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Yesterday I buy phone

昨天我买手机。

zuó tiān wǒ mǎi shǒu jī

Natural English

I bought a phone yesterday.

A past-time purchase sentence with canonical base-form tokens.

Sentence Category Time Expressions
Sentence Type Standardized Expression
Level Basic

Token Mapping

  1. 1
    English Token
    yesterday
    Chinese Unit
    昨天
    Pinyin
    zuó tiān
  2. 2
    English Token
    I
    Chinese Unit
    Pinyin
    Linked Word
    I - 我
  3. 3
    English Token
    buy
    Chinese Unit
    Pinyin
    mǎi
    Linked Word
    buy - 买
  4. 4
    English Token
    phone
    Chinese Unit
    手机
    Pinyin
    shǒu jī
    Linked Word
    phone - 手机

Sentence Structure

Chinese Order
昨天 / 我 / 买 / 手机
Chinglish Order
yesterday / I / buy / phone
Natural English Order
I bought a phone yesterday.

Sentence Analysis

A past-time purchase sentence with canonical base-form tokens.

Sentence Analysis

The source sequence 昨天 / 我 / 买 / 手机 becomes Yesterday / I / buy / phone. Yesterday supplies the past reference, so buy is not changed to bought. Natural English both moves the time expression and adds an article; neither change affects Chinglish identity.

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Standard Notes

Standard Status
Standard
Usage Context
Official candidate sentence for editorial review.
Comprehensibility
Understandable with context