Sentence Structure

[Gnome]

I'm having problems figuring out how to structure complex sentences. I know that typically there is a noun and then an action or verb. But for example, I'm trying to write:

You are or aren't a student of Zhou Li?

My first instinct is to translate it directly as:

你是不是周力的学生?

However I start to second guess myself and think that maybe it should be like this:

周力的学生你是吗?

Any help would greatly be appreciated. I'm also trying to find someone who speaks fluent chinese to possibly chat with on messenger so that I can have someone to practice with.

[jasmine.woo]

Your first instinct is probably correct.

ps. I prefer gtalk, better quality.

[anon6969]

你是不是周力的学生?

-or-

你是周力的学生不是？

both ok.

[necroflux]

When I read that sentence in English, the "are or aren't" seems like you aren't just asking a straightforward question but you are asking for maybe the 3rd or 10th time.. Are you or are you not a student of Zhou Li??? If that's what you're going for, I'd say:

你到底是不是周力的一个学生?

你到底是不是周力的一個學生?

[semantic nuance]

你到底是不是周力的一个学生?

你到底是不是周力的一個學生?

I think I'll omit 一個 here. 你到底是不是周力的學生? '一個 ' here sounds a bit redundant, though in English there's a 'a' in front of student.

[necroflux]

Thanks Semantic, you're right it does seem redundant. In which case would you want to use that 一個? I've seen it before as either:

我是他的學生之一

我是他的一個學生

Is that basically just emphasizing the "one of many" part? Like.. "我只是他的一個學生"?

[renzhe]

Yeah, it stresses that you're one of his students, and that there are others.

[Lu]

"我只是他的一個學生" sounds to me like 'I'm only a student of his [i'm not worthy]'

周力的学生你是吗? is what Yoda would say if he spoke Chinese :-)

[sylvia9ying]

第二句不太通顺啦。

The second sentence is not fluent.

But the first is OK.

[hyperborean]

I'm curious about where you got the original sentence "You are or aren't a student of Zhou Li?“。 Clearly no native English speaker would phrase the question that way. It sounds like it was written by a teacher to elicit the 是不是 pattern. I come across these 'translating back to Chinese' questions all the time in my coursework. In this case the English sentence's grammar is chinese anyway, so there's no problem translating directly!

[kelly1986]

literally, we do not put it that way “ 不是” shall not be put into the end of a sentense.:mrgreen

it would be better to make it "你是周丽的学生吗“ or "你是不是周立的学生啊“？however, the last sentense is more emphatic!

[Echo Sue]

Your first instinct is right: 你是不是周力的学生？ Your second guess has grammar mistakes.It should be:你是周力的学生吗？