"你说得很慢。"
Translation:You speak very slowly.
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Short answer: 得 goes between a verb and an adjective to essentially turn that adjective into an adverb.
很慢 very slow -> 得很慢 very slowly
Long answer: This video from Chinesepod really helped me with 'de' particles; I re-watch it from time to time to understand more in-depth as my level improves (I also like that it's explained in both English and Chinese for listening practice):
The Three De's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggPbyZN96ss
(This character specifically is discussed at 6:55)
932
I am giving you a lingot because I learn a lot more from these discussions than the actual Duolingo. Posting a link to that video has helped me understand this topic. Thank you.
See the video linked above. Here is the very fast version: there are 3 particles in Chinese that link descriptors to the words they describe: 的, 地, and 得. They are all pronounced "de". They are absolutely 100% grammatically necessary in many, many sentence structures.
Usage:
descriptor + 的 + noun
descriptor + 地 + verb
verb + 得 + descriptor
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It pretty much links a verb or an adjective to a complement which describes the manner or degree.
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Please watch the video that Yomalyn gives the link for in the response above. It does a pretty good job of explaining the differences.
I'm reviewing this lesson and I got tripped up on this translation the first time I did this. When I hovered over the 得, the hints say it is 'need.' So when I type in "You need to speak slowly" it's wrong. According to that Chinese Pod video link Yomalyn posted, 得 does not mean need. It is particle that denotes a degree. That hint should not be in there.
Agreed. Duolingo fails to distinguish polyphones almost every time they appear. Keep reporting it! 得 is a polyphone, a character with more than one pronunciation, and those pronunciations have different meanings. 得 as "de" is a grammatical particle in the structure verb + 得 +descriptor. 得 as "děi" is a verb meaning "need".
The translation of this sentence could be "you speak slowly". "很" does mean "very", but it isn't necessarily all that emphatic because it's often used just to make a sentence "sound better".
"你说得慢" can also be used, but without "很", it can be used as an implied comparison, with the interpretation being "Of the two people under consideration, it's you who speaks more slowly." One function of "很", in addition to making a sentence sound better, so to speak, is to remove any residual comparative implication (at least with simple and tangible adjectives/adverbs — the sense is different with more complicated descriptors). However, this is somewhat contextual.
If you really wanted to emphasize "very", you could choose a word other than "很", but that doesn't mean that "very" is wrong in translating "很".
The translation of this sentence could be "you speak slowly". "很" does mean "very", but it isn't necessarily all that emphatic because it's often used just to make a sentence "sound better".
"你说得慢" can also be used, but without "很", it can be used as an implied comparison, with the interpretation being "Of the two people under consideration, it's you who speaks more slowly." One function of "很", in addition to making a sentence sound better, is to remove any residual comparative implication (at least with simple and tangible adjectives/adverbs — the sense is different with more complicated descriptors). However, this is somewhat contextual.
If you really wanted to emphasize "very", you could choose a word other than "很", but that doesn't mean that "very" is wrong in translating "很".