# to turn a noun into a verb (verbify, verbalize)



## Bird in a Forest

Hello everyone,

I'm curious as to how one can turn a noun in Chinese into a verb.

For example, how would one say something like: 
Just google it. (Instead of: search it up on google).
Facebook me.

Some more interesting ones: 
Just egg it (meaning to add an egg to a meal in this context)
How do you win a fight? Jackie-Chun the baddies!
I totally Chinesed my friends the other day. (Meaning here to amaze someone with one's Chinese ability. Not to make someone Chinese )
I really caked that one (as a euphemism for messing something up).

Thank you everyone


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## OneStroke

What do you mean by 'how'? Basically, people... they just do it, there's no process to turn it into a verb... Chinese does not have suffixes that turn nouns into verbs, apart from the ones that were developed as a result of Western influence, the 動詞化 you mentioned being an example. Compounding is pretty much the sole morphological process in Chinese.

The most notable example is, of course, 百度一下，你就知道 (Baidu once, and you'll know).


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## retrogradedwithwind

Sometimes just like how you do that in English
Google a word= baidu a word 百度个词

In classic Chinese, put a noun (or adjective, quantifier, intranctive verb) in front of another noun, then the first noun is a verb.
函之= literally box(noun) it, essentially put it in the box
美之=liretally beautiful it, essentially make it beautiful

In morden Chinese, 使+ sth. + noun+化
使之蛋糕化= make it a cake(but cake in Chinese does not carry the meaning of messing up)


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## OneStroke

retrogradedwithwind said:


> In classic Chinese, put a noun (or adjective, quantifier, intranctive verb) in front of another noun, then the first noun is a verb.
> 函之= literally box(noun) it, essentially put it in the box
> 美之=liretally beautiful it, essentially make it beautiful



Exactly! That reminds me. A tone change is often necessary in Classical Chinese. Usually, the 陰平 is the noun, and the 陰去 is the verb. An example is 冠 guān (noun) (e.g. 衣冠禽獸) guàn (verb) (e.g. 沐猴而冠).

Other part-of-speech changes also involve tone change quite often. I don't think it happens to retrogated's examples, but it does to, for example, 飲. 飲 as in 簞食瓢飲 (noun) or 飲鳩止渴 (verb with the liquid drunk as the object) is pronounced yǐn. When you have livestock drink water, it's yìn, e.g. 飲馬川 in Water Margin. Here the subject is the person, and the object is the livestock.



> In morden Chinese, 使+ sth. + noun+化
> 使之蛋糕化= make it a cake(but cake in Chinese does not carry the meaning of messing up)



Why the 使之? 把電腦蛋糕化吧！　這些鉛筆可以蛋糕化嗎？Intentionally meaningless sentences, but those are grammatical, even without 使. To be honest, 使+obj+verb ('make/have sb do sth') is an Anglicism - it's supposed to be used much less often in Chinese - as is the suffix 化. These westernisations kind of annoy me.


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## Skatinginbc

How to verbify nouns?  Hm, let me try:  
哪個父母教養孩子不想「*孔融*其心, *諸葛*其智」?   
那傢伙要是敢來, 咱們就*花棒*他的屁股, *麻婆*他的臉兒.
I really caked that one 我把它「糕」雜了, 弄得一團黏不搭拉的糊.

I'm not able to verbify the following: 
Just egg it (meaning to add an egg to a meal in this context) ==> 加蛋 
Jackie-Chan the baddies! ==> 秀個成龍給鼠輩看!
I totally Chinesed my friends the other day.  日前, 我以漢語震服了些朋友.


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## Skatinginbc

_Just egg it_ (= supplement it _*with *an egg_).
_Jackie-Chan the baddies_ (= teach them a lesson _*with* the Jackie-Chan style_).
_I totally Chinesed my friends the other day_ (= impressed my friends _*with* my Chinese ability_).
They  all fall in the category of the oblique case (hence when translated,  they all occupy the object position, either the object of a verb phrase  like 加蛋  and 秀個成龍 or the object of a preposition like 以漢語), or more  specifically, the *instrumental case* (an object used in performing an action). 

