Negative adjectives with "-si le"

Revision as of 16:26, 17 October 2014 by Noemi (talk | contribs) (→‎Examples)

We might say things in English like "you scared me to death!". One way to intensify negative adjectives is to put 死了 (sǐle), "to die", after them. To express the opposite you would use 极了 (jíle).

Structure

The "Subject" part below is actually optional; you can also make your over-the-top exclamations without it.

Subject + Negative adjective + 死了

Note that this structure is a degree complement (called 程度补语 (chéngdù bǔyǔ) in Chinese).

Examples

  • 饿 死了It could be read as 'hungry to death' è sǐle .I'm so/terribly hungry!
  • 难看 死了It could be read as 'ugly to death' nánkàn sǐle .He's so/terribly ugly!
  • 死了It could be read as 'fat to death' pàng sǐle !You're so/terribly fat!
  • 死了It could be read as 'hot to death' sǐle !It's so/terribly hot!
  • 这里 的 东西 死了It could be read as 'expensive to death' Zhèlǐ de dōngxī guì sǐle .The things here are so/terribly expensive!
  • 死了It could be read as 'cold to death' Lěng sǐle .It's so/terribly cold!
  • 今天 死了It could be read as 'tired to death' Jīntiān lèi sǐle .I'm so/terribly tired today!
  • 我 快 死了It could be read as 'busy to death'Wǒ kuài máng sǐle . I'm so/terribly busy!
  • 死了It could be read as 'anxious to death' sǐle . I'm so/terribly anxious!
  • 死了It could be read as 'slow to death' màn sǐle .You're so/terribly slow!

None of these sentences involves someone actually dying. As with "to death" in English, this structure simply intensifies the adjective. Notice how these are awkward to translate into English - 死了 (sǐle) is a lot more versatile than "to death".

See also

Sources and further reading

Books