Hot answers tagged possessives
When 的 is used for possession or 's, it is often omitted in speaking when it's the subject of a sentence. For example: 她(的)家很漂亮/她(的)家很漂亮 = Her house/home is beautiful. 你(的)電腦很慢/你(的)电脑很慢 = Your computer is really slow. 他(的)新車很貴/他(的)新车很贵 = His new car is quite expensive. But 的 is usually kept when it's the object of a sentence. 我喜歡他的車/我喜欢他的车 = I like his ...
Both 你爸爸忙吗? and 你的爸爸忙吗? are possible. Perhaps because of high degree of collocation that 的 gets elided. In Chinese it is usually possible to express something similar to a genitive without 的 in between. I think instead of two nouns in a genitive relation, it becomes a single compound noun instead. Semantically equivalent but the grammatical make up behind it ...
When you are talking about family, close friends (我朋友) or a group that you are part of for example 我班 in chinese you don't use 的. They are both grammatically correct but it is more natural to skip it.
Your example is just an example of possessive elision in Chinese. Both are acceptable and considered equivalent. None of the two has more emphasis than the other. One thing to note is there are two different types of emphasis, one being the emphasis of tone/mood, the other being the emphasis of meaning. In your case, it's the former. In English, the first ...
In casual conversation, you can even drop the second 妈 in most cases. So you can just say 我妈 without any problems. In fact, it sounds even more natural.
I think bold or italics or any other typographical emphasis is the wrong way to go here. Yes, the underdot and the squiggly underline are technically analogous to the way we single out words in English, but I only see them used in Chinese grammar textbooks or possibly once or twice in instruction manuals where an entire sentence was "very important". Dots ...
之 is a common way to say ‘him/her/it’ in classical Chinese. It’s usually in the object position, not the subject one though: 殺之 ‘kills him’; 由之 ‘from it’. The use like modern Chinese 的 is different. 其 is actually a possessive pronoun, as in 其妻 ‘his wife’. More generally, it substitutes for ‘noun + 之’. 彼 can be used as a third-person pronoun in ...
This is more of an aesthetic / rhythmic issue than a grammatical one. Technically you can keep adding 的 to make a chain as long as you like, but it won't be "nice". It's like saying "that" repeatedly in English, e.g. "the man that ate a dog that ate a fly that watched a cat that liked to browse stack exchange." Grammatically valid but not natural. The ...
的 in Chinese is a bit complicated. It may get dropped in different situations. Here are some examples for you: 我（的）妈妈是个老师 - sometimes can be dropped 我妈妈的同学是个老师 - better be dropped 我妈妈同学是个老师 - not so good, not recommended “那是谁的手机” “我妈妈的。” - should be always dropped
I think the omitting of "的" of possessives in object of a sentence is done by following situations: a person have some relationship with preceding person or just some place after a movement "去、来、上、下、到" or some words preceding by attribute "这，那" e.g. places: "去你家","来我国","去他办公室","去他车上","到我这里" relationships: "问她爸","找他小孩"，”看望他奶奶“ attribute: ...
Chinese characters do not like italics or bold-face treatment. Chinese people use other methods: 现在我不要跟他说话 Can be emphasized on the 我 part like this: 现在就是我不要跟他说话 It means that right now, it is I who do not want to talk to her, as opposed to a moment before, when it was another people that did not want to talk to her.
All of your examples are correct. In my opinion, "Mom 's white dog 妈妈的白狗" is the most appropriate. Whether the sentence needs to use "色的" depend on the context. For example: "不管白猫黑猫，能抓到老鼠就是好猫" translate to English "Whatever white cat or black cat, it is a good cat only if the cat can catch a mouse." "我刚才在街上看到一个红头发的人" translate to English "I saw a guy ...
The omitting of 的 follows a loose rule of minimal reappearance in the context you gave. The first two are the correct expression in Chinese. The latter two, though with correct grammar, would never make to any Chinese conversation, oral or literal. Also, another general rule here is that the closer the relationship, the bigger probability the omitting. Note ...
If you wish to put emphasis on possession, then you should keep 的. Aw Qirui Guo's Example: “那是谁的手机” whos phone is that “我妈妈的” my mother's Be careful to say 妈妈 and not just 妈 here, especially if the owner of the phone is someone else's mother...haha. Note: 我妈 sounds relative more mature and probably more common 我妈妈 sounds more ...
My: 我、我的 mom: 媽、媽媽 's: 的 white: 白、白色、白的、白色的 dog: 狗、狗狗 Remember a common rule: "Don't use 2 more 的 in one sentence." So following all are correct sentences: Mom 's white dog 媽媽的白狗。 媽媽的白色狗。 My mom's white dog 我媽的白狗。 我媽的白色狗。 我媽媽的白狗。 我媽媽的白色狗。 A special word you can't choose in this sentence. 媽的 媽的 is a dirty word.(You can't say "媽的白狗")
*我妈-very natural *我妈妈-natural *我的妈妈-formal *我的母亲-very formal
We drop 的 in any structure where the relationship can be clearly inferred. It also serves to highlight the relation there. 我媽媽 我朋友 我孩子 and so on. As a rule of thumb, "don't do it if you have to rethink". As a note, dropping it is a no-brainer for familial and personal relations.
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