How to Differentiate the Chinese Characters: 的, 地, and 得

In the process of learning Chinese, word discrimination is the most difficult part for foreign students. There are a lot of words with similar pronunciations and meanings, but they have essential differences. So, many students get confused when trying to use such words in daily life. Today we are going to talk about how to use the“的, 地, and得” in Chinese. The pronunciation of these three word is the same. All are pronounced “de” with the natural tone, but they are different words in writing.
Next let’s see how to distinguish them in written form.
1.“的” is a structural auxiliary word attached at the back of an attributive modifier. It is a kind of symbol of attributive.
For example:
Dì di de xié zǐ hěn liú xínɡ.
弟弟的鞋子很流行。

(My brother's shoes are very popular.)
Tā de xīn yīfu hěn piào liɑnɡ.
她的新衣服很漂亮。

(Her new clothes are very beautiful.)
Xīn de xiézǐ zài zhèlǐ.
新的鞋子在这里。

(The new shoes are here.)
ɡānxǐ de yīfu ná huílái le.
干洗 的衣服拿 回来了。

(The clothes are back from the dry cleaner.)
Zhè shì zuótiān ná qù ɡānxǐ de yīfu.
这是昨天拿去干洗的衣服。

(These are the clothes that I took to dry-clean yesterday.)
2.“地” is a structural auxiliary word attached at the back of the adverbial modifier. It is a kind of symbol of adverbials.
For example:
Tónɡ shì men dōu rè liè de huān yínɡ zhè ɡe wài ɡuó láo bǎn.
同事们都热烈地欢迎这个外国朋友 。

(Colleagues are welcome the foreign friend warmly.)
Wǒ men nǔ lì de xué xí hàn yǔ.
我们努力地学习汉语。

(We study Chinese very hard.))
Mènɡ xiǎnɡ xūyào yíbùyibù de shíxiàn。
梦想需要一步一步地实现。

(Work step by step toward your dream.)
3.“得” is a structural auxiliary word attached at the back of the verb or adjective, the front of complement . It is a kind of symbol of complement.
For example:
(Attached to a verb)
Tā měi tiān dōu qǐ de hěn zǎo.
他每天都起得很早。

He gets up very early every day.
Tā hànyǔ shuō de hěn búcuò.
他汉语说得很不错。

(He speak Chinese very well.)
Tā hànzì xiě de hěn piào liɑnɡ.
她汉字写得很漂亮。

(Her writing is very nice.)
Good luck in learning how to use “de” in Chinese. We hope that this helps. If you still have questions, contact us here and let me help you now!