Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā juéde zhǐ kàn xīnwén tài wúliáo, gèng xǐhuan kàn diànyǐng hé zhàopiàn. - She feels that just watching the news is too boring; she prefers watching movies and looking at photos.

想
- Core meanings: to think, to want, to miss.
- When used as “think”, it’s more about thinking in your head, sometimes about plans or intentions.
- e.g. 我想明天去。 – I think / I want to go tomorrow.
认为
- More formal and logical, like “to hold the opinion that / to consider”.
- e.g. 我认为这个办法很好。 – I consider this method good.
觉得
- Often has a feeling + opinion nuance, very common in everyday speech.
- e.g. 我觉得这个电影很好看。 – I feel / think this movie is very good.

In spoken Chinese, 她觉得… is the most natural way to say “She thinks / feels that…” in this kind of casual sentence.

Why is there no word for “is” before 太无聊 (tài wúliáo)? In English we’d say “is too boring”.

Chinese often doesn’t use a separate “to be” verb before adjectives. The structure is simply:

(subject) + adjective
Here, the “subject” is the whole phrase 只看新闻 (only watching the news):
只看新闻太无聊
→ (only watching the news) is too boring

This is a common pattern:

这本书很有意思。 – This book is very interesting.
今天太冷。 – Today is too cold.
他不高兴。 – He is not happy.

So you don’t say 是太无聊 here. You just put the adjective (with 太, 很, etc.) directly after the “subject” phrase.

What exactly does 只 (zhǐ) do here, and why is it before 看 (kàn)?

只 means “only / just” and usually comes before the verb it limits.

只看新闻 → only watch the news
(as opposed to watching other things as well)

Word order rule: 只 + Verb + Object

More examples:

我只吃蔬菜。 – I only eat vegetables.
他只会说中文。 – He can only speak Chinese.

If you moved 只 somewhere else, the meaning would change or become wrong:

她只觉得看新闻太无聊。
→ She only thinks that watching news is boring (maybe others don’t think so) — here 只 limits 觉得, not 看.
她觉得看只新闻太无聊。 – This is ungrammatical.

So in the original sentence, 只 correctly limits 看: she thinks that only watching news is too boring.

How should I understand the structure 她觉得只看新闻太无聊? Where does the “that” go, like “She thinks that…”?

You can think of the sentence as:

她觉得 [只看新闻太无聊]。
→ She thinks [only watching news is too boring].

So:

她觉得 – main clause: She thinks/feels
只看新闻太无聊 – “embedded” clause: only watching news is too boring

Chinese doesn’t need a word like English “that” here. The 觉得 is simply followed by the thing she thinks:

我觉得今天很冷。 – I think (that) today is very cold.
他们觉得学汉语很有意思。 – They think (that) learning Chinese is interesting.

So mentally you can insert “that” in English, but in Chinese you just put the clause after 觉得.

What’s the function of 太 (tài) here, and how is 太无聊 different from 很无聊 (hěn wúliáo)?

太 in 太无聊 means “too / excessively”:

太无聊 → too boring / so boring (to an excessive degree)

Compared with 很无聊:

很无聊 → very boring or often just a neutral “is boring” (because 很 is frequently used as a default linker with adjectives).
太无聊 → has more emotion, like “ugh, it’s really too boring, I can’t stand it.”

So:

她觉得只看新闻很无聊。 – She thinks only watching news is (very) boring.
她觉得只看新闻太无聊。 – She thinks only watching news is too boring (more strongly negative).

What does 更 (gèng) do in 更喜欢 (gèng xǐhuan)? Could I leave it out?

更 means “even more / more (in comparison)”.

更喜欢 → like (something) more / prefer

Here it shows a contrast:

只看新闻太无聊 – only watching news is too boring
So she 更喜欢看电影和照片 – she likes watching movies and looking at photos more (instead).

If you omit 更:

她…喜欢看电影和照片。
– Still correct and natural: She likes watching movies and looking at photos.
– But you lose the explicit comparative flavor.

With 更, it sounds like:

“She finds only watching news too boring; she’d rather watch movies and look at photos.”

Why isn’t 她 repeated in the second part 更喜欢看电影和照片?

