How to use 倒；倒是
Subject + verb + 得 + 倒 + adjective; subject + 倒 + predicate; 你 + 倒是 + action + 啊 / 呀
倒 can place a pointed contrast inside an evaluation. After a verb and 得, it often highlights the gap between what someone says or imagines and what the speaker considers realistic. The result may sound sarcastic or reproachful. With a normal predicate, 倒 can instead express an unexpected observation, qualified agreement, or disagreement with an earlier assessment.
倒是 has another conversational use in commands that urge a hesitant person to respond or act. Here the pressure comes from the situation and intonation as much as the words. These constructions share a contrast with an expectation, but their word order differs. Keep 得倒 inside a descriptive complement and ordinary 倒 before the predicate it qualifies.
Examples with pinyin and English
你说得倒轻松，谁来帮我呢？
You make it sound easy, but who is going to help me?
得倒 places the pointed contrast inside the evaluation.
大家觉得难，我倒不这么想。
Everyone thinks it is difficult, but I do not see it that way.
倒 marks disagreement with the preceding assessment.
你倒是告诉我原因啊！
Come on, tell me the reason!
倒是 urges a hesitant person to respond.
What to remember
- Keep 得倒 inside the evaluation complement.
- Use 倒 before a predicate for a contrasting judgment.
- Recognize impatient urging in 你倒是…啊.
Practise the pattern
Use one example as a model. Change the people, objects or situation, keeping the grammar pattern in the same order. Read the explanation again to check how your sentence uses the construction.
Look up the grammar words
Source and editorial notes
Explanation and examples written for Laowai using the grammar curriculum as a topic reference. The original curriculum credits AllSet Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki as used with permission. Read the retained source credits.
Difficulty labels describe the level of the explanation; they are not official HSK placement. Send a correction with this page’s URL.