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I am wondering what the acceptable combinations of classifier, noun, and adjectival phrase are? For example 一本 + 有意思的 + 书

Is it acceptable to say both of the following?:

  • 一本有意思的书。
  • 有意思的一本书。

Are there any other ways to produce the same meaning? What is the difference (if any) in the meaning / connotation?

jsj
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3 Answers3

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有意思的一本书 is rarely used, either in colloquial language or formal speech.

However, 很有意思的一本书 is popular, as in "这是很有意思的一本书" (interchangeable with "这是一本很有意思的书" and "这本书很有意思"). The sentence literally means "this is a book that's very interesting".

I do not know why adding "很" makes it sound right. The Google results are quite convincing, though: all of them have "很" before "有意思的一本书".

(Is it the same case with "你很漂亮" (correct) and "你漂亮" (incorrect) ?)

gonnastop
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  • I know when you are writing a notice for a lost item, you invert the order of the MW and the noun, so you would say something like: "丢失了眼镜一副” – aelephant Mar 18 '12 at 04:00
  • I think "丢了一副眼睛" sounds right, too. The only situation I can think of where you must invert the order is the idiom "小事一桩" (no big deal; a piece of cake). – gonnastop Mar 18 '12 at 06:31
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Both are valid and commonly used. They have the same meaning.

NOW:

for 一本 + 有意思的 + 书：

  • 一本有意思的书。 - GOOD, "An interesting book"
  • 有意思的一本书。 - GOOD, "An interesting book"
  • 有意思的书一本。 - WEIRD, and maybe incorrect grammar; don't use

situation suited for adj. + 的: 搞笑的(funny), 无聊的(boring), etc


for 一本 + 好 + 书：

  • 一本好书。 - GOOD, "A great book"
  • 好一本书。 - different meaning from the other 2 combinations, but totally valid; I'm unable to explain.
  • 好书一本。 - GOOD, "An awesome book!!", better than "A great book"

situation suited for selective one word adj.: 好, 烂, 破, etc.

note that the second combination is ONLY valid for 好.

user238264
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Mengdi Gao
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  • interesting. I wonder why 有意思的书一本 sounds weird and 好书一本 doesn't?!? – jsj Mar 11 '12 at 12:40
  • If I change 好 to 精彩(exciting), 精彩书一本 or 精彩的书一本 still very wired, maybe because 好 is an one word adj. or maybe it's a magic word? – Mengdi Gao Mar 11 '12 at 12:48
  • I've update my answer to include more one word example. – Mengdi Gao Mar 12 '12 at 06:09
  • "好一本书" in your second example is similar to "what a special book it is" in English. "好" here helps to form an exclamatory sentence and does not mean "great". 好一个混蛋 = what a jerk; 好一句“不关我的事” = (roughly) how dare you say "it's none of my business"! We can start a new question, actually. – gonnastop Mar 18 '12 at 13:01
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Although both of them are valid, 一本有意思的书 is more commonly used than 有意思的一本书.

Actually, the usage is depend on the context.

For example, 这是一本有意思的书 is OK; 这是有意思的一本书 is also OK, but more emphasized on "有意思".

Another example, 昨天我看了一本有意思的书 is OK; 昨天我看了有意思的一本书 is NOT acceptable.

Another example, 我有一本有意思的书 is OK; 我有有意思的一本书 is NOT acceptable.

Feng Jiang
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