高 as a verb talking about the weather

Question

In my chinese book i saw the next sentence.

"最低气温很少低于3度"

In the dictionary said 低 could be a verb meaning to drop.

But 高 did not appear as a verb. But i found sentence like this in the internet. ?is it right?

"最高气温很少高于40度"

Or is better to say

"最高气温很少超过40度" "最高气温很少达40度"

How about using the word 降到。

"最高气温很少降到40度"

¿what would be the opposite of 降到?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The construction Adj. + 于, where the adjective X is actually a stative verb means "more X than".

Stative verbs, which in English are normally translated as adjectives, are verbs that describe qualities, and can be modified by intensifiers as 很，太，非常, etc.

低 means "low", it is a stative verb, therefore 低于3度 means "lower than 3 degrees". If you want to keep some morphological correspondence with English, you can render is as "to drop" (= to go lower than).

As for your example sentences:

• 最高气温很少高于40度 here 高 (high, tall) is a stative verb, or adjective, like 低 (in fact it's its antonym), therefore this is a correct sentence, where 高于40度 means "higher than 40 degrees".

• 最高气温很少超过40度 I think 超过 is not the best verb here, but the sentence sounds fine to me.

• 最高气温很少达40度 here 达 alone doesn't sound okay; I would say 达到

• 最高气温很少降到40度 the word 降到 means “to fall, to drop" so this sentence is borderline nonsensical (= the highest air temperature rarely drops to 40 degrees). You can use 升到 "to rise" instead: 最高气温很少升到40度

Answer 2

低 can be a verb as in 把头低下.

However, in your sentence it's used as an adjective. In Chinese grammar, adjective can be used as a predicate, which is the difference from English. E. g. 她很漂亮。她很高。

于 is a preposition and used for comparison. E. g. 大于, 小于，高于，低于.

So, both 最高气温很少高于40度 and 最低气温很少低于3度 are correct. And 最低气温很少低于3度 is correct, not because 低 is a verb.

Answer 3

It's not a verb in this context. It's more adjective in semantics...

So that you can understand the 2 sentences as adj

低于 lower than 高于 higher than