Meaning of 的 in 我买了一些吃的。

Question

I started preparing for HSK 3 and thought I review the grammar for HSK 2 (http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/salc/centres/confucius/hsk/grammarlists/hsk-2-grammar-points-list.pdf). In section 8, it explains the usages of 的, most of which are clear. The one I don't understand is this:

我买了一些吃的。

One of my guess is that 吃的 is a noun describing something that was eaten. Although, in that case the sentence would mean: I bought something that was eaten, which sounds weird :)

Having read through some of the answers here, I found that in the 是。。。的 construct, the 是 can sometimes be omitted. So the "complete" sentence would be 我是买了一些吃的。 In this case, though, 吃 would have to be a noun and I couldn't find that in the dictionary. Of course, the meaning of that would be obvious but still, I was expecting to see it defined as a noun: http://dictionary.pinpinchinese.com/definitions/s/%E5%90%83-chi

Is 的 here only to emphasise the whole sentence?

Thanks, Norbert

Answer 1

Have a look here for some examples of 吃的 (and any other words whose usage you want to check out):

http://dj.iciba.com/%E5%90%83%E7%9A%84-1.html

I think you'll hear '好吃的‘ a lot more often in China! 吃的 is a nominalized adjective phrase.

我买了一些吃的。 I bought some eatables.
我买了一些好吃的。 I bought some delicacies.
我买了一些好吃的食物。 I bought some delicious food.

Answer 2

You can think the "的" is implicitly to include the words - "Food" or something else for eat.

In Chinese, sometime we will skip the word in daily use.

For example: 我是买了一些吃的 = 我是买了一些吃的(東西) It mean: I have buy something to eat, so that without (東西) also the same meaning as well, but actually it is not a formal grammar.

see one more example: 我做了一些好吃的 = 我做了一些好吃的(東西) It mean: I have make something delicious, same as above, skipping the (東西) have the same meaning.

(東西) can be another words depend on what you refer to, it can be "飯/Rice", "蛋糕/Cake", "雪糕/ice-cream" etc.

Answer 3

吃的=food, something you can eat

我(subject)买了(verb)一些(quantifier)吃的(noun)

In the sentese,you can't separate “吃” and “的”. It is a noun.

Answer 4

at here,the 吃的 you can consider that it is a abbreviated form of 吃的东西（something to eat)

Answer 5

verb（+objective）+的 is common in Chinese. this structure makes a phrase using like a noun, meaning of the person/tool of doing sth.

e.g. 洗衣服(wash cloth)的：the person who wash cloth

做饭（ cook meal）的：the person or tool for cooking meal

but sometimes you could meet another phrase as verb（+objective）+用的, which would only refer to the tools of doing

e.g. 洗脸(clean face）用的：something used for cleaning face, maybe soap or towel

这个毛巾是洗脸用的，那个毛巾是洗脚用的: this towel is for cleaning face, while that one is for cleaning feet