Does  Chinese permit verbification of the instrumental case?  Actually yes,  Chinese does have it.  For instance, 奶孩子 ==> 奶 "suckle, breast-feed",  from 奶 (i.e., 乳房 "breast"), which is the instrument.


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## retrogradedwithwind

> Does  Chinese permit verbification of the instrumental case?  Actually yes,  Chinese does have it.  For instance, 奶孩子 ==> 奶 "suckle, breast-feed",  from 奶 (i.e., 乳房 "breast"), which is the instrument.



进行，加以。这是我想到的两个词，大量出现在现代文章中，作用吗，不知道怎么说，举例。
我们正在进行会谈，无关人等出去。
对这个问题要加以解决。


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## Bird in a Forest

Thank you everyone,
That clears things up a little bit. I was not aware that 化 appeared as a result of Western influence. So, this case of verbifying nouns does not happen so often in Chinese and usually other structures will be used to avoid such awkward sentences. When it does happen it is usually with a 化 and some have actually become verbs 百度. Am I wrong?

Retrogradedwithwind, does the 之 in your post about the classical Chinese case (e.g. 函之) stand in for something or acts as a dummy noun? I thought it was for possession.


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## Skatinginbc

Bird in a Forest said:


> this case of verbifying nouns does not happen so often in Chinese


化, a loan translation of the English suffix-ize, is as productive as its English counterpart. 


Bird in a Forest said:


> usually other structures will be used to avoid such awkward sentences.


Not  all cases of verbification in English involve the use of -ize.  Why?   Semantics!! Not much to do with "avoiding awkwardness".  And the same  logic holds true for the Chinese suffix 化.   


Bird in a Forest said:


> When it does happen it is usually with a 化


No.   Verbification in Chinese is usually done without adding any suffix.   OneStroke clearly stated in Post #2, "What do you mean by 'how'?  Basically, people... they just do it."  And I gave some examples of  verbification in #5, which employ NO suffix at all. 

Re: 之
Besides functioning as a possessive marker, 之 can also serve as a 3rd person pronoun (i.e., it, him, her, them).


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## OneStroke

Skatinginbc said:


> Besides functioning as a possessive marker, 之 can also serve as a 3rd person pronoun (i.e., it, him, her, them).



Just to add to this, 之 is always used as an object, never a subject.


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## brofeelgood

In addition to -ize, there's also -fy and -en:
- beautify (美化), simplify (简化), intensify (强化), rigidify (僵化)
- soften (软化), stiffen (硬化), strengthen (强化)

Edit: I almost forgot verbify (动词化)


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## Skatinginbc

Perhaps you forgot we are discussing verbification of NOUNS .  硬化, for instance, is adj + 化 (also simple (adj) + fy = simplify, soft (adj) + en = soften, etc.).


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## brofeelgood

Ahh, my mistake. I should really learn to read from the top. 

Then perhaps only calcify (钙化) fits.

And also classify, modify, identify etc. which are all derived from nouns.


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## Skatinginbc

I notice the thread title has been changed.  OK, let's say: "to verbify a noun" means "to use a noun as a verb".  It may involve an inflectional suffix, for instance, 了 in 商家賊了. "To verbalize a noun" means "to  derive a verb from a noun".  It may involve a derivational suffix, for instance, 化 in 政治化.


Bird in a Forest said:


> When it does happen it is usually with a 化


Yes if you mean "to _verbalize_ a noun".


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## Bird in a Forest

Just to clarify, what exactly does 商家賊了mean? Business thief? And what is the function of the 了 in this case? I thought le was mainly for showing the completion of actions or the arrival of a new situation.


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## Skatinginbc

商家: business men
賊: thief (noun) ==> "act like a thief" (verb)
 了: showing arrival of a new situation 
Business men are now acting like thieves.


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