得

English translation: adverbially modified verb

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Chinese term or phrase:	verb + 得 + adjective phrase
English translation:	adverbially modified verb
Entered by:	Roddy Stegemann

08:01 Jan 23, 2004

Chinese to English translations [Non-PRO]
/ 言語

Chinese term or phrase: 得

天冷的時候他穿很少衣服，天熱的時候他穿得很多。

I have translated the above sentence as "He wears little clothing when the weather is cold, but when the weather is hot he wears so much".

Once again I am beset by the useof the word 得. Can we all agree that there is some sort of an error? Is this just bad Chinese, a special Cantonese use, or have I still not understood?

Roddy Stegemann KudoZ activity Questions: 666 (4 open) (6 without valid answers) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 1221 United States
Local time: 09:04

such that

Explanation:
This is standard Mandarin. 'De' follows a verb and indicates the manner in which the action is carried out.

吃飯 to eat
吃得很快 to eat quickly

Sentences like '他吃飯(的時候)吃得很快' are standard textbook Chinese. If you are trying to understand the role played by 'de', you might think of it as something like 'such that' in English; hence, 'When he ate rice, he ate such that it (his eating) was very quick.'

I would recommend you consult a good introductory textbook or grammar.

Selected response from:

Scott Webber (X)
Canada
Local time: 09:04

Grading comment

So, now I have learned that the construction verb + 得 + adjective includes all adverbial modifiers of the adjective as well. Scott appears to be a late comer to my grammatical ProZ.com grammatical training.

As he provided a better explanation than Kvasir, our part-time Cantonese linguist, I am awarding Scott the points.

My continued best wishes for the New Lunar New Year!

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

nothing wrong here

Kvasir

such that

Scott Webber (X)

Answers

9 mins confidence:

nothing wrong here

Explanation:
得 is not a special cantonese usage either. I would imagine the sentence is correct in mandarin as well.

I suppose 得 here takes the place of 衣服 which has already been mentioned previously in the sentence. Kind of like "en" in french.

Kvasir
Canada
Local time: 10:04
Native speaker of:

Chinese
PRO pts in pair: 123

16 hrs confidence:

such that

Scott Webber (X)
Canada
Local time: 09:04
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 12

Grading comment

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