A1
Time and place come before the verb
The word order rule that fixes more beginner sentences than any other — when something happens and where it happens both go in front of the verb in Chinese, and both run from large to small.
English puts when and where at the end of a sentence: I’m going to Beijing tomorrow, I eat at home. Chinese puts both in front of the verb, and the order is fixed.
我明天去北京。
Wǒ míngtiān qù Běijīng.
I’m going to Beijing tomorrow.
我在家吃飯。
Wǒ zài jiā chīfàn.
I eat at home.
我去北京明天。
我明天去北京。
Putting the time at the end is English word order in Chinese words, and it is the single most common thing a beginner gets wrong once they can build sentences at all.
Both together
When a sentence has both, time comes first and place second — and then the verb.
我明天在家工作。
Wǒ míngtiān zài jiā gōngzuò.
I’m working at home tomorrow.
他每天早上六點起床。
Tā měitiān zǎoshang liù diǎn qǐchuáng.
He gets up at six every morning.
Look at that second one: 每天 · 早上 · 六點, three time expressions stacked from the largest span to the smallest. That ordering is the same principle as the rest of the language.
Time can also go before the subject
Moving it to the very front is equally correct and slightly emphasises the time — tomorrow, as opposed to some other day. What it cannot do is move to the end.
明天我去北京。
Míngtiān wǒ qù Běijīng.
Tomorrow I’m going to Beijing.
Place has no such freedom. 在家 stays where it is.
Large to small, everywhere
The same rule governs addresses, dates and names, and once you see it as one rule rather than three you stop having to remember any of them.
中國北京
Zhōngguó Běijīng
Beijing, China
二零二六年九月六號
èr líng èr liù nián jiǔ yuè liù hào
6 September 2026
Country before city, year before month before day, family name before given name. Chinese starts wide and narrows; English does the reverse.
Where the negative goes
不 and 沒 attach to the verb, so they land after the time and place rather than before them.
我明天不去。
Wǒ míngtiān bú qù.
I’m not going tomorrow.
我不明天去。
我明天不去。
我不明天去 negates the time rather than the going, which is a real sentence in the right context — it isn’t tomorrow that I’m going — and almost never what is meant.