Mandarin Chinese Lessons

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Lesson 25

说 (shuō) — To Say / To Speak / To Tell

Introduction

For autodidact students of Mandarin, the verb 说 (shuō) — “to say, to speak, to tell” — is one of the most frequently used verbs in the language. It introduces reported speech without any subordinating conjunction (as established in Lesson 22), forms a large family of compound words, and appears in dozens of fixed expressions that are indispensable in daily life. Its result complements — 说完 (finish saying), 说好 (agree / settle), 说清楚 (make clear), 说出来 (say it out) — offer a natural entry into the resultative complement system of Chinese verbal grammar.

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