第三十九天

[nnozomi]

是...的 to emphasize a specific point
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/The_%22shi..._de%22_construction_for_emphasizing_details

Let's stick to the easy half of this (as it strikes me) today and move on to the use in past questions tomorrow...

Guardian: (ugh, this is impossible to search for without knowing more about 正规表现 than I do)
我们都是从地星来的。(it's from Dixing that we all came)
让是你来指认现场的，不是让你去打先锋的 (it's to confirm the site that you're here, not to go strike the first blow) (?)
但是强大是要付出代价的 (but strength requires paying the price)

My practice:
我是坐地铁来的，走路太远了。
昨晚你原来是跟他去玩的！

Comments

[sakana17]

I'm not sure if this (from The Rebel, episode 24) exactly fits... It's a question, but its purpose is to state something the listener (Hu Daoyi) should have figured out already: 都是耗电量很大的对吗

[nnozomi]

its purpose is to state something the listener (Hu Daoyi) should have figured out already: 都是耗电量很大的对吗
Oh, that's a good one, yes. (Hu Daoyi is like the definition of worse than useless, poor guy.)

[trobadora]

What immediately came to mind: 这条命是我还你的 ... is that the same use of 是...的 or a different one? *scratches head*

[nnozomi]

Oh! Oh dear, how could I forget that one. *sniff*
is that the same use of 是...的 or a different one? *scratches head*
*scratches head* likewise. My instinct is that this is slightly different--using 是 as the normal copula/"is" verb, and 的 to make 我还你 into a noun, the one I'm returning to you--but a) that may be wrong, and b) that may amount to the same usage after all. aargh.

[trobadora]

using 是 as the normal copula/"is" verb, and 的 to make 我还你 into a noun, the one I'm returning to you

Yep, that's how I'm reading it too.

that may amount to the same usage after all

And yep again, that's where I throw up my hands and give up ...

aargh.

YEP. EXACTLY. *headdesk*

[grayswandir]

that may amount to the same usage after all

I've always assumed these were essentially the same... If they're different, I'm not sure how to distinguish them either.

[nnozomi]

*headdesk along with you*
I'll try to remember to ask Yu-jie or another native-speaker friend what they think. From what presumenothing was saying, though, it's one of those things where native speakers just use it naturally and don't think about the structure because they don't have to... sigh...
(Also, how am I going to explain the context behind this particular line to someone who hasn't seen Guardian, oh my goodness. ;) )
aargh. 哎哟～

[trobadora]

Hee! I'd definitely appreciate a native speaker's take.

Also, how am I going to explain the context behind this particular line to someone who hasn't seen Guardian, oh my goodness.

Haha, fun! :D

[trobadora]

♥ ♥ ♥

I guess I'll just proceed under the assumption that they're the same until evidence to the contrary presents itself. *g*

[nnozomi]

If they're different, I'm not sure how to distinguish them either.
If you aren't sure about it, I'm definitely not...

oh, but I did think of one thing just now! In Shen Wei's 这条命是我还你的，是 is the main verb. In something like 我们是昨天到的 from the CGW page, 到 is the main verb and 是 is there to emphasize what comes after it. So maybe not the same construction. UNLESS this is all only true based on my faulty understanding of Chinese grammar, which God knows is likely, in which case I just don't know.

[grayswandir]

I have 100% not studied Chinese grammar, so most of my impressions of how it works are just intuitive. XD But to speculate anyway, I think I would have taken 是 as the main verb in both sentences, and the 是...的 construction as basically forming an adjective that gives you information about the subject of the sentence. In ultra-literal English, I guess I'd see them as, like:

This life is that-I'm-repaying-you.

We are having-arrived-yesterday.

[nnozomi]

But to speculate anyway, I think I would have taken 是 as the main verb in both sentences, and the 是...的 construction as basically forming an adjective that gives you information about the subject of the sentence.
On reflection, that makes more sense. 谢谢！ Oh dear.

[grayswandir]

Oh dear.

That's kind of where I'm at. XD

[presumenothing]

我也是这么想的……两个用法是基本上分不开的……LOL ok enough of that

[nnozomi]

I asked my friend in Taiwan about 这条命是。。。 。 Her take was roughly the same as the ones here, that basically it is a version of the same 是~~~的, with the ~~~ content used as a clause to modify the 这条命 part. So...I think...essentially the same usage, but sometimes used for emphasis and sometimes just for description...? okay, 我放弃。

[trobadora]

Thanks muchly for asking, and thank you, that makes sense!

我放弃

Oh look, it's a word I know but characters I don't know at all! *flails*

[nnozomi]

放 I bet you do know, it's the same one in 放心，放开 and so on. 弃 is pretty new to me as well except in this compound...

[trobadora]

I know all these words (and 放手 and 放下 ...), but I'm completely blanking on the 放, 我不认识这个汉字. I seriously have no recollection of it at all even though I know I must have seen it before ... /o\