# 我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。



## 盲人瞎馬

Hello,

Is the sentence "我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。" grammatically correct? It's a sentence I saw on this blog about the Chinese language How do I use 的? (I found the blog in the Resources thread, so it should be allowed to post this link) and although it looks weird, it's supposedly correctly using the character 的 to arrange everything in place. I would like to have confirmation from a native as to whether what the blog post is teaching is correct and trustworthy. 

Thanks and sorry if I'm breaking a rule!


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## SuperXW

Yes, we do use 的 to connect all the attributives.

But the thing is, the original sentence is too weird. "I want to meet a German person who doesn’t have a phone that can help the children." What does that mean?? I don't think we can learn grammar through this kind of awkward sentence.

If we do want to express such a long, complicate idea, we may put it into this way: "I want to meet such a person: he doesn't have the phone, and the phone is to help the children..."

I'll try to suggest some relatively natural examples:

我想遇到一个穿着令人惊艳的礼服的德国人。
"I want to meet a German person who wears fancy dress that can amaze people." 

我想遇到一个没有中式传统思维的德国人。
"I want to meet a German person who doesn’t have the traditional Chinese mindset."

我想遇到一个头脑足够灵活，没有中式传统思维的德国人。
"I want to meet a German person whose brain is clever enough and who doesn’t have the traditional Chinese mindset."

我想遇到一个可以一起踢足球的德国人。
"I want to meet a German person whom (I) can play soccer together with." 

我想遇到一个不会说德语的德国人。
"I want to meet a German person who can't speak German." 

我想遇到一个没有买最新款的带面部识别功能的苹果手机的德国人。
"I want to meet a German person who haven't bought the newest i-Phone which utilizes the FaceID function."​


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## retrogradedwithwind

A grammaticaly correct sentence is not necessarily a correct sentence... 
Some kinds of sentences, for example a sentence with too many 的, should be avoided to use. 



SuperXW said:


> 想遇到一个没有买最新款的带面部识别功能的苹果手机的德国人。
> "I want to meet a German person who haven't bought the newest i-Phone which utilizes the FaceID function."​



I agree with what superXW said, but I recommend writing it as 
我遇到一个德国人，没有买带面部识别功能的最新款苹果手机。


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## Skatinginbc

> I want to meet a German person *who* doesn’t have a phone *that* can help the children *who* wanna play basketball.


It is like "colorless green ideas sleep furiously," which is grammatically correct but does not make too much sense.

Perhaps, the sentence below might fit the bill:
_I want to meet the dragon slayer *who* has the knife *that* can kill the fire dragons *that* guard the evil king._
*我想見那個持有能殺死守衛邪王的火龍的寶刀的屠龍手 ==> awfully awkward for having so many 的s that it is barely comprehensible.
My suggestion: 我想見那個屠龍手, 持有寶刀能殺死守衛邪王的火龍 (which is structurally similar to Retro's suggestion in #3.  cf. 我想找個德國人, 沒買帶有識臉功能的新款蘋果手機).


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## claire0831

I completely don't understand" "我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。" It is grammatically not correct.


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## Fico and Snoopy Show

Yes, it's grammatically correct. You can trust the blog    I think the method introduced there is really great! If you are focusing on learning the grammar currently, yeah you can try to make moew sentences based on what you have learned, so as to reinforce your understanding on it.
However, using short sentences is one of the features of Chinese language, so it is recommended not to use too many clauses. And next time you can try making some sentences that do make sense  For you can see, lots of people don't understand what you want to say in this sentence


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## basicthinker

Only when being asked whether the sentence is technically correct, I'd say yes it is. But in any other context, the sentence makes no sense to me. Hardly anyone can understand it.


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## Skatinginbc

Vitalore said:


> Is the sentence "我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。" grammatically correct?


No. It is not grammatically correct in my book.  The Chinese grammar I internalized bars a relative clause embedded in another relative clause.  Sentences that violate this rule, even if they may be still comprehensible, are considered ill-formed, unnatural, or foreign (翻譯腔).


