Learn Hardcore Chinese: lóuxià de kāfēiguǎn rén tài duō, wǒmen jiù qù lóushàng zhǎo yí gè dìfang zuòxià. - There are too many people in the café downstairs, so we go upstairs to find a place to sit.

In everyday conversation, people often include 的, but omitting it is fine and very natural when you’re talking about a familiar place. The meaning is basically the same here.

What exactly do 楼下 and 楼上 mean? Are they nouns, adverbs, or what?

楼下 and 楼上 literally mean:

楼下 (lóuxià) – downstairs, the floor below
楼上 (lóushàng) – upstairs, the floor above

They are location words. They can function:

As places by themselves:
- 我在楼下。 – I’m downstairs.
- 去楼上。 – Go upstairs.
As modifiers with 的:
- 楼下的咖啡馆 – the café downstairs
- 楼上的邻居 – the neighbors upstairs

So they are flexible: not quite standard nouns, but also not just adverbs; they are location words that can work in several roles.

Why is it 楼下的咖啡馆人太多 and not 楼下的咖啡馆有太多人?

楼下的咖啡馆人太多 is a common “topic + comment” structure:

Topic: 楼下的咖啡馆 – as for the café downstairs
Comment: 人太多 – the people (there) are too many / it’s too crowded

So it’s like saying: As for the café downstairs, there are too many people.

有太多人 is technically possible but sounds less natural here. With 太多, Chinese much more often says:

人太多 – there are too many people
东西太多 – there’s too much stuff

Using 有太多人 is rare and can sound a bit awkward or overly formal in everyday speech.

Why do we need 人 in 人太多? Could we just say 楼下的咖啡馆太多?

You need 人 because what is too many is people, not cafés.

楼下的咖啡馆人太多 – At the downstairs café, people are too many → it’s too crowded.
楼下的咖啡馆太多 – There are too many cafés downstairs. (A different meaning)

So 人 is required here to make it clear you mean too many people (it’s crowded), not too many cafés.

What does 太 mean in 人太多, and is it always negative? Why is there no 了 after it?

太 means too / excessively.

人太多 – there are too many people (more than we want)

Often 太 + adj/verb implies a negative or problematic excess:

太贵 – too expensive
太吵 – too noisy

But it can also be positive:

太好了！ – That’s great! / Awesome!

About 了:

人太多了 – emphasizes the current state / result: It’s (ended up) way too crowded.
人太多 – a bit more neutral or descriptive: There are too many people.

Both are common. The version in your sentence is perfectly fine without 了.

What does 就 do in 我们就去楼上? Can we just say 我们去楼上?

就 here adds the sense of “then / so / just”, expressing a natural or quick reaction:

楼下的人太多，我们就去楼上。
Since downstairs is crowded, we’ll just go upstairs instead.

Without 就:

我们去楼上。 – We go / are going upstairs. (Just a plain statement.)

With 就, it sounds more like: “In that case, we’ll (simply) go upstairs.” It links the first clause (too crowded) and the second (our solution) more tightly and naturally.

Why is it 去楼上 and not 去到楼上 or 去在楼上?

去 already includes the meaning of go to.

去楼上 – go upstairs / go to upstairs

You don’t add 在 after verbs of movement to show destination:

✗ 去在楼上 – incorrect

去到楼上 is possible in some contexts and dialects, but in standard everyday Mandarin 去楼上 is simpler and more natural here. 到 is more often used when you’re emphasizing arrival or endpoint:

走到楼上再打电话。 – Once you get up there, then call.

In 找一个地方坐下, what is the role of 找? Are we still “looking” while we sit?

找 means to look for / to find.

The structure 找一个地方坐下 is:

找一个地方 – find a place
坐下 – (and then) sit down

Chinese often strings verbs like this without extra words:

去超市买东西。 – Go to the supermarket and buy things.
回家吃饭。 – Go home and eat.

So 找一个地方坐下 means “find a place and sit down there”, not “keep looking while sitting”.

Why do we say 一个地方? Can we drop 一 or 个, and what changes if we do?

一个地方 = one + classifier + place:

一 – one
个 – general classifier
地方 – place

Possible variants:

找一个地方坐下。 – Find a place to sit. (neutral, complete)
找个地方坐下。 – Very common colloquial shortening; same meaning.
找地方坐下。 – Also possible; sounds a bit more general and casual, like “find somewhere to sit.”

So:

Dropping 一 but keeping 个 (找个地方) is very natural.
Dropping both (找地方) is also okay in casual speech, but 找个地方 is probably the most typical conversational version.

What is the difference between 坐 and 坐下? Could we say 找一个地方坐 instead?

坐 – to sit / be sitting
坐下 – to sit down (the action of going from standing to sitting)

In this context:

找一个地方坐下 focuses on the action of sitting down after you find a place.
找一个地方坐 is understandable, and people might say it, but it sounds slightly less natural; without 下, it can feel more like “be sitting somewhere” rather than the act of sitting down.

Other very common alternatives:

找个地方坐一下。 – Find a place and sit for a bit.
找个地方坐一会儿。 – Find a place and sit for a while.

下 here is a “directional complement” that often makes the action sound more completed or concrete.

Why is the word order 楼下的咖啡馆人太多 and not 楼下的咖啡馆太多人?

Chinese often uses this pattern:

[Place / thing] + [people / things there] + [how many / how much]

So:

楼下的咖啡馆 – the café downstairs (topic / place)
人太多 – people are too many (comment)

Putting it as 楼下的咖啡馆太多人 sounds unnatural because 太多 usually modifies a noun when you talk about an abstract quantity (太多问题 – too many problems), but for crowds of people, the fixed pattern 人太多 is preferred.

So the natural chunk is 人太多, not 太多人, in this kind of “it’s crowded” statement.

How is 一 pronounced in 找一个地方? Why is it yí gè and not yī gè?

Because of tone sandhi (tone change rules):

一 (yī) is normally first tone.
But when 一 comes before a 4th‑tone syllable, it usually changes to 2nd tone (yí).

个 (gè) is 4th tone, so:

Written: 一个
Pronounced: yí gè

So 找一个地方 is pronounced zhǎo yí gè dìfang. This is a standard and very regular tone change rule in Mandarin.