Learn Hardcore Chinese: Wǒ māma hěn guānxīn wǒ de jiànkāng.

The first 我 in 我妈妈 means “my” (as part of “my mom”), functioning like a possessor.
The second 我 in 我的健康 also means “my”, this time in “my health.”

So literally the structure is:
我妈妈很关心我的健康
“My mom very cares about my health.”

Chinese often repeats pronouns where English might drop one. In English you’d naturally say just “My mom cares about my health,” and you don’t think about how many “my” there are. Chinese just expresses each “my” explicitly with 我 (plus 的).

Can I drop the first 我 and just say 妈妈很关心我的健康?

Yes, you can. 妈妈很关心我的健康 is completely natural and very common in context.

妈妈很关心我的健康。 – “Mom really cares about my health.”

Without extra context, 妈妈 is usually understood as “my mom” in conversation, because people normally talk about their own mother unless they specify otherwise.

So:

我妈妈很关心我的健康。 – Slightly more explicit: my mom.
妈妈很关心我的健康。 – Natural, slightly more intimate / conversational.

Both are correct; choose based on how explicit you want to be.

What’s the difference between 我妈妈 and 我的妈妈?

Both are grammatically correct, but they differ in naturalness and nuance:

我妈妈 is what people normally say in everyday speech.
我的妈妈 is also correct, but it can sound:
- more formal or “written,” or
- slightly emphatic, as in “my mother (as opposed to someone else’s).”

In Chinese, 的 is often dropped between a possessive pronoun and close family members or very close relationships:

我妈妈 / 我妈妈 (my mom)
我爸爸 (my dad)
我哥哥 (my older brother)

You can say 我的妈妈, but for ordinary “my mom,” 我妈妈 is more natural.

Why do we need 的 (de) in 我的健康? Could I say 我健康?

Here, 我的健康 means “my health”, with 的 marking possession:

我 – I / me
的 – possessive particle (roughly “’s”)
健康 – health

So 我的健康 = “my health.”

You cannot say 关心我健康 in standard modern Mandarin. When a pronoun (like 我, 你, 他) directly modifies a noun (like 健康), you almost always need 的:

✅ 我的健康 – my health
✅ 你的车 – your car
✅ 他的工作 – his job

Without 的, 我健康 is parsed as “I am healthy”, with 我 as the subject and 健康 as an adjective predicate, not as a noun phrase “my health.”

Does 很 (hěn) really mean “very” here, or is it just a linking word?

In 我妈妈很关心我的健康, 很 does both jobs:

It works like a degree adverb:
- 很关心 – “cares a lot / really cares”
It also functions like a natural “filler” before a stative verb / adjective, which Chinese often wants:

With simple adjectives like 高, 漂亮, 忙, etc., Chinese usually needs a degree word:
- 他很高。 – He is tall.
- 她很忙。 – She is busy.

Here, 关心 is a verb that already expresses a “state/attitude,” and 很关心 is perfectly natural.

You can say:

我妈妈关心我的健康。 – Grammatically fine, more neutral: “My mom cares about my health.”
我妈妈很关心我的健康。 – Adds emphasis: “My mom really cares about my health.”

So yes, 很 does add meaning here; it’s not just a meaningless copula.

Is 关心 (guānxīn) a verb or an adjective? How does it function in this sentence?

关心 is primarily a verb, meaning “to care about; to be concerned about.”

In this sentence:

我妈妈 – subject: my mom
很关心 – verb phrase: really cares about
我的健康 – object: my health

So the core structure is [subject] + 关心 + [object].

You’ll also see 关心 used as:

A noun in some contexts:
- 感谢你的关心。 – Thank you for your concern.
In structures with 对:
- 她对我很关心。 – She is very caring/concerned toward me.

But in 我妈妈很关心我的健康, it’s clearly a verb (“cares about”).

Is there a difference between 关心, 爱, 在乎, and 担心? Why use 关心 here?

