三点才回的家

[gato]

Sounds like a dialect variation. Definitely not standard Mandarin.

[Daan]

I actually have footage of an interview with an elderly speaker of Peking Mandarin describing his day. You can clearly hear him say 早上，喝的牛奶 'In the morning, I drank milk'. The interview also features a few other sentences in which he uses 的 between a verb and its object. I'd have to ask permission to post an excerpt on YouTube, but if anyone wanted to hear (and see) this, I could ask?

[gato]

Maybe you can convert it to audio-only and post it here?

[aristotle1990]

Come to think of it, in Beijing I have also heard 的 being used where one would normally expect a 了.

早上，喝的牛奶

This seems similar:

早上喝的牛奶，下午和晚上，肚子就胀气，不知道这是不是喝牛奶喝的？

[creamyhorror]

@semantic nuance: No worries, I wasn't too clear with my question either So it seems Beijing Mandarin does use 的 like 了...interesting to know.

[aristotle1990]

So I've been in continuous contact with this girl, and apparently 我昨天喝的牛奶 can mean 我昨天喝了牛奶 (or 我昨天喝的是牛奶 if you want to think about it like that). Can any other native speakers confirm this?

[Kiz]

1. 他昨天晚上三点才回的家 is colloquial and is a complete sentence not a noun. 他 is subject. 昨天晚上三点 is a time adverbial. 才 is a adverbial to describe predicate “回”. 的 is an auxiliary word to emphasize the time location or pattern of the action of the verb ahead such as 谁订的票？ 她是昨天进的宾馆。 我是在食堂吃的饭。 In this case, 的 emphasize the time 昨天晚上三点. It's an informal expression. Chinese often say things like that. For example, 我今天五点才吃的饭. :rolleyes:

@aristotle1990 @xiaocai

2. 他昨天晚上三点才回的家 can mean both 他昨天晚上三点才回家 and 他昨天晚上三点才回到家. Chinese guys don't reach a consensus either. Some mean 才回家，others mean 回到家. And it's not regional or limited to some parts of China. If you want to know the exact meaning of it, you probably should ask him/her one more question like “你昨晚三点才往家走还是你昨晚三点就到家了？” But if you encounter this situation again, you should just ignore it. Nobody take it seriously, most of the time.

@aristotle1990 @semantic nuance @gato

3. It should be 的 in this case.I elaborate it in 1.. B)

@Hofmann

4. I think this sentence is not a truncated 是。。。的 construction. 我是昨天晚上三点才回的家 sounds weird. Besides, 家 is the object and if 是 is the predicate and 昨天晚上三点才回的 is adverbial then the main sentence 我是家 makes no sense. But the whole 昨天晚上三点才回的家 can be the complement of predicate 是. Then it is also right. But this is colloquial, can you guys just drop it? - -!~

[Kiz]

@aristotle1990

Yeah, I can confirm.

我昨天喝的牛奶 can mean both. It only matters what you want to think about it. And it gives the same information. sb. did sth. at st.. Therefore, if you can know what it means or you can use it appropriately and you won't misunderstand it, then it's fine. You don't have to dig into it.