So, since 红 is a verb, it should precede any other attributive. Still, if I Google both phrases, it seems that the latter form is prevalent.
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3红茶 (red tea) is a noun– Tang Ho ♦Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 15:15
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1black tea 红茶 (Yes it is a different colour) | Chinese black tea 中国红茶.– BósàiCommented Oct 23, 2020 at 15:29
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how is 红 a verb?– wadaCommented Nov 2, 2020 at 11:33
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@wada all adjectives in Chinese are verbs, the adjective "red" can also be interpreted as the verb "to be red"– 小奥利奥Commented Nov 13, 2020 at 1:53
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@小奥利奥 hmm... can you make a sentence that uses 紅 as a verb?– wadaCommented Nov 23, 2020 at 10:29
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2 Answers
红茶, like 绿茶, (green tea), are particular varieties of tea.
The "red" and "green" do not standalone as verbs describing color but must be compounded with "tea" to indicate a particular variety of tea.
Thus red and green are not verbs but must be read together with "tea" forming compound nouns.
There is therefore only 中国红茶, (Chinese red tea), i.e. a variety of tea popularly known as 红茶, (which is actually black, but who would drink a tea called 黑茶, "black tea"?, which figuratively could mean something "bad" in the tea)
There is no such thing as 红中国茶, meaning "red Chinese tea", which in this case, the 红 would be a verb. You could call it that if you could find a type of tea from China that is actually red in color. But then it would not be "红茶" anymore.
answered Oct 23, 2020 at 15:56
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黑茶 exists in Chinese, it is the name of a kind of tea. So does 白茶. For example, 普洱 is a kind of 黑茶 instead of 红茶.– RiverCommented Oct 23, 2020 at 16:18
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Really? OK, learn something today; perhaps we also have 蓝茶? Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 16:22
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Oh, I did not know 普洱 is a kind of 黑茶. I've never called it that though. Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 16:23
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"中国茶类的划分有多种方法，公认的是根据制作方法和茶多酚氧化（发酵）程度的不同，可分为六大类：绿茶（不发酵）、白茶（轻微发酵）、黄茶（轻发酵）、青茶（也叫乌龙茶、半发酵）、黑茶（后发酵）、红茶（全发酵）" Ref:zhongce.sina.com.cn/article/view/2490– RiverCommented Oct 23, 2020 at 17:26
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Yes, I've been told that. Many S-E Asian traditional Chinese families in the old days have a huge pot of tea made in the morning and family members drink only this and nothing else throughout the day. If this practice is carried on, many "modern" chronic illnesses could be minimized, I believe. Commented Oct 24, 2020 at 3:48
Chinese and English have the different word orders in adjectives.
East China Sea 中国东海
South China Sea 中国南海 (see below)
Simplified Chinese characters 中文简体字
Traditional Chinese characters 中文繁体字
native English speaker 英语母语用户
native Chinese speaker 汉语母语用户
black Chinese tea 中国红茶 [yeah, Chinese think it is red, not black]
By the way, Chinese and English also have a opposite word order in addresses.
Paris, France 法国巴黎
London, England, UK 英国英格兰伦敦
Beijing, China 中国北京
North China 华北
South China 华南
Northeast China 中国东北地区
mainland China 中国大陆
The examples above are normal cases. However, there do exist abnormal cases — English-grammar Chinese.
For example,
North America 北美洲
South America 南美洲
East Asia 东亚
Central Asia 中亚
West Asia 西亚
South Asia 南亚
South China Sea 南中国海 (see above)
Those are really English-grammar Chinese, literally translated from English. According to Chinese grammar, they should have been called 美洲北部, 美洲南部, 亚洲东部, etc, but those English-grammar Chinese terms are more prevalent now.
