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HSK 2.0 Level 5+ HSK 3.0 Level 5+ 6 min read

Manner Adverbs 尽量 and 亲自

Say “try to, as much as possible” with 尽量 and “in person” with 亲自, and tell 亲自 apart from 自己.

Pattern

尽量 (+ 多 / 少 / 早 / 不) + verb; 亲自 + verb

尽量 is “as far as I can”; 亲自 is “me, in person, not someone I sent”.

我会尽量帮你。

When to use Manner Adverbs 尽量 and 亲自

Both go right before the verb. 尽量 means “as much as possible, try to”: you will do your best, but you are not promising. 亲自 means “in person, personally”: someone does it themselves when they could have asked another person to do it, which often shows that the matter is important or that they care.

明天请尽量早点来。

Please try to come a bit early tomorrow.

这件事我要亲自跟他说。

I want to tell him about this in person.

王老师亲自给我们做了晚饭。

Teacher Wang cooked dinner for us herself.

晚上尽量少喝咖啡。

Try not to drink much coffee in the evening.

Common traps

  • Say 我会尽量早点到, not 我会早点尽量到: 尽量 goes in front of the whole verb phrase, including 早点, 多 or 少.
  • Say 尽量不要迟到, not 不尽量迟到: the negative comes after 尽量.
  • Don’t use 亲自 for things only you could do, like 我亲自吃了早饭; use it when you could have sent someone else: 我亲自去问他.

Targeted drill

Practice this exact pattern before moving on.

这不是意外，他是 把杯子打破的

This was no accident; he broke the cup deliberately
Fill in the missing piece, then press Enter

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