Chinese often omits repeated subjects when it’s clear from context. The full version would be:

她觉得只看新闻太无聊，她更喜欢看电影和照片。

In practice, after the first 她, it’s obvious that the same person is the subject of the next verb 喜欢, so we drop it.

This is very common:

我吃完饭，(我)就去睡觉。
他很聪明，也(他)很努力。 → usually just 他很聪明，也很努力。

So you can mentally supply 她 again in English, “(She) prefers watching movies and photos,” but in Chinese it’s left out.

Why is 看 (kàn) used with both 电影 (diànyǐng) and 照片 (zhàopiàn)? Doesn’t 看 only mean “to watch”?

看 is quite flexible. It can mean:

to watch (movies, TV, performances)
to read (books, texts)
to look at (pictures, people, scenery)

So:

看电影 – watch movies
看照片 – look at photos / view photos
看书 – read books
看手机 – look at (your) phone

In this sentence, 看电影和照片 is basically:

watch movies and look at photos,

but Chinese doesn’t need two different verbs like English does.

Why is 看 not repeated before 照片? Could we say 看电影和看照片?

Both are correct, but the shorter form is very natural:

看电影和照片 – watch movies and (watch/look at) photos
看电影和看照片 – watch movies and (also) watch/look at photos

General pattern: when one verb applies to multiple objects, you can usually say:

看 A 和 B instead of 看 A 和看 B
吃米饭和面条 instead of 吃米饭和吃面条

You repeat the verb only if you want to emphasize each action or for rhythm:

他喜欢看书和报纸。 – He likes reading books and newspapers.
他喜欢看书和看报纸。 – Slightly more deliberate emphasis on each.

In ordinary speech, 看电影和照片 is perfectly natural.

What exactly does 新闻 (xīnwén) mean here? Is it “news” as in TV news, or “a news article”?

新闻 is a general word for “news”:

TV news programs
news reports, news articles
“the news” in general (information about current events)

In many contexts:

看新闻 → watch the news (on TV, online video)
看新闻 can also mean read news (on your phone, website, etc.) — Chinese doesn’t always distinguish “watch” vs “read” here.

Some contrasts:

新闻 – news (as a genre / content)
报纸 – newspaper (the physical or digital paper itself)
消息 – (a piece of) information, news, a message (often more personal or small-scale)

In this sentence, 只看新闻 could mean only watching TV news or only reading news online; context decides.

What is the difference between 和 (hé) here and words like 跟 (gēn) or 还有 (hái yǒu)?

In this sentence, 和 is used as a simple “and” joining two nouns:

电影和照片 – movies and photos

Main points:

和 is the most common “and” for linking nouns/pronouns:
- 我和你 – you and I
- 苹果和香蕉 – apples and bananas
跟 can also mean “and / with”, and in many cases it’s interchangeable with 和 in speech:
- 我跟他去。 – I go with him.
- 我跟他都是学生。 – He and I are both students.
还有 literally means “and also still have,” often used when adding another item:
- 我买了苹果，还有香蕉。 – I bought apples, and also bananas.

In 看电影和照片, 和 is just the neutral “and” joining two objects of 看.

Why are there no measure words, like 一部电影 or 一张照片?

When you talk about things in general, without specifying number, you don’t need measure words in Chinese.

看电影 – watch movies (in general, as an activity)
看照片 – look at photos (in general)

You use measure words when you specify how many or which ones:

看一部电影 – watch one movie
看三部电影 – watch three movies
看一张照片 – look at one photo
看那些照片 – look at those photos

In the given sentence, she’s talking about activities she likes to do in general, so no measure words are necessary.

How do I pronounce 喜欢 (xǐhuan) and 觉得 (juéde) correctly? Are the second syllables stressed?

Both words are often pronounced with a neutral tone on the second syllable in everyday speech:

喜欢: xǐhuan
- 喜 – 3rd tone
- 欢 – usually neutral tone (not huān in full 1st tone in normal speech)
觉得: juéde
- 觉 – 2nd tone
- 得 – usually neutral tone

So natural pronunciation:

xǐ·huan (3rd + neutral)
jué·de (2nd + neutral)

You may hear clear full tones in careful or teaching pronunciation, but in daily conversation, the neutral tone on the second syllable is standard.