Learn Hardcore Chinese: jīntiān wǎnshang wǒmen yào zài jiā ānjìng de xiūxi.

So the original word order is perfectly natural and common. Starting with 我们 is also natural and doesn’t change the meaning; it just puts a tiny bit more focus on “we” rather than on “tonight” as the topic.

What’s the difference between 今天晚上 and 今晚?

Both basically mean “tonight / this evening”, and in this sentence you could say either:

今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息。
今晚我们要在家安静地休息。

Differences:

今晚 is shorter and very common in speech and writing.
今天晚上 is slightly more explicit and can feel a bit more casual or conversational, but it’s also extremely common.

In most everyday contexts, they’re interchangeable.

What exactly does 要 (yào) mean here? Is it “want to”, “going to”, or “must”?

要 has several related meanings; here it’s best understood as “be going to / intend to”:

It expresses a plan or arrangement:
> “Tonight we’re going to stay at home and rest quietly.”

Depending on context, 要 can mean:

“want to” (desire):
- 我要喝水。= I want to drink water.
“be going to / plan to” (intention / arrangement):
- 我们明天要出发。= We are going to set off tomorrow.
“must / need to” (requirement):
- 你要早点儿睡。= You have to go to bed earlier.

In your sentence, it’s about intention / plan rather than strong obligation.

Could we omit 要 and just say 今天晚上我们在家安静地休息? Would it still be correct?

You can say:

今天晚上我们在家安静地休息。

It is grammatically acceptable, but the nuance changes slightly:

With 要:
→ Emphasizes a plan / decision: We’re going to / we intend to…
Without 要:
→ Sounds more like a neutral statement of what is happening / scheduled, or sometimes like an instruction, depending on context.

For a natural way to express “We’re going to rest quietly at home tonight”, including 要 is more typical and clearer for learners:

✅ 今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息。

Why is 在家 placed before 安静地休息? Could I say 安静地在家休息 instead?

Chinese prefers a fairly regular order:

Time → Subject → (Modal 要) → Place → Manner → Verb

So we get:

今天晚上（time）
我们（subject）
要（modal）
在家（place: at home）
安静地（manner: quietly）
休息（verb: rest）

That gives: 今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息。

You can also say:

今天晚上我们要安静地在家休息。

This is still acceptable and understandable. But the default, most neutral order is 在家 (place) before 安静地休息 (manner + action). For learners, it’s safest to keep place before manner:

✅ 在家安静地休息 (most natural)
◻︎ 安静地在家休息 (OK, but a bit less “textbook”)

Why do we need 地 after 安静? Why not just 安静休息 or 安静的休息?

In 安静地休息, the pattern is:

Adjective + 地 + Verb → do the verb in that manner

So:

安静 (quiet / peaceful)
地 (adverb marker)
休息 (rest)

= “rest quietly”.

About your alternatives:

安静休息
- Sometimes appears in headlines or very concise styles, but in normal speech and writing, people typically say 安静地休息.
- For learners, include 地 to sound natural.
安静的休息
- 的 usually marks an adjective modifying a noun.
- This turns “quiet rest” into a noun phrase, e.g.:
  - 你需要安静的休息。= You need quiet rest.
- In your sentence, 休息 is functioning as a verb, so 地 is the correct choice.

So for “rest quietly”, you want:

✅ 安静地休息

How do you pronounce 地 in 安静地休息? Why is it de and not dì?

In 安静地休息, 地 is pronounced de (neutral tone), not dì.

Rule of thumb:

When 地 is the adverb marker (linking an adjective to a verb), it’s read de:
- 慢地走 (màn de zǒu) – walk slowly
- 小心地看 (xiǎoxīn de kàn) – look carefully
- 安静地休息 (ānjìng de xiūxi) – rest quietly
When 地 is the noun “ground / land” or part of a content word, it’s usually dì:
- 土地 (tǔdì) – land
- 地方 (dìfang) – place

So here, because 地 is just marking “quietly” as an adverb, it’s de.

