Basic Grammar: all 87 lessons free
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程度副词 — The Adjective Thermometer
程度副词 — 形容词的温度计
An adjective won't stand alone after its subject — a degree word props it up, from 有点 near the bottom to 最 at the top.
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Memory hook
不 < 有一点(儿) < 挺…的 < 很 < 非常 < 太…了 < 最
Memory hook
Two footnotes from her deck
Up the thermometer
Tap the lines in order — each one sits a rung higher than the last, from a little tired to the most-loved fruit.
Tap any line to hear it
Pick the right rung选对那一格
No pressure — just making it stick.
火锅____好吃。
Huǒguō ____ hǎochī.
Hotpot is delicious.
这家酒店挺贵____。
Zhè jiā jiǔdiàn tǐng guì ____.
This hotel is quite expensive.
这本书太无聊____。
Zhè běn shū tài wúliáo ____.
This book is too boring.
我____喜欢的水果是菠萝。
Wǒ ____ xǐhuan de shuǐguǒ shì bōluó.
My favourite fruit is pineapple.
Which reply fits?
What does she need?
Your turn — say it
我太喜欢你了！
I like you so much!
Your turn — say it
这家咖啡店的咖啡非常好喝。
The coffee at this café is extremely good.
This lesson's characters
The everyday prop, the dot that means too much, and a character with ice in it.
very
形meaning + sound
彳 is half a crossroads — the stepping radical — and 艮 lends the sound. Long ago 很 meant to defy, to dig your heels in; its cousin 狠 hěn, with the animal radical, still means ruthless. Centuries of use wore the stubbornness down to plain intensity, and today its whole job is propping up adjectives: 很冷, 很好吃, 很累.
too, excessively
指a pointer
大 is a person with arms spread as wide as they go — as big as a body can say. Add one small dot underneath: past big. That is 太 — too much, over the line. The dot is your eyebrows going up: 太贵了, 太无聊了, 太喜欢了.
cold
形meaning + sound
冫 is the ice radical — two thin strokes of frost — and 令 lends the sound. Anything wearing 冫 has been chilled; 冰 bīng, ice itself, wears it over water. 外面很冷 — now you can read the frost right inside the sentence.
Take these with you
Everything worth taking away. Tap any line to hear it.
Words 生词
Characters 汉字
Before you go课后回顾
- Pick three things within arm's reach and read their temperature aloud: 有点⋯⋯, 挺⋯⋯的, 太⋯⋯了.
- An adjective after its subject always brings a degree word. Only questions go bare: 今天热吗？
- 挺 keeps its 的, 太 keeps its 了 — luggage never travels separately.