# 得 - 一个人寂寞得不得了



## Flaminius

I understand the sentence, "一个人寂寞得不得了" roughly means "Being by myself, I cannot but feel lonely."  It looks like 不得了 is "cannot help" or "very something."

I am wondering what the first 得 is doing in the sentence.


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## avlee

A fixed pattern/phrase. To me, it looks like "sth. is so adj. that sth.". It's equivalent to SO in above phrase. 
Hence, another English translation for this might be as the following:
Being by myself, I feel so lonely that I can't stand it any more.
If this explanation helps to solve your puzzle, take it. Otherwise, just be patient and wait for better answers from other guys.


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## daoxunchang

Flaminius said:


> I understand the sentence, "一个人寂寞得不得了" roughly means "Being by myself, I cannot but feel lonely." It looks like 不得了 is "cannot help" or "very something."
> 
> I am wondering what the first 得 is doing in the sentence.


 
Here are some other examples with 得:
他哭得很伤心。He cries very sadly.
他玩游戏玩得很起劲。He's very absorbed in the game.
他们当时爱得死去活来。They had a romance that was full of strong emotions (sorry for my bad translation) at that time. 
The parts after 得 give the description of how he feels crying/playing the games/loving. You can often see this phrase:好得很 very good, 很indicating the intensity. You can also see 坏得很very bad, but people use it rarer.

avlee has it right. 不得了 means "so... that it's hard for one to stand".

Hope my explanation helps a little.


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## Flaminius

Thank you *avlee* and *daoxunchang*.



> The parts after 得 give the description of how he feels (...)


I got it now.


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## Kwunlam

daoxunchang said:


> Here are some other examples with 得:
> 他哭得很伤心。He cries very sadly.
> 他玩游戏玩得很起劲。He's very absorbed in the game.
> 他们当时爱得死去活来。They had a romance that was full of strong emotions (sorry for my bad translation) at that time.
> The parts after 得 give the *description of how* he feels crying/playing the games/loving. You can often see this phrase:好得很 very good, 很indicating the intensity. You can also see 坏得很very bad, but people use it rarer...
> .


 
I agree. The first "得" functions as an adverb. We can employ other ways to speak of the same thing, like "地".

他哭得很傷心＝他很傷心地哭

Of course, for me, the latter sounds more "westernised" and some people may not prefer using the construction "XX地" so much. Beside "XX地", to mean "sadly" there are other ways... E.g. 他痛哭著.


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## Nordkapp

得 is used after a verb or an adjective. It describles the result or situation of the verb or adjective.

f,eks.他吃得很饱。 得 describes the reslut of 吃(eat), 很饱 is the result, but we can also say 很饱 is the situation after eating. It depends on the context. 

Another example of usage after a verb: 他走得很快，I donot think 很快 is the result of walking. It is a kind of situation.

After an adjective:  一个人寂寞得不得了. 寂寞 is the situation, 不得了 is the result of this situation. In this context 不得了 means he can't bear it any more.  不得了 stands alone can mean _wonderful, great, cool, high level. etc._

Another example after an adjective:他难过得哭了， 哭 is the result of 难过, this sentence emphasize that he is very sad .
Here  this sentence: 他难过地哭了。 This sentence emphasize the crying. 

it is same with these: 他高兴得哭了，他高兴地哭了。but there is just a small difference between them, i think many people dont care it in lots of situations. so just get a little bite feeling about it. ^-^


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## Kwunlam

Nordkapp said:


> 得 is used after a verb or an adjective. it describles the result or situation of the verb or adjective.


 
Thank you. I have missed the result-aspect of 得. And not all cases can the construction Verb-得-X-X be translated in to X-X-地-Verb.

We say 做得很快, and normally speaking not 很快地做
We say 趕快地做, not 做得趕快
But why ???


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## kareno999

Kwunlam said:


> Thank you. I have missed the result-aspect of 得. And not all cases can the construction Verb-得-X-X be translated in to X-X-地-Verb.
> 
> We say 做得很快, and normally speaking not 很快地做
> We say 趕快地做, not 做得趕快
> But why ???


很快 can be adj and adv. 趕快 is only an adv.


