Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǎnfàn hòu wǒ hé māma qù gōngyuán sànbù, juéde zhèyàng shēnghuó hěn shūfu. - After dinner my mom and I go for a walk in the park and feel that life like this is very comfortable.

晚饭后 – slightly more concise and neutral; often sounds a bit more written or compact.
晚饭以后 – can sound a bit more like “after dinner (from that point onward)”, sometimes with a more “open-ended future” feel, depending on context.

In this sentence, 晚饭后 and 晚饭以后 are interchangeable; the meaning would not really change for learners.

Why does the sentence start with 晚饭后 instead of saying 我在晚饭后...?

Chinese commonly puts time expressions at the beginning of the sentence:

晚饭后我和妈妈去公园散步。
= After dinner, my mom and I go to the park for a walk.

Adding 在 is optional and often unnecessary:

我在晚饭后和妈妈去公园散步。 – grammatically OK, but sounds heavier and more formal.

The natural pattern is:

[Time] + [Subject] + [Other parts of the sentence]

So 晚饭后我和妈妈... is the most natural word order.

Why is it 我和妈妈 and not 我和我的妈妈? Is the possessive 我的 optional?

Yes, with close family members, the possessive 我(的) is often omitted:

我和妈妈 – literally “I and mom”, but understood as “my mom and I”.
我和我妈妈 / 我和我的妈妈 – also correct, but they add emphasis: “my mom (not somebody else’s) and I.”

In everyday speech, 我和妈妈 is the default, natural choice when it’s clear we are talking about my mother.

Can I use 跟 instead of 和 here? Any difference?

You can. Both are fine:

我和妈妈去公园散步。
我跟妈妈去公园散步。

Nuance:

和 – neutral, slightly more formal or written; also used to link nouns: 我和妈妈, 书和笔.
跟 – very common in spoken Chinese, often carries a “with” feeling: 我跟妈妈去 ≈ “I go with my mom”.

In this sentence, 我和妈妈 and 我跟妈妈 are both natural.

How does 去公园散步 work grammatically? Why are there two verbs 去 and 散步 together?

Chinese often uses verb chains (serial verbs) without extra words like “to”:

去 (go) – movement verb
公园 – place
散步 (to take a walk) – action/purpose

So 去公园散步 = “go to the park (in order) to take a walk”.

Structure:

去 + [place] + [do something]
去公园散步 – go to the park to walk
去商店买东西 – go to the store to buy things
去朋友家吃饭 – go to a friend’s house to eat

Could I say 在公园散步 instead of 去公园散步? What changes?

Yes, but it slightly changes the focus.

去公园散步 – emphasizes going to the park to walk (includes the idea of movement from home to the park).
在公园散步 – emphasizes the location where you walk: “take a walk in the park”.

In this sentence:

晚饭后我和妈妈去公园散步 – “After dinner, my mom and I go to the park for a walk” (movement + activity).
晚饭后我和妈妈在公园散步 – “After dinner, my mom and I take a walk in the park” (activity at that location).

Both are natural; the first one matches the typical English wording better.

Why is there no subject before 觉得? Should it be 我觉得?

The subject is understood from context, so it can be dropped.

Full version could be:

晚饭后我和妈妈去公园散步，(我)觉得这样生活很舒服。

Chinese often omits pronouns like 我 / 他 / 她 / 我们 if it’s clear who you’re talking about. Here, it is obvious that the speaker (and possibly also the mom) is the one who feels this, so 觉得 is fine without an explicit 我.

You can say 我觉得这样生活很舒服, but it sounds a bit more “spelled out”. The original is natural and fluent.

In 觉得这样生活很舒服, what exactly does 这样 modify? Should it be 这样的生活 instead?

Here:

这样 (zhèyàng) = “like this / in this way”.

