In spoken Mandarin, the person who is told, wanted or expected to do something is not always the person who does it. This lesson builds a habit of tying every verb to a name. It follows corrected numbers and is part of Mandarin listening and speaking.
All people and passages below are invented.
Which cue words change who does the action?
A few small words decide the answer. Learn what each one does.
| Cue | Pinyin | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 叫 / 让 / 请 | jiào / ràng / qǐng | A asks B to act, which may or may not happen |
| 可是 / 但是 | kěshì / dànshì | the plan changes |
| 所以 | suǒyǐ | the result, often a different person acting |
| 被 | bèi | the person after 被 does the action |
| 把 | bǎ | the thing is handled by the subject |
| 后来 / 以后 | hòulái / yǐhòu | a later action, possibly by someone new |
How do you track the people?
- Note each name or pronoun as it appears, such as 妈妈, 哥哥 and 小丽.
- Tag each with the verb you hear next, but mark it “asked” if a cue like 叫 comes before it.
- Wait for 可是 or 所以. They often replace the first plan.
- Answer from the final tags, matching the question’s verb.
Worked example
An invented family: 妈妈, 哥哥 and 小丽.
星期六早上，妈妈叫哥哥去买菜，可是哥哥要做功课，所以小丽去了。小丽回来以后，哥哥才把菜洗好。
(Xīngqīliù zǎoshang, māma jiào gēge qù mǎi cài, kěshì gēge yào zuò gōngkè, suǒyǐ Xiǎolì qù le. Xiǎolì huílái yǐhòu, gēge cái bǎ cài xǐ hǎo.)
Question: Who bought the vegetables, and who washed them?
Step 1: 妈妈 asks 哥哥 to go (叫). Mark 哥哥 “asked”.
Step 2: 可是 changes the plan: 哥哥 has homework. 所以 gives the result: 小丽去了 (went).
Step 3: after 以后, 哥哥 washes (洗好).
Answer: 小丽 bought the vegetables; 哥哥 washed them.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to give the action to the first person named after 叫.
Mistaken answer: 哥哥 bought the vegetables.
The student heard 叫哥哥去买菜 and stopped tracking when the plan changed.
The correction is to treat 叫, 让 and 请 as requests, not as completed actions. Only count an action as done when you hear the person actually carry it out, or hear a result word such as 去了 or 发了.
Check yourself
Read each invented transcript aloud, then answer from your notes.
1. 老师让小华发书，但小华发烧了，所以小玉发了书。 Who handed out the books?
Show answer
The teacher asked 小华, but 但 changes the plan because 小华 had a fever. 所以 gives the result. 小玉 handed out the books.
2. 爸爸给弟弟做了饭，弟弟吃完后洗了碗。 Who cooked, and who washed the bowls?
Show answer
做了饭 belongs to 爸爸 and 洗了碗 to 弟弟, after 吃完后. 爸爸 cooked; 弟弟 washed up.
3. 我的自行车被哥哥骑走了，晚上他才还给我。 Who rode the bicycle away?
Show answer
The person after 被 does the action. 哥哥 rode it away. The speaker is the owner and gets it back in the evening.
Where this leads next
Next, switch from listening to speaking with expressing a comparison clearly. You can also test both listening skills in the mixed practice set.
If you keep giving an action to the wrong person, a teacher in online one-to-one Chinese tuition can play you short passages and check your notes against what was said.