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I have this sentence: "我觉得奇怪的是", which translates to "I feel weird". But wouldn't "我觉得奇怪" suffice?

What is "的是" supposed to do in this sentence? From my research, the best conclusion I came up with was that it turns "奇怪" into a noun and therefore makes the sentence follow the subject + verb + object paradigm.

EDIT

My bad for not posting the complete sentence

我想学习普通话，因为我觉得奇怪的是，即使我是中国人，但当我去中国旅行时，我却无法与人沟通。

"I wanted to learn Mandarin because I find it odd that I cannot communicate with people when I travel to China even though I'm Chinese."

I thought since it was sectioned with the commas it would have been fine and could act on its own.

It should also be noted this was extracted from a conversation, so I don't know if this would be officially grammatically correct or not. With this new info in mind, does the sentence sound right in a conversation, and, again, what is "的是" doing?

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  • 2
    what surprised/puzzled me was ...
    – user6065
    Oct 23, 2017 at 2:52
  • That's not the entire sentence is it? I feel there should be something or a list of thing coming after that
    – Huangism
    Oct 23, 2017 at 20:15
  • The sentence you quoted is fine. You should separate 的 and 是 for comprehending. 是 simple means 'be'. 的 goes with 我觉得奇怪. Refer to my answer.
    – dan
    Oct 23, 2017 at 23:10

3 Answers 3

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的 (refer to definition 2 in this dictionary)

  1. 代替所指的人或物：唱歌～。

我觉得奇怪的 here refers to things I feel weird.

So, 我觉得奇怪的是 could be interpreted as "things I feel weird are:" or "What I feel weird are:".

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It's just incomplete, there should be something or somethings named after 是

我觉得奇怪的是[男人穿着迷你裙]/[笨蛋的老外总是想要开个笑话]！

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  • 2
    +1 for the completions
    – blackgreen
    Oct 23, 2017 at 11:00
  • 1
    Haha, many a time I think there is a distinct lack of humour around here! Down with the dearth!
    – Pedroski
    Oct 23, 2017 at 11:04
  • @Pedroski, I'm curious what it means "Down with the dearth". thanks
    – dan
    Oct 23, 2017 at 22:58
  • Man, 开个笑话 would oddly sound funny!!! You win the point of being a sense of humor! Haha. We usually say 开（个）玩笑, but not 开个笑话. Also, we don't really say 笨蛋的老外. We might say 笨蛋老外 or 笨老外.
    – dan
    Oct 23, 2017 at 23:04
  • 'a dearth of something' means 'a lack of something' I was referring to 'getting rid of the lack of humour, i.e. inject some humour into this forum.' A certain young lady of my acquaintance often refers to my person as '笨蛋的老外‘ 如’笨蛋的老外，什么都你不知道！” Such a charmer! That's where I picked that up!
    – Pedroski
    Oct 23, 2017 at 23:29
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The most obvious explanation is that the sentence is incomplete.

我觉得奇怪的是 [?]
I think that what's strange is [?]

Another possibility that I want to point out is that it's a very colloquial way of putting emphasis on the 奇怪。It happened to me to hear (young) people use that construction when they are excited. So:

奇怪 or any other adjective they want to emphasize (...strange)
的 final particle that expresses certainty (...strange for sure!)
是 strong emphasis, colloquially placed at the end of the sentence (...strange for sure, I swear!)

Even though that arguably isn't what you'd call standard language. Other natives might tell you that's not grammatical at all, and it probably isn't. Just something someone could yell out when they are agitated (e.g. my wife when we fight).

As always, only the context could help you tell.

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  • Your second example makes me think of the 的话 construction e.g. 如果你想的话
    – Benedict W. J. Irwin
    Oct 23, 2017 at 15:41
  • Yea or the shi is the wrong shi and the sentence is just a sentence and not a question. either way, it does not add up
    – Huangism
    Oct 23, 2017 at 20:45

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