Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ zhōumò zhuānmén qù chāoshì gěi māma mǎi lǐwù. - On weekends I specially go to the supermarket to buy a gift for my mom.

In this sentence, it means you went to the supermarket with the specific purpose of buying a gift for your mom (not just casually while doing other things). It also often carries a nuance of going out of your way to do something.

Typical positions:

我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。
→ Most natural: subject + time + 专门 + main verb.
You can also say: 我周末去超市专门给妈妈买礼物。
→ Slightly more focus on the buying part being “special,” but still fine.

You generally place 专门 before the action you want to present as “especially done.”

There’s no 了 (le) in the sentence. How do we know if this is past, present, or future?

Chinese doesn’t mark tense the way English does. It relies heavily on context and time words.

我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。 could mean:

“This/next weekend I’ll go…” if you’re talking about your plan:
- e.g. 在计划里: 这个周末我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。
“On weekends I (habitually) go…” if you mean a routine:
- To make this clear, you’d usually say: 我周末都会专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。 or 每个周末…
“Last weekend I went…” if the context is clearly in the past:
- You might say: 上个周末我专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。

If you want to clearly show a completed past event, you can add 了:

我上个周末专门去超市给妈妈买了礼物。
→ Clearly: “Last weekend I specially went to the supermarket and bought a present for my mom.”

Why is 周末 (weekend) right after 我, and can I move it to the front of the sentence?

The default word order in Chinese is often:

Subject + Time + (Manner) + Verb (+ Place) + Object

So:

我 (subject)
周末 (time)
专门 (manner adverb)
去超市 (verb + place)
给妈妈买礼物 (verb phrase with beneficiary and object)

我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。 is therefore very standard.

You can move the time expression to the very front:

周末我专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。

This is also correct. Putting 周末 first emphasizes the time a little more (like topicalizing it: “On weekends, I (do this)…”), but the core meaning doesn’t change.

Why is the word order 去超市给妈妈买礼物 and not something closer to English like “给妈妈去超市买礼物”?

Chinese often uses serial verb constructions: several verbs in a row, in the order that events or relationships naturally unfold. Here:

去超市 – go to the supermarket
给妈妈买礼物 – buy a gift for Mom

So the structure is essentially:

[go to the supermarket] [for Mom buy gift]

The order goes from:

movement / place → beneficiary → main action + object

Putting 给妈妈 before 去超市 (like 给妈妈去超市买礼物) is unnatural because 给妈妈 belongs with the buying (买礼物), not with the going (去). You’re not “going Mom,” you’re “buying gift for Mom.”

What is 给 (gěi) doing here? Does it mean “to” or “for”?

In this sentence, 给妈妈 marks the beneficiary of the action:

给妈妈买礼物 = “buy a gift for Mom”

So here 给 acts like English “for” in meaning, although structurally it’s more like marking an indirect object (“buy Mom a gift”).

Compare:

给他一本书 – “give him a book” / “give a book to him”
给孩子做饭 – “cook (food) for the child”

So in this sentence:

给妈妈买礼物 = “(in order) to buy a present for my mom.”

Can I say 买礼物给妈妈 instead of 给妈妈买礼物? Are both correct?

Yes, both word orders are used and are common:

给妈妈买礼物
- Literally: “for Mom buy gift”
- Emphasis is slightly on doing something for Mom.
买礼物给妈妈
- Literally: “buy gift for Mom”
- Emphasis is slightly on what you’re buying, then who it’s for.

Your full sentence can be:

我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。
我周末专门去超市买礼物给妈妈。

Both are natural. The difference in emphasis is subtle; in most contexts they’re interchangeable.

Why is there no separate word for “to” before 超市? Why is it just 去超市?

In Chinese, motion verbs like 去 (go) and 来 (come) already include the idea of “to”.

去超市 literally is “go supermarket,” but functionally it means “go to the supermarket.”
You don’t add a separate preposition like English “to.”

You’ll often see patterns like:

去学校 – go to school
来我家 – come to my house

You can see 到 (dào) in some structures, but it’s more about reaching or arrival and is used differently:

到超市去买东西 – go to the supermarket to buy things (literally “arrive-at-supermarket go buy things”)

In your sentence, 去超市 is the simplest and most natural form.

What’s the difference between 去超市 and 在超市? Could I say 我周末专门在超市给妈妈买礼物?

去超市 = “go to the supermarket” (focus on movement / going).
在超市 = “at the supermarket” (focus on location of the action).

Your original:

我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。
→ Emphasis: you go there (specifically) in order to buy the gift.

If you say:

我周末专门在超市给妈妈买礼物。
→ Emphasis: the buying happens at the supermarket, but it doesn’t explicitly say you go there for that purpose.
→ It can suggest you’re already there (e.g. because you work there, or you happen to be there) and there you specially buy a gift for Mom.

Both are grammatical, but 去超市 matches the English idea “go to the supermarket” more closely.

Do I need a measure word with 礼物 (gift)? Why is it just 买礼物 and not 买一个礼物?

Chinese does use measure words, but they’re not always obligatory.

买礼物
- No number given; it can mean “buy a gift” or “buy some gifts” in a general sense.
买一个礼物
- Specifically “buy one gift.”
买一些礼物
- “buy some gifts” explicitly.

When you don’t care about the exact number (which is often the case in casual speech), it’s completely natural to just say 买礼物.

If you want to be precise about quantity, you add:

一个礼物 – one gift
几件礼物 – a few gifts (件 is a common measure for gifts)

What happens if I drop 专门? Is the sentence still okay?

Yes, it’s still perfectly grammatical:

我周末去超市给妈妈买礼物。

The difference is only in nuance:

With 专门:
- You especially / specifically go (you make a special trip) for this purpose.
Without 专门:
- It’s just a neutral description of what you do; you go to the supermarket on the weekend and buy your mom a present (maybe along with other errands).

So 专门 adds a feeling of intentionality / going out of your way.

How is 妈妈 (māma) pronounced? Why is the second ma not in full first tone?

Standard pronunciation is: māma

First syllable: 妈 (mā) – first tone
Second syllable: 妈 (ma) – neutral tone (轻声)

So it’s mā·ma, with the second syllable shorter, lighter, and without a full tone.

This pattern is very common for kinship terms:

妈妈 māma – mom
爸爸 bàba – dad
哥哥 gēge – older brother
姐姐 jiějie – older sister

You may see it written as 妈妈 with both characters, but in actual speech the second syllable is usually neutral.

Is this sentence natural in everyday Chinese, or is it formal / textbooky?

我周末专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。 is very natural in everyday spoken Mandarin.

Vocabulary is colloquial: 妈妈, 超市, 礼物, 周末.
Structure (subject + time + adverb + 去 + place + 给 + person + 买 + object) is exactly how people talk.

You might also hear slight variations, like:

周末我专门去超市给妈妈买礼物。
我周末专门去超市买礼物给妈妈。

All of these sound normal in casual conversation.