View source for De (structural particle)

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The structural particle "de" has three written forms in modern Chinese, each with its own uses:

* The [[De (structural particle)#的|structural particle 的]] (most often used for modifying nouns)
* The [[De (structural particle)#得|structural particle 得]] (most often used with complements)
* The [[De (structural particle)#地|structural particle 地]] (most often used for adverbial phrases)

There is also a [[De (modal particle)|modal particle 的]].

== 的 ==

: ''See also: [[De (structural particle)#的|structural particle 的]]''

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的 + Noun

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的 is known as 白芍的 (bái-sháo de) in Chinese as it's composed of the characters 白 (bái) and 勺 (sháo). It's used to mark '''possession''' or '''modification'''. One way to think about 的 is that it works like '''''s'''' in English (apostrophe s), e.g.

: <span style="liju">Xiaoli''''s''' house</span> 

: <span style="liju">小李'''的'''房子</span>

This analogy works very well for possession, as it shows how English and Chinese handle possession in a similar way. Just remember that Chinese uses this 'possession' far more widely than English. Modifying, describing qualities and assigning attributes are all handled in the same way as possession, by using 的.

: <span style="liju">红色'''的'''自行车</span>

Here 的 is used to modify 'bike' with the colour 'red'. You could still think of this as possession - a bike that ''belongs to'' the category ''red''.

== 得 ==

: ''See also: [[De (structural particle)#得|structural particle 得]]''

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Verb + 得

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得 is known as 双人得 (shuāngrén de), as the radical 彳 is often known as 双人 (shuāngrén) - 'double person'. This ''de'' is probably the trickiest to crack for English speakers as it has no obvious equivalent in English.  得 is used to construct various kinds of [[complements]].

== 地 ==

: ''See also: [[De (structural particle)#地|structural particle 地]]''

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地 +  Verb

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地 is known as (tǔ-yě de) as it's composed of the characters 土 (tǔ) and 也 (yě). It's used to mark [[adverbs]], and can often be seen as equivalent to the [[suffix]] ''-ly'' in English.

== References ==
<references/>

== Sources and further reading ==

* Grammar book: [http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?_encoding=UTF8&tag=allset-23&linkCode=as2&asin=B001J0ADWA&camp=536&creative=3132&creativeASIN=B001J0ADWA 外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照)] (pp. 133-135)
* Blog post: [http://blog.chinesepod.com/2011/05/18/the-three-musketeers-%E7%9A%84-%E5%BE%97-and-%E5%9C%B0/ The Three Musketeers (的, 得, and 地)] on ChinesePod.com
* Blog post (Chinese): [http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5375d4df0100azfv.html “的”与“地”“得”]
* Online document (Chinese): [http://wenku.baidu.com/view/3ce1a977a417866fb84a8eca.html “的”“地”“得”的用法区别] explains and shares a song about the three de's
* East Asia Student: [http://eastasiastudent.net/890/china/mandarin/cmn-grammar/%E7%9A%84-%E5%9C%B0-%E5%BE%97-summary/ 的 地 得 grammar summary (DE particles)]

[[Category:Particles]]