Sentence Rewriting (改写句子) explained

01 把字句 and 被字句

These two are the pattern most often asked for, and they are the same sentence seen from opposite ends.

把 puts the doer first: 小明把杯子打破了。 — Xiaoming took the cup and broke it.

被 puts the thing first: 杯子被小明打破了。 — the cup was broken by Xiaoming.

The verb needs something after it. 打破了, 吃完了. A bare verb does not work in either pattern, and that is the commonest error.

Same event, three ways. The doer, the thing and the verb never change.

02 The patterns papers ask for

There are only a few, and each has a fixed recipe.

A table of Chinese sentence rewriting patterns: 把字句, 被字句, rhetorical question, statement, and reported speech, each with a before and after
Pattern	From	To
把字句	小明打破了杯子。	小明把杯子打破了。
被字句	小明打破了杯子。	杯子被小明打破了。
反问句	这里很美。	这里难道不美吗？
陈述句	这里难道不美吗？	这里很美。
直接引语	他说：「我来了。」	他说他来了。

A 反问句 asks a question that is really a statement — and it means the opposite of what it appears to ask.

03 反问句: the question that is not a question

这里难道不美吗？ looks like a question and means 这里很美. Turning a statement into one is asked for often, and the recipe is fixed.

Add 难道 near the start and 吗？ at the end.

Flip the 不. A positive statement becomes 难道不…吗？; a negative one becomes 难道…吗？

Check by reading it back as a statement. If the meaning flipped, the 不 went the wrong way — and that is the mark.

Going the other way, strip 难道 and 吗, and flip the 不 back.

04 Rules that apply to all of them

Keep every fact. Names, numbers and times all move across unchanged. Dropping one loses the mark even if the pattern is right.

Copy the characters exactly. They are printed in front of you, and marks go every year to a character miscopied from the question.

Punctuate the new pattern. A 反问句 ends in ？, not 。

Change as little as possible. Move what the pattern requires and leave everything else alone.

Read it back. It should mean exactly what the original meant, and read like Chinese somebody would say.

05 How to say them

These are words most children have never said out loud, and a word you cannot say is a word you avoid using. The respelling is Hanyu Pinyin, with the tone marked over the vowel. Tap the speaker to hear it.

改写句子saygǎi xiě jù zi
Sentence rewriting — putting a sentence into a required pattern without changing its meaning.
把字句saybǎ zì jù
A sentence using 把, putting the doer first: 小明把杯子打破了。
被字句saybèi zì jù
A sentence using 被, putting the thing acted on first: 杯子被小明打破了。
反问句sayfǎn wèn jù
A rhetorical question — a question that is really a statement, and means the opposite of what it asks.
陈述句saychén shù jù
A plain statement, as opposed to a question.

06 What each level is tested on

The same topic, asked differently as it goes up. The percentage is the share of papers at that level in which it appears.

P3
把字句 and 被字句, rhetorical questions, and rewriting without changing the meaning.
Practise P3 Sentence Rewriting (改写句子) — 8 questions →
27% of P3 papers

07 Mistakes worth knowing about

Each of these is wrong. Decide why before you open it.

“小明把杯子打破。”
The verb needs something after it in a 把 sentence: 打破了。
“杯子把小明打破了。”
把 puts the doer first. The cup did not break Xiaoming — that sentence needs 被.
“这里很美 → 这里难道美吗？”
The 不 has to flip: 这里难道不美吗？Without it the rewritten sentence means the opposite.
“I ended the 反问句 with a full stop.”
It is written as a question, so it takes ？ even though it means a statement.
“I rewrote it in my own words.”
Change only what the pattern requires. Every name, number and time has to survive the move.

Now try it

8 questions across 1 levels, marked as you go with the working shown.

P38 questions