Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ línjū shì dàxuéshēng, jì ài huàhuà yòu ài dǎlánqiú, wǒ hěn xiànmù tā. - My neighbor is a college student; she both loves drawing and loves playing basketball, and I really envy her.

我的邻居 is the “full” form and is always correct: 我 (I) + 的 (possessive marker) + 邻居 (neighbor).
In everyday speech, when the possessor is a personal pronoun and the relationship is close or obvious (family members, friends, neighbors, etc.), 的 is often dropped:
- 我妈 / 我妈妈 = my mom
- 我朋友 / 我的朋友 = my friend
- 我邻居 / 我的邻居 = my neighbor

Omitting 的 sounds a bit more casual/colloquial, but not wrong. If you’re unsure, using 我的邻居 is always safe.

Can I say 我的邻居是一个大学生 instead of 我邻居是大学生? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say 我的邻居是一个大学生. Both are grammatically correct, but there’s a nuance:

我邻居是大学生。
Focuses on what kind of person your neighbor is (their identity). In sentences of the type “X is a [profession / role / identity]”, Chinese often drops 一(个):
- 他是老师。 = He is a teacher.
- 她是中国人。 = She is Chinese.
我的邻居是一个大学生。
Adding 一个 makes it feel more like “(just) a college student” or “one college student”, sometimes with a slight sense of “one of many” or a bit more concrete/individual.

In most neutral contexts, 我邻居是大学生 is the more natural, simple way to say it.

What exactly does 大学生 mean? Is it just “big student”?

Literally, the characters are:

大 = big
学 = study / learning
生 = student

But as a word, 大学 means “university / college”, and 大学生 specifically means university / college student.

It’s not used for high school or middle school students. Those would be:

中学生 = middle-/high-school student (literally “middle-level student”)
小学生 = primary school pupil (literally “small-level student”)

So 大学生 = “college student,” not just “big student.”

How does 既……又…… work? What does it really mean in this sentence?

既……又…… is a fixed pattern meaning “both … and …” or “not only … but also …”.

Structure in this sentence:

既爱画画又爱打篮球
- 既
  - 爱画画
- 又
  - 爱打篮球

So it means: “(She) both loves drawing/painting and loves playing basketball.”

General pattern:

他既聪明又努力。
He is both smart and hard-working.
这本书既有趣又有用。
This book is both interesting and useful.

既 must be paired with 又 (or 也) and can’t stand alone.

Can I use 也 instead of 又 in 既……又……?

Yes. There are two common versions of this pattern:

既……又……
既……也……

Examples:

她既爱画画又爱打篮球。
她既爱画画也爱打篮球。

Both are correct and very close in meaning. In modern usage, 既……又…… is slightly more common than 既……也……, but you will see both.

What’s the difference between 既……又…… and just 又……又……?

Both express “both … and …”, but there are style differences:

既……又……
- Slightly more formal or literary.
- Often appears in writing or more careful speech.
又……又……
- Very common in everyday spoken Chinese.
- No 既 at all.

Example equivalents:

他既高又帅。
他又高又帅。
He is both tall and handsome.

In your sentence, you could also say:

她又爱画画又爱打篮球。

That sounds more spoken/colloquial.

Why is 画 written twice as 画画? What’s the difference between 画 and 画画?

Both 画 and 画画 can mean “to draw / to paint,” but:

画 (single) can be:
- a verb: to draw/paint
- a noun: a painting, picture
画画 is specifically a verb phrase meaning “to draw/paint (pictures)” and sounds more casual/natural when talking about the activity or hobby.

For example:

我喜欢画画。
I like drawing/painting. (very natural)
我喜欢画。
Also possible, but sounds a bit more like “I like to draw (pictures)” in a slightly more neutral or textbooky way.

Think of 画画 as “to do drawing/painting (as an activity).”

In 打篮球, why do we use 打? Does it just mean “play”?

打 literally means “to hit / to strike,” but in sports vocabulary it often works like “to play (a ball game).”

