据…（说）
according to (a source of information)
Structure
据 来源 ＋ （说／统计／报道／了解） ， 内容 · 据说 ， 内容
What it means
Names where a piece of information comes from: “according to …”. 据说 alone means “it is said” and leaves the source vague.
How it is built
据 + source (+说/统计/报道/了解), + content: 据气象台预报，明天夜里有大雪 (According to the forecast, there will be heavy snow tomorrow night). Also 据悉 (5-17).
When to use it
News and formal writing, usually opening the sentence with a comma; only 据说 is everyday speech too. In conversation say 听说 or 他说. 根据 gives the basis for an action or judgement: 根据规定.
Watch out
据说 is a set word, but 根据 needs a noun phrase after it: ✗根据说 ✓据说 / 根据调查结果。
Examples
据粗略统计，这场鼠疫累计夺去了约六万人的生命。
By rough estimates the plague took some sixty thousand lives in all.
据说，最早的病人是捕捉旱獭的猎人。
The first victims, it is said, were marmot hunters.
据气象台预报，明天夜里有大雪。
According to the weather forecast, there will be heavy snow tomorrow night.
Learn this in Lesson 159 · HSK 7–9: 伍连德与1910年鼠疫 (Wu Lien-teh and the plague of 1910)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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