Wait what? What’s the difference between them?
哈囉，大家好！ 哈啰，大家好！
I’m Grace.
Today we’re going to talk about a special use of “有”.
You might have learned that “有” means “have”
but 有人 doesn’t mean “have people”
and “有一天” doesn’t mean “have a day”.
If you’re curious about what they mean
and would like to learn this usage of 有, just keep watching!
In Chinese, you might see sentences like,
有一個人哭了。
有三輛車來了。
有一些學生站在那邊。
To understand the use of 有 in these sentences,
first you need to know that when we speak,
in order to let the listeners understand us better,
we tend to say something that they know already
before giving any new information.
So the subject of a sentence would usually be something
that the listener is already familiar with.
Now let’s see these three phrases:
一個人 a person
三輛車 three cars
一些學生 some students
If you use them as subjects,
the listeners don’t really know who or what exactly you’re referring to.
They are unknown to the listeners.
So most of the time, the following sentences would sound
unnatural and incorrect:
一個人哭了。
三輛車來了。
一些學生站在那邊。
They sound unnatural because
we tend to have a subject that is known to the listener,
so in order to make it clear,
we need to add a 有 before the phrase to alert the listener that
there is someone or something and we’re going to talk about it,
so the listener is now aware of them.
So instead of saying 一個人(a person)哭了,
we say 有一個人 (There is a person) 哭了
You can even omit the 一 and say 有個人哭了
or omit 一個 and say 有人哭了
Instead of saying 三輛車(three cars)來了,
we say 有三輛車 (There are three cars) 來了
The third example, instead of saying 一些學生(some students)站在那邊
we say 有一些學生(There are some students) 站在那邊
一 here can be omitted to say 有些學生站在那邊
In summary,
we like to have subjects that both the listener and speaker know,
so that when we talk about someone or something in particular
but is unknown to the listeners
like “一個人 a person” or “一些學生 some students”,
we need to add a 有 before them.
However, for the object,
you can give new information that is unknown to the listener,
so phrases like “一個人”, “三輛車” and “一些學生” are totally acceptable.
So we can say…
他弄哭了一個人 (object)。
He made someone cry.
When used as an object, we don’t add 有.
Another example,
我舅舅昨天買了三輛車 (object)。
My (maternal) uncle bought three cars yesterday.
The next example is
那邊站了一些學生。
Some students are standing there.
There are a couple of daily phrases that are formed
by this use of 有
so let’s learn about them.
The first one is “有人”.
When it’s used as a subject, it means “someone”,
for example,
有人喜歡你。
Someone likes you.
（打噴嚏 sneezing）
有人想你了！
The next one is “有一天 one day / someday”.
It’s often used to start a story.
For example,
有一天，我在一家咖啡廳讀書... (the rest of the story)
One day, I was studying in a café…
Next, “有些 some”
This phrase is the shortened form of 有一些.
有些 has some different usages,
but an important one is that
it can be put before a subject to express “some”.
For example,
有些人不喜歡吃香菜。
Some people don’t like to eat cilantro.
在台灣，有些地方常常下雨。
In Taiwan, some places often rain.
However, to express “some” for an object,
we use “一些”.
For instance,
他帶了一些麵包給你。
He brought some bread for you.
我上個月看了一些好書。
I read some great books last month.
The last one is “有的 some of”
有的 is similar to 有些, but they are different.
有的 is used when you’re talking about a specific group,
and you want to refer to some of the members in this group.
For example,
在教室裡，有的學生在睡覺，
有的學生在吃東西。
在教室裡，有的學生在睡覺，
有的學生在吃東西。
OK, now let’s review the key concept of today’s lesson.
In Chinese, 有 has a special use.
When we speak, in order for listeners to understand us better,
we tend to say something that they know first,
so if there is an unknown subject,
we add a 有 before the subject to make it known to the listeners.
So instead of saying 一個人哭了,
we say “有一個人哭了” or simply “有人哭了”.
However, an unknown object is totally acceptable
so we wouldn’t use “有” for the object.
You can just say “他弄哭了一個人 (He made someone cry.)”
Alright, now let’s do a quiz
so you can apply what you learned today.
I’ll put the answers in the comments.
The first one is
Number two,
Next,
The next one,
Alright, that’s all for today!
如果你喜歡今天的影片， 如果你喜欢今天的影片，
別忘記按讚、訂閱和分享哦！ 别忘记按赞、订阅和分享哦！
And if you’d like to support me to make more content for you,
please visit my ko-fi page.
The link is in the description below.
Also, if you’d like to learn some daily Mandarin expressions,
check out my instagram @gracemandarin
那我們下次見囉！掰掰！ 那我们下次见啰！掰掰！ I’ll see you next time! Bye!