de . how many uses are there for this word?
phettu
April 14, 2008, 01:29 PM posted in General DiscussionHi all
I am trying to get my head around all the different uses for "de" ......
I understand some of them, but 'man' its used a lot, any help on how i can standerdise the meaning in my head ?
many thanks Phill
auntie68
April 14, 2008, 01:38 PMYou can do it...
phettu
April 14, 2008, 01:54 PMHi Auntie68 Actually i am not able to learn spoken chinese and hanzi at the same time my brain is too small :) But i did look at the de characters you wrote and they make sence to me, so that helps , thank you, and thank you for your kind encouragment :)
henning
April 14, 2008, 02:30 PMphettu, I recommend that you include the characters in your study as early as possible. It makes life a lot easier later, the three "de" might give you a first, small taste of their importance. Off the top of my head: 的 的 is a preposition that marks posession in an abstract or concrete sence (equivalent to a genetive case), e.g. 我的钱 (wo3de qian2), "my money" It is of absolute importance and according to all frequency lists I know the most commonly used character. That is because Chinese sentences are preferably built by exploiting 的-constructions to the fullest (the logic is: "long-black-hair-having woman"). 地 and 得 are both connecting adverbs to verbs. 地 地 comes before a verb and is equivalent to adding a "-ly" to word or phrase before in English. 得 得 is placed after the verb and is followed by a phrase that further describes the verb, e.g. by adding a degree or an emphasis. Just go through the lessons and look out for examples, you will find millions. Be warned though: those 3 evil little characters all can be used in different contexts as well - but then they unfortunately also come with different pronounciations.
calkins
April 14, 2008, 03:07 PMHenning, thanks for the "long-black-hair-having woman" description of 的. This construction has always been frustrating for me...by adding "having" after the adjectival phrase is really helpful.
phettu
April 14, 2008, 03:13 PMhehe, thank you very much, I do actually work with the characters along side my pinyin when studying, but as you will know its like trying to learn 2 languages at one time., yes thank you for the examples, like Calkins said, it has been bugging the ....... out of me for some time :) thanks again
auntie68
April 14, 2008, 01:38 PMHi Phill. I have to go offline (and get some SLEEP!) soon, but this is a good question. Are you learning Chinese characters? Just curious. The most common and important "de"s in Chinese are actually three different Chinese characters, which are homonyms -- 的， 地， 得. Each one is a very important particle which means a different thing from the other "de"s. All the best!