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## 菜鸡锋

I'm native speaker,and the stence is not correctly.I dont't konw how to explain it in English. The correct sentence :"我想遇到一个可以帮助孩子们打篮球的没有手机的德国人。"or"我想遇到一个可以帮助孩子们打篮球但没有手机的德国人。"or"我想遇到一个没有手机的德国人但是可以帮助孩子们打篮球。


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## www841120

菜鸡锋 said:


> 我想遇到一个没有手机的德国人但是可以帮助孩子们打篮球。


In that case, it will mean another way, "I wanna meet a German person who doesn't own a cellphone, but I can help the children play basketball (or play basketball together)"

Maybe it should be changed this way:
我想遇到一個　　　　　　　　　   ～　　　　　　德國人 I wanna meet a German person
我想遇到一個沒有手機　　　　　   ～　　　　　的德國人 a German person who doesn't have the cellphone
我想遇到一個沒有手機可以幫助　  ～　 　孩子們的德國人 the cellphone that can help the children
我想遇到一個沒有手機可以幫助想打籃球的孩子們的德國人 help the children who want to play basketball

=> 我想遇到一個德國人  而他沒有[能夠幫忙想打籃球孩子們]的手機


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## brofeelgood

'A German who doesn't have a mobile phone that helps children that like playing basketball.' is totally grammatical, but plain silly and illogical.

It's like saying, 'A German who has a mobile phone that predicts the weather by take a shower in a toaster.'. Grammatical? Yes. Logical? No.


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## Zooplankton

Vitalore said:


> Hello,
> 
> Is the sentence "我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。" grammatically correct? It's a sentence I saw on this blog about the Chinese language How do I use 的? (I found the blog in the Resources thread, so it should be allowed to post this link) and although it looks weird, it's supposedly correctly using the character 的 to arrange everything in place. I would like to have confirmation from a native as to whether what the blog post is teaching is correct and trustworthy.
> 
> Thanks and sorry if I'm breaking a rule!



Definitely, it is correct but hardly to understand even for a Chinese. Let us use braces to help read this sentence:
我想遇到(一个(没有(可以帮助(想打篮球的孩子们))的手机)的德国人)

So, clearly, the trouble is that there are many braces in this sentence. For computer, it uses stack to deal with structure like this. For human, it works in the same way, but I don't think there is a person who could process a deep stack like this.

However, when we say this sentence, we can use pause to help understand, though they may not work at every time. Like this:
: 我想遇到一个    没有 可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机    的德国人

In fact, we Chinese would say this:
我想遇到一个德国人，他没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机


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## lightyearsway

Your sentence is "我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。", which in English is "I want to meet a German who doesn't have a phone that can help children who want to play basketball."

it is a correct sentence. But it's an awkward way of speaking Chinese. The speaker spoke Chinese in English way. It's not a good way to speak Chinese. The Chinese way to express the idea should be “我想认识一个德国人，但是他的手机得无法帮助想打篮球的孩子们。” which In English is "I want to meet a German，but his mobile phone need to be unable to help children who want to play basketball"


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## wintereyes

How could it be a correct sentence..., I don't get the meaning either.
I don't speak in grammar but I can see there are three things in describing the German: playing basketball, children, phone(mobile/ cell).
There may be another thing: the children's phones
*This is the original sentence: 我想遇到一个没有可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。*
*It is wrong and it can be revised into the following sentence.*

*1. 我想遇到一个可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的德国人*
*我想遇到一个不可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们的德国人*
*沒有means 'no existence'; 可以 means 'can', and there is a verb(帮助(help)) after 可以。The words placed before playing basketball, which is "沒有可以幫助" sounds like "can help nothing"."沒有" cannot be put here or it will be confusingly meaningless.*

*2. 我想遇到一个可以/不可以帮助修理想打篮球的孩子们的手机的德国人。*
*修理(repair)孩子们的手机(the children's phones)*
*If the children's phone is the focus.*

*3(supplementary).我想遇到一个可以帮助想孩子们打篮球的德国人。我想遇到一个可以/不可以帮助想打篮球的孩子们修理手机的德国人。 It is just changing the subject to the children.*


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