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- "他不高兴。"
"他不高兴。"
Translation:He is not happy.
30 Comments
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.")
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.
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.
The sound of the word for she and the sound of the word for he are the same, but the Chinese characters are different.
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.
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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
Can someone explain me why tà sounds like p-ha (not a digraph, unlike in photo), and why bu sounds much like poo (sorry, but it sounds so to me) As well the letter x in pinyin always means s-sound, why not to use s instead? By now, pinyin doesn't make much sense to me, it is supposed to be helping, but by now it's confusing. I hear some another sounds, than I expect from what I see. The same with vowels e means a, a sounds like e, i sometimes resembles oo in a low tone. Totally confusing.
Pinyin is not a representation of English sounds. The Latin alphabet is used to represent a foreign language and which sound goes with each letter must be learned. It makes sense to Chinese people not to English speakers.
What has helped me is going to you tube and actually having native speakers tell me where to place my tongue in my mouth to make certain sounds. There are sounds that just aren't made that way in English (I've found the same is true for other languages I'm learning.) I have to actually learn to physically make the sound sometimes and practice for days before I can actually even distinguish it from what to me is and almost identical sound (but to a native speaker is as different as night and day.) If I don't do this, I never hear the difference. With practice though, it happens. The x is like an sh but with the tip on your tongue against the back of your bottom teeth. That may be why you are hearing an s.
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.
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..
