A2 · Grammar reference · ASGYC77J
Reduplication of verbs
One of the fun things about Chinese is that when speaking, you can repeat a verb to express "a little bit" or "briefly." This is called reduplication. It creates a casual tone, and a sense that whatever the action is, it's not going to take long.
- Keywords
- 一
- Used for
- Decreasing formality · Expressing duration
- Classification
- Verbs · HSK2 · HSK3
Examples (14)
你看看。
我试试。
说说你的想法。
出去玩玩吧!
我想出去走走。
别生气了,笑一笑!
你去问一问他们厕所在哪里。
我可以用一用你的电脑吗?
你现在有时间吗?我们聊一聊吧。
你想尝一尝我做的菜吗?
考虑考虑
讨论讨论
商量商量
打听打听
Further resources
Learn from another explanation
No editorial pick yet for this exact pattern.
Editorial picks are checked for a close topic match. Search results and external content belong to their publishers and may change.
Summary, structure, classification, and adapted sentence examples draw from the AllSet Learning Chinese Grammar Wiki under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; changes were made. This noncommercial reference is based on an October 2023 snapshot.
Related points