Learn Hardcore Chinese: zhè jiā kāfēiguǎn lǐ de huánjìng hěn ānjìng, dàjiā dōu juéde hěn qīngsōng. - The environment in this café is very quiet; everyone feels very relaxed.

这家咖啡馆 = this café (literally: this-CL establishment café).
家 is commonly used with places like:
- 一家饭馆 (a restaurant)
- 一家公司 (a company)
- 一家银行 (a bank)

You can technically hear 这个咖啡馆, but it sounds less natural and a bit foreign; native speakers almost always use 家 with 咖啡馆 in this kind of sentence.

What exactly is the structure of 这家咖啡馆里的环境? How is it built?

The phrase 这家咖啡馆里的环境 is a noun phrase where everything before 环境 modifies 环境.

Breakdown:

这家咖啡馆 – this café
里 – inside
的 – structural particle marking an attributive phrase
环境 – environment

So 这家咖啡馆里的环境 literally means:

the environment (环境) [that is] inside (里) this café (这家咖啡馆)

Structure template:

[Location] + 里 + 的 + [Noun]

Examples:

学校里的老师 – the teachers in the school
房间里的空气 – the air in the room

Could I just say 这家咖啡馆的环境很安静 without 里? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say 这家咖啡馆的环境很安静. It’s perfectly correct and natural.

Nuance:

这家咖啡馆的环境 – the environment of this café
这家咖啡馆里的环境 – the environment inside this café

In most everyday situations, they mean almost the same thing. 里 adds a slight feeling of “inside the place, when you’re in it,” but it’s a very small nuance. Both are commonly used.

Why is 里 followed by 的 here? Why not just 这家咖啡馆里环境?

In Chinese, when a phrase modifies a noun, we usually need 的 to link the modifier to the noun.

这家咖啡馆里 is a location phrase (“inside this café”).
To turn that into something that directly modifies 环境, we need 的:

这家咖啡馆里的环境

Without 的, 这家咖啡馆里环境 is ungrammatical in standard Mandarin.

Pattern:

[modifier phrase] + 的 + [noun]
这家咖啡馆里 + 的 + 环境

Why is 很 used before 安静 and before 轻松? Does it always mean “very”?

很 (hěn) literally means “very”, but in this kind of sentence it often doesn’t sound as strong as “very” in English.

In Chinese, when an adjective is used as the predicate (to say something is X), you normally add a degree word like 很 unless you want to sound contrasting or emphatic.

环境很安静。 – The environment is quiet. (neutral statement)
环境安静。 – Grammatically possible, but can sound like you’re contrasting it with something else: “The environment is quiet (as opposed to not quiet)” or like a written/stiff style.

So here:

很安静 and 很轻松 are natural predicate forms.
Depending on context, they can mean either:
- simply “is quiet / is relaxed”, or
- “is quite/very quiet / very relaxed”.

In everyday speech, 很 is often just a normal link between subject and adjective without strong emphasis.

Does 大家都 mean something different from just 大家? Why add 都?

大家 (dàjiā) means “everyone” / “all of us / all of you”.
都 (dōu) means “all / both” and marks that the statement applies to every member of the group.

大家觉得很轻松。 – Everyone feels relaxed.
大家都觉得很轻松。 – Everyone all feels relaxed.

In practice, both are grammatical and close in meaning. 都:

explicitly emphasizes that it is true of every person,
is very commonly used with plural pronouns/nouns like 我们, 你们, 他们, 大家.

So 大家都觉得… is the most natural pattern in this sentence.

Why is 都 placed before 觉得 and not somewhere else?

都 normally appears:

after the subject and before the verb.

In this sentence:

Subject: 大家
Adverb: 都
Verb: 觉得

So the standard order is:

大家都觉得…

Other word orders like 都大家觉得 or 大家觉得都… are wrong or would have a different meaning/structure. Keep 都 right before the main verb (or verb phrase) it modifies.

What’s the difference between 觉得 and 认为 in a sentence like this?

In this context:

觉得 (juéde) – to feel / to think (subjective feeling or opinion, everyday speech).
认为 (rènwéi) – to consider / to hold the opinion that (more formal, logical, reasoned judgment).

