Chinese adjectives differ from adjectives in English in that they can be used as verbs (for example ; "sky black ") and thus linguists sometimes prefer to use the terms static or stative verb to describe them.
When a noun is modified using an adjective, the associative particle Chinese: 的 de is inserted between the adjective and the noun. For example, Chinese: 高兴Chinese: 孩子 gāo xìng hái zi "happy child". Chinese: 的 is sometimes omitted to reduce repetitiveness (e.g., two or more instances of Chinese: 的 within a sentence); it is also omitted in some established adjective-noun pairs to improve sentence flow (e.g., the TV show Chinese: 快乐中国 in China). It is also more typical to omit Chinese: 的 when a single-syllable adjective is used than for a multi-syllable adjective (e.g., compare Chinese: 坏人 (Chinese: 壞人) with Chinese: 奇怪的人). In general, there are no strict rules regarding when Chinese: 的 can be omitted; however, some adjectives and adjective-noun pairs are more often seen without the associative particle than others.
Some examples:
Unlike English, subjects and predicate adjectives in a Chinese sentence are not linked by copula but by degree adverbs, such as Chinese: {{linktext|很 hěn "very," Chinese: {{linktext|好 hǎo "highly", Chinese: {{linktext|真 zhēn "really," and Chinese: {{linktext|非常 fēicháng "extraordinarily, extremely." For example, the following sentences express increasing degrees of "beauty":
A complementary adverb (e.g. Chinese: 极了 jí le) can also specify the degree of an adjective:
NB: Chinese: 很 often functions as a dummy linking adverb and does not carry the meaning of "very". For example, Chinese: 她很漂亮 is often understood and translated as "She is beautiful".
Besides, in colloquial Chinese the pattern "Chinese: AA死了" (sǐ le, literally "to death") or "Chinese: AA死BB了" is sometimes used in exaggeration to highlight the extent of influence, where AA is an adjective and BB is the thing being affected. Examples include
The linking verb Chinese: 是 shì (to be) is used with adjectives in the pattern—Noun + Chinese: 是 + Adj + Chinese: 的—to state or emphasize a fact or a perceived fact. For example:
Since Chinese: 的 is a possessive particle, and the following noun is understood here, more precise translations would be "He is a male one", "That car is a new one", and "That cat is a black one".