Level 3 · Lesson 11

大房子，小猫
A big house, a small cat

大房子，小猫。房子很大，猫很小。

A one-syllable adjective sits straight on the noun; as a predicate it needs 很.

听 · Listen

在李明家
 安娜 —  李明，你家的房子很大！ 
Li Ming, your family's house is big!  
 李明 —  不大，不大。你看，这张桌子很长。 
Not big, not big. Look, this table is long.  
 安娜 —  桌子很长，椅子也很高。 
The table is long, and the chairs are tall too.  
 李明 —  这是我的小猫。 
This is my little cat.  
 安娜 —  小猫很白！那是什么？ 
The little cat is very white! What's that?  
 李明 —  那是我妹妹的笔。笔很短。 
That's my sister's pencil. It's short.  
 安娜 —  你妹妹高吗？ 
Is your sister tall?  
 李明 —  她不高。她是一个小孩子。 
She isn't tall. She's a little kid.  

讲解 · Explanation

大房子，小猫，长桌子。

A one-syllable adjective goes straight onto the noun with nothing in between: 大房子 'a big house', 小猫 'a little cat', 长桌子 'a long table'. Add a number and the measure word still comes first — 一只小猫, 一张长桌子: number, measure word, adjective, noun, in that order. No 的 here. That is exactly what separates these from 红色的花 in the last lesson: a two-syllable description takes 的, a one-syllable one does not.

房子很大。猫很小。笔很短。

Turn the phrase round and the adjective becomes the whole predicate. Chinese puts no 是 in front of it — 房子是大 is not a sentence — and a bare 房子大 sounds unfinished, like the first half of a comparison. The neutral link is 很: 房子很大, 猫很小. You already did this in level 1 with 我很忙. The 很 there was not really 'very', and it is not 'very' here either; it is simply what holds a plain adjective up.

房子不大。桌子不长。

For the opposite, put 不 in front of the adjective and drop the 很: 不大, 不长, 不高. Listen to the tone of 不 as you say them — before a fourth tone it is bú (bú dà, bú guì), and everywhere else it stays bù (bù cháng, bù gāo, bù xiǎo). One warning about 长: read cháng it means 'long', but the same character read zhǎng is a different word meaning 'grow, senior'. In this lesson it is always cháng.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
大	big, large	大房子, 一个大杯子
小	small, little	一只小猫; also in 小姐
长	long (in length)	一张长桌子; read zhǎng the character is a different word
短	short (in length)	the opposite of 长: 笔很短
高	tall, high	椅子很高; also of people: 他很高

练习 · Practice

房子______大。 The house is big.

那是一只______。 That is a little cat.

这支笔很______。 This pen is short.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'This is a little cat.'

大、小、长、短、高 Match each adjective to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

我家的房子很大。我的猫很小。这张桌子很长，椅子很高。

Look around the room you are in and say four sentences on the pattern thing + 很 + adjective. Then say the same four things again as bare phrases — 大房子, 小猫, 长桌子, 高椅子 — and hear the difference: the phrase names a thing, the sentence says something about it. Finish with one negative, 我的房子不大, watching the tone of 不.