Breakdown of Jīntiān xiàbān yǐhòu wǒ hěn lèi, zhǐ xiǎng huíjiā xiūxi.
Questions & Answers about Jīntiān xiàbān yǐhòu wǒ hěn lèi, zhǐ xiǎng huíjiā xiūxi.
In simple descriptive sentences, Mandarin usually puts 很 (hěn) before an adjective:
- 我很累。 = I’m (very) tired.
Here 很 often doesn’t strongly mean “very”; it’s acting like a neutral linker between 我 and 累.
- 我累。 is grammatically correct, but in many contexts it sounds:
- more emphatic (“I am tired!”), or
- like a contrast (“I’m tired, not something else”).
You can say 我累 in answers (e.g. after someone asks 你累不累?), or for strong emphasis, but the “default” neutral way is 我很累.
In Mandarin, adjectives often work like verbs (stative verbs). So:
- 我很累。 literally = “I very tired.” (no am needed)
Mandarin only uses 是 (shì) “to be” before nouns, not before adjectives:
- 我是老师。 = I am a teacher.
- 我很累。 (not 我是累)
So “I am tired” is simply 我很累, without an extra “to be” verb.
只 (zhǐ) means “only / just”.
- 我想回家休息。 = I want to go home and rest.
- 我只想回家休息。 = I only / just want to go home and rest (and nothing else).
In this sentence, 只 emphasizes that because you’re tired, your one and only desire is to go home and rest. It adds a slightly “please don’t ask me to do anything else” feeling, similar to English “I just want to go home and rest.”
想
- verb phrase = “want to / feel like doing”:
- 想回家休息 = want to go home and rest.
想要 is mostly used before nouns:
- 想要一杯咖啡 = (I) want a cup of coffee.
Using 想要 before another verb is possible in speech but usually sounds wordy or childish; 想 + verb is more natural here.
要 alone is stronger (“want / going to / must”) and often suggests intention or plan:
- 我要回家休息。 = I’m going to / I really want to go home and rest.
只要 usually means “as long as…” in patterns like 只要…就…:
- 只要回家休息，我就开心。 = As long as I can go home and rest, I’m happy.
So the natural choice for “only want to…” with another verb is 只想 + verb phrase, i.e. 只想回家休息.
回家 literally = “return home”. 回 already implies movement back to a place, and 家 is the destination. No extra preposition is needed.
In Chinese, possessive pronouns with close things (home, dad, mom, etc.) are often dropped when obvious:
- 回家 is normally understood as “go to my home”.
- 回我的家 is grammatically fine but sounds unusually heavy unless you need to contrast (“go back to my home, not someone else’s”).
回家里 is also possible and focuses on the inside of the home (“go back into the house”), but in everyday speech 回家 is the standard, natural form here.
The comma separates two related clauses:
- 今天下班以后我很累 = After work today, I’m very tired
- 只想回家休息 = (I) only want to go home and rest
Together: “After work today I was very tired, (so) I just wanted to go home and rest.”
Mandarin often leaves 因为/所以 (“because/so”) implicit and just uses a comma to show the logical connection. So the comma here is very close to English “so” in meaning, even though no word is written.
General rule: Subject + (time) + (place) + Verb…. With more than one time phrase, it often goes from bigger to smaller:
- 今天下班以后，我很累。
- 今天 (today – larger time frame)
- 下班以后 (after work – more specific)
Other acceptable orders:
- 下班以后，我今天很累。 (less common; extra emphasis on 今天 “today”)
- 我今天下班以后很累。 (also okay)
Usually you won’t put 今天 after the verb in this kind of sentence (我下班以后很累今天 is wrong). Time words normally go before the verb phrase, not at the very end.
Mandarin doesn’t have a strict past tense like English. 了 mainly marks completion or change of state, not “past” in general.
- 今天下班以后我很累 can mean:
- “After work today I’m very tired” (and I’m still feeling it now), or
- a neutral report about what happened earlier today.
If you add 了, the nuance changes:
- 今天下班以后我累了。
Emphasizes a change: “After I finished work, I became tired.”
If you want to talk about a future expectation:
- 今天下班以后我会很累。 = After work today I’ll be very tired.
So 了 isn’t required just because it’s “after work”. The original sentence is fine without it.
The full “logical” version is:
- 今天下班以后我很累，我只想回家休息。
But in Mandarin, when two clauses share the same subject, the subject of the second clause is often dropped if it’s obvious. So:
- 我很累，(我)只想回家休息。
Dropping the second 我 is very natural and doesn’t cause confusion.
If you say 我只想回家休息, that’s also correct; it just explicitly repeats the subject. The meaning difference is minimal in this sentence.
All three are commonly used and usually mean almost the same thing: “after getting off work”.
下班以后
Neutral, very common: “after work”.下了班以后
了 directly after 下 marks the action as completed: “after (I have) gotten off work”. Very similar in meaning; slightly more event-focused.下班了以后
了 after the verb-object unit 下班 emphasizes the new state “work is over”: “after work is (already) finished”.
In everyday conversation, you can generally treat them as interchangeable here.
In this sentence, 休息 (xiūxi) is a verb meaning “to rest / to take a rest”.
The structure is a serial verb construction:
- 回家 = go back home
- 休息 = (and) rest
So 回家休息 is like “go home and rest”. No object is needed because “rest” doesn’t normally take an object in this sense (same as English “I want to rest,” not “I want to rest something”).
休息 can also be a noun (“a rest”), but here it’s functioning as a verb.
Both are correct.
回家休息
Two verbs in sequence: “go back home and rest.” Very common and natural.回家去休息
去 adds a sense of direction / purpose: “go home to rest,” with a bit more focus on the movement towards the place where you will rest.
In most everyday contexts, they are very close in meaning, and 回家休息 is slightly simpler and more common.
Mandarin doesn’t mark tense the same way English does. Time is mostly understood from time words and context:
- 今天下班以后我很累，只想回家休息。
Depending on when you say it:
Said later that same day, it’s natural as a past/present description:
- “After work today I was really tired, I just wanted to go home and rest.”
Said earlier in the day, context could still allow a future-like reading, but it sounds more natural to add 会 for a clear future:
- 今天下班以后我会很累，只想回家休息。
“After work today I’ll be very tired; I’ll just want to go home and rest.”
- 今天下班以后我会很累，只想回家休息。
So the original sentence, as-is, most naturally describes how you felt after work (past/ongoing state), not a future prediction.