Using 'is' in Chinese

[Maddie]

I heard that in chinese, 'is' is usually missed out.  BUT WHEN??

 

I was trying to say, 'Your long hair is pretty'

 

PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

Thanks

Maddie

[Ruben von Zwack]

You don't need "is" between a Noun and an Adjective. Only need it between two nouns, like, "I am a Student".

 

Super roughly speaking for the beginning. I hope it's correct to put it like this, if not, please correct me, everybody.

[simpleasy]

What I learned in the beginning is that a word like 很 usually functions as 'is' in such basic sentences. Although the literal translation is 'very', it's usually never translated like that in a sentence.
Just as Ruben von Zwack said, you don't use 'to be' in a noun-adjective sentence, but you do need a connection word like 很

 

as for 'your long hair is pretty' 

你长的头发很漂亮
(correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm never sure)

[tooironic]

I would say 你的頭髮很漂亮 or 你頭髮長得很漂亮. I know you wanted to say "long hair" but it sounds strange to say it this way in Chinese.

 

Everything else that has been said is correct; "is" is only used between a noun and a noun, not a noun and an adjective.

 

If you're ever unsure how to translate "is" you can ask here, but a general rule of thumb is to ignore it and learn the correct sentence structure in Chinese. E.g. He is 20 years old (他20歲), he is 176cms tall (他身高一米七六), he is good at dancing (他跳舞跳得很好), this is a good way to do it (這樣做很好), etc.

[Hofmann]

Your (and many others') problem is not recognizing stative verbs when you need to. And please don't dumb it down for them (beginners) and call them adjectives. That just confuses them and causes them to create complicated rules.

 

In your example, 你的頭髮很漂亮 is the usual translation although literally 你的長頭髮漂亮 would work also. 漂亮 is a stative verb, meaning "is pretty." No copula needed. 長 is a true adjective.

[skylee]

In your example, 你的頭髮很漂亮 is the usual translation although literally 你的長頭髮漂亮 would work also.

 

I don't think 你的長頭髮漂亮 works.  It has to be 你的長頭髮很漂亮, or 你的長頭髮真漂亮, etc.  But I agree it is ok to say 長頭髮.  It is not strange at all.

[Lu]

I agree that 你的長頭髮漂亮 is not the right way to say 'your long hair is very beautiful'. 你的長頭髮漂亮 would mean 'your long hair is more beautiful than [your short hair, her long hair, yesterday]. It could be the answer to 你觉得她的长头发漂亮还是我的长头发漂亮?

To say this simply about 'your' long hair, you need 很 or 真 or something similar.

[daofeishi]

 漂亮 is a stative verb, meaning "is pretty." No copula needed. 長 is a true adjective.

 

What is the difference between stative verbs and adjectives? Do they behave differently syntactically? I haven't studied Chinese grammar beyond the layman-explanations that you usually find in textbooks and similar sources. The few places where I have seen the term stative verb used, they're usually identified with adjectives, like on this wikipedia page. 

[Nathan Mao]

re: #6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhLLUp1Iqw

[Maddie]

So, the adjective comes before the noun?

 

Your nose is big:   你 的 大鼻子

 

IS THIS CORRECT?

xxx

[Nathan Mao]

@Maddie

 

What you wrote is not a sentence, but a complex Subject.

Translated, what you wrote is "Your big nose..."  Makes a listener think, "Your big nose what?"

If you want to say "You have a big nose", it would be, "你的鼻子真大！“ With various other possibilities of qualifiers available: 挺， 很， 特别， 非常， 好， 忒， etc.

[Guest realmayo]

What is the difference between stative verbs and adjectives?

From: ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary:

 

 

28. S.V. (Stative Verb, Xíngróngcí 形容词). These entries are frequently translated into English as adjectives, even though they actually behave in Chinese as verbs. That is, the sense of 'to be' is already incorporated into these verbs, e.g. Zhèige hěn hǎo 'This is quite good.' In fact, it is simply ungrammatical to place the verb shì, 'to be', directly in front of a stative verb. Because stative verbs are actually verbs, they are directly negated by bù, e.g. bù hǎo 'not good', and can be further modified by adverbs of degree such as hěn 'quite', fēicháng 'extremely' and shífēn 'very; utterly'. One common function of stative verbs is that they may serve as adverbs to other actions, e.g. mànmàn in mànmàn chī 'Take your time (eating)' and rènzhēn in rènzhēn de xiě 'write carefully'.

 

32. V.P. (Verb Phrase, Dòngcí Cízǔ 动词词组). This includes (i) descriptive predicates that do not behave as stative verbs, e.g., ǎirán ‘amicable; amiable’, as well as (ii) phrases and longer chunks containing a verb that are not fixed expressions, e.g., bǎiláibǎiqù ‘sway; waver’, áidào tiānhēi ‘bear up until nightfall’.

 

5. ATTR. (Attributive, Dìngyǔ 定语). An attributive is any word, phrase or sentence that is found directly in front of a noun or noun phrase and functions to modify that noun. Just about any word, phrase or sentence in Chinese can easily function as an attributive. Because of this, the label ATTR. is limited in this dictionary only to those entries that have no possible function other than that of attributive. Examples include gōnggòng in gōnggòng qìchē '(public) bus', qián in qiánbàn 'first half', Zhōng-Měi in Zhōng-Měi guānxi 'Sino-American relations', etc.

[Ruben von Zwack]

That just depends on the sort of sentence. This sentence you just wrote is like the beginning to a sentence, where half is still missing. Something along the lines of: "So, regarding your long nose... "

 

Your nose is long: 你的鼻子很长

[daofeishi]

Realmayo, that is the classification I am used to, but what I am wondering is what makes 漂亮 a stative verb as different from 长 that is a true adjective according to Hoffman's analysis. I can't think of a syntactical difference between the two. Both of them e.g. collocate with 很 and can serve as attributives.

[Hofmann]

The difference is their position.

[Maddie]

IS THIS CORRECT?

 

我觉得我的鼻子很漂亮的

 

xxx

[daofeishi]

The difference is their position.

 

Can you give an example of what you mean by that? Their syntactical usage is identical in all examples I am able to come up with, like 这条路很长／这条裤子很漂亮, 很长的头发/很漂亮的头发，（名词）最长/（名词）最漂亮. There is a difference in that 长 can be used directly as an attributive  in e.g. 长时间, and 漂亮 cannot, but I always thought that was due to prosodic requirements. 

[Ruben von Zwack]

@Maddie:

 

我觉得我的鼻子很漂亮的

 

(you don't need that last 的 here)

[gato]

What about 这个是很漂亮 in which the 是 to express agreement with a statement made by someone.

What parts of speech are 是, 很, and 漂亮 here?

[Hofmann]

高山: 高 is an adjective

山高: 高 is a stative verb.

高山高: First 高 is an adjective. Second 高 is a stative verb.

 

這個是很漂亮 implies 這個[東西]是很漂亮[的東西]. 是 is a verb. 很 is an adverb. 漂亮 is an adjective. If it were 這個很漂亮, 漂亮 would be a stative verb.