"他不高兴。"
Translation:He is not happy.
52 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Yes, the unstressed 很 (hĕn) is needed primarily in front of adjectives that lack another adverb, e.g., 非常 (fēicháng - "extremely").
When you negate an adjective with 不 (bù - "not"), adding 很 is no longer as strictly necessary.
You can, however, optionally use the two words in conjunction to express differences in degree:
我不高兴。("I am unhappy.")
我不很高兴。("I am not very happy.")
我很不高兴。("I am very unhappy.")
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But is 很 even strictly needed? I was talking to a Chinese co-worker, and he said you could just say 他高兴 and it would be fine.
Fair point! Aside from negation, there are some other situations when 很 can be omitted.
As mentioned in the Greeting 2 module, 很 is not needed in certain conditional statements:
你高兴，我也高兴。("If you are happy, then I am happy.")
It is also not needed in yes/no and A不A questions:
你高兴吗？("Are you happy?")
你高(兴)不高兴？("Are you happy or not?")
Perhaps most often, 很 is omitted in comparisons:
你高，还是他高？("Who is taller: you or he?")
她漂亮。("She is prett[ier than someone else].")
I admit that the phrase "strictly necessary" was probably not the best choice of words.
Still, I think that using the unstressed 很 in simple declarative sentences remains a pretty good rule of thumb: 很 is definitely used much more often than "very" when linking adjectives to their subjects, and it can make these statements sound more "natural."
Disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker, but I've been studying Chinese for several years, and this has been my personal experience. Even now my teachers continue to remind us to use the unstressed 很, haha.
For additional discussion on 很 and the implications of its omission (or lack thereof), here are three links: x x x
Hope this helps! :)
From what I learned, adding a 很 to a statement other than positive (such as a negative, interrogative or conditional) will not replace the 是 (as some sort of "is") for that adjective anymore but instead mean very, to insist on that adjective. As an example, 他不很高兴 would mean "He isn't very happy". Please correct me if I'm wrong.
They are not articles. The second is the verb "to be", but it is not used to link a predicate adjective to its subject. For that they use the first in a positive declarative sentence. Scroll up for more.
How do you black the letters? Let me try /a/ -a- a <sub>a</sub> #a# a ... Some of this should work.
Two stars on each side of the word that you want bold, one star each side creates italics and three stars each side creates both bold italics.
that is correct. I wish this course would use 很 less, because at least here in Shanghai, people only use it to mean 'very'
'Hen' when used as a means to connect a noun and an adjective is not required in the above sentence (topic of the discussion) ?
"She is not happy" would be 她不高兴 as opposed to "He is not happy", which is 他不高兴. The difference is the way the tā is written out. For "he", it is written 他; for "she", it is written 她. In the word for "she", the little squiggly doo is added to the 他 character to make 她. Sorry if this is confusing, but to sum it up 他 means he, and 她 means she.
When saying 'they' is the 他们 used for male only? Or does that become gender neutral?
It could probably be a coed group as well, but 她们 is a group of all females as they.
The sound of the word for she and the sound of the word for he are the same, but the Chinese characters are different.
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他 is he. The first part of the character represents man or human. 她 is she. The first part represents the female gender. At least that's what my singaporean friend taught me
I used singular they, as it should be, and was marked as incorrect. Unlike western languages, many Asian languages, such as Chinese and Thai, use unisex 3rd person pronouns. My Taiwanese teacher who taught me Chinese when I took Chinese 1 in a Singapore university taught me that ta is gender neutral. My friends from China keep mixing up he and she when they speak English. Duolingo, please do not push your western gender-centric BS onto Asian languages.
I used singular they, as it should be, and was marked as incorrect. Unlike western languages, many Asian languages, such as Chinese and Thai, use unisex 3rd person pronouns. Duolingo, please do not push your western gender-centric BS onto Asian languages.
The exact same pronunciation should allow for 他 and 她 in first listening then transcribing exercises.
Yes. If both are not accepted, then please report it, but first make sure the rest of the sentence is exact.
Hello! The correct answer should be adjusted to accept both feminine and masculine forms. There is no way to know for those using a keyboard (web version) instead of a cheating word bank. Thanks..
When you must listen and write it down, you cannot, but the characters look different.
Well, what was your answer and more importantly which instructions were you given. Many exercises come back to this sentence. If you had the instructons to type what you hear, then you were not supposed to translate.
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How would you write 'She is unhappy' ? I thought it was the same but it is not being accepted.
(I'm a native speaker) 不高兴 is exactly how I would translate 'unhappy'.
The problem is, this sentence uses the masculine 3rd person pronoun. 他. The feminine 3rd person pronoun has a different radical (她, you can see the radical being 女). They're both pronounced the same, so it can get confusing.
Not from the Chinese character "他" which specifically means "he" in this sentence. The feminine version of ta is "她" for "she". Report it for an exercise which had you listen and write it down with no visual.
What is the difference between she and he here .. 他 its a problem I'm always confuse in both she / he
No difference in sound, but the character is different when you see it.
she = 她
I used singular they, as it should be, and was marked as incorrect. Unlike western languages, many Asian languages, such as Chinese and Thai, use unisex 3rd person pronouns. Duolingo, please do not push your western gender-centric BS onto Asian languages.
Singular "they" is not standard English, you can try reporting it as also correct to see if Duolingo will allow it or not. Ordinarily "they" is plural, so they might not allow it, but the world is changing, so you could at least try.
I've found out that singular they in English is nothing new though. It has been used for ages when someone's gender is not known. The only thing new is the use of singular they for a nonbinary person, quote: "they has been in consistent use as a singular pronoun since the late 1300s; that the development of singular they mirrors the development of the singular you from the plural you, yet we don’t complain that singular you is ungrammatical; and that regardless of what detractors say, nearly everyone uses the singular they in casual conversation and often in formal writing." https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they
I never said that its use was new, just that it is not standard. Include that article in your report to Duolingo asking for it to be accepted as also correct. I personally feel that "nearly everyone" is pushing it a bit much, but Merriam Webster is on your side, so go for it. In English "he" was originally used when you did not know which gender as well as when the gender was obviously male. Using "she" was more specifically female.
