"I want to eat healthy things."

Translation: 我想吃健康的东西。

[Star_185]

What is the point of 的 here?

[panthablack]

Yes, why is the possessive particle needed? I tried without and it was rejected by duo. Could someone please explain?

[sahar-rabayev]

to connect the term "healthy" with "things" to mean "things that are healthy".
it can be understood without it but since it is a grammar rule in Chinese (I guess) it does not mean you can make an exseption (?) that is my guess

[Keith_APP]

See if my thread has an answer for you:
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25480888

[roman2095]

Thanks for a great link. But what I got from that was that with 2-SYLLABLE AA + 2-SYLLABLE N the 的 is largely optional. I left it out and was marked wrong. What do you think?

[Keith_APP]

The link has somewhat a simple classification but when it says "optional" it actually mean "both ways exist".
In this particular sentence I think we better use 的, as there is no close association between Health and Thing in meaning.
If we change the noun to "food" 食品 then we can see better the difference. 健康的食品 would be close to "healthy food", whilst 健康食品 would sound like "health food".

[JanZeze]

This video help me a lot to understand the different de's and how they are used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggPbyZN96ss

[CinnamonTe1]

I like to think of the possessive particle 的 as connecting 2 nouns 我的狗 (my dog). The 的 in this sentence connects a noun and an adjective. If an adjective is only 1 character, then you don't use 的.

Noun: 狗 (dog)
Adjectives: 健康 (healthy), 聪明 (clever), 小 (small)

健康的狗 (healthy dog), 聪明的狗 (clever dog), 小狗 (small dog)

https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/modifier-de-noun/
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/de-after-adjectives/

[richard711603]

Why is '要' not acceptable, instead of '想'?

[FeQH1]

And even more – 想要 should be acceptable too IIRC

[calbertson1]

Would “我想吃健康的“ be an acceptable answer here?

[Keith_APP]

It would be acceptable if food or a particular type of food is mentioned in the preceding context, or the situation is so specific that the listener must understand which thing you are referring to.
e.g. in front of an ice cream stand which only ice cream is sold.

[JanZeze]

Can we use 菜 (cai) instead of 东西 (dongxi)， I used it and it says it's wrong but if someone can tell me if it's actually incorrect or it's jut duo's not accepting it?

[Charanko02]

I'm not sure but I think that 菜 is more like "vegetables"

[ShawnGut1]

东西 is like "thing(s)" or "stuff" or "something", depending on the context. 菜 is "vegetables" or "dish" or "food" or "cuisine", also depending on the context. But it won't fit here.