Grammar Question

[stevenjac]

I'm trying to create a sentence "the hamburger has a cow meat, which is delicious."

Are these sentences right to convey the meaning?

 

汉堡有牛肉就是好吃。

汉堡有牛肉，是好吃。

汉堡有牛肉很好吃。

[WenLei-William]

Hi Stevenjac,

 

     Your sentence in English is ambiguous and has some grammatical errors, and so are your Chinese sentences. I'm going to rewrite your English sentence in the various ways I interpret it, and give the respective translation.

 

1. "Hamburgers made with beef are delicious." / "This hamburger that is made out of beef is delicious."

 

In Chinese: (这个)有牛肉的汉堡很好吃。

 

 

2. "The beef in this hamburger is delicious."

 

In Chinese: (这个)汉堡(包)里的牛肉很好吃

 

From your Chinese sentences, I assume that your original English sentence is similar to the first English sentence(s) I wrote. Unlike in English, where descriptive clauses of nouns (such as "Hamburger made with beef.") are placed after the noun, in Chinese, descriptive clauses are placed in front (such as "有牛肉的汉堡很好吃") of the noun to be described, because regardless of language, a descriptive clause is just like an adjective in the sense that they are used to describe the noun. As you know, adjectives (and descriptive clauses used to directly describe the noun) should all be placed in front of the noun, with a 的 in between, in the Chinese language.

 

Further examples:

 

1.喜欢看电影的人不少

"There are many people who like to watch movies

 

2. 卖咖啡的书店受年轻人的欢迎。

"Bookstores that sell coffee are popular among young people."

 

3. 能够边看书边休息的图书馆不难找到。

"It is not difficult to find libraries where you can read while resting."

[stevenjac]

Very informative! Thank you for the answer.

 

I have another question on how I can translate the English sentence below.

He gave me a present that he bought in America, which was American snacks.

 

他给我他在美国买的礼物，就是美国零食。

[WenLei-William]

Nice question, there are a couple of different ways you could write this:

 

Your translation is good, but I believe this brings up a great opportunity to learn about 把字句 ( and the more formal "将"字句 If you haven't learned about it yet).

 

 

This sentence construction is summarized neatly in these two articles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C7%8E_construction

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Using_%22ba%22_sentences

 

 

Here are some ways you could write your sentence using the  把 sentence structure

他把在美国买的礼物送给我，而礼物就是美国小吃。

他把在美国买的小吃当作礼物，就送给我。

 

The 把字句 is where Chinese takes a turn from its SVO roots and gets a little "weird" (this particular structure is ordered as S+把+O+V). If your native language is an SVO language this structure may seem pointless and difficult to master at first, but it is necessary in a numerous amount of scenarios, which are addressed in the articles.