有的 or 一些

[jadeblomma]

Is there a grammatical difference between 'you de' and 'yi xie' (e.g. you de ren/yi xie ren) or are they ALWAYS interchangeable?

[eladalon]

I'm pretty sure 有的人 means something like: "Some people...., some people....". for example: 有的人喜欢中国菜,有的人不喜欢 (Some people like chinese food and some don't).

一些 is more like "some" but just like in the grammatic structure of 一个 but in plural... like: 他看了一些书 (He read some books).

有的 fits more when there is a statement that may be the opposite or different. "Some people just don't like this" (and some people do), "Sometimes I want to do homework" (and somtimes I don't), etc.

一些 cannot be used in this structure and can be translated to "some", "a couple", "a few", etc.

[aristeon]

I've just asked my Taiwanese language partner, who's with me right now^^

She said 有的 means "some", "there are some"

一些 means a couple, a few

So you can say 有的人說", meaning "some people say", but you can't say "a couple of people say"

I hope it helps

[xiaocai]

I don't know why aristeon's post was voted down. As you may have noticed that there is a verb 有 in 有的 but not in 一些, so grammatically speaking they are not really interchangeable. To make 一些 fully interchangeable with 有的 you need to add a verbal component and most often it will also be 有. So we can say 有的 is grammatically interchangeable with 有一些 or the short form 有些. However as with synonyms in any languages, there will always be situations that only one of them is appropriate, I can't think of any good example now but also can't say for sure that they ALWAYS mean the same.

[yhyl800]

As a chinese, I should say 有的 and 一些 mostly can be interchangable, but if you refer to some particular objects that you currently concentrate on, such as "Please go and buy some food", in this sentence you should use 一些， does it make sense?

[Lugubert]

I'm more interested than knowledgeable, but I'll add some examples, using Cheung: A Practical Chinese Grammar.

I think some of the confusion arises from using "some" for both expressions.

有的人喝咖啡。。。 Some drink coffee..., or There were some (of them) who drank coffee...

That pattern "points to members of a known group"

有人在唱歌 Someone/Some guys is/are singing

"refers to an unspecified person or persons."

The book refers to 些 as "the indefinite measure word". Interesting.

"The indefinite measure does appear with the numeral one, much in the same way as the use of "a" in "a few of" or "a bit of" in English."

一些朋友 "a few/some friends"

[陳德聰]

The book refers to 些 as "the indefinite measure word".

Precisely.

[fzsummer]

My English is not good enough to give accurate explaination. But just have a try ~~

1. 有的 could be one or more

有的人投诉，could be one person complains, maybe two, three, four...

2. 一些 is plural

一些人投诉，more than one person

3. more complicated usage:

有的时候- sometimes

有的时候我会想她。 I miss her sometimes.

一些时候 - (could be a short or long time) a while or a period of time

你来了有一些时候了吧？

Scenario 1: two friends meet in a restaurant. A arrives early. 5 minutes later, B arrives. And B asks A: 你来了有一些时候了吧？Here it means "You have been here for a while?"

Scenaro 2: It's been 2 years since A moved to Beijing. B asks A: 你来了有一些时候了吧？Here it means: You have come to Beijing for a period of time?

一些不高兴 - not very happy

一些不方便- hard to translate precisely

我今天有一些不方便(can also say 有些不方便)，不能去踢球了。I am not good enough(maybe because of illness, being busy or just an excuse) today to play soccer.

在这里买水果有一些不方便。 It's not very convenient to buy fruits here.

there is no expression of “有的不方便”“有的不高兴”

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要睡了，先写这么多。