# 我会说普通话 / 我普通话说的很好



## lautaro

Hello,
I'm very beginner in Chinese but I want to go deep into the language.
Why do you say: "Wo hue shua pu tong hua" and "Wo pu tong hua shua de hen hao"??
I mean why in the first sentence I have to use S+V+O and in second S+O+V+particle?

Thank you in advance.


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## Sylvia_scj

Chinese is not like English. It doesn't have very strict grammar rules.
"Wo hui shuo pu tong hua." is equal to " I can speak Chinese/mandarin."
"Wo pu tong hua shuo de hen hao." is something like " My Chinese is great."
Good luck!


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## lautaro

OK, Thank you. 
So the and the second sounds like "My Mandarin (I) speak is very good". So in this case "wo" is "my" and not "I". And can I say "wo shua (de?) pu tong hua hen hao"? Does it sound odd? 
Thanks


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## Sylvia_scj

" Wo shuo de pu tong hua hen hao." sounds odd, not natural, but it's right in grammar and people could understand you when you say it. So, really, Chinese and English have very different grammars and sentence structures. When analyze a sentence in English and Chinese, we couldn't put every word in its counterpart position.


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## MateusLee

though, as far as languages go, Chinese and English word order are not _so_ different, overall....


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## Flaminius

Can anyone divide 我普通话说的很好 into grammatical constituents?  I am not sure where 说 and 的 should belong.


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## pixEl2lifEx109

Flaminius said:


> Can anyone divide 我普通话说的很好 into grammatical constituents?  I am not sure where 说 and 的 should belong.



Well, technically it would translate to "My Mandarin is spoken very well". 我 can be either adjective describing Mandarin or an adverbial modifier, kind of like, to me, or as for me.


我: adjective, my, or adverb, as in to me
普通话: noun and subject
说的: is spoken, verb + past participle
很好: very well, the second part of the predicate.


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## BODYholic

Flaminius said:


> Can anyone divide 我普通话说的很好 into grammatical constituents?  I am not sure where 说 and 的 should belong.


我普通话 is grammatically wrong.
It should be '我的' + '普通话'.

我普通话... = I Mandarin ... 
我的普通话... = My Mandarin ...


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## Flaminius

Okay, 我的普通话说的很好 then.  Do you agree that 说的 is in passive?

Thanks both of you for explanations!


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## BODYholic

lautaro said:


> OK, Thank you.
> So the and the second sounds like "My Mandarin (I) speak is very good". So in this case "wo" is "my" and not "I". And can I say "wo shua (de?) pu tong hua hen hao"? Does it sound odd?
> Thanks



 "wo shua de pu tong hua hen hao" (The 'de' can not be omitted here.)
lit: My spoken Mandarin is very good.

The above sentence is grammatically correct and the emphasis is on the word 'shua de'. It sounds a bit odd because native speaker will wonder why the need to stress on 'Shou de', they may even ask you '那你唱的呢?'.


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## BODYholic

Flaminius said:


> Okay, 我的普通话说的很好 then.  Do you agree that 说的 is in passive?
> 
> Thanks both of you for explanations!



There is a very common spelling mistake in your sentence.
说的 should be written as 说得. (Note: 的&得 are different pronunciation)

说的(noun) = words that are spoken.

So, your original sentence is not grammatically correct because ..
我的普通话(subject) + 说的(noun) +  很好(adjective).

It should be
我的普通话说得很好.

Worry not, many native Chinese made the same mistake too.


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## pixEl2lifEx109

BODYholic said:


> There is a very common spelling mistake in your sentence.
> 说的 should be written as 说得. (Note: 的&得 are different pronunciation)
> 
> 说的(noun) = words that are spoken.
> 
> So, your original sentence is not grammatically correct because ..
> 我的普通话(subject) + 说的(noun) +  很好(adjective).
> 
> It should be
> 我的普通话说得很好.
> 
> Worry not, many native Chinese made the same mistake too.



It's not really a spelling mistake so much so as a grammatical one.  的 is used as an auxiliary adjective while 得 is used as an auxiliary adverb, which you correctly paired with  说.  的 is used in phrases such as 红色的车, a red car.  I'm sure you know that, but I was just clarifying it a little bit for those who aren't familiar with 的 and 得.


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## BODYholic

The mistake arises because both words,  的 and 得, sound alike. Hence, many beginners as well as native Chinese commit this mistake when they write or type. I am very sure that in this case it is definitely not a mistaken identity between auxiliary adjective and auxiliary adverb. Hope this clears your doubt.


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## summerflower

BODYholic said:


> There is a very common spelling mistake in your sentence.
> 说的 should be written as 说得. (Note: 的&得 are different pronunciation)
> 
> 说的(noun) = words that are spoken.
> 
> So, your original sentence is not grammatically correct because ..
> 我的普通话(subject) + 说的(noun) + 很好(adjective).
> 
> It should be
> 我的普通话说得很好.
> 
> Worry not, many native Chinese made the same mistake too.


