Adjective

Potential content

  • Adjectives negated with 不
  • Adjectives can form positive-negative questions.
  • Adjective reduplication
    • Some adjectives can be reduplicated for emphasis.
      • They are reduplicated AABB e.g. 干干净净, ABB e.g. 红通通 or BABA e.g. 雪白雪白
      • 的 must be used with reduplicated adjectives.
  • Can be followed by complements
  • Can function as predicate. 是 is not used with adjectives.
    • 很 can be used with adjectives
      • 很 in neutral tone just indicates the predicate.
      • 很 in third tone adds emphasis to the adjective.
    • Some adjectives are not preceded by 很, but are followed by 了: 饿, 渴, 病
  • Single character adjectives can modify directly, e.g. 新书. 的 can optionally be inserted to emphasise the adjective: 新的书.
  • A two character adjective modifying a single character noun has to have 的, e.g. 好看的画.
  • If the adjective and noun are both two characters, 的 is optional as with single character adjectives.
  • Rules for 的 for modifying nouns also apply to 地 for modifying verbs.
  • 多 and 少 are special
    • Must be combined with 很 or 不 to form attributives for nouns
    • 的 is not necessary with 多 and 少.
  • Different ways to say:
    • Bad
    • Nice
    • Beautiful
  • 半 ... 不 ...

Sources and further reading