Learn Hardcore Chinese: dōngtiān zài ānjìng de fángjiān lǐ hē rè chá, tīng yīnyuè, ràng rén juéde hěn wēnnuǎn. - In winter, drinking hot tea and listening to music in a quiet room makes people feel very warm.

You can say 在冬天, but for general “in winter / in summer / on Monday” etc., native speakers usually just put the time word directly in front of the rest of the sentence. A more explicit and common alternative is:

冬天的时候，在安静的房间里喝热茶、听音乐…

Is there a fixed word order for time and place phrases, like 冬天在安静的房间里?

Yes. A very common pattern is:

[Time] + [Place] + [Verb …]

So here:

冬天 (time)
在安静的房间里 (place)
喝热茶、听音乐 (actions)

Reordering it to something like 在安静的房间里冬天喝热茶… sounds unnatural. Put the time expression before the place expression in most cases.

Why do we need both 在 and 里 in 在安静的房间里? Could we drop one of them?

在 marks location (“at / in / on”), and 里 means “inside”. Together:

在房间里 = in(side) the room

Variations:

在安静的房间里喝热茶 – very natural and clear.
在安静的房间喝热茶 – also OK; 里 is optional here.
安静的房间里喝热茶 – you can drop 在 in many everyday sentences; the location phrase right before the verb still works.

So the given form 在安静的房间里 is a very typical, slightly fuller way to say “in a quiet room (inside it)”.

What is the function of 的 in 安静的房间?

的 links modifiers to nouns. Here 安静 (quiet) is describing 房间 (room), so we use:

安静的房间 = “quiet room”

General pattern:

[adjective / phrase] + 的 + noun

Examples:

漂亮的老师 – pretty teacher
中国的音乐 – Chinese music

Sometimes 的 is dropped with very close adjective–noun pairs (like 大学老师, 老朋友), but with a normal descriptive adjective like 安静, you keep 的.

Why is there just a comma between 喝热茶 and 听音乐, and not 和 (and)?

Chinese often links actions with a comma instead of using 和:

喝热茶、听音乐 = “drink hot tea, listen to music”

You can say:

喝热茶和听音乐 – this is grammatically fine, but it slightly emphasizes listing two separate activities.

With a comma, it feels more like a smooth sequence / combination of actions. When linking nouns rather than verbs, 和 is more common, e.g. 茶和咖啡 (tea and coffee).

How does the structure 让人觉得很温暖 work exactly?

Breakdown:

让 – to let / make / cause
人 – people (generic “one / people”)
觉得 – to feel / to think (subjective feeling)
很温暖 – (feel) warm

So 让人觉得很温暖 literally = “makes people feel very warm.”

Common pattern:

让 + [person] + 觉得 / 感到 + [adj / phrase]

Examples:

这首歌让他觉得很放松。 – This song makes him feel very relaxed.
你的话让我很感动。 – What you said really moves me.

Why is it 让人觉得很温暖 and not just 让人很温暖?

Both can be used, but the nuance is different:

让人觉得很温暖
– Focuses on the subjective feeling (“makes people feel warm”).
– Very common when talking about emotional or inner feelings.
让人很温暖
– Grammatically OK, but sounds slightly less natural here.
– More often used when “warm” is treated like a direct resulting state.

Using 觉得 (or 感到) makes it clearly about someone’s perception / emotion, which fits this sentence well.

Why is 人 used here? Does it mean “a person” or “people in general”?

In this kind of sentence, 人 is generic:

让人觉得很温暖 ≈ “it makes people feel warm” / “it makes one feel warm”.

If you want to say “me” specifically, you can replace it:

让我觉得很温暖。 – It makes me feel warm.
让大家觉得很温暖。 – It makes everyone feel warm.

So here 人 = “people in general; one; anyone”.

Does 很 here really mean “very”? Could we just say 觉得温暖?

In modern spoken Chinese, 很 before an adjective in this kind of sentence often behaves like a neutral linker, not a strong “very”:

觉得很温暖 ≈ “feels warm” (not necessarily “very very warm”).

If you say 觉得温暖 without 很, it is grammatically OK but can sound a bit bare or like a contrast (“not cold but warm”), or more written/formal.

So 很 is often added to make the adjective sound natural and smooth in a predicate:
很高, 很累, 很安静, 很温暖, etc.

What is the difference between 温暖 (wēnnuǎn) and words like 热 (rè) or 暖和 (nuǎnhuo)?

热 – hot (often physically; temperature is high)
- 今天很热。 – It’s hot today.
暖和 – warm (mainly physical warmth; quite colloquial)
- 房间里很暖和。 – It’s warm in the room.
温暖 – warm, but often with a soft / cozy / emotional feel. It can be physical or emotional:
- 阳光很温暖。 – The sunlight is warm (and pleasant).
- 你的话让我觉得很温暖。 – Your words make me feel warm inside.

In this sentence, 温暖 suggests both physical coziness and emotional comfort.

Why isn’t there a measure word with 茶? Should it be 一杯热茶?

You add a measure word when you want to specify how much:

喝一杯热茶 – drink a cup of hot tea
喝一口茶 – take a sip of tea

But when you talk about the activity in general, without focusing on amount, you can just say:

喝茶 – drink tea
喝热茶 – drink hot tea

In this sentence, the focus is on the kind of activity, not on the quantity, so no measure word is needed.

How would I say more explicitly “drinking hot tea while listening to music”?

Chinese often marks simultaneous actions with 一边…一边… or with 着:

冬天在安静的房间里一边喝热茶，一边听音乐，让人觉得很温暖。
– In winter, drinking hot tea while listening to music in a quiet room makes people feel warm.
冬天在安静的房间里喝着热茶，听着音乐，让人觉得很温暖。
– In winter, (while) drinking hot tea and listening to music in a quiet room…

In the original sentence, even without 一边, native speakers naturally understand the two actions as happening together.