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 travel in China by plane and not by other means of transportation.