Multiple Attributives

Meaning

In Chinese, a single noun can have several attributives (descriptive phrases) at the same time.

In other words, Chinese usually gives information about when or where, then what the person did or what state they were in, and then what they are like.

Basic Structure

Time / Place + Action / State + Characteristic + 的 + Noun

For example:

昨天和家月一起看电影的两个人

数量短语 — Quantity Phrases

Phrases containing a number + measure word + noun have a relatively flexible position.

They can appear before or after an attributive describing an action or state.

两个人

看电影的两个人

Examples

李文是那个穿着黑衣服的短头发的年轻人吗？

那个 → that 穿着黑衣服的 → wearing black clothes 短头发的 → with short hair 年轻人 → young person Here, several attributives work together to describe the same person.

昨天和家月一起看电影的两个人是我的朋友

昨天 → yesterday 和家月一起看电影的 → who watched a movie together with Jiayue 两个人 → two people

我那件新买的白色的衣服在哪儿？

我 → my 那件 → that 新买的 → recently bought 白色的 → white 衣服 → clothing

Remember

When using multiple attributives, their order matters.

General Order

Time / Place → Action / State → Characteristic → 的 + Noun

Quantity phrases are more flexible:

Action / State + 的 + Quantity + Noun or Quantity + Action / State + 的 + Noun

Key Idea

Multiple attributives → describe the same noun together.

For example:

昨天和家月一起看电影的两个人

Here, 昨天, 和家月一起看电影的, and 两个人 work together to identify exactly which people we are talking about.