Chinese (Mandarin) - Good Ole 好 (hăo)
The hanzi 好 (hăo) has many uses. The most easy is meaning the adjective "good". But 好 (hăo) also has other less-known grammatical functions.好 can be used to answer the question "Have you finished?" or express an action being completed. You probably noticed me sticking in (full) to help get the idea of 好 across. What's tricky with defining 好 as "fully" is that we don't always use a word like "full" to express a completion of an action. It's often buried within our understanding of the word, and goes along with our perfect tenses. So it shouldn't be surprising that 好 is often used with verbs that imply some kind of progress being made, like "做" (zuò- to do), "准备” (zhŭnbèi- to prepare), "写" (xiĕ- to write) and "想" (xiăng- to think).
| 好 (hăo) in verbs showing progress and completion |
|---|
| 做好 zuòhǎo |
| to (finish) doing |
| 准备好 zhǔnbèi hǎo |
| to (finish/fully) preparing |
| 写好 xiĕhǎo |
| to (finish/fully) writing |
| 想好 xiănghǎo |
| to (finish/fully) thinking |
Take a look at how it works in some sentences.
| 好 (hăo) as an adverb showing progress in sentences |
|---|
| 准备好了吗？ zhǔnbèi hǎo le ma |
| Are you ready? Are you prepared? |
| 请提前作好准备 qǐng tíqián zuòhǎo zhǔnbèi |
| Please make preparations ahead of time/Please prepare/Please get ready |
| 他今天上午办好了那件事儿 tā jīntiān shàngwǔ bànhǎo le nèi jiàn shìr |
| He took (full) care of it that matter this morning. |
| 她想好了一个办法 tā xiǎnghǎo le yígè bànfǎ |
| She (fully) thought up a method/way to do it. |
| 那个顾客已经付好了 nèigè gùkè yǐjīng fùhǎo le |
| That customer already paid.. |
| 你写好了你的文章吗? nǐ xiěhǎo le nǐ de wénzhāng ma |
| Have you finished writing your article? |
好 can sometimes also be used to mean "really" or "pretty" as an adverb, interchangeably with other adverbs like "很" (hĕn) meaning "very" or 真 (zhēn) meaning "really". It seems to fit nicely wherever we would use "really" or "pretty", and seems to be used a lot in complimenting people.
| 好 (hăo) used like 很(hĕn) or 真(zhēn) |
|---|
| 那个网址的资料好多 nèigè wǎngzhǐ de zīliào hǎo duō |
| There is a lot of content on that site |
| 我好想念大学的时候 wǒ hǎo xiǎngniàn dàxué de shíhou |
| I really miss my college days |
| 你好厉害呀 nǐ hǎo lìhài ya |
| You're pretty fierce/You're pretty awesome |
| 我们的老板好聪明呀 wǒmen de lǎobǎn hǎo cōngmíng ya |
| Our boss is pretty smart |
| 好奇怪呀 hǎo qíguài ya |
| Really strange! Pretty weird! |
| 她好漂亮！ tā hǎo piàoliang |
| She's real pretty! / She's very pretty! |
| 我好困了吧 wǒ hǎo kùn le ba |
| I'm really sleepy! |
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