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