|
 |
I don’t get the Chinese ’de’ | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| sebngwa3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6165 days ago 200 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: Korean*, English | Message 1 of 6 11 November 2010 at 5:27pm | IP Logged |
|
(1) 他寫字寫得很好。
Tā xiě zì xiě de hěn hǎo. (He writes characters well.) I don't get what the 'de' here is supposed to do. Also, is there an online Chinese site that explains this? Edited by sebngwa3 on 11 November 2010 at 5:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 6 11 November 2010 at 7:33pm | IP Logged |
|
I remember my instructor saying that 的 and 得 have the same function with one being adjectival and the other adverbial. Hopefully someone else can explain it better.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 6 11 November 2010 at 7:51pm | IP Logged |
|
It's an adverbial marker, it's used when you want to state "how" something is done.
Complement of degree Another use ("potential complement"): Use of 得 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NielDLR Bilingual Diglot Newbie South Africa thelinguaphile.com Joined 5436 days ago 11 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans* Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 4 of 6 11 November 2010 at 9:11pm | IP Logged |
|
Here's a nice article that summarizes all the different
de's 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 6 12 November 2010 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
|
I realize the explanations you point to don't treat it that way, but I like to think of this de as a nominalizer -- it takes the previous subject and verb phrase, makes it into a noun, which is then qualified with either an adverbial or verbal phrase.
In this example 她吃得很快 (tā chī de hěn kuài): She eats very quickly you could also say "her eating is very quick". In this one 我看得懂中文 (wǒ kàn de dǒng zhōngwén): I can read (and understand) Chinese I see it as "my reading is (so that) I undertand Chinese". That's how I see it ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5309 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 6 of 6 12 November 2010 at 8:33pm | IP Logged |
|
It feels like
她吃 in a 很快 manner. She eats in a quick manner. Manner, or extent. 他高兴, to the extent that 他跳起来. 我看得懂中文 seems to be a bit different. 得 itself also means "can". 我看到他 I see him, 我看得到他 I can see him. 他寫字很好 He writes well. 他寫字寫得很好 He writes in a good way. He writes in a way that is good. He writes and guess what, he writes well! (this one's a bit exaggerated) I think the difference is in the focus. In the second sentence, attention is drawn to the 很好. The first sentence sounds more neutral. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
