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 de at the end of the sentence.

This structure is used to draw attention to specific information of 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.