and still no answer why kāfēi hén hǎohē = coffee is delicious 咖啡很好喝
but
this is delicious: zhègè hǎochī this is delicious ---- no hén, and no indication if about foods or about drinks
probably so the user to get so bored to get them “wrong” , that s/he cannot but ignore them after a while
…
also: 点菜 diǎncài is not “to order”, but to order food in a restaurant…
I looked into your first question, and fell into a rabbit hole of further questions without really coming close to an answer.
To reiterate the basics for anybody who may be unaware, in Chinese it is normally required to use a degree word (such as hao/hen/zhen) between a noun/pronoun and an adjective, i.e. you would say “kafei hen haohe = coffee very delicious” instead of “kafei shi haohe = coffee is delicious”. This is why the translations into English often ignores the hen, as it is not really there to convey the meaning of very but because a degree word is required before the adjective. In the sentences quoted by Hydroptere, the compounds haohe and haochi act as adjectives (or rather as both verbs and adjectives at the same time).
http://hongtu-chineselanguagecenter.com/topic/adjectives-are-called-stative-verbs-in-chinese/ seems to confirm that it is correct, if uncommon, to omit such degree words between zhege and an adjective. So zhègè hǎochī is correct. Unfortunately, this does not bring us any closer to an explanation for why it is done in this course, as it does not explain the following:
For the former, I am really stumped and couldn’t really find any hints. Thus, I am stuck with a bunch of questions Can you drop the degree word after na (那)，nage (那个)，naxie (那些)，zhe (这) and zhexie (这些) too? What about other construct of na/zhe + a measure word? Is zheping haokan (这瓶好看, this bottle is good looking) also grammatical? If so, does it sound really odd?
As for the latter, and this is pure speculation, my hunch is that it could be because the compound haochi already has the degree word hao as an integral part of it.
I know this is going to bug me now, so I would really appreciate an explanation @xia.fan
cháng; zhǎng 长
(Mandarin 1)
does not accept as answer “chang” or “zhang”; I can go over this item(s) only if I use the accent on my own keyboard - is there a pinyin keyboard onscreen by chance, which i don’t seem to find? (i don’t think my userscripts are to blame here)
for that one I always type “chang; zhang” and it’ll be accepted. If you just type one word w/o the tone then yeah, it won’t be marked correct…which is weird…
many thanks
Thank you so much for your genuine and thorough feedback!
I agree that it would be great to have a separate course just for Chinese characters, potentially with multimedia inputs. It is true that the teaching of characters has been put in the second position in the current courses because we don’t want to block the beginners from speaking. We will definitely bear this in mind and try to find a better way to solve the problems you mentioned in the future updates.
Xia
Hi!
咖啡很好喝 (kāfēi hěn hǎohē) = “coffee is VERY delicious”
咖啡好喝 (kāfēi hǎohē) = “coffee is delicious”
The reason why I translate kāfēi hěn hǎohē into “coffee is delicious” is that “VERY delicious” doesn’t sound very natural in English. Now I have changed the translation to “coffee is VERY delicious” to avoid such confusion.
Likewise,
这个好吃(zhègè hǎochī) = “this is delicious”
这个很好吃 (zhègè hěn hǎochī) = “this is VERY delicious”
As you know, Mandarin adjectival verbs* are not preceded by a linking verb “be”, e.g.
这个大(zhègè dà) is litterally “this big” instead of “this IS big”;
他高 (tā gāo) is literally “he tall” instead of “he IS tall”.
Most degree words or intensifiers precede the adjectival verb.
这个很大(zhègè hěn dà) = this (is) VERY big
他很高 (tā hěn gāo) = he (is) VERY tall
It’s not mandatory to add intensifiers, however, there is a “two-syllable” preference in adjectival verbs. Therefore, in affirmative form when no special emphasis is intended, one-syllable adjective verbs are usually preceded by 很(hěn), whereas in negative form 不bù provides the additional syllable. E.g.
这个很大(zhègè hěn dà) sounds better than 这个大(zhègè dà);
他很高 (tā hěn gāo) sounds better than 他高 (tā gāo).