打篮球 = to play basketball
打网球 = to play tennis
打乒乓球 = to play table tennis
打排球 = to play volleyball

For different sports, you use different verbs:

踢足球 (kick football) = to play soccer
游泳 (swim) = swimming, to swim
打太极拳 = to practice tai chi (martial art)

So 打篮球 is a fixed, standard way to say “play basketball,” not a general verb for all sports.

Why do we use 爱 here instead of 喜欢? What’s the difference?

Both 爱 and 喜欢 can express liking something, but:

爱 = to love; to be very fond of; to habitually like to do
- Often stronger, more emotional, or emphasizes a strong interest/habit.
喜欢 = to like
- Neutral, safe, and very common.

In hobbies or strong interests, 爱 is very natural:

她爱画画，也爱打篮球。
She loves drawing and also loves playing basketball.

If you say:

她喜欢画画，也喜欢打篮球。

it becomes a bit milder: she likes drawing and basketball. Both are correct; using 爱 just makes the enthusiasm sound stronger.

Why is there 很 before 羡慕? Does 很 always mean “very” here?

In 我很羡慕她, 很 is a degree adverb modifying 羡慕, and here it really does mean “very / really / a lot”:

我很羡慕她。
I really envy her / I envy her a lot.

You can say 我羡慕她 (“I envy her”), which is also correct, just less expressive.

Compare:

我羡慕她。 = I envy her.
我很羡慕她。 = I envy her very much / I really envy her.

So in this specific sentence, 很 is not just a “dummy” word; it adds real emphasis.

Is 羡慕 a verb or an adjective? How is it used with 她?

羡慕 is usually treated as a verb meaning “to envy / to admire (with envy).”

In the sentence 我很羡慕她:

我 = I (subject)
很羡慕 = really envy (verb phrase)
她 = her (object)

So the structure is: Subject + (degree) + Verb + Object.

Other examples:

我羡慕你。 = I envy you.
大家都很羡慕他。 = Everyone really envies him.

Because 羡慕 already takes an object (她), you cannot say 我是羡慕她 in the same way; 是 is not needed with this kind of verb.

Why don’t we use 是 before 很羡慕? Why not 我是很羡慕她?

In Chinese, 是 is mainly used to link a subject with a noun (identity, category):

她是大学生。 = She is a college student.
这是书。 = This is a book.

For states, feelings, qualities, Chinese usually uses a stative verb or adjective directly as the predicate, often with a degree word like 很:

我很忙。 = I am busy.
他很高。 = He is tall.
我很羡慕她。 = I (really) envy her.

我是很羡慕她 can appear in special contexts for emphasis (like “I do envy her, actually”), but the normal, neutral form is simply 我很羡慕她, without 是.

Why is the last pronoun 她 and not 他? How do I know which one to use?

Mandarin has different written forms for “tā” (all pronounced tā, first tone):

他 = he / him (male)
她 = she / her (female)
它 = it (animal/thing, in writing)

In speech, they all sound the same (tā), but in writing you must choose the character that matches the gender or type:

Since the neighbor here is understood to be female, the sentence uses 她.
If the neighbor were male, you’d write 他 instead:
我很羡慕他。

Context is what tells you which tā the writer means.

The sentence has commas instead of “and”. Is it OK to join so many ideas with ， in Chinese?

Yes. Chinese often uses commas (，) to link related clauses where English might use “and”, or even split into separate sentences.

Your sentence:

我邻居是大学生，既爱画画又爱打篮球，我很羡慕她。

Breakdown:

我邻居是大学生，
My neighbor is a college student,
既爱画画又爱打篮球，
(she) both loves drawing and loves playing basketball,
我很羡慕她。
I really envy her.

In English we’d probably say this either as two sentences or with “and”:

My neighbor is a college student who both loves drawing and playing basketball, and I really envy her.

In Chinese, using commas like this is completely normal and natural.