Chinese Modal Particles
From UniLang Wiki
A Chinese particle in all aspects, is an uninflected grammatical word used to change the relation of different parts of a sentence to one another. In Chinese, many of these particles are used at the end of a sentence (and therefore are called Final Particles) but there are many that are used within a sentence, and changing their position can drammatically change the meaning of a sentence.
In Chinese, modal particles are used to convey the mood of the sentence as determined by the speaker / writer.
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的 (de)
The most commom symbol in Mandarin texts, - 的 (de) - is a modal particle. Being the most common word, it can be used to convey many meanings
Expressing ability and/or epistemicality
One way that 的 (de) can be used is to show the ability of something to do something else, or to show that somthing will do something else:
- 鲍勃明天做的完那些作业 (bàobó míngtiān zuò de wán nèixiē zuòyè) - Literal: Bob tomorrow do (DE) finish those homework - Bob is able to finish the homework tomorrow
Also,
- 鲍勃明天做的完那些作业 (bàobó míngtiān zuò de wán nèixiē zuòyè) - Literal: Bob tomorrow do (DE) finish those homework - Bob will finish the homework tomorrow
If you analyze those two translations very carefully, you will see that they almost convey the same thing, the only difference is that in the first one, Bob mearly has the ability to finish the homework; The homework might not be done tomorrow, but if he wanted to, Bob could finish it. In the second sentence, Bob not only has the ability to finish the homework, but there is a 100% chance that the homework will be completed by tomorrow.
Expressing Depictions and/or Results
Another way that 的 (de) can be used is to show the end result of an action, or to detail an action
- 鲍勃昨天走的很累 (bàobó zuótiān zǒu de hěn lèi) - Literal: Bob yesterday walk (DE) very tired - Yesterday Bob walked, and as a result he got tired
Also,
- 鲍勃昨天走的很快 (bàobó zuótiān zǒu de hěn kuài) - Literal: Bob yesterday walk (DE) very fast - Bob walked very fast yesterday
Strangely enough, there is another particle that shares almost the same properties as listed above. This particle is 能 (néng). In it's literal translation, it means "can, may, capable, or able to". But, when used as a replacement for 的 (de) in the epistemic and ability aspects, it behaves the same way.
能 (néng)
There are a few exceptions, an example of one of those exceptions would be:
- 鲍勃昨天能给他的朋友打印文章 (bàobó zuótiān néng gěi tā de péng you dǎ yìn wén zhāng) - Literal: Bob yesterday (neng) for his friend print essay - John was able to / would (have) print(ed) the essay for his friend
Now, if 能 (néng) were to be changed to 的 (de), the sentence would become:
- 鲍勃昨天的给他的朋友打印文章 (bàobó zuótiān de gěi tā de péng you dǎ yìn wén zhāng) - Literal: Bob yesterday (de) for his friend print essay - Yesterday, John gave the essay that he printed to his friend
