The three de’s, 的, 地, and 得 are some of the most common words in the Mandarin Chinese language, but because they all sound identical spoken aloud (de), and because they pop up everywhere in many different contexts, they can be some of the more frustrating words to try and master. But have no fear! In this post, we will look at the many uses of these three de’s, such as expressing possession, turning adjectives into adverbs, acting as verbal complements, and more!
What are particles in Mandarin Chinese?
The three de’s all belong to a type of word called particles. Particles are words that are added to another word, phrase, or at the end of a sentence to indicate different supplementary meanings, grammatical relations, or moods. In Chinese, particles are called 助词 transcribed zhù cí. Literally, these are “helping words.” They do not have any certain meaning themselves and cannot be used alone.
Think of particles as tools that you can use to build longer and more varied sentences. Look at this example broken down into steps:
Start with a thing: 球 transcribed qiúmeaning (the) ball
Add a simple description: 红色 transcribed hóngsèmeaning red
Combine them into a noun phrase: 红色的球 transcribed hóngsè de qiúmeaning the red ball
Add a verb: 滚走了 transcribed gǔnzǒu lemeaning rolled away
Combine your work so far: 红色的球滚走了。 transcribed hóngsè de qiú gǔnzǒu lemeaning The red ball rolled away.
Now turn it into a question: 红色的球滚走了吗? transcribed hóngsè de qiú gǔnzǒu le mameaning Did the red ball roll away?
What are all these phrases about? A red ball that rolled away. What do the highlighted words — the particles 的 transcribed de, 了 transcribed le, and 吗 transcribed ma mean? Do they mean "red"? No, that's 红色 transcribed hóngsè. Do they mean “ball”? No, that’s 球 transcribed qiú. Do they mean “roll away”? No, that’s 滚走 transcribed gǔnzǒu.
So what do these words mean? Well, the better question is, “what do these words do?”
What are the types of particles in Mandarin?
Particles are function words; they perform a function in a sentence. Let’s take a look at these three different functions:
The structural particles, 结构助词 transcribed jiégòu zhù cí, are added to words or phrases to indicate certain grammatical relations. They are:
的 transcribed de地 transcribed de得 transcribed deThe Mandarin aspectual particles, 动态助词 transcribed dòngtài zhù címeaning verb tense particle, are added to verbs to indicate when they take place and/or the status of their completion. They are:
了 transcribed le着 transcribed zhe过 transcribed guoThe modal particles, 语气助词 transcribed yǔqì zhù cí, are used in the end of a sentence to indicate many different kinds of meanings about the mood, tone, or awareness of the speaker. The modal particles are:
吗 transcribed ma呢 transcribed ne吧 transcribed ba了 transcribed le啊 transcribed a
We discuss all these particles in various posts so make sure you check out all of them! In this post, however, we will discuss the three structural particles. Let’s begin!
How to use the particle 的 (de) in Mandarin?
In Mandarin, the particle 的 transcribed de can be used for three different functions:
To indicate possession
To describe nouns
To turn verbs into nouns
Possessive 的 (de)
In Mandarin, 的 transcribed de is used to indicate a relationship of possessor/possession, equivalent to the apostrophe + “s” (’s) in English. For example, “Sarah’s house,” in Mandarin is 莎拉的房子 transcribed shāla de fángzi. 的 transcribed de is placed between 莎拉 and 房子 to indicate the possession.
How to use the attributive 的 (de) to describe nouns?
The attributive 的 transcribed de is used after adjectives, location words, and even whole phrases to describe nouns.
Describing a noun with an adjective
The attributive particle 的 (de) in Mandarin is mostly used after adjectives to describe objects or people, ideas etc.
The pattern is:
Describing a noun with locations
To describe a noun with location words, you use the following pattern:
Describing the noun with a phrase (aka relative clauses)
A relative clause provides information about the person or thing mentioned. English often uses relative pronouns to link the noun and the relative clause: “that,” “which,” “who,” “whom,” etc. For example, “The person who sits next to me is my friend.” In English, the noun, which in our example is “the person” and is the item being modified, tends to go before the relative clause “who sits next to me,” which is also called “modifier.” However, in Mandarin, the word order is reversed: modifier + item being modified.
The pattern is:
In the above sentence, 饺子 transcribed jiǎozimeaning dumpling is the noun (item being modified), 的 transcribed de is the marker for a relative clause, an 我妈妈做 transcribed wǒ māma zuòmeaning my mother makes is the relative clause (modifier). The marker 的 is universal and unchanged in Mandarin, unlike in English (e.g., “that,” “who,” “where,” among others). More examples:
How to use the attributive 的 (de) as a nominalizer
You can add 的 transcribed de after a verb or a verb phrase and turn it into a noun. The noun can be omitted.