Here we’re talking about how people feel in a quiet café, so 觉得很轻松 is natural and idiomatic.

If you said:

大家都认为很轻松 – it would sound odd, because “relaxed” is a feeling, not usually a formal evaluation.
You’d more often see 认为 with things like ideas, facts, or arguments:
- 我认为这个办法很好。– I think this method is good.
- 大家都认为这个说法不对。– Everyone thinks this statement is wrong.

Why is it 觉得很轻松 and not something like 觉得很放松? What’s the difference between 轻松 and 放松?

Both relate to “relaxation,” but they’re used differently.

轻松 (qīngsōng)

Adjective: relaxed, easy, light (not stressful).
Used for:
- Atmosphere: 气氛很轻松 – The atmosphere is relaxed.
- Work: 工作很轻松 – The work is easy / not stressful.
- Feeling: 我觉得很轻松 – I feel relaxed / I feel at ease.

放松 (fàngsōng)

Verb: to relax, to loosen up.
Can also be used adjectivally in some contexts, but more often as a verb:
- 放松一下 – relax a bit.
- 我想放松一下 – I want to relax a bit.
- 别紧张，放松一点。– Don’t be nervous, relax a bit.

In this sentence, 轻松 is describing a state or feeling (“feel relaxed”). 觉得很轻松 is the natural collocation.
You could also say 让大家都很放松 (makes everyone relaxed), but that’s a slightly different structure.

Why is it 环境很安静 and not 安静的环境 here? How does the grammar change?

Two patterns:

Noun + 很 + Adjective – predicate (describing the subject’s state)
- 环境很安静。– The environment is quiet.
Adjective + 的 + Noun – attributive (adjective directly modifies a noun)
- 安静的环境 – a quiet environment

In the sentence:

这家咖啡馆里的环境 很安静

we’re making a statement about the environment (it is quiet), so the predicate pattern is used.

If you say:

这家咖啡馆里有一个 安静的环境

you’re using the attributive pattern: “there is a quiet environment in this café.” Different sentence structure and feel.

The sentence uses a comma between the two parts. Is there a cause-and-effect relationship? Could we add 所以?

The original:

这家咖啡馆里的环境很安静，大家都觉得很轻松。

There is an implied cause-and-effect:

Because the environment is quiet,
therefore everyone feels relaxed.

Chinese often uses a comma to connect two related clauses where English might use “so,” “and,” or just two sentences.

You can definitely make the causal link explicit:

这家咖啡馆里的环境很安静，所以大家都觉得很轻松。
– The environment in this café is very quiet, so everyone feels very relaxed.

Both versions are natural. The one with 所以 just makes the cause-effect clearer.

Could we say 在这家咖啡馆里，环境很安静 instead? How is that different from 这家咖啡馆里的环境很安静?

Yes, you can say:

在这家咖啡馆里，环境很安静。

Difference in structure:

在这家咖啡馆里，环境很安静。
- 在这家咖啡馆里 – a location phrase at the start (in this café)
- 环境 – subject
- 很安静 – predicate
Literally: In this café, the environment is quiet.
这家咖啡馆里的环境很安静。
- 这家咖啡馆里的环境 – one long subject (“the environment in this café”)
- 很安静 – predicate
Literally: The environment in this café is quiet.

Meaning is almost the same; it’s just a slightly different way to package the information. Both are natural.

Why talk about 环境 being quiet instead of simply saying 这家咖啡馆很安静?

You can say:

这家咖啡馆很安静。 – This café is very quiet.

Using 环境 adds a bit of nuance:

这家咖啡馆里的环境很安静 emphasizes the atmosphere / surroundings inside the café, not just the physical place.
It can suggest things like:
- quiet music, people speaking softly, no noise, comfortable layout, etc.

So:

这家咖啡馆很安静。 – The café itself is quiet.
这家咖啡馆里的环境很安静。 – The environment/atmosphere in the café is quiet (and probably pleasant).

Both are correct; the original just chooses to highlight the atmosphere.