Help with 是...的

[Thomill]

Hello,

Rosetta Stone provides the following examples that are confusing me.

这顶帽子是你先生给你的吗？不是，是我买的。

你是什么时候买的？我是住在美国的时候买的。

I think that they are trying to emphasize the 是...的 structure but am very unclear. Quite frankly I am not at all sure I understand either case. In fact, this really has halted my progress in the software.

I thought that the 是...的 structure is meant to highlight the focus of the sentence in some way at least from the grammar books I have available.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[jkhsu]

removed - wrong post

[BertR]

This 是。。。的 structure is to report a past action or event with specific emphasis on its time, place, manner or circumstantial aspects related to the action. 是 appears before the emphasized element and 的 appears at the end of the sentence. 是 may sometimes be omitted.

(Source: A practical Chinese Grammar by H.S. Cheung)

It's typically used when you already know that the action has taken place, but want to ask or give extra information.

The examples:

这顶帽子是你先生给你的吗？不是，是我买的。

Did you husband buy this hat for you? No, I bought it.

你是什么时候买的？我是住在美国的时候买的。

When did you buy it? I bought it when I lived in the US.

[edelweis]

emphasis is on the element that follows 是.

这顶帽子是你先生给你的吗？ was it your husband who gave you this hat? (make an assumption and ask for confirmation)

不是，是我买的。 No, I bought it (myself). (deny assumption)

你是什么时候买的？(but) when did you (have the opportunity to) buy it? (emphasis on "when" implies opportunities to buy such a hat are scarce)

我是住在美国的时候买的。It was when I was living in the US that I (was able to buy it) bought it. (at no other time)

Sentences without emphasis could be (please someone correct these are imperfect, see anonymoose's comments below...)

你的先生给了你一顶帽子没有？Did your husband give you a hat?

我买了一顶帽子。 I bought a hat.

你什么时候买了这顶帽子？when did you buy this hat? (simple question, no underlying exclamation or incredulity)

我住在美国的时候买了。 I bought it when I was living in the US. (simple information)

Does this help?

[bunny87]

edelweis, that is an awesome explanation of 是。。。的。 passing it on to a student who needed it right now.

[renshanrenhai]

I appreciate edelweis's explanation.

If we understand the sentence as "Did your husband buy this hat for you? " (你丈夫给你买了这顶帽子吗？),

It aims to confirm whether your husband bought or not . And the answer to this question should be "Yes, he did. " or "No, he didn't“.

However, the original sentence 这顶帽子是你先生给你的吗？不是，是我买的。doesn't mean that.

According to the answer "不是，是我买的", you get to know it deny the assumption that it was your husband who bought this hat for you.

不是，是我买的。It was i who bought this hat (not my husband).

So we can deduce from the answer and know what exactly the question focuses on. That is Was it your husband who bought this hat? (是你丈夫给你买的这顶帽子吗？)This question is to confirm if it was your husband (not others) bought this hat rather than whether your husband bought this hat or not.

是。。。。的吗？ It's quite similar to this sentence pattern : Is it ......who/where/when/that......?

The part following 是 is exactly what the question aims to get confirmed.

[WestTexas]

Sally, IMO in casual conversation Did your husband buy this hat for you? is the same meaning as Was it your husband who bought this hat? The second sentence sounds a little formal and I think many people wouldn't say it in casual conversation, instead using the first sentence to ask the same thing. Maybe a more natural phrase would be, So your husband bought that hat for you? In all three sentences, the hat is obviously there and so obviously someone had to buy the hat, hence the emphasis is on whether or not it was the husband who bought the hat. Also, "No, I bought the hat" is an acceptable normal response to any of the questions. I think this is a case where several different English sentences can all be translated into the same Chinese sentence.

Also, "It was I who bought the hat." sounds a bit old-fashioned, most people would just say "No, I bought it." I realize that your sentence parallels the grammar of the Chinese more closely, but I think it's not a good translation because it is in the wrong register and doesn't sound natural in a modern context.

[anonymoose]

Sentences without emphasis could be (please someone correct)

你的先生给了你一顶帽子没有？Did your husband give you a hat?

我买了一顶帽子。 I bought a hat.

你什么时候买了这顶帽子？when did you buy this hat? (simple question, no underlying exclamation or incredulity)

我住在美国的时候买了。 I bought it when I was living in the US. (simple information)

I'm not a native speaker, so maybe I'm wrong here, but this is what I feel about your sentences:

你的先生给了你一顶帽子没有？ Usually the verb+了...没有 construction contains an implied expectation, and you want to know whether that expectation has been met or not. So, for example, let's say that person's husband lost her hat, and one is expecting him to give her a replacement as compensation, one may ask "Has he given you a hat (yet) or not?" I think this corresponds more closely with your sentence. I don't think it is simply a neutral sentence.

