DSE Chinese | Classical Chinese Particles and Translation Lesson-Prep Guide (Tutor Edition) | Eight Uses of Zhi, Word Inference and Translation Steps

2026-11-03

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary Chinese

Students look up every character in a dictionary and still cannot say what the sentence means. This lesson teaches position first, meaning second.

Objectives — Students can: (1) decide from its position whether zhi works as a pronoun, a possessive particle or a verb, and justify the choice; (2) infer the meaning of an unfamiliar content word from parallel structures and object position; (3) translate a twelve-character line using keep, replace, supply and drop, keeping the translation length under control.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Word classes	Which class do classical function words belong to	Function words
Sentence parts	Who carries out the action in a sentence	The subject
Classical sense	What does zou mean in classical Chinese	To run

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-8 min	Frequency first	Count each particle before assigning a use	5 of 8 uses are pronouns
8-22 min	Content words	Infer from structure and context, not memory	Three words inferred
22-38 min	Three classes	Pronoun, possessive particle, verb	62.5% pronouns
38-50 min	Translation steps	Keep, replace, supply, drop	260 characters to 360
50-56 min	Mark losses	Missing subject, inverted order, loan characters	Rewrite two lines
56-60 min	Exit check	Three questions marked on the spot	All three right

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Count the particle first, then decide its use

In a 260-character passage zhi appears 8 times: 5 as a pronoun (62.5%), 2 as the possessive particle (25%) and 1 as the verb to go (12.5%).
Position decides: followed directly by a noun after a verb it is usually a pronoun; sitting between two nouns and readable as of, it is possessive; followed by a place name with no other verb in the clause, it is the verb.
Counting first matters because setters do not spread uses evenly: once the dominant use is fixed, the rest are variants and students stop panicking at every character.

Ask students: what is the likeliest use of zhi directly before a noun (a pronoun).

Scene 2: Content words are inferred, not memorised

Three clues serve an unfamiliar word: parallel clauses, where the same slot carries a similar or opposite sense; object position, where the noun after a verb is normally the receiver; and loan characters, where an unreadable line means trying a homophone.
Classical senses such as zou for run, qu for leave and tang for hot water are not trivia: each one flips the meaning of the whole line.
Teach it backwards: ask where the line stops making sense, then work back from that slot to the word. That trains reasoning rather than recall.

Ask students: what does zou mean in the phrase abandoning armour and dragging weapons (to run).

Scene 3: Translation in four steps: keep, replace, supply, drop

A 260-character passage with an average clause of 13 characters holds about 20 clauses; at 18 characters per clause the translation runs to 360 characters, 1.38 times the source. Knowing that ratio stops students translating far too little or padding wildly.
The four steps: keep names, places and titles; replace classical words with modern ones; supply the omitted subject and measure words; drop meaningless opening particles.
Supplying is where marks are lost. Classical Chinese drops subjects, and a translation that copies the omission leaves the reader unable to tell who did what; supply the wrong person and the meaning inverts.

Ask students: how much longer than the source a translation should run (about 1.4 times; much shorter usually means omissions).

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Judgement	Particle use	Check position: before a noun, between nouns, before a place	Label all eight uses
Inference	Unfamiliar content word	Parallel clause, object position, loan character	State the evidence
Translation	Short lines	Keep, replace, supply, drop, then check length	18 characters per line
Comparison	Same word, two senses	Set the two lines side by side	Contrast both senses

Sanity check (teach this): Particle percentages must total 100%; labelling only the pronoun means two classes were missed.
Clause counts must be whole numbers: 260 divided by 13 is exactly 20, and a remainder means the clause length was misjudged.
A translation twice the length of the source has usually added material that is not there.
Loan characters must be restored to their original form before translating, or the line cannot work.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Share of zhi used as a pronoun	62.5%	Five divided by eight
Clauses in a 260-character passage at 13 characters each	20 clauses	Words divided by clause length
Translation length at 18 characters per clause	360 characters	Twenty clauses times eighteen

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Looking up every character	Writing a gloss on each word	Do not gloss word by word; find what the word is doing in the clause first.
Copying classical word order	Leaving an inverted object inverted	Restore modern order: who deceived whom.
Dropping the subject	A translation with no subject at all	Classical Chinese omits the subject, so the translation must supply it.
Translating a loan character literally	Reading shuo as to speak	Here it stands for yue, delight: restore the original character.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary Chinese chapter index — All chapters and practice
All lesson-prep guides — Compare other subjects

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Pronoun share of zhi	62.5%	All three right: move to content words
Clauses in 260 characters	20 clauses	One wrong: reteach clause length
Full translation length	360 characters	Two wrong: return to the four steps

09 Tutor FAQ

Must students memorise a classical dictionary?

No. Passages come with glosses; the skill is inferring from position and structure.

Is a free translation acceptable?

It may read naturally, but key words must map one to one; whole clauses cannot be rewritten.

Should every particle be memorised?

Count first to fix the dominant use, then judge the rest by position.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.