yīguì hé shūjià dōu yào ānzhuāng.

all

Breakdown of yīguì hé shūjià dōu yào ānzhuāng.

• 和hé: and
• 要yào: to need to
• 衣柜yīguì: wardrobe

Questions & Answers about yīguì hé shūjià dōu yào ānzhuāng.

Why is there no subject in this sentence? Who has to install them?

Mandarin often drops the subject when it is clear from context.

So 衣柜 和 书架 都 要 安装 can work as a complete sentence even without saying who is doing the installing. Depending on context, it could mean:

• the wardrobe and bookshelf both need to be installed
• we need to install the wardrobe and bookshelf
• someone needs to install both of them

Chinese usually leaves this unspecified unless it matters.

What does 都 mean here?

都 means both or all, depending on what comes before it.

In this sentence, it refers to 衣柜 和 书架, so it means:

• the wardrobe and the bookshelf both need installation

A very common pattern is:

• A 和 B 都 + verb/adjective

Examples:

• 我和他都喜欢咖啡。
  He and I both like coffee.
• 这个和那个都很贵。
  This one and that one are both expensive.

So here, 都 marks that the statement applies to both items.

Why is 都 placed after 衣柜 和 书架 and not before them?

Because 都 usually comes after the group it refers to and before the predicate.

Structure:

• [the people/things included] + 都 + [what is true about them]

So:

• 衣柜 和 书架 都 要 安装

Not:

• 都 衣柜 和 书架 要 安装

That would sound ungrammatical in standard Mandarin.