In short

The backbone of a Chinese sentence is Subject + Verb + Object, the same order as English: 我看书 (wǒ kàn shū, “I read books”). The one thing to unlearn is where “when” and “where” go: time and place both sit before the verb, and time comes before place - 我明天（when）在家（where）看书. And nothing ever changes shape: no conjugation, no case.

The rule

A neutral Chinese statement follows one skeleton:

Subject + Verb + Object

• 我看书。 (Wǒ kàn shū.) - I read books. Subject 我 (wǒ, “I”), verb 看 (kàn, “read/look at”), object 书 (shū, “book”).

So far it looks exactly like English. Two facts make Chinese easier than English here, and one thing trips learners up.

Nothing conjugates. A Chinese verb has a single form. 看 (kàn) is “read” no matter who does it or when - there is no -s, no past-tense form, no infinitive. Person, number and tense are carried by other words (subjects, time words, and the aspect particles you meet from step 18), never by reshaping the verb.

Nouns and pronouns have no case. English changes “I” to “me” and “he” to “him” depending on the job; Chinese does not. 我 (wǒ) is both “I” and “me”, 他 (tā) is both “he” and “him”. You tell subject from object purely by position - what comes before the verb is the subject, what comes after is the object:

• 我看他。 (Wǒ kàn tā.) - I see him.
• 他看我。 (Tā kàn wǒ.) - He sees me.

Same words, opposite meaning, decided only by order. This is why word order matters so much: it is doing the work that English endings do.

Time and place go before the verb. Here English word order actively misleads you. English says “I read at home tomorrow”, trailing the adverbials after the verb. Chinese puts them in front of the verb, and when both appear the order is fixed:

Step 1 - When (time): put the time word right after the subject. 我明天看书。 (Wǒ míngtiān kàn shū.) - I’ll read tomorrow.

Step 2 - Where (place): a location is introduced by the coverb 在 (zài, “at/in”; full treatment at step 9) and also goes before the verb. 我在家看书。 (Wǒ zài jiā kàn shū.) - I read at home.

Step 3 - Both together, time then place:

Subject + Time + Place + Verb + Object

• 我明天在家看书。 (Wǒ míngtiān zài jiā kàn shū.) - I’ll read at home tomorrow.

The time word is the one movable slot: it may also jump to the very front, before the subject, as the topic - 明天我在家看书 means the same thing. The place phrase cannot do that; it stays glued in front of the verb.

Forms & patterns

The core skeleton:

One verb, every person - Chinese never conjugates:

English adds -s for “he”; the Chinese verb 看 is identical in every row.

The full slot order, with time and place filled in:

Read straight across: 我明天在家看书。 (Wǒ míngtiān zài jiā kàn shū.) - I’ll read at home tomorrow.

Examples

Common mistakes

• 我看书在家 -> 我在家看书 - the place phrase 在家 (zài jiā, “at home”) goes before the verb, not trailing after it as English word order tempts you to do.
• 我吃饭明天 -> 我明天吃饭 - a time word (明天, míngtiān, “tomorrow”) comes before the verb, never dumped at the end of the sentence.
• 我在家明天看书 -> 我明天在家看书 - when both appear the order is time then place: 明天 before 在家, not the reverse.
• 他工作在北京 -> 他在北京工作 - a location needs the coverb 在 (zài) in front of the verb; you cannot bolt “在 + place” on after the verb the way English bolts on “in Beijing”.
• 我看每天书 -> 我每天看书 - the time word sits in front of the whole verb phrase, not wedged between the verb and its object.

Tips

• Memory hook: “Who - When - Where - does - What.” Subject, then time, then place, then verb, then object. English runs the tail backwards (“does what… where… when”), so consciously reverse it.
• Because the verb never changes, tense lives in the time words and (later) aspect particles - not in the verb. Nail the time-before-place slot now and half of Chinese word order is done.
• Only the time word may also move to the front as a topic (明天我在家看书 = 我明天在家看书). The place phrase never leaves its pre-verb spot.
• False-friend warning: “I study Chinese at university” puts place last in English. Say it Chinese-style and place moves up front: 我在大学学中文 (Wǒ zài dàxué xué Zhōngwén).