Read this out loud:
他的目的的确是打的去。
Most learners stall somewhere in the middle. Those four 的 do not sound the same. The same character, in the same sentence, comes out as de, then dì, then dí, then dī.
Plenty of learners, and a fair number of native speakers too, treat 的 as one soft particle: read it de and move on. But 的 is the most common character in the language, and it has four readings. Which one you use depends on the word it sits in, and on the job it is doing in the sentence.
Let's take that sentence apart.
他的: de, the neutral tone
The one you already know. Here 的 is a structural particle, marking possession or modification.
Examples: 我的书 (my book), 漂亮的花 (beautiful flower), 简单的中文 (simple Chinese).
Roughly 95% of the 的 you meet in daily conversation is this one, read de.
One note: the neutral tone has no fixed pitch. It rides on the tone of the syllable before it. Read it lightly. Stress it and you sound stiff.
目的: dì, the fourth tone
This reading shows up in 目的 (mù dì, purpose, aim) and 盲目 (máng mù, blind, aimless).
It belongs mostly to written language and set phrases, and it is the reading learners mix up most.
的确: dí, the second tone
This reading survives in only a handful of fixed words, and 的确 (dí què, really, indeed) is by far the most common of them.
It is a frequent beginner error. Many people read it de què. A native speaker hears it immediately, which makes this one of those small details that marks where a learner actually is.
打的: dī, the first tone
A modern reading, and an odd one. It comes from the English word taxi, transliterated, and it did not exist in classical Chinese at all.
It appears only in 的士 (dī shì, taxi) and words built on it: 的士司机 (taxi driver), 打的 (dǎ dī, to take a taxi).
Only the 的士 family uses dī. Everywhere else, this reading never appears.
Back to the sentence
tā他de的mù目dì的dí的què确shì是dǎ打dī的qù去
他的 (de) · 目的 (dì) · 的确 (dí) · 打的 (dī)
Read it again.
Quiz: which reading is it?
Pick the reading for each 的.
A. de (neutral) B. dí (2nd) C. dī (1st) D. dì (4th)
- máng盲mù目?的nǔ努lì力bù不yí一dìng定yǒu有huí回bào报
- xiǎo小míng明zhè这cì次lái来shì是yǒu有mù目?的?的
Every character is annotated except 的. Working out which of the four readings each one takes is the exercise.
The answers are in here. Hope you got them right.
1. A. This one is a trap. 盲目 is máng mù, and that second character is 目, not 的. The 的 that follows is the ordinary structural particle, read de, exactly as in 漂亮的 or 简单的. 目的 trains you to see dì; here the 的 is doing a different job entirely.
2. The first 的 is D. The one at the end is A. 目的 is a set noun taking dì. The 的 closing the sentence is a modal particle, read de.
The second sentence is worth a second look. Two readings in one line, which tells you something: what 的 sounds like depends on the job it is doing, not on how it looks.
The four readings
| Reading | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| de neutral | Structural particle: possession, modification | 我的 wǒ de 好看的 hǎo kàn de 温柔的 wēn róu de |
| dí 2nd | Really, indeed; fixed written words | 的确 dí què |
| dī 1st | Transliterated words only | 的士 dī shì 的士司机 dī shì sī jī 打的 dǎ dī |
| dì 4th | Aim, purpose; fixed nouns and written modifiers | 目的 mù dì 盲目 máng mù |
Words from this article
These HSK words appear in the text above. Each has its own page with pinyin, audio, and example sentences.