HSK 3 Grammar 1: Describing & Degree
HSK · HSK · HSK 3 Tema 1 5:08 Narración en inglés · Subtítulos en inglés + 中文 quemados en pantalla
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How Chinese describes things. The to-the-max jile, doubled adjectives that sound warm, the -ly de, the so-words zheme and name, the sense frame kanqilai, and same-as comparisons with yiyang. Six describing tools, six clean rules, and each earns its own marks on the exam.
When something is off the charts, tack jile onto the adjective. Zhege zhuyi hao jile, this idea is perfect. Nage nanhai taoyan jile, that boy is unbelievably annoying. Ji means the furthest point, the ji of Beiji, the North Pole, so hao jile reads as good all the way to the pole. Two rules: the le is welded on, hao ji alone is simply wrong, and no hen in front, because jile already carries the emphasis. It works for praise and complaints alike, in casual spoken Chinese.
Repeat an adjective and it turns soft, warm, and vivid. Baobao de yanjing dada de, the baby has lovely big eyes, the affectionate version a parent would coo. One-syllable adjectives double as A-A plus de before the noun; two-syllable ones as A-A-B-B, gao gaoxingxing, gan ganjingjing, and the A-A-B-B form takes de before a verb: shushufufu de tang, lie comfortably. Not every adjective doubles, haochi and pianyi never do, and a doubled adjective is already emphatic, so no hen in front.
Three characters, all pronounced de, each with exactly one job, sorted by what comes next. De with the ren radical owns a noun: wo de shu, my book. De with the tu radical, earth, drives a verb: gaoxing de xiao, smile happily, the Chinese -ly, and the adverb sits before the verb. De after a verb rates the result: pao de kuai, runs fast. Keeping the three straight is the single most common slip in written Chinese, so sort them by what follows.
Zheme or name before an adjective dials the degree up. The split mirrors English this versus that: zheme points to something near or happening right now, name to something further off or already mentioned, and both are very common after zenme for a surprised how-come-it's-so. Jintian zenme zheme leng, why is it so cold today. And the sense frame: kanqilai reports a snap impression from what you can see, dangao kanqilai hen haochi, the cake looks delicious. Learn the frame once and reuse it: tingqilai sounds, chiqilai tastes, yongqilai handles.
Kanqilai reports a snap impression from what you can see, and it comes right before the description: dangao kanqilai hen haochi, the cake looks delicious; ta kanqilai hen lei, he looks tired. Best of all, the whole sense-family works the same way: tingqilai sounds, chiqilai tastes, yongqilai handles, so learn the frame once and reuse it everywhere. For an inferred it-seems, a conclusion rather than a look, reach for haoxiang instead.
To say two things are alike, link them with gen or he plus yiyang, one same, cut from the same cloth. Ni jia gen wo jia yiyang da, your place is just as big as mine, with the adjective riding after yiyang. The negative bu goes before it, buyiyang, not the same. The word-order trap for English speakers: it is dot dot dot yiyang da, never da yiyang. Gen is more spoken, he a touch more neutral, and either is fine.
The watch-outs collect the slips. Jile takes no de, takes no hen, and never drops its le. De is read de, not di, same sound as the other two de's but a different job, and the adverb phrase it builds comes before the verb, never after. Catch these three and the whole topic is safe.
Pause and check both. First, de with the earth radical drives a verb; the noun-owner is de, and the result-rater is de. Second, zheme points at something near or happening right now, name at something further off. The remaining review items: hao ji is wrong because jile welds its le, and the same-as sentence is ni jia gen wo jia yiyang da. Six describing tools, six clean rules, and the describing half of HSK three is yours.