加以 (jiāyǐ) is a very formal word in Chinese that’s used to talk about actions
being implemented or applied to things, or work being carried out. You generally
won’t hear it in speech, as it’s more appropriate for formal writing. We’ll look
at several structures using 加以. Each of them involves an effect or action
being applied to a noun. Usually the effect is also a noun, but sometimes it is
a nominalised verb (a verb being used as a noun). Remember that part of speech
distinctions are often less clear in Chinese than they are in English.
加以 with 对 (duì)
The most common structure involving 加以 is probably with 对, and it looks like
this:
This is used to talk about some sort of action or effect being carried out
on or towards the the noun (hence the use of 对).
Some example sentences:
As you can see, in these sentences 加以 is being used to link effects or actions
to the things they apply to. You could almost think of 加以 as being like 加
alone - “to add”. These actions or effects are being added to the nouns they
apply to. 对 and 加以 do the work of linking them together.
加以 with 把 (bǎ), 将 (jiāng)
Another common structure with 加以 uses 把 or 将. If you’re already familiar with
the 把 structure, then you might
know that in more formal writing, 将 is often used instead of 把. The structure is
otherwise the same. We’ll use the more formal 将 here because 加以 is also a formal
word.
The basic structure for 将 with 加以 is:
将
jiāng
[noun] 加以 [effect]
You can probably see the similarity between this and the structure with 对.
Whilst the structures are the same, the meaning may be subtly different in that
对 has a sense of actions being applied to the noun, whereas 将 is more
neutral and simply serves a grammatical purpose (read more about the 把
structure linked to above if you’re not clear on that).
Let’s have a look at some example sentences:
Note that other than being a formal version of 把, 将 has another unrelated use.
将 can mean “will” or “is going to”, i.e. it indicates future actions. When used
in this way it’s very much like a more formal version of 要. Have a look at some
example sentences involving 加以 and 将 as a future-marker:
In these sentences, 将 is not acting like 把 but is indicating that these
actions will occur in the future.
加以 with 以 (yǐ)
The character 以 can also be used in a very similar way to 把 and 将. As with
those particles, it’s used to indicate a noun receiving the action of the verb,
or being used during the course of this action. It’s sometimes translated as
“with”, “taking” or “to” for this reason. The structure is the same:
Have a look at some examples:
以 is a little different to 把 and 将 in that it can be used to talk about
things that happen to the noun, but is more general, often describing actions
that happened involving the noun.
加以 with 由 (yóu)
You may already be familiar with the 被 structure that’s often described as
“the passive voice” in Chinese. Just as 以 is similar to but more general than
将, there is a more formal and general version of 被. The character 由 can be
used in much the same way as 被, but rather than indicating passive (“by”), it
means “due to”. Grammatically, though, it used in the same way as 被.
The structure with 加以 is:
[noun] 由 [cause] 加以 [effect]
This structure is used to say that due to the cause, the effect happened to
the noun. Some example sentences will make this clearer:
The above sentences show the grammatical similarity between 由 and 被, but also
how 由 is more general in it’s purpose (it’s also a lot more formal).
加以 with 从 (cóng)
This structure is a little different to the rest. You can use 加以 with 从 in
the following pattern:
从
cóng
[starting point] 加以 [verb] [result]
As 从 means “from” or “following”, this structure is used to talk about actions
being applied from a certain point in time, or results being obtained from
something. Have a look at some example sentences:
You might not feel that this is a separate structure for 加以, and you may be
right! When learning languages, it’s rare that anything is clear-cut. The
important thing is to think about the language in the way that makes most
sense to you. Because of that, there are endless further permutations and
potential ‘structures’ involving 加以 which we won’t go into here.