Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ zhù de chéngshì bù dà, dànshì hěn ānjìng yě hěn ānquán. - The city I live in isn’t big, but it’s very quiet and very safe.

Grammatically, 我住的 is a relative clause (“that I live in”) placed before the noun 城市 (“city”). The 的 marks the end of this descriptive clause and links it to the noun.

So:

我住的城市 = “the city where I live”
Literally: “I live de city” → “the city (that) I live (in)”

Could I say 我住在的城市 instead of 我住的城市? Is there any difference?

Both are possible, but there is a nuance:

我住的城市 – the normal, most common way to say “the city where I live”
我住在的城市 – also grammatical, but feels a bit more “spelled out” or sometimes slightly more formal/emphatic

In relative clauses with 住, Chinese often drops 在:

我住的地方 – “the place where I live” (very common)
我住在的地方 – also correct, but less common, slightly heavier

So:
For everyday speech and writing, 我住的城市 is the most natural choice here.

Why is there no 是 (“to be”) before 不大 or 很安静 or 很安全?

In Chinese, adjectives can directly function as predicates, so you usually don’t need 是 before them.

English: “My city is not big, but (it) is very quiet and (it) is very safe.”
Chinese: 我住的城市不大，但是很安静也很安全。

Here:

不大 – “not big”
很安静 – “very quiet”
很安全 – “very safe”

You cannot usually say:

✗ 城市是大 to mean “the city is big”
(You’d just say 城市很大.)

是 is used before nouns (“X is Y”), e.g.:

这里是北京。 – This is Beijing.

But for most “X is (adjective)” sentences, Chinese uses:

X + (degree word like 很) + adjective
with no 是.

Why do we use 不大 instead of 很小? Do they mean the same thing?

They’re similar but not identical in feel.

不大 (bù dà) – “not big”
Often implies: “on the small side / not very big, but maybe not tiny either.”
很小 (hěn xiǎo) – “very small”
Stronger, more direct emphasis on small size.

In this sentence:

我住的城市不大，但是很安静也很安全。
“The city where I live is not big, but it’s very quiet and very safe.”

Using 不大 makes the tone more mild and neutral. The speaker is just pointing out that the city isn’t large; it doesn’t sound especially negative or dramatic.

If you said:

我住的城市很小，但是很安静也很安全。

it would feel more like: “My city is very small, but it’s very quiet and very safe.” — stronger emphasis on how small it is.

Why is 很 used before 安静 and 安全, and what does it really mean here?

The 很 (hěn) before adjectives has two roles:

Literal meaning: “very”
Often it really does mean “very/quite”:
- 很安静 – very quiet
- 很安全 – very safe
Linking the subject to the adjective (neutral “is”)
In many simple statements, 很 can be almost semantically light, acting like a default degree marker so an adjective can serve as a predicate:
- 城市大。 – “The city is big.” (may be read as a contrast/comparison, “the city is big (not small)”)
- 城市很大。 – more neutral, “The city is big.”

In this sentence, 很安静 and 很安全 are naturally read as “very quiet” and “very safe”; 很 is both adding some degree (“quite / very”) and doing that linking job.

You normally wouldn’t say:

✗ 城市安静安全。 (ungrammatical/very odd)

You need something like:

城市很安静，也很安全。
城市又安静又安全。

Why isn’t there a 很 before 大? We have 不大, but not 很大.

You generally don’t combine 不 (not) and 很 directly in this type of structure. You say:

不大 – not big
很大 – very big

Putting them together:

✗ 不很大 – is possible but much less common and has a different feel (often “not very big” in a careful, slightly bookish register).

Here, 不大 is the natural way to say “(is) not big.” So you have:

不大 – negation of size
很安静, 很安全 – positive descriptions with degree.

So structurally:

[不大]，但是[很安静]也[很安全]。

What is the role of 也 in 很安静也很安全? Why is it placed there?

也 (yě) means “also / too / as well”.

In 很安静也很安全, you can think of it as two clauses sharing the same (omitted) subject:

(城市) 很安静。– It is very quiet.
(城市) 也很安全。– It is also very safe.

