Level 5 · Lesson 13

把书放好
Put the book away

把书放好，把房间打扫干净，把门关上。

把 pulls a known object in front of the verb so the verb can carry a result.

听 · Listen

收拾房间
 妈妈 —  李明，请你把桌子收拾好。 
Li Ming, please tidy the desk up.  
 李明 —  好。我把这些书放好。 
OK. I'll put these books away.  
 妈妈 —  你也把房间打扫干净，好吗？ 
And clean the room out too, would you?  
 李明 —  好。这些旧衣服呢？ 
All right. What about these old clothes?  
 妈妈 —  把旧衣服扔了。 
Throw the old clothes out.  
 李明 —  都扔了？ 
All of them?  
 妈妈 —  对。走的时候，把门关上。 
Yes. And shut the door when you leave.  
 李明 —  妈妈，房间收拾好了！ 
Mum, the room is tidied up!  

讲解 · Explanation

我放书。我把书放好。我把房间打扫干净。

Chinese normally runs subject, verb, object: 我放书. 把 lets you lift the object out and set it in front of the verb: 我把书放好. You do that when the sentence is no longer about the doing but about what happens TO that thing — where it ends up, what state it is left in. So the verb may never stand there bare. 我把书放 is not a sentence; something has to follow — a result (放好, 打扫干净), a direction, or at least 了.

把那本书放好。把这些衣服扔了。把门关上。

Whatever follows 把 has to be a definite thing — one you and your listener already have in mind: 那本书, 这些衣服, 门, 房间. You cannot say 我把一本书放好 about just any book at all. English marks this with 'the'; Chinese marks it by choosing 把, helped along by 这 and 那, or by a plain noun that is obviously the one in the room.

收拾好，打扫干净，扔了，关上。

Four everyday endings, and each says exactly how the thing was left. 好 means done properly and finished; 干净 means clean; a bare 了 means gone, dealt with; 上 means shut. 收拾 is tidying things into order, 打扫 is sweeping dirt away — a desk gets 收拾, a floor gets 打扫, a whole room can take either.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
把	object marker: 把 + definite object + verb + result	not the classifier of 一把椅子 — same character, different word
收拾	to tidy up, put in order	把桌子收拾好
打扫	to sweep, to clean	把房间打扫干净
扔	to throw, to throw away	把旧衣服扔了
关上	to shut, to close	把门关上; 上 is the result here

练习 · Practice

请你 ______。 Please put the books away.

我 ______，房间很干净。 I cleaned the room out — it's very clean now.

妈妈说：______。 Mum says: throw those old clothes out.

走的时候，请 ______ 门关上。 Fill in the object marker (one character).

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'I tidied the desk up.'

把、收拾、打扫、扔、关上 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

我把桌子收拾好了。我把房间打扫干净了。我把旧衣服扔了。走的时候，我把门关上。

Stand up, look around the room you are in, and give yourself four orders out loud with 把: tidy one thing, clean one thing, throw one thing away, shut one thing. Then report each one as done. Before you say each sentence, check two things: is the thing after 把 a definite one, and does something follow the verb? If the verb is standing there alone, the sentence is not finished yet.