短语
Phrases

从第三级起，你就会说“新书”“我的书”“中文老师”，也会说“爸爸和妈妈”“看电视”“喝咖啡”。这些都已经不是一个词了，可是也还不是一个句子。它们是短语。今天只做一件事：给这三种最常见的组合起个名字——偏正、并列、动宾。

Since level 3 you have been saying 新书, 我的书, 中文老师 — and 爸爸和妈妈, 看电视, 喝咖啡. None of these is a single word any more, and none of them is yet a sentence. They are phrases, 短语. This lesson does one thing: it gives the three commonest combinations their names.

词是最小的、能单独用的单位；句子说完一件事。短语在中间：已经不止一个词，可是还没有说完一件事。“新书”不是一句话，“他买了新书”才是。这一条最有用——你不用分别记每个短语的用法，找到中心语，就知道整个短语能站在哪儿。

A word is the smallest unit you can use alone; a sentence finishes a thought. A phrase sits in between: more than one word, nothing settled yet. 新书 is not an utterance, 他买了新书 is. And you never have to memorise where a phrase may stand — find its head and you know.

“偏”是修饰的那一部分，“正”是被修饰的那一部分，也就是中心语。汉语在这里非常整齐：修饰语永远在前，中心语永远在后，不管修饰语是一个词还是一长串——“书”“新书”“我朋友的新书”，中心语一直是“书”。英语的定语常常跟在后面（a book on the table），汉语从来不这样。

偏 is the modifying part, 正 the modified part — the 中心语 of last lesson. Chinese is beautifully regular here: modifier first, head last, however long the modifier grows. English hangs modifiers behind the noun (a book on the table); Chinese never does.

“老师和学生”跟“学生和老师”意思一样。连接的词可以是“和”“跟”“或者”，也可以什么都不用，只用顿号。要注意一点：“和”主要连接名词性的成分，不能像英语的 and 那样连接两个句子——那是“而且”“然后”的工作。

老师和学生 means what 学生和老师 means. Join the parts with 和, 跟 or 或者, or with nothing but the list comma 、. One warning worth keeping: 和 mainly links noun-like items, and it never links two clauses. English and does both jobs; Chinese gives the second job to 而且 and 然后.

动宾短语的顺序是固定的。有的动宾短语已经长在一起，成了一个词，比如“睡觉”“帮忙”“见面”；这种词中间还能插进别的成分（睡了三个小时的觉），第十级会专门讲。

The order is fixed. Some verb-object phrases have grown together into single words — 睡觉, 帮忙, 见面 — and those can still be pulled apart again, as you already do in 睡了三个小时的觉. Level 10 gives them their name.