Breakdown of zhè gè fángjiān dǎsǎo qǐlái bù tài róngyì.
Used when counting nouns or when specifying a specific instance of a noun.
There are also classifiers for people, for bound items such as books and magazines, for cups/glasses, etc.
The classifier 个 is a general one that can be used for any of these.
Questions & Answers about zhè gè fángjiān dǎsǎo qǐlái bù tài róngyì.
起来 has several uses. Here it is not “to get up / stand up”.
In 打扫起来不太容易, 起来 is a verbal complement that means something like:
- “when you (actually) start to do it, it turns out that…”
- “speaking of doing it, it is …”
So 打扫起来不太容易 ≈ “(When you) clean it, it’s not very easy / it’s not easy to clean (once you try).”
Other similar uses:
- 说起来很简单 – “(When you) talk about it, it’s very simple.”
- 用起来不错 – “(When you) use it, it’s pretty good.”
- 吃起来很香 – “(When you) eat it, it tastes great.”
So here 起来 helps shift the meaning from the action itself to how the action feels / what it’s like to do it.
Chinese often uses a topic–comment structure:
- Topic: what we are talking about
- Comment: what we say about that topic
Here:
- Topic: 这(个)房间 – “this room”
- Comment: 打扫起来不太容易 – “cleaning (it) is not very easy”
So the sentence literally feels like:
“As for this room, cleaning (it), once you get into it, is not very easy.”
In English we’d usually say:
“This room is not very easy to clean.”
But in Chinese, moving the “object” (房间) to the front as a topic is very natural.
Yes, 这 (this) and 个 (a / one, classifier) are separate words, and they form a pattern:
这 + 个 + noun → 这个房间 – “this room”
- 这: a demonstrative (“this”)
- 个: a measure word / classifier
- 房间: noun (“room”)
Chinese normally needs a measure word between a demonstrative and a noun:
- 这本书 – this book
- 那辆车 – that car
- 这条路 – this road
So 这 个 房间 is just 这个房间 written with spaces between characters. They are read as zhè ge fángjiān.
There are two possibilities:
- 这间房间 – “this room” (using the specific classifier for rooms)
- 这个房间 – “this room” (using the very general classifier 个)
间 is indeed the “proper” classifier for rooms, houses, etc.
But 个 is a very common, generic classifier that can replace many specific ones in casual spoken Chinese.
So:
- 这间房间打扫起来不太容易 – a bit more “correct” / precise.
- 这个房间打扫起来不太容易 – totally natural, especially in speech.
Both are acceptable in everyday use.
Yes, 这房间打扫起来不太容易 is colloquial but fairly common, especially in northern speech and informal contexts.
However:
- In textbooks and formal writing, you’ll almost always see 这间房间 or 这个房间.
- As a learner, it’s safer (and more standard) to keep the measure word:
- 这个房间打扫起来不太容易
- or 这间房间打扫起来不太容易.
From an English perspective, 房间 feels like the object of “to clean the room”.
But in the Chinese sentence 这(个)房间打扫起来不太容易, it is functioning as the topic / subject of the whole clause:
- Topic / subject: 这(个)房间 – this room
- Predicate: 打扫起来不太容易 – (its) cleaning is not very easy
You could roughly “rephrase” it in a more English-like structure as:
打扫这个房间不太容易。
“Cleaning this room is not very easy.”
Here 这个房间 is clearly the object of 打扫, but the meaning is the same.
So: grammatically, 房间 is part of a topic in the original sentence.
Chinese predicates don’t always need 是 the way English uses “to be”.
Here:
- 打扫起来不太容易 itself acts as the predicate:
- “(to) clean (it) is not very easy.”
So 这(个)房间打扫起来不太容易 is completely complete and natural.
You can say:
- 这个房间是不太容易打扫的。
- 这个房间是打扫起来不太容易的。
These versions:
- Sound a bit more emphatic, like “This room is (indeed) not very easy to clean.”
- Often appear when you are contrasting with something else:
- 这个房间是打扫起来不太容易的，旁边那个就容易多了。
“This room is not very easy to clean; the one next to it is much easier.”
- 这个房间是打扫起来不太容易的，旁边那个就容易多了。
不太 + adjective literally means “not too / not very + adjective”, but in real usage:
- It usually gives a mild, softened negative:
- 不太容易 = “not very easy”, “a bit difficult / kind of hard”
- It’s less strong than 很难 (“very difficult”), and also more polite / less blunt.
So nuance-wise:
- 容易 – easy
- 不容易 – not easy (neutral to fairly strong)
- 不太容易 – not very easy (mild)
- 很难 – very difficult
In speech, 不太容易 often implies some difficulty, but not a huge, dramatic one.
In positive sentences, 太 + adj usually means “too / excessively”:
- 太贵了 – too expensive
- 太难了 – too hard
But in negative sentences like 不太 + adj, it usually softens to “very / very much” in meaning:
- 不太贵 – not very expensive / not too expensive
- 不太难 – not very hard / not too hard
- 不太容易 – not very easy
So in 不太容易, 太 doesn’t really carry a strong “excessive” meaning; the phrase as a whole just means “not very easy”.
Yes, you can:
- 这个房间不太容易打扫。
Meaning-wise, it’s almost the same: “This room is not very easy to clean.”
Nuance:
- 打扫起来不太容易 – slightly more about how it feels when you actually clean it, the experience/process.
- 不太容易打扫 – more neutral: “not easy to clean”, without emphasizing the “when you do it” feel as strongly.
Both are very natural. Native speakers use both patterns.
打扫起来不太容易:
- Literally: “When you clean it, it’s not very easy.”
- Tone: softer, more conversational, less blunt.
- Often used in “polite complaint” or mild description.
很难打扫:
- Literally: “Very hard to clean.”
- Tone: stronger, more direct.
So:
- 这个房间打扫起来不太容易。
– “This room is not very easy to clean.” (mild) - 这个房间很难打扫。
– “This room is very hard to clean.” (sounds stronger / more negative).
Yes. This “evaluation / experience” use of 起来 is common with many verbs, especially ones about perception, use, or experience:
- 看起来很大。 – It looks big.
- 吃起来很甜。 – It tastes sweet.
- 摸起来很软。 – It feels soft to the touch.
- 用起来挺方便。 – It’s quite convenient to use.
- 说起来很复杂。 – It’s very complicated to explain / talk about.
In all these, V + 起来 + adj means roughly:
“When you V it, it seems / feels / is (adj).”
So 打扫起来不太容易 fits this same pattern.