A grammar question about "的是/de shì" structure

Hello,

I have met a sentence like: "他学的是中文" in one of the Chinese Breeze books.
The meaning is mostly clear, but I couldn't find on internet the purpose of "的是". Does it mean a completed action?

Could somebody explain why it's used and what is the difference between the sentence above and just "他学中文" ? Google translates both to "He learns Chinese".

Thanks in advance
Genady
 

Shun

状元
Hi Genady,

if you look at the sentence “妈妈学习的速度很快,爸爸的也是。”, you can of course tell that in the second clause, "学习的速度“ is left out.

In a similar way, one could translate your sentence as "What he studies is Chinese", or "The subject he studies is Chinese", because after “他学的”, a noun phrase is left out that doesn't even need to be mentioned in the context—it could even be a word that doesn't really exist in Chinese. If you don't know which, you could write “他学的东西” to make it clearer.

Sometimes, 的 actually can suggest a completed action, as in "我买的。”, for example. This would mean, "It was me who bought it.". (This action can only be completed.) The full sentence without omissions here would be “(what was bought) 是我买的”.

I believe “他学中文。” wouldn't be unambiguous enough standing on its own, it would be clearer to say “他学习中文。”, which of course just describes a fact. Compared to this sentence, the sentence "他学的是中文。” may mesh with the context better. Perhaps it had previously been talked about what someone else was studying, so this expression would connect that with what he was studying.

Hope this helps,

Shun
 
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Hi Genad et al.,
I often hear people say 我说的是。。。, meaning more or less "What I mean by what I've just said is ..."; or to put it more simply, "What I mean is ...".
 
Thanks Shun & sobriaebritas. So if I understand correctly, it's not some grammar rule, but rather something that just sounds better, so to speak. Or something to convey a more nuanced meaning. Correct?
 

Shun

状元
You're welcome. Yes, it's certainly more economical. From what I've heard, languages usually strive for economy, i.e. using as few words as possible while remaining unambiguous.
 
Hi Genady, hi Shun,
I've just asked a native speaker about the difference between “他学习中文。” and “他学中文。”. She said they both mean the same, but that in a conversation “他学中文。” is more likely. I tend to think that, besides being more economical, the use of 4 syllables instead of 5 matches the rhythm of Chinese speech very well.
 

Shun

状元
Yeah, I agree, “他学中文。” is perfectly sufficient in an informal setting, since there also aren't that many other activities one can do with 中文, so there isn't much ambiguity. :)

I agree, four-character expressions or sentences sound very balanced. You can split them in half, so they have a two-character beginning and a two-character ending.
 
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