Back to the items that you mentioned from the course, adjectival verbs “好吃(hǎochī)” and “好喝(hǎohē)” are both two-syllable, so the intensifier “hěn” is optional and it only intensifies the adjectival verb.
Another common example is “I’m fine”, the most natural translation is 我很好 (wǒ hénhǎo) instead of 我好 (wǒ hǎo).
*adjectival verbs translate into adjectives in English. They include 高gāo(be tall), 贵(be expensive” etc.
Hi!
“kāfēi hén hǎohē” should be “kāfēi hěn hǎohē”. I have corrected in the new course but the database pulled the old content and overwrote my changes. Now I have manually changed it.
zhègè hǎochī = this is delicious;
zhègè hěn hǎochī = this is VERY delicious.
They are both commonly used and grammatically correct.
As for the confusion of intensifier hěn, I have explained to Bergeton as follows:
"As you know, Mandarin adjectival verbs* are not preceded by a linking verb “be”, e.g.
这个大(zhègè dà) is litterally “this big” instead of “this IS big”;
他高 (tā gāo) is literally “he tall” instead of “he IS tall”.
Most degree words or intensifiers precede the adjectival verb.
这个很大(zhègè hěn dà) = this (is) VERY big
他很高 (tā hěn gāo) = he (is) VERY tall
It’s not mandatory to add intensifiers, however, there is a “two-syllable” preference in adjectival verbs. Therefore, in affirmative form when no special emphasis is intended, one-syllable adjective verbs are usually preceded by 很(hěn), whereas in negative form 不bù provides the additional syllable. E.g.
这个很大(zhègè hěn dà) sounds better than 这个大(zhègè dà);
他很高 (tā hěn gāo) sounds better than 他高 (tā gāo).
Back to the items that you mentioned from the course, adjectival verbs “好吃(hǎochī)” and “好喝(hǎohē)” are both two-syllable, so the intensifier “hěn” is optional and it only intensifies the adjectival verb.
Another common example is “I’m fine”, the most natural translation is 我很好 (wǒ hénhǎo) instead of 我好 (wǒ hǎo).
*adjectival verbs translate into adjectives in English. They include 高gāo(be tall), 贵(be expensive” etc. "
I hope it helps.
Xia
it does help a lot! Many thanks, you gracious course creator 
Suddenly is written as “suddently.”
Small error, but wanted to note.
I agree this is a problem - instead of learning to read Chinese, I feel like I’m learning to read English with Chinese characters. The exercises play audio when I select pinyin words in the tests, they should also play audio to reinforce the Chinese characters so that I actually associate the Chinese characters with Chinese words.
Hi, could you specify where you saw this error (maybe attach a course link here)? I checked the new Chinese courses, and it’s correctly written as “suddenly”
No worries! I’m glad to help.
Sorry, I use the app so no link. It still says “suddently.” Here is a
screenshot.
It is in Chinese Mandarin 3, lesson 8.
I see. The error is in the old Chinese courses. It’s unpublished now. I have corrected it
Thanks for your feedback.
Oh. What do you mean the old courses?
There is an error in tone marks in level 12.
pínggǔo zhī should be píngguǒzhī (and also written together according to mdbg.net dictionary)
Hi! we have published a brand new Mandarin Chinese 1-3 course this year:
Hi,
In the first course, the femal voice says “xiaoliang” instead of “piaoliang”. The male voice is fine.
I’ll just give you a literally translation (but you can of course translate it to anything you like as long as the meaning stays the same),
(1) 个
这很好吃 means "this is tasty/delicious"
这个很好吃 means “this one, in particular is tasty”. You place emphasize on the item you’re referring to.
(2) 很
这好吃 means "this is good (good as in tasty)"
这很好吃 "this is really good (good as in tasty)"
In spoken Chinese, however, 很 is used a lot. So long as it tastes good, they would say “很好吃”. If it tastes heavenly, they would put even more emphasize on 很, and say something like “真的真的很好吃”, or “非常非常好吃”. When you describe that someone is pretty. It’s much more common to say “她很漂亮” than merely just “她漂亮”. But, if you’re asking “谁比较漂亮？Who’s more pretty (prettier)?”, then there’s no need to use 很 in this case. Just know that on a scale of 1-10, 很 can be anything from 7-10.
