的是 ...?

[hlk123]

Hello

In this sentence:

第二篇谈的是住房问题。= The second piece talks about the housing problem.

What function has 的是 ?

Thanks.

[davidj]

第二篇谈的[implied: 事] - subject

是

住房[omitted: 的]问题 - complement.

I.E. I don't think that 的是 are grouped.

[mikevwilliams]

I think the 的是 here isn't compounded together like you think. The 的 is part of 谈, so to speak. The 的 could have something after it for example, 事, so the sentence would read 第二篇谈的(事)是住房问题. The meaning is something like 'The second item to discuss is the housing problem'.

[zhwj]

They're two separate items. 的 is a nominalizer here turning "the second piece talks" into "what the second piece talks about"; 是 is just the standard copula linking subject and predicate.

[skylee]

I agree with zhwj.

[hlk123]

Thank you.

And this one?

我作的是秘书. = I worked as a secretary.

的是 ... as a?

[mikevwilliams]

This one is "我做的（工作）是秘书" (at least I think that's correct). And this means 'I work as a secretary', not 'I workED as a secretary' i.e. it's not in the past.

[andrewreis]

i think its a possessive particle so for in your example

zuo de - the work that i (own or) do

shi... - is....

[studentyoung]

我作的是秘书. = I worked as a secretary.

的是 ... as a?

What / How / Who, or an attributive clause, etc, … is / are / was / were / be etc.

What I do is working as a secretary.

他爱的是他妈妈。

Whom he loves is his mom.

他怎么想的是她最关心的问题了。

How he thinks of it is the very thing she cares about.

第二篇谈的是住房问题。= The second piece talks about the housing problem.

What the second article discusses / talks about is the housing problem.

我爱吃的是粤菜和越南菜.

The cuisines I like are Cantonese cuisine & Vietnamese one.

Cheers!

[Mugi]

This one is "我做的（工作）是秘书" (at least I think that's correct). And this means 'I work as a secretary', not 'I workED as a secretary' i.e. it's not in the past.

Not necessarily. It depends on the context. Consider 1) 当时, 我做的是秘书; 2) 我从94年到98年一直工作在上海。我做的是秘书。

In both these cases the translation would be "I worked as a secretary"

[mikevwilliams]

If the sentence is just "我做的是秘书“, then that means it's the present tense, right?

[HashiriKata]

If the sentence is just "我做的是秘书“, then that means it's the present tense, right?

This is a good question:

Since a sentence like this never comes on its own, so strictly speaking there can't be such a situation for considering whether it should be past or present.

However, in an artificial situation where it can appear without context (such as language learning, textbook), informed people with some Western learning/ influence would say yes, the default interpretation is the present.

For Chinese people seeing this sentence on it own, however, I guess that it would not even enter their mind to question whether the sentence should be in the past or present tense. What is the point ?

[mikevwilliams]

Nice to know sentences like this are not used without context. To be honest I was thinking it would sound better with a 现在 in there, but I wanted to know if that sentence was present tense, and now I do

[tooironic]

Why are you concerned about tense anyway? Chinese expresses tense lexically. The words of a sentence do not change morphologically due to tense like English - e.g. "She is going there // She goes there // She will go there". Instead, extra vocabulary is used such as 現在，當時，曾經，將來, etc. As such, the transformation is not grammatical as in most European languages. As previous posters have said, refer to the context to determine whether it is happening in the past, present, or future, or if indeed tense is activated at all in the text. Hope that helps.

[Mugi]

Nice to know sentences like this are not used without context. To be honest I was thinking it would sound better with a 现在 in there, but I wanted to know if that sentence was present tense, and now I do

Are you concluding that the sentence is in the "present tense"? Without context (i.e. a time marker), nobody knows what tense it should be rendered in English - 我做的是秘书 is "tenseless". The only thing you be sure about is that it couldn't be rendered as the future tense in English.

Even if this sentence were to be glossed in a textbook, it would in all likelihood be translated to match the context in which it appears in the sample dialogue, which would incorporate a time marker.

现在 is just one of numerous time markers that you could add to give context. It would be just as valid to add 以前, 当时, 到昨天为止, etc.