Nominal Predicates Without 是 | Chinese (Mandarin) Grammar

English demands a verb "to be" between a subject and a noun: "today is Monday," "he is twenty," "it's five kuài." Chinese, in a specific and very useful set of cases, lets the noun predicate stand on its own with no verb at all: 今天星期一, 他二十岁, 一斤五块. This is the nominal predicate — one of the four predicate types — and it belongs to a tight family of "measurement" meanings: dates, days, clock time, ages, prices, weather, and where someone is from. The copula 是 is reserved for genuine identity ("A is B"); in these measuring frames it becomes optional or is dropped outright. The one place it always snaps back is negation — you can never negate these with a bare 不, only with 不是.

When a noun can be the whole predicate

The tell is that the predicate is a value on some scale: a position on the calendar, a point on the clock, a number of years, a price, a place of origin. These aren't equations between two independent identities — they assign a value to the subject — and Chinese treats that value as directly predicable, no linking verb required.

Domain	Bare predicate	Meaning	是?
Day of week	今天星期一	today's Monday	optional
Date	今天三号	today's the 3rd	optional
Clock time	现在五点	it's five o'clock	optional
Age	他二十岁	he's twenty	dropped
Price	一斤五块	five kuài a catty	usually dropped
Origin	他北京人	he's a Beijinger	colloquial drop

今天星期一，我得早点儿去上班。

jīntiān xīngqīyī, wǒ děi zǎo diǎnr qù shàngbān

It's Monday — I've got to get to work a bit early. (informal) — 星期一 is the predicate, no 是.

今天几号？——今天三号。

jīntiān jǐ hào? — jīntiān sān hào

What's today's date? — The 3rd. (informal) — bare 三号 answers; no 是 needed.

你多大了？——我二十岁。

nǐ duō dà le? — wǒ èrshí suì

How old are you? — I'm twenty. (informal) — age is a bare nominal predicate.

Prices, weather, and origin

The market is where you'll hear this most: prices tumble out as bare numbers with no verb. Weather can be a bare noun too (a clear day, a rainy day), and a person's hometown is often stated copula-free in casual speech.

苹果多少钱一斤？——五块。

píngguǒ duōshao qián yì jīn? — wǔ kuài

How much are apples per catty? — Five kuài. (informal) — price as a bare predicate.

这个三块，那个五块，你要哪个？

zhège sān kuài, nàge wǔ kuài, nǐ yào nǎge?

This one's three kuài, that one's five — which do you want? (informal)

今天大晴天，特别适合出去玩。

jīntiān dà qíngtiān, tèbié shìhé chūqù wán

It's a lovely clear day — perfect for going out. (informal) — 大晴天 predicates directly.

他北京人，说话有点儿口音。

tā Běijīng rén, shuōhuà yǒudiǎnr kǒuyīn

He's a Beijinger — he's got a bit of an accent. (informal) — origin stated without 是.

💡

To round off an age or date and make it sound like finished news, add 了, never 是: 他二十岁了 ("he's turned twenty"), 今天三号了 ("it's the 3rd already"). The 了 marks the state as newly current; slipping in 是 here is the classic English-driven slip.

是 optional, dropped, or mandatory — the honest breakdown

This is where the rule has edges worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over. The three cases behave differently:

是 optional (both forms fine; dropping is the everyday, colloquial choice): dates, days, clock time, prices, weather, origin. 今天三号 and 今天是三号 are both correct — the version with 是 sounds slightly more deliberate or emphatic.
是 dropped (adding it is genuinely wrong in a plain statement): age. You say 他二十岁, never *他是二十岁 to state a plain fact. To sound complete you may add 了 (他二十岁了), but not 是.
是 mandatory: negation (不是) and emphasis / identity. The moment you deny one of these predicates, or stress it, you're making an identity claim, and 是 returns.

今天不是三号，是四号。

jīntiān bú shì sān hào, shì sì hào

Today isn't the 3rd, it's the 4th. (neutral) — negation forces 不是.

他不是北京人，是天津人。

tā bú shì Běijīng rén, shì Tiānjīn rén

He's not from Beijing, he's from Tianjin. (neutral) — the negative always takes 不是.

今天是我的生日，我们出去吃吧！

jīntiān shì wǒ de shēngrì, wǒmen chūqù chī ba!

Today's my birthday — let's go out to eat! (informal) — an identity/emphasis claim keeps 是.

💡

The rule of thumb: if the predicate is a number-ish label — a date, a clock time, an age, a price, a hometown — you can drop 是 in a plain positive statement. But the instant you negate, 不是 comes back, and it's never 不 alone or 没. This asymmetry (drop when affirming, restore when denying) is the thing to over-learn.

Why this works: measurement vs identity

Why should age forbid 是 while "today is my birthday" requires it? Because 是 fundamentally equates two independent identities ("A and B are the same thing"). A date, an age, or a price isn't a second identity — it's a reading off a scale, a value slotted into the subject. Chinese lets that value attach without a copula, the same economy that lets an adjective (a stative verb) predicate on its own. But a hometown-as-identity (他是北京人, careful register) or a possessive equation (今天是我的生日) is a real "A = B" claim, so 是 belongs — and negation, which asserts "A is not B," is always an identity claim, hence always 不是.

Common Mistakes

1. Inserting 是 with an age. Age never takes 是 in a plain statement.

❌ 他是二十岁。

Incorrect — drop 是 for age: 他二十岁, or 他二十岁了.

✅ 他二十岁了。

tā èrshí suì le

He's twenty now. — bare nominal predicate, optional 了.

2. Dropping 是 in the negative. Negation must use 不是; you can't negate the bare noun with 不.

❌ 今天不三号。

Incorrect — the negative reinserts 是: 今天不是三号.

✅ 今天不是三号。

jīntiān bú shì sān hào

Today isn't the 3rd. — negation forces 不是.

3. Negating with 没 instead of 不是. These predicates are negated with 不是, never 没.

❌ 今天没是星期一。

Incorrect — 是 never takes 没; use 不是: 今天不是星期一.

✅ 今天不是星期一。

jīntiān bú shì xīngqīyī

Today isn't Monday. — 不是, not 没.

4. Extending the drop to a plain identity sentence. The copula-drop works only for the measuring frames — not for ordinary "A is B" identity.

❌ 他医生。

Incorrect — a plain identity ('he's a doctor') needs 是; the drop is only for dates, ages, prices, origins: 他是医生.

✅ 他是医生。

tā shì yīshēng

He's a doctor. — genuine identity keeps 是.

Key Takeaways

For dates, days, clock time, ages, prices, weather, and origin, the predicate can be a bare noun phrase with no verb: 今天三号, 他二十岁, 一斤五块, 他北京人.
是 is optional for most of these (dropping is the colloquial norm), but genuinely dropped for age (他二十岁, never 他是二十岁).
Negation always reinserts 不是 — never bare 不, never 没: 今天不是三号, 他不是北京人.
These are measurements, not identities; 是 returns for real "A = B" equations (今天是我的生日) and any negation.
The drop does not extend to ordinary identity sentences: 他是医生, not *他医生.

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