Learn Hardcore Chinese: shēngrì de shíhou, fùmǔ sòng gěi tā yí jiàn xiǎo lǐwù, suīrán bù guì, dànshì tā hěn gāoxìng. - On her birthday, her parents gave her a small gift; although it wasn’t expensive, she was very happy.

Pattern 1 (送给她 + object):
- 送给 + recipient + object
- Feels slightly more compact and is extremely common in writing.
Pattern 2 (送 + object + 给她):
- 送 + object + 给 + recipient
- Emphasizes the thing a bit more first, then clarifies to whom it is given.

In everyday speech, you’ll hear both. The sentence in your example just uses one of the most common variants.

Why is the measure word 件 used with 礼物? Could I use 个 instead?

一件小礼物 (yí jiàn xiǎo lǐwù) = one small gift / present.

件 (jiàn) is a very common measure word for:
- clothing (一件衣服)
- things / items / matters (一件事, 一件东西)
- and also 礼物 in many contexts

You will also hear 一个礼物, and it is not wrong in casual speech, but:

一件礼物 tends to sound more natural and slightly more formal.
一个礼物 is understood, but many native speakers instinctively choose 件 here.

So:

一件小礼物 is the best choice in standard written Mandarin for “a small gift.”

What does the pattern 虽然……但是…… mean, and can you drop 但是?

虽然……但是…… (suīrán … dànshì …) means “although … but …”.

In your sentence:

虽然不贵，但是她很高兴。
→ Although it wasn’t expensive, she was very happy.

Key points:

Structure:
- 虽然 + clause A，(但是) + clause B
- A = the “concession” (what you might expect to be a disadvantage)
- B = the main, often surprising, result
Dropping 但是:
In spoken and informal written Chinese, you can often omit 但是 (or 可是) and just say:
- 虽然不贵，她很高兴。
This is still natural. The contrast is still clear from 虽然.
但是 vs 可是:
- 但是 (dànshì) = more formal, bookish
- 可是 (kěshì) = a bit more colloquial, emotional

All three forms are possible:

虽然不贵，但是她很高兴。
虽然不贵，可是她很高兴。
虽然不贵，她很高兴。

Does 很高兴 here mean “very happy” or just “happy”? Why do Chinese sentences almost always put 很 before adjectives?

Literally, 很高兴 (hěn gāoxìng) = “very happy.”
But in simple, neutral statements, 很 often does not strongly mean “very”. It works more like a linker between the subject and the adjective.

她很高兴。
→ Usually understood as “She is happy.” (not necessarily “very”)

Why?

In Mandarin, an adjective can act like a verb:
- 她高兴。 literally = “She happy.”
  This can sound like an emphasized statement (like “She IS happy!”) or a contrast (“She is happy (unlike others)”).
To make it a normal descriptive sentence, Mandarin often adds a degree adverb, commonly 很.

So:

她很高兴 = neutral: “She is happy.”
If the speaker really wants to stress degree, they might choose:
- 非常高兴 (extremely happy)
- 特别高兴 (especially happy)
- or stress 很 in speech.

In a textbook example like this, 很 is mostly a structural necessity, not a strong “very.”

Why is 不贵 used without 很? Could we say 虽然很不贵?

不贵 (bú guì) = “not expensive.”

In Mandarin, when you negate an adjective with 不, you usually do not need 很:

贵 = expensive
不贵 = not expensive
冷 = cold
不冷 = not cold
好 = good
不好 = not good

虽然不贵 is perfectly natural and standard: “although (it’s) not expensive.”

虽然很不贵 is not natural here. Why?

很不 + adjective is reserved for strong, often negative judgments, like:
- 很不好 (really bad)
- 很不方便 (very inconvenient)
很不贵 sounds odd and rarely used; people would instead say:
- 虽然很便宜 = although it’s very cheap
- or just 虽然不贵 = although it’s not expensive

So the correct and natural choice in this sentence is 虽然不贵.

