Mandarin · Chapter 5 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Adjectives as stative verbs
Mandarin adjectives ARE verbs. 'I am cold' is 我冷, not 我是冷. Why 很 is a default filler, not always 'very', and how to negate with 不.
The short version
Mandarin adjectives are verbs, so drop the 是 (shì)
'I am cold' is 我冷 (wǒ lěng), never 我是冷 (wǒ shì lěng). 冷 (lěng) already means 'to be cold', so the copula has nothing left to do and inserting it is ungrammatical. Mandarin adjectives are stative verbs: they predicate, negate and question like verbs, which is why the negative is simply 我不冷 (wǒ bù lěng).
我冷。 Wǒ lěng.
很 (hěn) is not 'very', it is neutral padding
The 很 (hěn) sitting in front of every adjective is a smoothing particle, not an intensifier. A bare 我累 (wǒ lèi) sounds like the opening of a complaint or a comparison; 我很累 (wǒ hěn lèi) is the flat everyday statement. When you genuinely mean 'very', reach for 非常 (fēi cháng), 真 (zhēn) or the 太 (tài)…了 (le) frame instead.
我很冷。 Wǒ hěn lěng.
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