When we combine them:

(城市) 很安静，也很安全。

The subject 城市 is understood from context and omitted in the second part. 也 is placed before the predicate it modifies:

Subject (omitted) + 也
- predicate → 也很安全

So the word order is: …很安静，也很安全。 not:

✗ 很安静很也安全
✗ 很安静安全也

Could we use 和 instead of 也 and say 很安静和很安全?

Using 和 (hé) here is not natural.

和 mainly connects nouns (and pronoun-like elements):

我和你 – you and I
苹果和香蕉 – apples and bananas

When connecting adjectival predicates (things the subject “is”), Chinese prefers:

也 – “also”
又…又… – “both … and …”
既…又… – “both … and …” (slightly more formal)

So instead of 很安静和很安全, you’d say:

很安静，也很安全。 (as in the sentence)
又安静又安全。
既安静又安全。

很安静和很安全 sounds foreign-influenced and unidiomatic.

Why is there no subject before 很安静也很安全? Shouldn’t there be an “it” or “the city”?

The subject “the city where I live” is already established in the first part:

我住的城市不大， – “The city where I live is not big,”

Chinese often omits the subject in the second clause when it’s clear from context. So after the comma, the subject is understood to be the same city:

(我住的城市) 不大，但是 (我住的城市) 很安静也很安全。

In English we must say “it’s quiet and safe,” but Chinese is comfortable leaving out the repeated subject:

不大，但是很安静也很安全。
= “(It) is not big, but (it) is very quiet and also very safe.”

Why is the structure 我住的城市 and not 城市我住的 like in English word order?

Chinese relative clauses go before the noun they describe, not after it.

English:

“the city (that) I live in” – noun + relative clause

Chinese:

我住的城市 – relative clause + noun

So:

✗ 城市我住的 – ungrammatical as a noun phrase
✓ 我住的城市 – “the city where I live”

Template:

[clause + 的] + noun

Examples:

我喜欢的书 – the book that I like
他工作的公司 – the company where he works
他们住的地方 – the place where they live

Is 安静 an adjective or a verb here? How does it work grammatically?

Words like 安静 (quiet) and 安全 (safe) in Chinese are often called stative verbs or adjectives. The key point is: they can directly serve as predicates, like a verb, without needing “to be”.

In this sentence:

很安静 – (it) is very quiet
很安全 – (it) is very safe

No extra verb is needed. So structurally, each of these works like:

Subject + 很安静
Subject + 很安全

This is why you don’t say:

✗ 是安静
✗ 是安全

You just use the adjective directly, often with a degree word like 很.

What does 但是 do in this sentence, and could we use 可是 or 不过 instead?

但是 (dànshì) is a conjunction meaning “but / however”, introducing a contrast.

In:

我住的城市不大，但是很安静也很安全。

you have:

Part 1: 我住的城市不大 – My city is not big
Contrast: 但是 – but
Part 2: 很安静也很安全 – (it) is very quiet and also very safe

You could replace 但是 with:

可是 – also “but,” very common and a bit more colloquial
- 我住的城市不大，可是很安静也很安全。
不过 – “but / however / though,” often slightly softer
- 我住的城市不大，不过很安静也很安全。

All three work here; the overall meaning is the same. 但是 is slightly more neutral/formal than 可是, and 不过 can feel a bit like “though / however”.

Could we say 我住的城市虽然不大，但是很安静也很安全? How does that change the meaning?

Yes, that’s also natural:

虽然 (suīrán) – “although / even though”

我住的城市虽然不大，但是很安静也很安全。

literally:

“The city where I live, although (it is) not big, but (it is) very quiet and also very safe.”

This structure:

虽然 …，但是 … – “although …, but …”

adds a bit more explicit concession: you are acknowledging the “not big” aspect as something that might be seen as a downside, but you highlight the positive qualities.

Without 虽然, the original sentence is simpler and a bit more neutral:

我住的城市不大，但是很安静也很安全。
“My city isn’t big, but it’s very quiet and safe.”