Confusion about the usage of hěn

Question

I am learning Chinese with the Memrize App and noticed that often, to say something like "You are x", you will actually say "nǐ hěn x" instead of "nǐ shì x".

For example as translated by Google: "Nǐ hěn máng" means "You are busy". This confuse me because an example from the app would be "Tā juéde tā hěn piàoliang" meaning "He thinks she is very pretty". Here, "hěn" is obviously used to reinforce "piàoliang".

1. Why isn't "Ni shi..." used to say "You are..."? Or is it used like that but I just haven't come across it yet?

2. How do you say "You are very busy". Do I have to use another reinforcing word such as "tai"(I know that "tai" doesn't quite fit, but I haven't learn too many words yet ^.^)?

Answer 1

Usually a noun will be used after 是 shì.

If an adjective, such as 漂亮 piàoliang or 忙 máng follows behind it instead, it would sound strange. 很 hěn can take the place of 是 shì in this case and will make you sound idiomatic... 😊

For example you can say:

你是美女 ("ni shi mei nv")

But you can't say:

你是漂亮 ("ni shi piaoliang")

It sounds like your name is Piaoliang. Instead, you should say:

你很漂亮 ("ni hen piaoliang")

In Chinese culture, praising others is a sign of politeness, so it's common to say 很 "hen". It may sound like overemphasizing, but actually is not. It only sounds like that (maybe the interlocutor is just a common level of beautiful instead of very beautiful). In China, people has grown accustomed to speak this way since ancient times.

Answer 2

There are two things that need to be aware of here.

1. The Chinese word 是(shi) is NOT equivalent to English "is/am/are". The Chinese 是(shi) functions as a "=". So both sides of the equal sign should have the same nature. So "ni shi mang" doesn't make sense.

2. A Chinese adjective is also a verb! That is, "mang" is already "to be busy"; "pretty" is already "to be pretty". Literally "you are busy" is "ni mang". But "hen" should be added to balance the rhythm of the sentence, and it isn't necessary to mean "very". So, the right sentence is "ni hen mang".

Finally, if you want to emphasize "very busy", it can be "ni fei chang mang".

Answer 3

“You are” has 2 translation, nǐ hěn 你很 or nǐ shì 你是. They have the same meaning. You can check this video, so you can understand better.

But in Chinese grammar, nǐ hěn 你很 add an adjective, for example: You are beautiful, beautiful is an adjective, so you should say nǐ hěn piào liàng 你很漂亮.

You are busy，busy is an adjective, so you should say nǐ hěn mánɡ 你很忙.

nǐ shì 你是 add a noun, for example:

You are my friend, friend is a noun, so you should say nǐ shì wǒ de pénɡ yǒu 你是我的朋友.

You are a student, student is a noun, so you should say nǐ shì yì wèi xué shēnɡ 你是一位学生.