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    Chinese Grammar

    Using 《》 book title marks for punctuation

    Topic & Focus

    Structure

    《 + Title + 》

    Explanation

    Chinese uses the special punctuation marks《》(书名号, shūmínghào) to indicate titles of books, newspapers, magazines, films, and other published works. These marks function similarly to italics or quotation marks used for titles in English. They always come in pairs, with《opening the title and》closing it.

    Examples

    • 你看过《红楼梦》吗?

      nǐ kànguò "hónglóumèng" ma?

      Have you read "Dream of the Red Chamber"?

    • 昨天我买了一本《时代周刊》。

      zuótiān wǒ mǎile yī běn "shídài zhōukān".

      Yesterday I bought a copy of "Time Magazine".

    • 《流浪地球》这部电影特别好看。

      "liúlàng dìqiú" zhè bù diànyǐng tèbié hǎokàn.

      The movie "The Wandering Earth" is really great.

    Using 《》 book title marks for punctuation | Chinese Grammar