Is 我喜欢吃的中国菜是…… grammatically correct?

Question

I wonder if this sentence is correct, or if I need to add some other words: "我喜欢吃的中国菜是______ " If they are wrong, I would appreciate your explanation

My doubt is about the use of 的 and 是.

Answer 1

The structures of Chinese and English are similar here: 我喜歡吃的中國菜是…could be literally translated as : The Chinese dish that I love to eat is…. So we could see that the attributive adjective phrase 我喜歡吃的 becomes an adjective clause following the noun “Chinese dish” in English. I can imagine some possible scenarios when this sentence might be used: Setting: in a Chinese restaurant. A:你喜歡/想吃什麼（菜）？ B：我喜歡/想吃紅燒肉。或：我最喜歡吃的中國菜是紅燒肉。或：我喜歡吃的中國菜有紅燒肉、醋溜魚片、還有回鍋肉。 A:你們有什麼喜歡/想吃的（菜嗎）？ B：我想吃紅燒肉。 C：我要醋溜魚片。 D：我喜歡/想要吃的中國菜是回鍋肉。 So your sentence could only be suitable in the context of the second scenario.

Answer 2

"是 + noun" = "is/are + an item/items".

In your sentence, I suggest adding the word "最" before "喜欢" to emphasize your particular liking of the item

• 我"最"喜欢吃的中国菜是ZZ. - The Chinese food/dish I like the "most" is ZZ.

When you like several items more or less equaly, you can modify the sentence without the emphasizing word as:

• 我喜欢吃的中国菜是/有XX, YY, 和ZZ - The Chinese food/dishes I like are/include XX, YY, and ZZ.

Here, 的 is a "structural particle" that indicates the word or phrase preceding it functions as an attributive that defines or modifies the noun or noun phrase that comes after it.

• 我喜欢吃的中国菜 - The noun 中国菜 is modified by the pronoun “我” and the adjective “喜欢吃”. The structural particle “的” marks the relationship between the modifier and the modified.

https://www.digmandarin.com/how-to-use-the-structural-particle-de.html#:~:text=The%20structural%20particle%20%E2%80%9C%E7%9A%84%20%28de%29%E2%80%9D%20indicates%20that%20the,%28h%C4%9Bn%20m%C3%A1ng%20de%20d%C3%A0ifu%29%20a%20very%20busy%20doctor

Answer 3

我喜欢吃的中国菜是..... This structure is grammatically correct. And we Chinese use this kind of structure a lot.

More similar sentences. 我喜欢穿的牌子是...... 我喜欢开的车是....... 我喜欢去的酒吧是......

This structure is correct, but we use subject + verb + object more often.

我喜欢吃的中国菜是..... 我喜欢吃.....

我喜欢开的车是....... 我喜欢开沃尔沃（volvo）/奔驰(Benz)

我喜欢去的酒吧是...... 我喜欢去Mix酒吧/天堂酒吧.

In the sentence 我喜欢的中国菜是......， the speaker wants to emphasize the dish he or she likes, so he or she put it in the end.

Answer 4

The sentence is incomplete, but grammatical:

我喜欢吃 的 中国菜 是 ……
The Chinese dishes that I like to eat are ...

Presumably you're meant to fill in the blank with your favorite Chinese dishes.

We modify the noun 中国菜 = "Chinese dishes" using 我喜欢吃 = "I like to eat", connecting them using 的. The phrase 我喜欢吃 is functioning as an adjective (or an "attributive") for the noun 中国菜:

Adj. + 的 + Noun

And the adjective can be a whole phrase, such as in:

书
[the] book

绿色的书
[the] green book

我老师喜欢看的书
[the] book that my teacher likes to read

学生应该读三遍的书
[the] book that students should read three times