Learn Hardcore Chinese: línjū āyí duì wǒmen hěn rèqíng, jīngcháng bāng wǒmen zuòfàn. - Our neighbor auntie is very warm to us and often helps us cook.

She is not necessarily a blood relative. In Chinese, people often call women of their parents’ generation 阿姨 out of respect and closeness, even if they’re just neighbors or family friends.

Why is there no subject like 她 (she)? Who is the subject of the sentence?

The subject is understood to be 邻居阿姨.

Chinese allows the subject to appear first and then be “dropped” in the second part if it’s obvious from context. The sentence is effectively:

邻居阿姨对我们很热情，经常帮我们做饭。
→ The neighbor auntie is very warm to us and often helps us cook.

You could add 她 in the second clause:

邻居阿姨对我们很热情，她经常帮我们做饭。

But it’s not necessary; native speakers normally leave it out when it’s clear who you’re talking about.

What does 对 (duì) do in 对我们很热情?

对 here means “towards / to (someone)” and marks the person affected by the attitude or action.

对我们很热情 = (she) is very warm/enthusiastic toward us

Pattern:
对 + person + 很/不 + adjective

Examples:

他对孩子很耐心。 – He is very patient with children.
老板对我不好。 – The boss is not good to me.

So 对我们 tells you who receives her warmth: us.

Does 很 (hěn) always mean “very” here, or is it sometimes just linking the subject and adjective?

In modern spoken Chinese, 很 before an adjective often functions as a “degree adverb + copula substitute”, not always as a strong “very”.

In 对我们很热情:

Literally: very warm/enthusiastic toward us
In natural English: often just “is warm to us”, without strong emphasis

Compare:

他高。 – sounds incomplete or unnatural (except in special contexts)
他很高。 – normal way to say “He is tall.”

So:

很 can really mean “very”, especially with extra emphasis or contrast.
But in many neutral descriptions, it mainly serves to make the adjective work as a predicate and can be translated as just “is” or with a light “quite”.

What exactly is 热情 (rèqíng) here? An adjective or a noun?

In this sentence, 热情 is used as an adjective meaning:

warm, enthusiastic, very welcoming, friendly

So 对我们很热情 = is very warm and welcoming toward us.

热情 can also be a noun (enthusiasm, passion), but you can usually tell from the structure:

adjective use: 很热情, 非常热情
noun use: 他的热情, 对工作的热情

Why is it 邻居阿姨对我们很热情, not 邻居阿姨是很热情?

In Chinese, when an adjective is the predicate, you usually:

do not use 是 before it
instead use an adverb like 很, 非常, etc.

So:

邻居阿姨很热情。 – natural
邻居阿姨是很热情。 – possible, but usually implies emphasis or contrast, like “She really is warm (despite what you might think).”

In a neutral description, 是 is normally left out before an adjective.

Why is 经常 (jīngcháng) placed before 帮? Could it go somewhere else?

经常 is an adverb of frequency meaning “often, frequently”, and in Chinese such adverbs usually come:

before the main verb

So:

经常帮我们做饭。 – She often helps us cook.

Typical order:

Subject + (time) + (frequency adverb) + verb + object

You could also say:

邻居阿姨经常对我们很热情，帮我们做饭。
(now 经常 modifies the whole first verb phrase)

But the most straightforward way to say “often helps us cook” is 经常帮我们做饭.

How does the structure 帮我们做饭 work? What is the pattern with 帮 (bāng)?

帮 means “to help”. The common pattern is:

帮 + person + verb (do something)
= help someone do something

So:

帮我们做饭 = help us cook / help cook for us

More examples:

他帮我买了票。 – He helped me buy the ticket.
你可以帮我看一下吗？ – Can you help me take a look?

You can also say 帮忙 (to help), but then the structure changes:

经常帮忙做饭。 – often help out with the cooking
经常帮我们的忙。 – often help us (with our things)

Here, 帮我们做饭 is the most direct “help us cook.”

Why is 我们 repeated twice? Could we omit one of them?

The sentence has:

对我们很热情 – warm toward us
帮我们做饭 – helps us cook

The repetition is natural and clear in Chinese because each part has its own object.

You could omit the second 我们 in casual speech if it’s clear:

邻居阿姨对我们很热情，经常帮我们做饭。 (original)
邻居阿姨对我们很热情，经常帮做饭。 (possible, more colloquial; sounds like “often helps with the cooking”)

Omitting the first 我们 (after 对) is less natural, because 对谁 is important information for the first clause.

So the original with both 我们 is the clearest and most standard.

How do we know the tense? Does this mean she used to help us, is helping us now, or always helps?

Chinese does not mark tense the way English does. It relies on:

context
time words (昨天, 明天, 以前, 现在, etc.)
aspect particles (了, 过, 着)
adverbs like 经常 (often)

Here, 经常 implies a habitual, repeated action, so in English we usually translate with present simple:

She is very warm to us and often helps us cook.

It could also describe a past period (e.g. “Back then, our neighbor auntie was…”), but that would be clear from the larger context, not from this sentence alone.

Can I use 常常 instead of 经常? Are they the same?

常常 (chángcháng) and 经常 (jīngcháng) are very similar and often interchangeable, both meaning “often, frequently.”

You could say:

邻居阿姨对我们很热情，常常帮我们做饭。

Differences (very subtle):

经常 is slightly more neutral and common in modern speech.
常常 can sound a bit more colloquial or literary, depending on context, but in everyday conversation many people treat them as basically the same.

For learning purposes, you can treat them as interchangeable here.

Why is there a comma ， instead of 和 (hé) or 并且 (bìngqiě) between the two parts?

The sentence is:

邻居阿姨对我们很热情，经常帮我们做饭。

These are two related actions/states of the same person, just placed side by side. Chinese often links such clauses with a simple comma (a kind of “serial clause” structure).

You could add connectors:

邻居阿姨对我们很热情，而且经常帮我们做饭。
邻居阿姨对我们很热情，并且经常帮我们做饭。

These emphasize that the second fact is an additional point (“and also / moreover”).
The original with just ， is natural and slightly more neutral or concise.

What nuance does 热情 have? Is it only positive? Does it mean “passionate”?

In this context, 热情 is strongly positive and usually means:

warm, friendly, hospitable, welcoming

So 对我们很热情 = very kind and welcoming to us; treats us warmly.

It can also be “passionate/enthusiastic” about something:

对工作很热情。 – very enthusiastic about work
观众的反应很热情。 – the audience’s response was very enthusiastic

If it ever sounds negative, it’s usually because it’s too excessive in context (overly eager), but by default it is a compliment.