They all relate to positive feelings or concern, but they’re not interchangeable:

关心 – to care about, to be concerned about
- Often about paying attention to someone’s situation, needs, or well‑being.
- 我妈妈很关心我的健康。 – She cares about / pays attention to my health.
爱 (ài) – to love
- Strong, direct emotion.
- 我妈妈很爱我。 – My mom loves me.
在乎 (zàihu) – to mind, to care about (often used in casual speech, sometimes about opinions, reputation, etc.)
- 他很在乎别人的看法。 – He really cares what others think.
担心 (dānxīn) – to worry
- Emphasizes worry or anxiety, not just caring.
- 我妈妈很担心我的健康。 – My mom is very worried about my health.

In your sentence, 关心 is appropriate because the focus is on ongoing care and attention, not just love in general, not casual “caring about,” and not specifically anxiety or worry.

Can I say 我妈妈对我的健康很关心? How is that different from the original sentence?

Yes, you can say 我妈妈对我的健康很关心, and it is grammatically correct.

Comparison:

我妈妈很关心我的健康。
- More natural, everyday phrasing.
- Structure: subject + 很关心 + object.
我妈妈对我的健康很关心。
- Slightly more formal / written or explanatory in tone.
- Structure: subject + 对 + [topic] + 很关心
- Literally: “My mom, toward my health, is very concerned.”

They mean almost the same thing. In normal spoken Chinese, 我妈妈很关心我的健康 feels more direct and natural. The 对…很关心 pattern is often used when you want to highlight the scope or topic of the concern (health, study, work, etc.) more explicitly.

How would I say “My mom has always cared about my health” or “used to care” in Chinese? There’s no tense here.

Chinese doesn’t mark tense the way English does. 我妈妈很关心我的健康。 by itself is time‑neutral; context gives you the time.

To be more explicit, you can add time expressions:

一直 – all along / always
- 我妈妈一直很关心我的健康。
  – My mom has always cared about my health.
过去 – in the past
- 过去我妈妈很关心我的健康。
  – In the past, my mom cared a lot about my health.
以前 – before / previously
- 以前我妈妈很关心我的健康。
  – My mom used to care a lot about my health.

Chinese normally adds time words (一直, 以前, 过去, etc.) rather than changing the verb form.

What’s the difference between 关心我 and 关心我的健康?

关心我 – cares about me (as a person, overall)
- 我妈妈很关心我。 – My mom really cares about me.
关心我的健康 – cares specifically about my health
- 我妈妈很关心我的健康。 – My mom really cares about my health.

The second sentence narrows the focus: not just emotional care, but specifically attention to your health condition (diet, sleep, exercise, illness, etc.).

In meaning, 关心我 is broader and more general; 关心我的健康 is more specific.

Is 健康 (jiànkāng) a noun or an adjective here? Can it also mean “healthy”?

In 我的健康, 健康 is a noun: health.

我的健康 – my health

But 健康 can also be an adjective meaning “healthy”:

身体很健康。 – (The) body is healthy.
他很健康。 – He is healthy.

So:

As a noun: 健康 = health
- 关心我的健康 – care about my health
As an adjective: 健康 = healthy
- 我很健康。 – I am healthy.

The role (noun vs adjective) is decided by context and position in the sentence.

Why is the second 妈 in 妈妈 (māma) neutral tone? I see only one tone mark in māma.

In 妈妈, the second syllable ma is pronounced with a neutral tone:

妈 (mā) – first tone
妈 (ma) – neutral tone
Together: māma

Many kinship terms and common two‑syllable words have a full tone on the first syllable and a neutral tone on the second, making the word sound lighter, more natural, and more colloquial:

爸爸 (bàba) – dad
哥哥 (gēge) – older brother
妹妹 (mèimei) – younger sister

So māma (with the second syllable neutral) is the normal, natural pronunciation in standard Mandarin.