Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ dìdi míngnián yào shàng dàxué, tā hěn xīngfèn. - My younger brother will go to university next year, and he is very excited.

With close family members and some kinship terms (like 爸爸, 妈妈, 哥哥, 弟弟, 妹妹, 儿子, 女儿), native speakers very often drop 的:
- 我弟弟 = my younger brother
- 我妈妈 = my mom
Adding 的 (我的弟弟) is:
- a bit more formal or detached, or
- used when you want to emphasize “my younger brother (not someone else’s)”.

In everyday speech, 我弟弟 is the most natural choice here. Using 我的弟弟 would not be wrong; it just sounds slightly heavier or more explicit.

What exactly does 要 mean in 明年要上大学? Is it “will”, “want to”, or “must”?

要 is a versatile word. In this sentence 明年要上大学, it mainly expresses a future plan / scheduled event:

我弟弟明年要上大学
≈ “My younger brother is going to start college next year.”

Rough guide to meanings of 要:

Future plan / arrangement / inevitability
- 明天要考试。 = There will be an exam tomorrow.
- 他下个月要搬家。 = He’s going to move next month.
Strong intention / demand / “must”
- 我一定要学好中文。 = I must / really want to learn Chinese well.
Want (with a noun object)
- 我要咖啡。 = I want coffee.

In this sentence it’s not “want to go to college” (which would more naturally be 想上大学). It’s more like “is going to / will” based on a plan or decision.

Why do we say 上大学? Why use 上 instead of a verb like “go” (去)?

In Chinese, 上 is commonly used with certain nouns to mean attend / go to / be in some regular activity or institution. It doesn’t just mean “up”.

Common patterns:

上大学 – to attend college / be a college student
上中学 – attend middle school
上课 – attend class / have class
上班 – go to work / be at work
上学 – go to school / attend school

So 上大学 already means “go to college / attend university”; using 去 is usually unnecessary:

✅ 明年我要上大学。
❌ 明年我要去大学。 (This sounds like just physically going to a campus once.)

If you say 去上大学, that’s also possible, but it emphasizes the movement + activity:

明年我要去北京上大学。
= I’m going to Beijing to attend college.

Could we leave out 要 and just say 我弟弟明年上大学?

You can say 我弟弟明年上大学, and people will understand you, but:

我弟弟明年要上大学 is more natural and clearly expresses plan / arrangement.
我弟弟明年上大学 feels a bit more like a bare statement of a schedule (as if reading from a timetable) and can sound slightly abrupt in conversation.

So in everyday speech, especially when talking about life plans, 要上大学 is preferred to clearly show “is going to (as a plan)”.

Why is the time word 明年 placed before 要上大学? Could we put it somewhere else?

Basic word order rule in Chinese:

[Subject] + [Time] + [Manner/Place] + [Verb/Action]

So the default is:

我弟弟明年要上大学。
(subject – time – verb phrase)

Other possible positions:

At the very beginning (emphasizing time):
- 明年，我弟弟要上大学。 – Very natural.
After 要 (less common, but possible in speech):
- 我弟弟要明年上大学。 – Understandable, but the focus can feel a bit different, like stressing “It’s next year that he’ll go”.

Safest and most typical choices:

我弟弟明年要上大学。
明年我弟弟要上大学。

Why do we need 很 before 兴奋? Does 很 always mean “very”?

In 他很兴奋, 很 does two things:

Grammatically, it helps link the subject to the adjective.
In Chinese, a bare “Noun + Adjective” often sounds like a comparison or a description, not a normal statement.
- 他兴奋。 – can sound a bit clipped or unnatural in isolation.
- 他很兴奋。 – natural: “He is excited.”
Semantically, it can mean “very”, but in everyday speech its degree is often weak, more like just “is”:
- 他很兴奋。 – He is (very / quite) excited.
- 他非常兴奋。 – He is very excited (stronger).

So 很 is often needed for grammar and naturalness, and doesn’t always add a strong “very” the way it does in English.

What is the difference between 兴奋 and 高兴?

Both describe positive feelings, but they’re not the same:

高兴
- general happiness, gladness
- emotionally positive, content
- e.g. 听到这个消息我很高兴。 – I’m happy to hear this news.
兴奋
- excitement, being stirred up, mentally aroused
- can be positively excited, energetic, “pumped up”
- more about intensity and stimulation than calm happiness
- e.g. 比赛前他很兴奋。 – He is very excited before the match.

In your sentence:

他很兴奋。 – He’s excited (about this big change / new stage in life).
If you said 他很高兴, it would be “He’s happy”, which is also OK but slightly less vivid and less “pumped up” than 兴奋.

Why is there just a comma between the two parts, not something like 所以 (“so”) or 因为 (“because”)?

Chinese often links related clauses simply with a comma, where English would use “and”, “so”, or “because”.

我弟弟明年要上大学，他很兴奋。
Literally: “My younger brother next year will go to college, he is very excited.”

The logical relationship (cause → result) is clear from context:

Because he’ll start college next year → he is excited.

You could make it more explicit:

因为我弟弟明年要上大学，他很兴奋。 – Because he’ll go to college next year, he’s very excited.
我弟弟明年要上大学，所以他很兴奋。 – My younger brother will go to college next year, so he’s very excited.

But native speakers are perfectly happy to just use a comma when the link is obvious.

Why is it just 大学 without any measure word, like 一所大学 or 一个大学?

In 上大学, 大学 is not being counted as “one university”; it represents the stage of education:

上大学 = “be in higher education / attend college”
(like the idea of “going to college” in general)

When you talk about a specific university, then you use a measure word:

一所大学 – one university
在这所大学上学 – study at this university

So:

明年我要上大学。 – I’ll go to college (in general).
明年我要去一所很好的大学上大学。 – Next year I’ll go to a very good university to attend college.

Is it okay to drop the second 他 and just say 我弟弟明年要上大学，很兴奋?

Spoken Chinese often drops repeated subjects when the reference is clear, so:

我弟弟明年要上大学，很兴奋。

is understandable and colloquial; it feels like:

“My younger brother is going to college next year, (he’s) very excited.”

However:

In careful writing or textbook-style sentences, repeating the subject or pronoun is more standard:
- 我弟弟明年要上大学，他很兴奋。

So:

For conversation: dropping the second 他 is fine.
For clear, standard written Chinese: 他很兴奋 is better.

Why is the pronoun 他 used? Is it automatically clear that 他 refers to 弟弟?

Yes, it’s clear:

弟弟 means “younger brother”, so it’s male.
The only masculine third-person pronoun in spoken Chinese is tā; in writing it appears as 他 (male), 她 (female), or 它 (it).

In this sentence:

我弟弟明年要上大学，他很兴奋。

There is only one male human referent (弟弟), so 他 naturally refers back to 我弟弟. This type of pronoun reference is very common and unambiguous in Chinese.

Can we say 上学校 instead of 上大学?

Normally, no. Native speakers don’t say 上学校 to mean “go to school”.

The common patterns are:

上学 – go to school / attend school (general)
上小学 – attend primary/elementary school
上中学 – attend middle/high school
上大学 – attend university / college

So you would say:

孩子们都去上学了。 – The children have all gone to school.
他明年要上大学。 – He’s going to college next year.

学校 is the general word “school” as an institution. To express “attend”, pair 上 with 学 or with specific school levels (小学, 中学, 大学), not with 学校 itself.