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Predicate or Describer?


ou mensheng

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Hello! I'm very confused. If I wanted to say "the weather is beautiful today," would that be 今天天气漂亮, or 今天漂亮天气? The reason I'm confused is because the subject would be 天气, so since 漂亮 is describing the weather wouldn't it go before 天气? But since 漂亮 is an adjective it could serve as the predicate, in which case it would go after the subject, 天气. I feel like the answer is obvious but I'm still confused. Thanks!

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17 hours ago, ou mensheng said:

If I wanted to say "the weather is beautiful today,"

 

今天的天气很漂亮

 

Quote

The reason I'm confused is because the subject would be 天气, so since 漂亮 is describing the weather wouldn't it go before 天气? But since 漂亮 is an adjective it could serve as the predicate, in which case it would go after the subject, 天气.

 

Don't overthink it.

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18 hours ago, ou mensheng said:

今天天气漂亮

Chinese grammar is quite simple at times, but "today weather nice" doesn't make sense in english either. As for "Today beautiful weather"...

 

There's 2 grammar rules at play here. Possessive article, and noun + adjective. If, in English, you would say 's after a word, you need to add 的 90% of the time. "Today's weather..." --> "今天的天气

 

As for noun + adjective, here's the grammar wiki article.

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Giuseppe Romanazzi

天气很漂亮: Adjectival Predicate Sentence. (Lesson 18)

 

天气: Subject.

 

: In an affirmative sentence the adjectival predicate is usually preceded by 很, which is a weakened adverb here without much significance of an adverb of degree. Without 很, comparison or contrast is often implied.

 

漂亮: Predicate.

 

今天: Time word used as adverbial adjunct. (Lesson 33)

 

天气今天很漂亮: When used as an adverbial adjunct, time words generally come before the main element of the predicate.

 

今天天气很漂亮: When special emphasis is laid on the time words, they may be shifted before the subject to the beginning of the sentence.

 

The references are to the course on wearyourchinesename.com

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  • 3 months later...

天气很漂亮 is not often used in standard Mandarin, since 漂亮 is not used to describe 天气。

you can say 

天气很好

天气太棒啦

这天气绝了

今天风和日丽

今天春和景明波澜不惊上下天光一碧万顷

 

 

 

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