"Their older brother is short."
Translation:他们的哥哥很矮。
52 Comments
他们的哥哥矮 should have been accepted. There is no very or short in the sentence.
他们的哥哥矮 doesn't sound native. I think 很 here is necessary. 很 doesn't always mean 'very', it is often just a copula connecting the subject and the predicative adjective.
It appears that 很is used more than sometimes. It seems to be used almost all the time when connecting a noun to an adjective.
As I understand you always need something to conmect an adjective to a preceding noun and 很 is sort of the default if you don't need anything more specific.
Speaking as a native Chinese speaker, 很 always means "very" to me. Sometimes the verb is implied in Chinese (for example: 她个子高 and 她长得高 both mean "She's tall" though the first sentence contains no verb and is likely more frequently used), so 很 is not needed even if there's no apparent verb in the sentence. This works with most descriptors that come to mind right now.
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When is 的 essential? I know that in many cases you can just drop it, but dropping it for this sentence got me a wrong answer...?
Normally possession is expressed using the particle 的 (de). However, you can omit 的 (de) in these cases:
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A close personal relationship is involved (family, close friends, boyfriends or girlfriends)
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An institutional or organizational relationship is involved (school, work)
Brother is certainly close enough, but Duolingo has yet to implement this aspect of 的 into their lessons. So just always use 的 on duolingo but make a mental note whenever you see it used for close relations. Just repeat these sentences to yourself without the 的 (de) and you should internalize this rule pretty quickly
My understanding is that you need it anytime you're talking about something possessive. Ex. My (我的) instead of I (我)
You don't need it all the time. In this case, it sounds better to have the 的. If you were just saying "My older brother is short," then you can get away with "他哥哥(长得/的个子)矮"
No language absolutely sticks to the written rules. In this case, it just sounds better to have the 的 after 他们. This is where having conversations with native speakers or watching Chinese TV/films would help.
Hang on, there are two words for short? 短 and 矮
I had no idea. I learned to use 短 when I learned mandarin years ago and never learned 矮 at all. Good thing 矮 doesn’t come up too much in business!
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It is wrong. 很 is not "very" but a connection between the noum and the adjective. Imagine this very as "somehow"... because you only say someone is 漂亮(piaoliang) if that is somehow beautiful.
It is omitted in some cases, for example when you use 更(geng), 非常(feichang), 最(zui), 太的(tai+de), etc.
The negative exchange the 很 for 不 . 你很漂亮。你不漂亮。
Speaking as a native Chinese speaker, 很 always means "very" to me. Sometimes the verb is implied in Chinese (for example: 她个子高 and 她长得高 both mean "She's tall" though the first sentence contains no verb and is likely more frequently used), so 很 is not needed even if there's no apparent verb in the sentence. This works with most descriptors that come to mind right now. Just think of the quintessential question "你好吗?" There's no verb in there. 你 is a pronoun, 好 is an adjective and 吗 just makes it a question. Same goes for "你好不好?" No discernible verb there either. And where's the verb in the question "你舒服吗?" ("Are you comfortable?")? Not there. Now, if you add 很 to any of those, you'd be asking a very different question.
"hen ai" is very short, short is "ai" I think usually when I speak chinese it is just "ta de ge ge ai" unless he is very short, idk if im wrong tho
I put '他们哥哥很矮', was this wrong? I thought since brother was close, that I could omit the '的' particle. They marked it as wrong, so I'd like to know.
It sounds better to have the 的. You can get away with leaving off the 的 if you change the sentence to "他们哥哥的个子矮," because having two 的 there (as in "他们的哥哥的个子矮") would sound awkward.
As I've written over and over, please leave off the 很 unless you want to express the word "very," because verbs can be implied in Chinese sentences.
Sorry but that is not correct. Chinese requires something to link the noun to the adjective and the default if there is nothing else is 很. In this context it's more like "is" rather than "very"
Yeah, I keep seeing that given as the explanation here. But speaking as a native Chinese speaker, 很 always means "very" to me. Sometimes the verb is implied in Chinese (for example: 我病了 and 我有病 both mean I'm sick even though the first sentence doesn't contain a verb), so 很 is not needed even if there's no apparent verb in the sentence. This works with most descriptors that come to mind right now.
Interesting. Is it possible that the formal language in the education standards has fallen out of step with real world usage? Or just that large parts of second language learning community has gotten confused?
You'll have to research more on that one. Perhaps it's time to visit a Chinese professor in person rather than relying on a website creator's bio.
I hope Chinese people don't speak as fast as that, then I wouldn't understand them...
When learning a new language, your perception of the speed at which native speakers speak will, generally speaking, probably be faster than their actual speaking speed. I don't want to make any assumptions, but if Chinese is completely different from any of the languages you currently know, then my first statement is especially true (again, generally speaking). My advice is, after you feel comfortable with the vocab/grammar you've learned, perhaps start with watching Chinese movies with subtitles in your native language to test your understanding. Then, once you're comfortable with that, try finding stuff to listen to, such as podcasts, or something like that. All it takes is more practice! Good luck and I wish you all the best!
No problem! Chinese is my native language, so the speed of the audio isn't an issue for me, but I completely understand how it could be an issue for anyone who's not used to hearing it. I'm glad I could help!
很 is able to be used to connect nouns to adjectives without it meaning "very".
Yeah, I keep seeing that given as the explanation here. But speaking as a native Chinese speaker, 很 always means "very" to me. Sometimes the verb is implied in Chinese (for example: 我病了 and 我有病 both mean I'm sick even though the first sentence doesn't contain a verb), so 很 is not needed even if there's no apparent verb in the sentence. This works with most descriptors that come to mind right now.
