Function of 的 in 你怎么认识周小姐的?

[HedgePig]

I came across this sentence (from zhongwen red)

How do you know Ms. Zhou?

你怎么认识周小姐的?

What is the importance of the 的 at the end of the sentence?

What would the effect of leaving out the 的 be? Would the sentence still make sense (but possibly mean something different) or would it simply sound wrong?

My thought was that leaving out the 的 would mean something like "How do you recognise Ms. Zhou?" (with a possible answer being "by short hair, trendy jacket and the parrot on her shoulder), whereas with the "de", it means "what circumstances led you to know Ms. Zhou"?

[Kenny同志]

How do you know Ms. Zhou?

你怎么认识周小姐的?

What would the effect of leaving out the 的 be?Would the sentence still make sense (but possibly mean something different) or would it simply sound wrong?

你怎么认识周小姐？

How come that you know Ms. Zhou?

So, leaving out 的, the sentence is still correct, except that it carries another meaning.

My thought was that leaving out the 的 would mean something like "How do you recognise Ms. Zhou?"

In that case, it is 你（是）怎么认出周小姐的.

[HedgePig]

Thanks for the quick reply, kenny!

Can you tell me what the original sentence would mean if the 的 was simply left out? (You said it would have another meaning.)

[viener]

你怎么认识周小姐？

Under what circumstance is this sentence be used?

I give an example for this sentence

one day you invite John and Miss Zhou to go to a cafe to discuss something. Of course you know both of them, and they knew each other previously, BUT YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT.

When you three meet together, John greeted to Miss Zhou. Since you had thought that them didn't know each other before, so, IT'S REALLY SURPRISED TO YOU, then you said to John: 你怎么认识周小姐？

while adding a 的 to the end, what you want to get is focusing on the PROCESS, the typical answers are such as: I knew her in a ball party...

Have I made you clear enough?

[Kenny同志]

你怎么认识周小姐？

How come that you know Ms. Zhou?

My last post explained the difference.

[HedgePig]

Hello kenny

Sorry to be stupid - I'm still unclear. You are saying

(1) 你怎么认识周小姐的? = How do you know Ms. Zhou?

(2) 你怎么认识周小姐？ = How come that you know Ms. Zhou?

To me the English meaning in (1) and (2) is basically the same. So I'm not sure if there is a difference in the Chinese or if I'm misunderstanding something.

Regards

HedgePig

[Kenny同志]

你怎么认识周小姐 suggests that the asker doesn't expect that you know Ms. Zhou. He is surprised. The extent to which he is surprised can be known by noticing how he manipulates his tone.

你怎么认识周小姐的 can also imply surprise by manipulating your tone, but it is stronger leaving out 的. A normal tone usually doesn't convey that you are surprised.

Igore my English translation. There might have been something missing therein. I am not a native English speaker.

Edited March 3, 2010 at 01:56 PM by kenny2006woo

[renzhe]

I believe that grammatically, the 是 from the 是...的 construction is simply implied in this case and thus not spoken.

I don't think you'd see written like this in writing.

[Kenny同志]

你是怎么认识周小姐?

This sentence is incomplete.

你怎么认识周小姐的？

你是怎么认识周小姐的？

Both mean exactly the same thing. The difference is solely stylistic.

[renzhe]

Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks.

[Guoke]

(1) 你怎么认识周小姐的? = How do you know Ms. Zhou?

你是怎么认识周小姐的？= How did you get to know Miss Zhou?

认识：过去式

[HedgePig]

Thanks everyone - yes, that's cleared up things. Much appreciated.

I didn't think of the original sentence being a contracted form of the 是。。。的 construction.

kenny, I think your English examples are fine. I just didn't pick up the difference in surprise. (And sorry viener, I somehow missed your post which I clarified the differences first!)

[Kenny同志]

I am glad I didn't waste the space.

@Guoke 英文的时态太麻烦了。I am going to go through the tense part of my grammar book. It will be tough.

[tooironic]

a. 你怎么认识周小姐？ - How do you know Ms. Zhou?

b. 你怎么认识周小姐的？ - How do you know Ms. Zhou?

Unlike English, which uses stress in tonality, Chinese uses grammatical devices like this one. Hope that clears it up a bit more.

[Guoke]

@Guoke 英文的时态太麻烦了。

的确是中国学生学英语的最大障碍之一......

[HedgePig]

Unlike English, which uses stress in tonality, Chinese uses grammatical devices like this one. Hope that clears it up a bit more.

This is also a useful for me to remember - thanks!