Two patterns:

这样 + verb → “do [verb] like this / in this way”
- 这样生活 – “to live like this / to live in this way”
这样的 + noun → “this kind of [noun]”
- 这样的生活 – “this kind of life”

In the sentence:

觉得这样生活很舒服 ≈ “(I) feel that living like this is very comfortable.”
- 这样 is modifying 生活 as a way of living (verb-like).

If you say:

觉得这样的生活很舒服 – “(I) feel that this kind of life is very comfortable.”

Both are correct; the original focuses slightly more on the way of living, while 这样的生活 focuses on the type of life. The meaning overlap is big in practice.

What does 生活 mean here? Is it a noun “life” or a verb “to live”?

生活 (shēnghuó) can be both:

Verb: 生活 – to live
- 在北京生活 – live in Beijing
Noun: 生活 – life / one’s daily life
- 生活很好 – life is good

In 这样生活很舒服:

这样生活 is essentially “living like this” (verb phrase used as the subject).
The whole clause 这样生活很舒服 = “living like this is comfortable”.

So 生活 keeps its “to live / way of living” sense, but the entire verb phrase is acting like a “thing” being described as 很舒服.

Why do we need 很 before 舒服? Does it always mean “very”?

In sentences like X 很 + adjective, 很 has two roles:

Degree adverb – “very / quite / really”
Linker – it often works as a neutral link between a subject and an adjective, even when we don’t want to stress “very”.

Chinese usually doesn’t say:

生活舒服。

as a neutral, standalone statement. It sounds like a contrast (e.g. “Life is comfortable (not uncomfortable)”) or a bit abrupt. To make a simple descriptive statement, native speakers almost always add something like:

很 / 真 / 挺 / 非常 + adjective

So 生活很舒服 is best translated according to context:

Often just “life is comfortable” (no strong “very” feeling).
If the speaker is emotional or emphasizing, it can be “life is very comfortable”.

The English “very” is not always a perfect match; think of 很 here as “smoothly connecting” the subject and the adjective.

Would 生活舒服 without 很 be wrong?

Not strictly wrong, but:

As a full, neutral sentence describing a state, 生活舒服 is unusual and usually sounds:
- Contrastive: “Life is comfortable (as opposed to not comfortable).”
- Or incomplete / abrupt, like a note, not a natural spoken sentence.

Native speakers nearly always insert a degree word:

生活很舒服。
生活真舒服。
生活挺舒服的。

So for normal speech and writing, include 很 (or another degree word) before 舒服.

Is 晚饭 the same as 晚餐? Which is more common?

Both mean “dinner / evening meal”.

晚饭 – very common, everyday, colloquial.
晚餐 – slightly more formal or used in written language, menus, ads:
- 自助晚餐 – buffet dinner
- 商务晚餐 – business dinner

In daily conversation, people usually say:

吃晚饭了吗？ – Have you eaten dinner?

Using 晚饭 in this sentence is natural and typical.

Why is there no measure word with 晚饭? Should it be 一顿晚饭?

Measure words are needed when you count something.

晚饭 alone just means “dinner” in general (the meal), so no measure word is needed.
If you want to count dinners, you use 顿 (dùn), the measure word for meals:
- 一顿晚饭 – one dinner
- 吃了两顿饭 – ate two meals

In 晚饭后我和妈妈去公园散步, we are not counting dinners; we are just talking about “after dinner” in general, so 晚饭后 is perfectly correct without a measure word.

Should there be a 了 to show past tense, like 去了公园散步 or at the end of the sentence?

Not necessarily. Chinese doesn’t mark tense the same way English does.

晚饭后我和妈妈去公园散步 can describe:
- a habit: “After dinner, my mom and I (usually) go to the park for a walk.”
- or a specific past event, if the context is clearly past.

If you want to clearly mark a completed event, you can add 了:

晚饭后我和妈妈去了公园散步。
Or: 晚饭后我和妈妈去公园散步了。

These versions highlight that this happened (was completed).
The original sentence is more neutral and can easily be understood as a habitual action, which fits well with the idea of “living like this” being comfortable.