (...) place?

Can you put them in a (I am able to remember) place?

Frame 3:

我看见一个坐在南瓜地里的傻孩子

我看见一个((坐在南瓜地)里)的傻孩子

I can see a (...) dumb child

I can see a (sitting inside a pumpkin patch) dumb child

I used a double-brackets in the Chinese sentence to emphasise how prepositions (like 里=inside) are applied in Chinese, if that's not quite obvious to you yet.

Happy reading (subjects that you find interesting)'d texts.