Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā è le hěn jiǔ yǐhòu cái chī wǎnfàn, shuō zìjǐ néng chī xiàqu hěn duō dōngxi. - He didn’t eat dinner until he’d been hungry for a long time, and said he could eat a lot.

他饿了很久才吃晚饭。
Focus: “He was hungry for a long time before he ate dinner.”
This is already clear without 以后 and is very natural.
他饿了很久以后才吃晚饭。
The 以后 explicitly marks a time-point “after that”: “After he had been hungry for a long time, he (only then) ate dinner.”

In practice, for everyday speech, Chinese speakers would more often omit 以后 here:

他饿了很久才吃晚饭。

What does 才 do in 以后才吃晚饭? Could I leave it out or replace it with 就?

才 conveys the idea of “not until / only then” and often implies a longer-than-expected delay.

他饿了很久以后吃晚饭。
Just states sequence: he ate dinner after being hungry a long time.
他饿了很久以后才吃晚饭。
Adds feeling: only after such a long time did he finally eat dinner (a bit late, maybe too late).

Comparing 才 and 就:

才 = later than expected / slow:
他饿了很久才吃晚饭。
He didn’t eat until after being hungry for a long time.
就 = sooner than expected / quick:
他刚下班就吃晚饭。
He ate dinner as soon as he got off work.

So here, 才 is the natural choice because we’re emphasizing a delay.

Is 饿 an adjective or a verb? Why don’t we say 他是饿?

In Chinese, many words that are “adjectives” in English behave like stative verbs. 饿 is such a word.

他饿了。 = He is hungry / He got hungry.
(饿 itself acts as the predicate; no 是 needed.)

Using 是 before these stative verbs is usually wrong:

他是饿。 ❌ (ungrammatical)

Other similar patterns:

他累了。 (He is tired / got tired.)
水冷了。 (The water is cold now / has become cold.)

Could I say 他饿了以后很久才吃晚饭 instead of 他饿了很久以后才吃晚饭?

他饿了以后很久才吃晚饭 is awkward and usually feels incomplete.
If you want to move 很久, you normally need something like 过了:

他饿了以后过了很久才吃晚饭。 ✅
“After he became hungry, a long time passed before he ate dinner.”

Without 过了, 以后很久才 sounds strange.

The original structure:

饿了很久以后才吃晚饭
neatly bundles the idea of “being hungry (state) + for a long time” as one time span, and then 以后 marks what happens after that span.

What does 下去 mean in 能吃下去很多东西?

下去 here is a directional/resultative complement attached to 吃.

Basic meanings of 下去:

Literal direction: going downward and away
- 把药吃下去。 – Swallow the medicine (get it down).
Continuation of an action into the future: “keep doing”
- 这样下去不行。 – It won’t do if things go on like this.
- 说下去。 – Go on talking.

In 能吃下去很多东西, the main feeling is:

“be able to swallow / get down / keep on eating a lot of food.”

It emphasizes the capacity to continue eating / to actually get it all down, not just the general fact of “eating”.

Why is the order 吃下去很多东西 and not 吃很多东西下去?

With resultative or directional complements, the usual order is:

Verb + Complement + Object

Examples:

吃完饭 (finish eating the meal)
写好作业 (finish/write the homework well)
看完电影 (finish watching the movie)

So:

吃下去很多东西 = Verb (吃) + Complement (下去) + Object (很多东西) ✅
吃很多东西下去 ❌ (unnatural)

Could we just say 能吃很多东西 instead of 能吃下去很多东西? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say 能吃很多东西, and it’s perfectly natural. The difference is nuance:

能吃很多东西
= “can eat a lot (of food)”
Focus: how much he can eat, his big appetite.
能吃下去很多东西
Adds the idea of actually getting it down / continuing to eat until it’s all eaten.
It can sound a bit more vivid, like:
- He feels so hungry that he can put away a lot of food.
- Or he manages to swallow a lot (e.g., despite difficulty, or surprising capacity).

In many contexts, learners can safely use 能吃很多东西; 吃下去 just gives an extra flavor of “swallow / continue eating.”

Why is 自己 used in 说自己能吃下去很多东西 instead of 他说 or 他说他能吃下去很多东西?

自己 is a reflexive pronoun (“self”) and usually refers back to the subject of the clause.

Whole sentence subject: 他
Clause: 他说自己能吃下去很多东西。
→ “He said he himself could eat a lot.”

So:

说自己能吃下去很多东西 emphasizes that he is talking about himself.

Alternatives:

他说他能吃下去很多东西。
Also correct; a bit more neutral/explicit, with 他 repeated.
他说自己能吃下去很多东西。
Slightly emphasizes “he himself” (not someone else).

Using 自己 here avoids confusion and keeps the reference tied to the speaker.

Can we drop 自己 and just say 他说能吃下去很多东西?

You can say 他说能吃下去很多东西, and in most real contexts, people will still understand “he said (that he) can eat a lot”.

However:

Without 自己 or 他, the subject of 能吃下去很多东西 is implicit.
自己 makes it crystal clear the subject is the same person as the speaker (他).
In writing or in complex contexts, 自己 helps avoid ambiguity.

So:

Spoken, casual: 他说能吃下去很多东西。 ✅
Clear, explicit: 他说自己能吃下去很多东西。 ✅

Why do we say 很多东西 and not 很多的东西?

With numbers and many quantifiers, Chinese normally doesn’t need 的 between the quantity and the noun.

Patterns:

三本书 (three books), not 三个的书.
一些问题 (some questions).
很多东西 (a lot of things).

Adding 的 (很多的东西) is usually:

more literary or emphatic, or
used when 很多的 acts as a modifier with extra stress, e.g.
他有很多的、各种各样的东西。

In everyday speech, 很多东西 is the natural choice here.

Why is 很 used before 多 in 很多东西? Can we say 多东西?

多 on its own can mean “many/much”, but when it directly modifies a noun as “a lot of (noun)”, Chinese usually uses set forms like:

很多东西 – a lot of things
许多问题 – many problems
这么多钱 – this much money
那么多书 – that many books

多东西 by itself is not natural in modern Mandarin for “a lot of things.”

很 here doesn’t act like “very”; it’s part of the fixed pattern 很多 meaning “many / a lot of”. So:

很多东西 ✅ (natural)
多东西 ❌ (unnatural in this sense)

Why is there no word like “that” after 说, as in English “said that he could…”?

Chinese does not need a special word like English “that” to introduce a content clause.

Structure:

说 + [clause]

So:

他说自己能吃下去很多东西。
Literally: “He said himself can eat down a lot of things.”

English needs “that”:

“He said that he could eat a lot.”

Chinese just puts the clause directly after 说:

说他今天很忙。 – said (that) he’s very busy today
说明天要下雨。 – said (that) it will rain tomorrow

No extra word is required.