我住在美国的时候买了。 To my ear, this sounds a bit odd as an independent statement. That is possibly because the object is implied rather than stated explicitly, in which case it would have to be preceeded by some other dialogue to make sense. But in this case, what kind of preceeding dialogue could elicit this sentence as a response? It almost certainly would be an enquiry into the time that "it" was purchased, in which case I think the more natural response again would employ the 是...的 construction: 我是住在美国的时候买的。

[edelweis]

Ah thanks anonymoose, I knew something was odd in there, even after replacing "this hat" with "a hat" in the first part... With your comments I think 是...的 has become a bit clearer for me too.

Could we say that, when questioning/answering about circumstances, there is an automatic emphasis on those circumstances, so 是...的 is frequent. Well, it's basically a paraphrasing of what BertR wrote above hehe. But now I understand what it means.

In order to have natural sounding neutral sentences, the text would have to be rewritten in non-dialogue form... but then it would be reduced to 我住在美国的时候买了这顶帽子 (or not - I assume a list of everything else I've bought at that time could follow...)

[BertR]

Also for this sentence: 你什么时候买了这顶帽子？ I think the 是。。。的 structure is preferred.

so 这顶帽子是什么时候买的？would be better

Like I wrote, it's typically used when you already know that an action has taken place, but want to ask or give extra information.

If you ask "What did you do yesterday?" you'll say:

你昨天做什么了？

And an answer can be

我昨天骑车了。

When you want to ask "When did you go cycling?", you have to write

你是什么时候骑车了？

And the answer:

我是昨天骑车了。

Well, it's basically a paraphrasing of what BertR wrote above hehe. But now I understand what it means.

Well apparently my explanation was not clear :-(

[edelweis]

@BertR: it does not mean your explanation was not clear. Isn't it ordinary teaching/learning interaction? (paraphrasing as an indication that you've -finally - understood and can explain with your own words). Also English is not my native language

[BertR]

Argh, where do these tags all of a sudden come from...

[renshanrenhai]

@ West Texas

Also, "It was I who bought the hat." sounds a bit old-fashioned, most people would just say "No, I bought it." I realize that your sentence parallels the grammar of the Chinese more closely, but I think it's not a good translation because it is in the wrong register and doesn't sound natural in a modern context.

Thank you for your suggestion. But what i was concerning about was not how many alternative translation versions could be used here but the subtle emphasis function of "是。。。的"。Yes, was it your husband who bought this hat for you sounds a bit formal in a casual conversation and conveys almost the same message with Did your husband buy this hat for ? or So your husband bought this hat for you? But how will you translate the sentences below?

你老公给你买了这顶帽子啊?（attention: I use 老公, a more colloquial word than 先生)

这帽子谁给你买的？你老公吗？

Do you really think 这顶帽子是你先生给你买的吗 is as colloquial as the two above?

though they convey almost the same message with that in "Did your husband buy this hat for you?"

Anyway thank you so much for your point. It inspires me a lot on the subtle meaning of "是。。。的".

@ the original sentence我是住在美国的时候买的。

It seems not perfect in logic. A better sentence will be like 这顶帽子(它)是我住在美国的时候买的。

Actually it's fine to every native speaker who use similar pattern quite a lot in their daily talk. e.g.我是在英国买（它）的= 它是我在英国买的。我是在报纸上看见（它）的=它是我在报纸上看见的。我是用这个方法解决（它）的=它是我用这个方法解决的。（In Mandarin ,especially in colloquial form, pronoun should be avoided wherever it's needed in English. That‘s exactly the reason why the sentence before "=" is more common to a native speaker than the latter. ）

我是住在美国的时候买的。= 我住在美国的时候买的。

In this case "是" can be omitted. If you use it here it implies a slight emphasis on the place where you bought this hat.

To answer the question When did you buy this hat? 我住在美国的时候买的 sounds better than 我是住在美国的时候买的。

It's simply because the emphasis on 住在美国的时候 is abundant when "when" in question directly inquires the time.

If 我是......买的。is used independently some context like

A :This red skirt fits you well.

B: Thank you. 我是在中国买的。

You can feel a slight emphasis on the place where you bought this skirt.

这顶帽子是我住在美国的时候买的。

In this case, "是" shouldn't be omitted， or it will make nonsense when two subjects are together here "这顶帽子我住在美国的时候买的。"

So "是" here is more of "be". In this case, it's hard to judge if there is an emphasis on the part following "是" unless the sentence is said in a talk.