position of 的

[freefall]

My book says:

If the object after the verb in the sentence is a noun, 的 can be placed either before or after the noun.

我是去年来的北京。

or

我是去年来北京的。

--

都可以。

But you cannot do that with this one:

他是打球的。

* 他是打的球。（BAD）

Why?

I know the 的 must come at the end if the object is a personal pronoun, but as far as I know a 球 is not.. (unless you draw a face on it.. but no, just no)

[freefall]

Hmm... well I just talked to my native speaker source again and she said 我是去年来的北京 is also wrong, even though it appears in my textbook (chinese grammar without tears).

So now I'm a bit more confused. Anyone care to comment?

Thankz.

[Koneko]

我是去年来的北京。

This is totally wrong.

You need to place an adjective before 的

我是去年来漂亮的北京。

Now this sounds correct.

Hope this helps!

[Quest]

我是去年来的北京。maye appear in colloquial language

我是去年来漂亮的北京。

Now this sounds correct.

Missing a 的, grammatically. The sentence sounds odd.

[bobbysunny]

的isn't always used in the adjective form. In this sentence, it decided by the daily speaking habits.他是打的球 sounds strange to native chinese speaker, and also can be understand as "he is playing ball now"(not other thing). The meaning is different from "他是打球的" can be translated as "he is ball player"(maybe that is his occupation).

[KlarkeTian]

我是去年来的北京,

I think it needs to be understood like this:

我是去年来的(北京).

I came last year, Beijing. This is oral Chinese, but not correct on grammar.

I think if you are a new learner, it's better to say as below:

我是去年来北京(的)

I(Subject) +came( verb) +preposition + Beijing(object)+ last year.

的 can be omitted ,but can be used orally.

[adrianlondon]

I don't usually like contributing to these types of threads, as I'm just a learner and I reckon it's best to let native Chinese (or people with much higher skill levels!) provide the answers, but ....

The "shi ... de" concept here is for emphasis and also adds a "past tense" element to the sentence.

我是去年来得

means "I arrived last year" and sort of highlights the "last year" bit.

我是去年来北京的

means "I arrived in Beijing last year" and doesn't really emphasise the "last year" bit over the "Beijing bit". Hmm - I'm not being very clear, am I.

If someone asked you "when did you arrive in Beijing?" then you don't need to mention Beijing again, so use the first sentence above. If someone asked you "tell me a bit about yourself" then you can use the second one.

If someone asks you where you're from, use 我是从英国来的. Well, pick your own country of choice, obviously.

The post above mentioning "漂亮" I think made a mistake and is trying to use the 的 as a possessive 的 rather than a "是...的" 的.

If someone decides I'm talking rubbish, please let me know and I'll delete this post so as not to confuse people!

[iven we]

我是去年来的北京。

or

我是去年来北京的。

Both of the setence is correct, only if the phrase is composed with a verb such as go(去), come(来), arrive(到) and a noun means a location, you can exchange the position between '的' and the noun.

Otherwise, you cann't adjust the position of '的'.

[shibo77]

As KlarkeTian said: "我是去年来的北京" is more colloquial, and may be answering to a question asking when that person arrived in Beijing, therefore emphasising "去年来的", and adding "北京" in the end as a footnote. However, the grammatically correct way, and especially in writing, you should say, "我是去年来北京的".

N是A的。 is just the opposite way of saying A的N。

For example: 苹果是红的。(The apple is red.) 红的苹果。 (Red's apple. / The red apple.)

"N" is a topic that is being described, and "A" is the predicate that describes the topic "N".

The "N是A的。" construction is not changeable, 的 has to be placed at the end of the entire clause of the predicate, but in colloquial speech, 的 can be placed at the end of the predicate where it is emphasised.

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For example:

你是什么时候来北京的? When did you come to Beijing?

我是去年来北京的。I came last year to Beijing.

As you can see, the response can be shortened to:

你是什么时候来北京的? When did you come to Beijing?

我是去年来的。I came last year.

The "to Beijing" part doesn't need to be mentioned, however one could repeat the "to Beijing" at the end, but emphasising the "last year", which is the response to the question:

你是什么时候来北京的? When did you come to Beijing?

我是去年来的北京。I came last year to Beijing.

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打球 is one word, it is a verb-object compound verb "to play ball". Therefore there is only one construction, even colloquially:

他是打球的。He plays ball.

For example:

他是干什么的？What does he do? (What is his profession?)

他是打球的。He plays ball. (a sport that involves something being hit back and forth)

One may continue to inquire what kind of -ball sport:

他打的是什么球？He plays which -ball sport?

他是打篮球的。 or 他打的是篮球。He plays basketball.

You can see "他是打篮球的。" follows the normal "N是A的。" construction, but the colloquial "他打的是篮球。" doesn't follow that construction. This new construction is possible here, because the verb "打球(to play ball)" has been replaced by two words, the verb "打(to hit, to play)" and the object/noun "篮球(basketball)".

-Shibo