 

按照中国语委的规定，以前"的/地/得"做助词时不可通用，但现在已经可以通用，在所有地方都用"的"就可以。但不管是以前还是现在，这三个字做助词时都念"de"轻声。
I think there's a little mistake here. Some years before, when I'm in the primary school, 的/地/得 are different in the meaning. For example, 我的妈妈=my mother, 轻轻地走=walk quietly, 他唱得很好=he sings very well. Now, you can just use 的 in all the cases, they're all the same. But no matter now or before, the pronounciation of them is still the same, it's "de".

我的普通话说的（得）很好 and 我普通话说的（得）很好 are all OK. In oral Chinese we always use 我 as "my", because 我的 may sounds a little bit formal.


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## Flaminius

Ah, of course it is 得 which introduces an adverbial phrase!  One last question, then.  Is 说 here an intransitive verb?


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## summerflower

I don't think it's an intransitive verb here.
我说普通话= I speak Mandarin.
But you shouldn't say 我说普通话很好. Because the order is wrong. You can only say 我普通话说得很好. So 说 as a verb is not intransitive.


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## Flaminius

What about 我的普通话说的（得）很好?  Isn't 我的 "my" and the subject of the whole sentence 我的普通话?


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## BODYholic

summerflower said:


> 按照中国语委的规定，以前"的/地/得"做助词时不可通用，但现在已经可以通用，在所有地方都用"的"就可以。但不管是以前还是现在，这三个字做助词时都念"de"轻声。
> I think there's a little mistake here. Some years before, when I'm in the primary school, 的/地/得 are different in the meaning. For example, 我的妈妈=my mother, 轻轻地走=walk quietly, 他唱得很好=he sings very well. Now, you can just use 的 in all the cases, they're all the same. But no matter now or before, the pronounciation of them is still the same, it's "de".
> 
> 我的普通话说的（得）很好 and 我普通话说的（得）很好 are all OK. In oral Chinese we always use 我 as "my", because 我的 may sounds a little bit formal.


Thanks for the information. I must admit that I have left school a long time ago. Furthermore, the place I live may not necessary teach in accordance to 中国语委. Your kind understanding is much appreciated.

In any case, it is definitely a blessing for the younger generation that these few words have been unified. I also think the reason behind this move by 中国语委 is pretty obvious.


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## BODYholic

Flaminius said:


> What about 我的普通话说的（得）很好?  Isn't 我的 "my" and the subject of the whole sentence 我的普通话?



Yes, you are right.
In this case, '我的普通话' (lit: My Mandarin) is the subject.
我的 is in possessive form.


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## Flaminius

So, do you agree that 说 there is intransitive?


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## BODYholic

Flaminius said:


> So, do you agree that 说 there is intransitive?


Honestly, I do not know. Because we don't learn Chinese Language the same way as we learn English.

Would it be easier if I translate that sentence in to English but retain its exact Chinese format? Try this ...

 我的普通话说的（得）很好.
The Mandarin that I speak is good.

So is 'speak', in this context, intransitive?


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## kirsitn

According to my Chinese teacher, the full sentence should be:

我说普通话,说得很好 - similar to 我做饭,做得很好

But since repeating the verb makes the sentence unnecessarily long, you can omit the first verb, so the sentence becomes 我普通话说得很好 or 我饭做得很好.

In other words, the original sentence structure is "subject (wo) - verb (shuo) - object (putonghua), verb (shuo) - adverb (de hen hao)", which is then shortened to "subject - object, verb - adverb".


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## pixEl2lifEx109

kirsitn said:


> According to my Chinese teacher, the full sentence should be:
> 
> 我说普通话,说得很好 - similar to 我做饭,做得很好
> 
> But since repeating the verb makes the sentence unnecessarily long, you can omit the first verb, so the sentence becomes 我普通话说得很好 or 我饭做得很好.
> 
> In other words, the original sentence structure is "subject (wo) - verb (shuo) - object (putonghua), verb (shuo) - adverb (de hen hao)", which is then shortened to "subject - object, verb - adverb".



That's an abbreviation and therefore not necessarily grammatically correct, but the Chinese structure is loose enough for it to be correct anyway.


As for the transitive/intransitive question, 说 is transitive.  The recipient of the action is still 普通话, and because it is passive, the recipient of the action and the subject is the same thing.  That does not change the transitivity of the verb, however, and in this case, 说 is transitive.


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## naseer

Hi Sylivia


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## tullyNic

well,  it's not quite..
because if you want to add adv after verb in Chinese  there will always be a 得.
And there used to be 的 得 地. when I was in elementary school, it confused me a lot
.
 adv + 地 + v
 adj/adv + 的 + n
 v + 得 + adv 
 Generally , it's like that.
Now, some organization(powerful one) made these three words exactly the same , and you don't need to worry


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## Flaminius

Thank you everyone.  I think I understand now.


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## nazha1024

si eres un espanol////,me puedo hablar putonghua(wo hui shuo putonghua/et hablo muy bien putonghua(wo de putonghua shuo de hen hua)

wo es como me....

wo de es como mi...

tiene que seguir estudiandolo...

tonti saluti...


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## ywf

It is OK to say "我普通话说得很好". 说,写,讲,唱, etc. are not necessarily preceded by person nouns. Some more examples: 这文章写得非常专业；这故事讲得真生动；这相声说得真精彩。

Also, add one more thing to remember. Sometimes, "我" means "my" instead of "I", and "我" in  "我普通话说得很好" is certainly in this case.


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