Moderating positive adjectives with "hai"

Whenever you want to imply that something is "meh", you can use 还(hái).

Structure

As well as continuation, 还 (hái) can also be used to weaken positive adjectives. This is similar to saying "quite" or "reasonably" in English.

Subject + 还 + Adjective

Examples

• 我 还 好。I'm OK.
• 这 个 啤酒 还 行。This beer is decent.
• 那 个 乐队 还 可以。This band is so-so.

See also

• Continuation with "hai"
• Expressing "rather" with "bijiao"
• The "zui" superlative

Sources and further reading

Books

• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (3rd ed) (pp. 302) →buy
• Exemplification of Common Sentence Patterns in Spoken Chinese 汉语口语常用句式例解 (pp. 106-7) →buy