A1
Adjectives are verbs, and take 很
Why Chinese adjectives need no verb at all, what 很 is really doing in 我很累, and why dropping it makes the sentence sound like the start of an argument.
A Chinese adjective is a verb. 累 does not mean tired, it means to be tired, and a sentence built on one needs nothing between the subject and the adjective.
我很累。
Wǒ hěn lèi.
I’m tired.
今天很冷。
Jīntiān hěn lěng.
It’s cold today.
這個菜很好吃。
Zhège cài hěn hǎochī.
This dish is delicious.
很 is not “very”
Every textbook glosses 很 as very, and then every sentence in the book has one in it, which should be the first clue. In this pattern 很 is nearly empty — a syllable that lets the adjective stand as a complete statement. 我很累 is I’m tired, not I’m very tired.
It carries its literal weight only when stressed in speech, which is not something the written sentence shows. For an unmistakable very, reach for a word that means it and cannot be misread:
今天非常冷。
Jīntiān fēicháng lěng.
It’s extremely cold today.
這個菜真好吃！
Zhège cài zhēn hǎochī!
This dish is really good!
Leaving 很 out changes the meaning
A bare adjective does not read as neutral. It reads as a comparison, with the other half left unsaid — the way English he’s tall and he IS tall land differently.
他高，我不高。
Tā gāo, wǒ bù gāo.
He’s tall; I’m not.
On its own, 我累 sounds like the first half of I’m tired — you’re not. That is occasionally what you want, and almost never what a beginner means, so the safe default is to include 很 and think of it as part of the pattern rather than as a word with a meaning.
我是累。
我很累。
是 links two nouns, and 累 is not a noun. This is the single most common sentence a beginner builds wrong, because English puts am in both I am a student and I am tired.
Negating
不 replaces 很 rather than joining it. Negatives do not need the filler, because 不 already gives the adjective something to lean on.
今天不冷。
Jīntiān bù lěng.
It isn’t cold today.
今天不很冷。
今天不太冷。
不很 is not how this is said. For not very, Chinese uses 不太 — literally not too — which is also gentler, and gentler is usually what is meant.