Discourse Cohesion: Anaphora & Ellipsis
连续的句子说同一个人/事时，为避免啰嗦重复，中文常用两种衔接手段：
复指 (anaphora): 第一次说全名/全称，后面用代词接续：他/她/它/他们/其（正式）/此（指前面提到的事情，而非人）。
省略 (ellipsis): 主语不变、动作连续时，后面分句可以直接省去主语。
✅ 他进了门，脱了鞋，坐了下来。（后两个分句省略了「他」）
判断规则： 主语不变+动作连续 → 省略最自然；换了话题、隔了较远、或需要正式书面语 → 用代词复指，切勿再次重复全名（显得生硬）。
Worked examples
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| 他放下书包，走到窗边，打开了窗户。 | Tā fàng xià shū bāo, zǒu dào chuāng biān, dǎ kāi le chuāng hu. | He put down his backpack, walked to the window, and opened it. | Minimal ellipsis frame: same subject 他 carries three continuous actions; later clauses omit the subject entirely |
| 小李和小林是邻居，他们经常互相帮助。 | Xiǎo Lǐ hé Xiǎo Lín shì lín jū, tā men jīng cháng hù xiāng bāng zhù. | Xiao Li and Xiao Lin are neighbors; they often help each other. | Anaphora added: two named people are re-referenced with the plural pronoun 他们, not by repeating both names |
| 空气污染问题日益严重，对此，专家们提出了不少建议。 | Kōng qì wū rǎn wèn tí rì yì yán zhòng, duì cǐ, zhuān jiā men tí chū le bù shǎo jiàn yì. | The air pollution problem is getting more and more serious; regarding this, experts have offered quite a few suggestions. | Formal anaphora 此 refers back not to a person but to the whole preceding clause (the pollution issue) |
What you need first
Every topic in GraphChinese names its own prerequisites, and these are the grammar points this one is built on. If a sentence here will not parse, one of them is why.
Discourse Cohesion is one topic of 829. GraphChinese teaches them in prerequisite order, so this pattern reaches you on the day everything it rests on is proven. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.
Start at your true level