Use of 真的 as adverb: are 我真要走了 and 我真的要走了 equally correct?

Question

I came across the sentence: "我真的要走了".

I am wondering why it has the 的. I didn't know 真 needed a 的 to be an adverb, or that it was even ok.

Is it equally correct to say "我真要走了"? Or is "我真的要走了" better?

Answer 1

"我真要走了" and "我真的要走了" are both good expressions. They are in fact no different at all. "真" and "真的" are both adverbs here.

Answer 2

From the Taiwanese Ministry of Education dictionary 教育部國語辭典簡編本

的 has 5 usages:

1. Particle after adjective.

   e.g. 美麗 (beautiful) 的 風景 (scenary)

2. Possessive pronoun, placed after a noun or pronoun.

   e.g. 我 (my) 的 書 (book)

3. Particle after a modifier phrase or clause.

   e.g. 他寄來 (which he had sent) 的 信 (The letter)，我已經在昨天收到了 (I received yesterday)。

4. Placed after adverb. Same as "地".

   e.g. 慢慢 (slowly) 的 走 (walk)

5. Placed after sentence, to show confidence or strengthen the tone.

   e.g. 你這樣做是不可以 (you should not be doing this) 的！

In Chinese grammar, 1. and 3. forms the Modifier-Head construct, in that an adjective-acting piece of text is used to describe a noun-acting word or phrase.

And 4. forms the Adverbial-Head construct, in that an adverb-acting word or phrase is used to describe a verb-acting word or phrase.