If one Chinese melody has travelled the world, it is this one. 茉莉花 (mòlìhuā, "Jasmine Flower") is a traditional folk song from the Jiangnan region south of the Yangtze, first written down in the eighteenth century and sung everywhere since — Puccini borrowed it for Turandot, and it opened the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Its charm is that the grammar is almost entirely HSK 2–3: short phrases, everyday words, and a few gentle poetic touches. This page reads the famous opening quatrain line by line and shows how a handful of very ordinary structures — an exclamation, a measure word, the linker 的, a parallel pair, and a reduplication — carry the whole tune.
The song
好一朵美丽的茉莉花，
hǎo yì duǒ měilì de mòlìhuā,
What a beautiful jasmine flower —
好一朵美丽的茉莉花，
hǎo yì duǒ měilì de mòlìhuā,
what a beautiful jasmine flower;
芬芳美丽满枝桠，
fēnfāng měilì mǎn zhīyā,
fragrant and lovely, filling the branches,
又香又白人人夸。
yòu xiāng yòu bái rénrén kuā.
both fragrant and white, praised by all.
Reading the lines
The first two lines are the same, sung twice — folk songs lean on repetition, and here the doubling is pure delight, as if the singer can't get over how lovely the flower is. Line 1 is one long noun phrase wrapped in an exclamation: 好 ("how…!") + 一朵 ("one [flower]") + 美丽的 ("beautiful") + 茉莉花 ("jasmine"). Notice there is no verb at all — the line simply presents the flower and marvels at it. Line 3 adds two more praises, 芬芳 ("fragrant") and 美丽 ("lovely"), then the verb 满 ("fill, cover") — the blossoms fill the branches. Line 4 delivers the payoff with two parallel pairs: 又香又白 ("both fragrant and white") and 人人夸 ("everyone praises it").
Grammar in this text
好一朵… — the exclamatory "what a…!"
The song opens on 好 used not as "good" but as an exclamatory intensifier: 好一朵美丽的茉莉花 = "What a beautiful jasmine flower!" This 好 sits in front of a whole noun phrase (好 + number-measure-word + adjective + noun) and turns a plain description into an outburst of admiration — the same job English does with "what a…!" It's a set poetic-colloquial frame; you meet the fuller family of these on exclamatory sentences.
好一个热闹的夜晚！
hǎo yí ge rènao de yèwǎn!
What a lively evening! (the same 好 + 一 + measure word frame, in everyday speech)
朵 — the measure word for flowers
You can never say "a flower" in Chinese with just 一 + 花. Every counted noun needs a measure word, and blossoms take 朵 (duǒ): 一朵花 ("one flower"), 一朵茉莉花 ("one jasmine flower"), 三朵玫瑰 ("three roses"). Here 一朵 slots between 好 and the noun phrase. Note the tone: 一 is normally yī, but before the third-tone 朵 it shifts to yì by the 一 sandhi rule. If you're unsure which measure word a noun takes, start with the measure-word chooser.
他送了我一朵红玫瑰。
tā sòng le wǒ yì duǒ hóng méigui.
He gave me a red rose. (朵 counts the flower)
美丽的茉莉花 — the attributive linker 的
美丽 ("beautiful") describes 茉莉花 ("jasmine"), and the two are joined by 的 — the all-purpose attributive particle that links a modifier to the noun it describes, exactly where English would just put the adjective in front: 美丽的茉莉花 = "beautiful jasmine." Two-syllable adjectives like 美丽 almost always take 的; only short, one-syllable adjectives can drop it. The full pattern lives on the attributive 的 page.
这是一首好听的老歌。
zhè shì yì shǒu hǎotīng de lǎo gē.
This is a lovely old song. (好听的 links the adjective to 歌 with 的)
又香又白 — the parallel 又…又…
Line 4 opens with the workhorse pattern 又…又… ("both… and…"), stacking two qualities that are true at the same time: 又香又白 = "both fragrant and white." Each 又 is followed by a single adjective, and the pair feels balanced and rhythmic — which is why songs and set phrases love it. See the full treatment on 又…又… "both… and…".
这个西瓜又甜又便宜。
zhège xīguā yòu tián yòu piányi.
This watermelon is both sweet and cheap. (又…又… links two qualities)
人人夸 — reduplicating 人 into "everyone"
The song ends on 人人 — the noun 人 ("person") doubled to mean "everyone, every single person." Reduplicating a measure-word-like noun this way gives a sweeping "each and all" sense, close to 每个人 ("every person") but tighter and more lyrical. You'll meet the same idea in 天天 ("every day"), 年年 ("every year"), 家家 ("every household"). It belongs to the family of "every / each" expressions covered on 每 "every". Here 人人 is the subject of 夸 ("to praise"): everyone praises the jasmine.
天天锻炼，身体才会好。
tiāntiān duànliàn, shēntǐ cái huì hǎo.
Only by exercising every single day will you be healthy. (天天 is 天 reduplicated, 'every day')
Vocabulary
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 好 | hǎo | how…!, what a…! (here an exclamatory intensifier) |
| 一朵 | yì duǒ | one [flower] (朵 = measure word for blossoms) |
| 美丽 | měilì | beautiful (two-syllable, literary-leaning) |
| 的 | de | attributive linker (modifier → noun) |
| 茉莉花 | mòlìhuā | jasmine flower |
| 芬芳 | fēnfāng | fragrant (literary; everyday 香) |
| 满 | mǎn | to fill, be full of; cover |
| 枝桠 | zhīyā | branches, twigs (literary; everyday 树枝) |
| 又…又… | yòu… yòu… | both… and… (parallel qualities) |
| 香 | xiāng | fragrant, sweet-smelling |
| 白 | bái | white |
| 人人 | rénrén | everyone (人 reduplicated) |
| 夸 | kuā | to praise |
Key Takeaways
- 好一朵… is the exclamatory "what a…!" — 好 fronts a whole noun phrase to voice admiration, with no verb needed.
- 朵 is the measure word for flowers; you can't count blossoms without it (一朵花), and 一 sandhis to yì before it.
- 美丽的茉莉花 shows the attributive linker 的 joining a two-syllable adjective to its noun.
- 又香又白 is the balanced 又…又… ("both… and…") pattern that songs and set phrases love.
- 人人 is 人 reduplicated into "everyone," the same trick as 天天 ("every day") and 年年 ("every year").
- 芬芳 and 枝桠 are literary word choices; conversation would use 香 and 树枝. Lyrics reach for the prettier synonym.
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Start learning Chinese→Related Topics
- Attributive Adjectives with 的HSK 1 — To put an adjective in front of a noun, Chinese links the two with 的: 漂亮的花 'a pretty flower', 红色的车 'a red car', 很好的朋友 'a good friend'. 的 is the adjective-to-noun glue, and a modified adjective almost always requires it.
- 又…又… (Both…And…)HSK 3 — 又…又… (yòu…yòu) links two qualities or abilities that hold of ONE subject at once: 又便宜又好吃 'both cheap and tasty'. A key rule — no 很 with the adjectives, and use 一边…一边 for simultaneous actions.
- Poem: 春晓 (Meng Haoran)HSK 3 — Meng Haoran's Tang quatrain 春晓 'Spring Dawn', read line by line — the literary monosyllables 眠 (sleep) and 闻 (hear) that survive in 睡眠 and 新闻, the reduplication 处处 'everywhere', verbless noun-strings, and the wistful rhetorical 知多少 'who knows how many'.