Language/Mandarin-chinese/Grammar/是...的

In Mandarin Chinese, to emphasize an element of the sentence, put the verb 是 shì in front of the element you want to emphasize and place 的 de at the end of the sentence.

This structure is used to draw attention to a specific information in the sentence.

Structure

A sentence in 是 ...... 的 is formed according to this structure:

Subject + 是 + Important Information + Verb + 的

Example

• 我 坐飞机 去 中国.

I'm going to China by plane.

• 我 是 坐飞机 去 中国 的.

It's by plane that I go to China.

We want to emphasize that we fly there and not by other means of transportation.