The intensifier 很 and Chinese adjectives

At the end of the previous lesson we’ve learnt the sentence 我很好, which can be translated into “I’m fine.” Per se, the adverb 很 (hěn) means “very”, but it often acts as an intensifier, whose translation is not needed.

In Chinese, adjectives are called predicate adjectives, as they also imply a verbal meaning. Thus, if one wants to say the sentence “she is clever”, the verb “to be” does not appear because it is already enclosed in the adjective.

她  聪明
tā cōngmíng
[she smart]
She is smarter

她 (tā) is the personal pronoun “she”, 聪明 (cōngmíng) means “smart”. As can be seen, there is no verb between the subject and the adjective, because  聪明 also means “to be smart”.

Written in this way, however, the sentence assumes a compartive value. Therefore, the intensifier 很 must be added before the adjective.

她  很   聪明
tā hěn cōngmíng
[she INT smart]
She is smart

Hence, the character 好 (hǎo) in the sentence 我很好 at the beginning of this lesson means both “good” and “to be/feel good”.

If 很 occurs in negative sentences, it doesn’t act as an intensifier and it is translated as “very.” Thus, we can have two sentences with a slightly different meaning.

学校  不  很    远
xuéxiào bù hěn yuǎn
[school not very far]
The school is not very far

学校  不  远
xuéxiào bù yuǎn
[school not far]
The school is not far

In addition to 很 there are many other intensifiers such as:
真 (zhēn) - really
太 (tài) - too
非常 (fēicháng) - extremely
特别 (tèbié) - especially
有一点 (yǒu yīdiǎn) - a little
更 (gèng) - even more
越来越 (yuè lái yuè) - more and more
最 (zuì) - most

Cover background picture Hanson Lu