The purpose of 是 in "听说是去看他姐姐"

Self Intro

I teach HSK 1-6 online and from time to time I get questions from my students on specific language points. So I’d like to share some of my answers here with you and also gather some feedback.

Question

In the dialog:

A：张明去北京了。

B：真的？他去北京干什么？

A：听说是去看他姐姐。

What’s the purpose of 是 here?

Answer

是 simply means “was,” or “it was.”

A: 听说（他的目的）是去看他姐姐。

A: I heard it (his purpose) was to go and visit his sister.

他的目的 is usually omitted.

A closer look

We know that 是 usually connect nouns:

我是北京人。(Grammar 1.3.2, that is, the Standard Course HSK 1 textbook, lesson 3, grammar note 2. Link points to our course video.)

We also know that 是 can be used with 的:

我是北京来的。(Grammar 1.15.1)

We’ve also learned that 是 usually do not work with adjectives (unless coupled with a 的):

你是聪明。✗

你很聪明。✔︎ (Grammar 1.6.2)

你是聪明的。✔︎ (Grammar 1.15.1)

HOWEVER, there are two uses that defy this rule:

(1) 是 can also be followed by a clause*:*

A: 你这是干嘛？What do you do this for?

B: 我是要帮你。I’m to help you. (My purpose is to help you.)

If you’ve studied the Standard Course HSK 3 textbook, you’ll recall another example from Lesson 1, Dialog 4:

小丽：再多带几件衣服吧。Let’s bring some more clothes.

小刚：我们是去旅游，不是搬家，还是少带一些吧。We’re to travel (tour), not to move home, [let’s] rather bring less.

(2) 是 can be used to make concessions*.*

质量是不错，就是太贵了。

The quality is indeed pretty good, it’s just too expensive.

However, these two uses, albeit common, do not seem to appear in the HSK curriculum. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

Is this clear? Any questions?

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