Right, so just to clear up a few things that are easily confused, here are a couple of things. 中文、漢語、國語、中國話 all mean "Chinese" in terms of the language 中國 means "China" as in the country or "Chinese" as an adjective. Here are a couple of things on the usage of "的“ When added to 我，他，她 etc, it changes "me" into "my", his into "her" etc., while for other things think of it like an 's in English. 我的筆 - my pen 她的手 - her hand 他的書 - his book 媽媽的臥室 - mum's bedroom When used for nouns, it works like this 中國的電腦 - Chinese computer 肯尼亞的蘋果 - Kenyan apple 日本的手機 - Japanese phone 澳大利亞的袋鼠 - Australian kangaroo The basic rules with 的 are 1 - if the relationship is obvious then you needn't include it (often used with relatives 親戚) 我的媽媽 is often written or said as 我媽媽 我的爸爸 is often written or said as 我爸爸 我的父母 is often written or said as 我父母 When there a lot of things in a stream, you might end up with a sentence like this 我的媽媽的朋友的朋友的狗的玩意兒的創造地的旁邊的工廠的機械 Which means my mum's friend's friend's dog's toy's made place‘s next door's factory's machinery --> The machinery in the factory which is next to the place in which my mum's friend's friend's dog's toy was made When you get something like this, all the 的s make it awkward to say, so 的 is used when the "category" changes. Eg My mother (human) and dog (animal) are in different categories, so a 的 should be used. At other times, in modern mandarin, the 的 is omitted and only used between the last two things - 我朋友的書 My friend's book 我媽媽的車 My mum's car 我爺爺的威士忌酒 My grandfather's whiskey (In older books, you will see 的 used more often, but nowadays that seems to be out of fashion) Other times, it's just a concept. 中國人 just means Chinese people, 中國菜 means Chinese food or a Chinese dish, but you would say 中國的美食 for Chinese cuisine. Your best bet is to just memorize the patterns. Laurence

Yup! Zhong guo de cai4 (China's food/ Chinese food.(lit: vegetables)..think dishes.) BUT sometimes no. Like Shan3 xi1 cai4 陝西菜 means Shanxi-nese food. But, Shan Xi de cai is also ok. Ok, sorry about this confusing explanation. So basically, adding 'de' should be correct everytime, although sometimes it feels like it means 'China's' instead of 'Chinese', if you get what I mean. But it's safe to use 'de' all the time. Just know that next time if you don't see the 'de' it may also be correct! Hope I helped :)

yeah, it is an adj. but sometimes "de" is redundent. You dont need say it for some words.

Hello, Alex, This is william from China Very pleased to answer your question You are right! Chinese is an adjective China is a noun So Chinese food is corret, which is " zhong guo de shi wu" in Chinese We can make a friend if you would like to . Thank you