there for Mandarin speakers — pronunciation and common errors

Pronunciation

Mandarin lacks the voiced dental fricative /ð/, so speakers often substitute the alveolar plosive /d/, pronouncing 'there' as /deə/ or /dɛr/.

Grammar

Mandarin uses '有 (yǒu)' to mean both 'to have' and 'there is/are'. This L1 transfer causes learners to omit the dummy subject 'there' and write 'has a book on the table' instead of 'there is a book on the table'.

Collocations

The Mandarin '在那里 (zài nàlǐ)' combines the preposition 'at/in' with 'there'. This leads to the redundant collocation 'in there' or 'at there' in contexts where only the adverb 'there' is required in English.

Examples

• Put the box over there on the table.
• I went to the new library yesterday and spent three hours studying there because it was so quiet.