▎把, bǎ, (Ptc), To Dispose of Something (1)

 

Function This pattern is generally referred to as 把bǎ or disposal construction. It consists of a variety of internal elements and is quite similar to the phrase ‘take this (noun) and...’ in English, but much more widely used. The most basic structure refers to how a noun, object of the action verb, is disposed of by the subject.

1 我把牛肉麵吃了。

Wǒ bǎ niúròu miàn chī le.

I ate the beef noodles. (I took the beef noodles and ate them.)

2 他把我的湯喝了。

Tā bǎ wǒ de tāng hē le.

He drank my soup.

3 房東把房子賣了。

Fángdōng bǎ fángzi mài le.

The landlord sold the house.

 

Structures 把bǎ＋object＋verb＋了le, in which the object is in most cases definite in reference (bare nouns, or nouns with modifiers such as 這個zhè ge ‘this’, 那個nà ge ‘that’, 他的tā de ‘his’, etc.), the verb (bare, i.e., just one character) must be an outward transitive action verb (action away from the actor like selling, buying, and consuming, not inward towards the actor like buying, learning, and listening), and sentence must end with the particle了.

Negation：The negation uses 沒 or 別 occurs in front of the particle 把bǎ.

1 我沒把豬腳麵線吃了。

Wǒ méi bǎ zhūjiǎo miànxiàn chī le.

I didn’t eat the pork knuckles with fine noodles.

2 別把我的藥吃了。

Bié bǎ wǒ de yào chī le.

Don’t take my medicine.

3 他沒把書賣了。

Tā méi bǎ shū mài le.

He didn’t sell his book.

Questions：Question with 把 can be formed by A-not-A or 是不是.

1 你把功課寫了沒有？

Nǐ bǎ gōngkè xiěle méi yǒu?

Have you finished your homework?

2 你是不是把機車賣了？

Nǐ shìbúshì bǎ jīchē mài le?

You sold the motorcycle, right?

3 你是不是把他的早飯吃了？

Nǐ shìbúshì bǎ tā de zǎofàn chī le?

You ate his breakfast, right?

 

Usage

(1) As mentioned above, the object of 把 must be definite.

1 我想把手機賣了。

Wǒ xiǎng bǎ shǒujī mài le.

I want to sell my mobile phone.

2 我想把那支手機賣了。

Wǒ xiǎng bǎ nà zhī shǒujī mài le.

I want to sell that mobile phone.

3 ＊我想把一支手機賣了。

＊Wǒ xiǎng bǎ yì zhī shǒujī mài le.

I want to sell a mobile phone.

(2) The bare verb in 把 sentences must be transitive and outward. They include 賣mài ‘to sell’, 吃chī ‘to eat’, 喝hē ‘to drink’, 寫xiě ‘to write’, but not such inward verbs as 買mǎi ‘to buy’, 學xué ‘to learn’, e.g., ＊我把中文學了 ＊Wǒ bǎ Zhōngwén xué le.

(3) The notion ‘dispose of’ is often indicated using ‘do-with’, ‘do-to’, and ‘take (noun) and (verb)’ in English, e.g., ‘What he did with his car was to sell it’ or ‘He took his car and sold it.’