Showing possessoin (的)
I have noticed that in some sentences that are showing possession sometimes the character 的 is omitted but other times it is there. Can you please explain when it is necessary to show possession and when it isn't. Some sentences for example that I've seen are below:

我的朋友。
- This is an example of a time when I've seen it present.

他是我男朋友。
- Then I saw this sentence and it leaves out 的.

If you understand my question please help me out. Thanks!

Question

Showing possessoin (的)
I have noticed that in some sentences that are showing possession sometimes the character 的 is omitted but other times it is there.  Can you please explain when it is necessary to show possession and when it isn't. Some sentences for example that I've seen are below:

我的朋友。
- This is an example of a time when I've seen it present.

他是我男朋友。
- Then I saw this sentence and it leaves out 的.

If you understand my question please help me out.  Thanks!

Answer

Well formally 的 is always necessary.But colloquially sometimes we drop 的 out of laziness.It is a bit analogical to wanna,gonna in English,which isn't correct strictly speaking,but people say it all the time nonetheless .So when formally writing something it's better to put in 的 all the time.When speaking informally ,的 can be dropped (always droppable in all contexts).Hope this helps.

Answers · 2

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