How do we know this sentence is in the past? There’s no 了 or tense marker.

Mandarin usually does not mark tense directly (past, present, future) the way English does. Instead, it relies on:

Context
Time expressions
Aspect markers like 了, 过, 在, etc.

In this sentence:

生日的时候 implies a specific time in the past (her previous birthday in context).
The action 送给她一件小礼物 is interpreted as something that happened at that time.

You could add 了 to make the completion more explicit:

生日的时候，父母送给了她一件小礼物。

This emphasizes that the giving was a completed event. But:

Even without 了, in context, listeners will understand it as a past event because of 的时候 and the narrative style.

Mandarin is very context-driven for time reference.

Could we say 她很开心 instead of 她很高兴? What’s the difference between 高兴 and 开心?

Both 高兴 (gāoxìng) and 开心 (kāixīn) mean “happy / glad.”
In many everyday situations, they are interchangeable:

她很高兴。
她很开心。

Both can mean “She is happy.”

Nuance:

高兴:
- Slightly more neutral and common in textbooks and formal writing.
- Often linked to a particular event:
  听到这个消息，我很高兴。
  “When I heard this news, I was happy.”
开心:
- Slightly more casual / colloquial, often about having fun or being in a good mood.
- Common in spoken language and internet/chat usage.

In your sentence, 她很高兴 could be replaced with 她很开心, and it would still sound natural:

虽然不贵，但是她很开心。

Who does 她 refer to, and why do we know it’s “she” and not “he”?

In this sentence:

她 (tā) = “she/her”
他 (tā) = “he/him”

They are pronounced the same (both tā), but written differently.

From the character 女 (woman/female) on the left side of 她, we know it’s female, so the English translation uses “she.”

Contextually, the sentence is talking about someone whose parents gave a gift to her on her birthday. Written Chinese makes her gender clear through the character choice 她.

Why is there a comma before 虽然不贵? Is this one sentence or two?

The whole thing is considered one long sentence in Chinese:

生日的时候，父母送给她一件小礼物，虽然不贵，但是她很高兴。

Punctuation in Chinese can group multiple clauses with commas in ways that might be separate sentences in English.

Structure here:

生日的时候，
→ time clause: “When it was (her) birthday,”
父母送给她一件小礼物，
→ main clause 1: “(Her) parents gave her a small gift,”
虽然不贵，
→ concessive clause: “although (it was) not expensive,”
但是她很高兴。
→ main clause 2 / result: “but she was very happy.”

English might split this into two sentences or use semicolons, but Chinese commonly connects them with commas within one overall sentence.

Could we move 虽然不贵 to the beginning: 虽然不贵，生日的时候，父母送给她一件小礼物，但是她很高兴。? Is that okay?

You could move 虽然不贵 earlier, but the version you suggested sounds awkward and less natural.

The original focus is:

Time → event → comment on price → her reaction

Reordering as:

虽然不贵，生日的时候，父母送给她一件小礼物，但是她很高兴。

breaks that smooth flow and scatters related information. Native speakers generally prefer:

生日的时候，父母送给她一件小礼物，虽然不贵，但是她很高兴。
or a simpler form:
生日的时候，父母送给她一件不贵的小礼物，她很高兴。

So, grammatically your reordering isn’t “wrong,” but it’s not idiomatic. Keep 虽然不贵 close to what it’s commenting on (the gift and its price).

Is 小礼物 literally “small” in size, or can it just mean a modest / not very expensive gift?

小礼物 (xiǎo lǐwù) can mean both:

Physically small gift
Modest / not big-deal gift, a little something

In this sentence, because it’s followed by 虽然不贵, the emotional nuance is:

“a small, modest gift (not an expensive, grand present), but she was still very happy.”

So 小 here conveys modesty / small token, not necessarily only physical size. In English you might translate it as:

“a small present,”
“a little gift,”
or “a small token of their affection.”