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## Nordkapp

Kwunlam said:


> Thank you. I have missed the result-aspect of 得. And not all cases can the construction Verb-得-X-X be translated in to X-X-地-Verb.
> 
> We say 做得很快, and normally speaking not 很快地做
> We say 趕快地做, not 做得趕快
> But why ???


 
I talked about this case yesterday, and I made a mistake actually in my explanation. 

After 得，it will only the result of the verb or adj. So in my example 走得很快 is a wrong sentence. So I think your example 做得很快 is possiblly wrong too. I donot really know. 

And nowdays in China there is no need that the students should know the difference between 的，地，得。 I think we just forget it . If you really want to know this. having a search in GOOGLE or BAIDU.


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## daoxunchang

Nordkapp said:


> And nowdays in China there is no need that the students should know the difference between 的，地，得。 I think we just forget it . If you really want to know this. having a search in GOOGLE or BAIDU.


 
Oh, I personally don't think so. I myself am very particular about the difference between these three characters. I think this is becoming a personal matter but there's no definite choice.


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## Kwunlam

Nordkapp said:


> I talked about this case yesterday, and I made a mistake actually in my explanation.
> 
> After 得，it will only the result of the verb or adj. So in my example 走得很快 is a wrong sentence. So I think your example 做得很快 is possiblly wrong too. I donot really know.
> 
> And nowdays in China there is no need that the students should know the difference between 的，地，得。 I think we just forget it . If you really want to know this. having a search in GOOGLE or BAIDU.


 
I am reserved if you say 得 only means result.  Do you really think that "他做事情做得很快" is a grammatically wrong sentence?

《現代漢語詞典》：得（de） [1].... [2]... [3] 用在動詞或形容詞後面，連接表示結果或程度的補語。 examples: 寫得非常好。天氣熱得很。
Note: (a) the negative form of 寫得好 is　寫得不好 
(b) 動賓者夠帶這類補語時，要重複動詞：we say  "寫字寫得很好"，but not "寫字得很好".



I am reserved about your last paragraph too.  It is true that in the early stage of the modernisation of Chinese language in early 20th Century, people do not distinguish well between 的／地／得.  But it does _not_ mean it was freely interchangeable. People may occasionally use "的" in place of "地／得", but they seldom use "得" to replace "地/的", or seldom use "地" to replace "得/的". 

And nowadays, in the Greater China, the distinction are still well observed, especially in printed materials. 

We say 快樂的人, almost never 快樂地人，快樂得人
We say 做得很好, and 做的很好 is acceptable too, but 做地很好 is not.
We say 急忙地跑著, and 急忙的跑著 is acceptable too, but 急忙得跑著 is not.


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## ww830107

it should be written like that "一个人寂寞的不得了＂
In Chinese ,sometimes the verb has a subffix,just like "的＂.You could not care about that character.And "不得了" is describing the degree of verb.


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## e.ma

> *Flaminius*
> I am wondering what the first 得 is doing in the sentence.


For a literal understanding of the Chinese grammar here, I'd explain it as "(being on my own,) *the reach of my* (loneliness) *reaches no end*"


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## ww830107

其实，不用太介意那些“得”，如果你要用到说明一个“动作”的程度时，用“得”。


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## e.ma

同意。 我上次说了只是想让外国人了解一下这里面的语法。


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## notnotchris

Let me just add my 2 cents, since 得不得了 is one of my favorite expressions in Chinese.

It doesn't always carry the literal meaning of "not being able to bear it". In fact, it often just means 'very' / 'extremely'

这些菜好吃得不得了
她漂亮得不得了

other similar expressions include
得很
得要命
adj.得不能再adj.


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## Lugubert

Flaminius said:


> I understand the sentence, "一个人寂寞得不得了" roughly means "Being by myself, I cannot but feel lonely." It looks like 不得了 is "cannot help" or "very something."
> 
> I am wondering what the first 得 is doing in the sentence.


I'm trying, but am just an amateur. However, one meaning of 不得了 after 得 offered by my dictionary is "extremely, exceedingly".

Here, I think it it should be bu4de2liao3. Le or liao for 了 is always a problem for me.


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## Flaminius

> I think it it should be bu4de2liao3.


I concur.  I've found this
http://www.baidu.com/baidu?ie=gb2312&ct=1048576&cl=3&word=%C1%CB


> liao 3.[Formal] (in the negative) very; fully



Just checked with a native that it is the third tone.


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