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Question about 的
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daofeishi -

I currently working in Yinchuan, and I'm trying to teach myself Chinese (with the help of many
good friends.)

I've just started reading cartoons and simple textbooks for children, as I've picked up quite a
lot of characters by now. The problem is, I'm still struggling a bit with the grammar. I came over
this sentence in a 加菲 strip:

没有什么好消息可以告诉你的

I understand the meaning: "I don't have any good news to tell you," but I don't understand what
the final 的 does. I would probably have said: "没有什么好消息可以告诉你." Can anyone
explain?

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stephanhodges -

There's a construct shi4....de (是。。。的）which gives emphasis to the "subject" of the
inner clause. The "shi4" can be omitted. There's also another case where the object "after" the de
的 can be omitted. Instead of saying "It's my car" you can say "it's mine"... for example.

In this case, I read it as a sort of passive sentence. "There isn't any good news that I can tell
you".

My Chinese level isn't that good, so I'm actually posting this here with the expectation of having
my ideas "corrected" Best way to learn, sometimes.

stephanhodges -

BTW, I hope you noticed that the translation does not say "I have no...". I really think its a
more passive tense in this case. But, Chinese tends to be more circumlocutious anyways.

daofeishi -

I do know the 是....的 structure. If I were to write the sentence out without omitting the 是,
would it then be "没有什么好消息是可以告诉你的"? Is it possible to say
"没有什么好消息可以告诉你"？

renzhe -

Think of this as:

没有什么好 (可以告诉你的) 消息

The 可以告诉你 part is the attribute of the noun 消息, and this is shown through the
particle 的.

没有什么 大的 消息
没有什么 好的 消息
没有什么 有意思的 消息
没有什么 可以告诉你的 消息

skylee -

Consider -

(我是)沒有甚麽好消息可以告訴你的。

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