Modifying nouns with phrase + "de"

Structure

As well as attaching adjectives to nouns, 的 (de) can be used to attach whole phrases to nouns. In English this is often achieved with "who" or "that", e.g. in "The man who went to Beijing" or "The book that I bought yesterday".

Phrase + 的 + Noun

Here a phrase means Verb + (Object).

Examples

• 去 北京 的 火车。
• 今天 来 的 人。
• 昨晚 喝 了 很 多 啤酒 的 那 个 人。

See also

• Modifying nouns with adjective + de
• Expressing possession

Sources and further reading

Books

• Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar (pp. 76) →buy
• Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 39) →buy