The pattern is:
In the examples above, 的 transcribed de connects the verbs, for example 吃 transcribed chīmeaning to eat from the ast example above, to the nouns, for example 东西 transcribed dōngximeaning stuff from the same example, and the whole phrase means something like “what you eat” or “eating stuff.” In this construction, the nouns 学生 transcribed xuéshengmeaning student and 东西 transcribed dōngximeaning stuff can be omitted in Mandarin to avoid repeating the nouns unnecessarily, though not in English.
How to use 的 (de) to add certainty to a statement in Mandarin?
的 transcribed de is used in the end of a phrase or a statement to add certainty. Let’s look at the most used patterns:
| 是的 transcribed shìdemeaning yes | 妈妈：这是你的脏袜子吗？ Transcription: Māma: zhè shì nǐ de zāng wàzi ma? Translation: Mom: Are these your dirty socks? | 儿子：是的，是我的。 Transcription: Érzi: shìde, shì wǒ de. Translation: Son: Yes, they are mine. |
|---|---|---|
| 好的 transcribed hǎodemeaning Sure/OK | 学生：老师，您能再说一遍吗？ Transcription: Xuéshēng: lǎoshī, nín néng zài shuō yíbiàn ma? Translation: Student: Can you say it again, please? | 老师：好的，没问题。 Transcription: Lǎoshī: hǎode, méi wèntí. Translation: Teacher: Sure, no problem. |
Using 的 (de) with fixed phrases and sentence patterns
By far, the most common fixed phrases used with 的 transcribed de are:
有的... , 有的... (yǒude…, yǒude...)
This sentence pattern is equivalent to “some… others…” in English. For example:
These sentences in English and in Chinese work the same. In both sentences, both the first part ("some" or 有的 transcribed yǒude) and the second part ("others" or 有的 transcribed yǒude) are followed by a subject (学生 transcribed xuéshengmeaning students) and a predicate (学习 transcribed xuéxímeaning to study).
是… 的 (shì… de)
his sentence pattern is used to emphasize details like time, manner, or place. The basic pattern is:
Here are a few examples:
… 的时候 (...de shíhòu)
This sentence pattern is equivalent to “when/while….” in English. For example:
How to use the particle 地 (de)
In Mandarin Chinese, the particle 地 transcribed de is used to turn adjectives into adverbs, just like “-ly” does at the end of many English adverbs, such as “quickly,” “slowly,” and “happily.” The pattern is:
How to use the particle 得 (de) as a verbal complement?
A verbal complement is a word that completes a verb by indicating the manner in which it is either done or not done.
How to use 得 (de) in the potential complement
The potential complement is attached to a verb to show whether an action can or can't happen; if the action can happen, 得 is added between the verb and the potential complement. The pattern is:
Here the verb 听 transcribed tīngmeaning to listen goes with 得 transcribed de and then we add the potential complement 懂 transcribed dǒngmeaning to understand to indicate if someone can listen and understand something. The literal meaning of this sentence is: You listen and can understand what I say?
How to use 得 (de) in the degree complement
The degree complement (sometimes categorized as “descriptive complement") is attached to a verb to add descriptive information to the verb or to talk about the extent/degree to which the action goes. In this case, 得 transcribed de is used between a verb and an adjective. For example, in 做得好 transcribed zuò de hǎomeaning did well, 得 transcribed de is added between the verb 做 transcribed zuòmeaning to do and the adjective 好 transcribed hǎomeaning good, to indicate that something is well done. The pattern is:
Apart from being used as a particle, 得 transcribed de can also be used as a verb, pronounced as “dé” and “děi.”
得 as dé
得 as dé is used as a verb, meaning “to get, to acquire.” Sometimes we also use 得到 transcribed dédào to mean the same thing. For example:
得 as děi
得 as děi is used as a verb too, and is equivalent to "must, have to" in English. You probably will see a different pattern like this: 不得不 transcribed bù dé bù. Guess what? They are mostly used the same way, but 得 is pronounced as dé in 不得不 transcribed bù dé bù.
For example:
To sum up
In this post we covered the uses of the three de’s:
Use 的:
to show possession
to describe nouns with an adjective, a location word or phrase, a relative clause
to turn a verb or verb phrase into a noun
to add certainty to a statement
with fixed phrases and sentence patterns
Use 地:
to turn adjectives into adverbs
Use 得:
in the potential complement
in the degree complement
We also saw that 得, pronounced dé, means “to get, to acquire,” and 得 pronounced děi, means “must, have to.”
The three de’s take a lot of practice, but fortunately they crop up all the time, so just keep on learning Mandarin and you will get that practice! Check out our activities for more practice!
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