What’s the difference between 的, 地, and 得? They all sound like “de” to me.

They are all pronounced de (often neutral tone) in these grammatical uses, but they have different functions:

的
- Links modifier → noun (possessive / descriptive):
  - 我的书 – my book
  - 漂亮的花 – pretty flower
- Think: adjective → noun / ownership.
地
- Links modifier → verb (adverbial):
  - 慢慢地走 – walk slowly
  - 认真地学习 – study seriously
  - 安静地休息 – rest quietly
- Think: adverb → verb.
得
- Comes after a verb or adjective and introduces a complement (degree, result, etc.):
  - 说得很好 – speak very well
  - 跑得很快 – run very fast
- Think: verb/adjective → complement.

In your sentence, 安静地休息 is “rest quietly”, so the adverb marker 地 is the right one.

Can 安静 be used on its own as a verb? Could I say 我们在家安静?

安静 can sometimes act like a verb, meaning “to be quiet / to quiet down”:

老师说：“大家安静！” – The teacher said, “Everyone, be quiet!”
请你安静一下。 – Please be quiet for a moment.

But in 我们在家安静, native speakers would usually understand it as “We are quiet at home”, not “We rest at home”. It doesn’t naturally express the idea of resting.

If you want to say what the original sentence says (rest quietly at home), you need the verb 休息:

✅ 我们在家安静地休息。
(We rest quietly at home.)

So: 安静 can be a verb in some contexts (“be quiet”), but it doesn’t replace 休息 here.

What part of speech is 休息 here? Is it a verb or a noun? Why don’t we say 做休息?

In this sentence, 休息 is used as a verb, meaning “to rest”:

安静地休息 – to rest quietly.

休息 is one of those words that can function as both:

Verb:
- 我想休息一下。– I want to rest for a bit.
Noun (less common than the verb use, but possible):
- 休息时间 – rest time / break time

You do not say 做休息 in standard Mandarin. When 休息 is used as “rest”, you normally just use the verb directly:

✅ 你需要休息。– You need to rest.
✅ 我们明天好好休息。– We’ll have a good rest tomorrow.
❌ 做休息 – unnatural.

Do we need 了 in this sentence to show it’s about the future, like 今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息了?

You don’t need 了 here to show future time. The sentence:

今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息。

is already clearly about tonight because of 今天晚上 and the modal 要.

Adding 了:

今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息了。

is possible, but it slightly changes the nuance. It can sound like:

A decision has just been made or finalized (“Alright, tonight we’ll just rest quietly at home then.”), or
You’re contrasting it with what you used to do / could have done.

For a neutral “we’re going to rest quietly at home tonight”, it’s normal without 了.

Why is there 在 before 家 but not before 今天晚上? In English we say “at night” and “at home”.

In Chinese:

Time words (今天, 明天, 昨天, 早上, 晚上, 今天晚上, etc.) are typically used without 在:
- 今天晚上 – tonight
- 明天早上 – tomorrow morning
- 上个星期 – last week
Location words generally take 在 to mean “at / in / on”:
- 在家 – at home
- 在公司 – at the company
- 在学校 – at school

So:

✅ 今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息。
(Tonight we’re going to be at home resting quietly.)

Putting 在 before a time word like 今天晚上 (在今天晚上) is not needed in normal speech and usually sounds unnatural unless in very specific formal contexts.

Could I say 今天晚上我们会在家安静地休息 instead of 要? What’s the difference between 会 and 要 here?

You can say:

今天晚上我们会在家安静地休息。

It’s grammatical and understandable. But 会 and 要 have slightly different typical uses:

要
- Focuses on intention, plan, or arrangement.
- Sounds like: we are going to / we intend to / it is arranged that…
- Very natural when you are deciding / planning something.
会
- Often expresses prediction, likelihood, or ability.
- Here, it would sound more like: we will (probably / definitely) be resting quietly at home tonight, perhaps as a prediction or assurance.

So:

今天晚上我们要在家安静地休息。
→ We’re planning / we intend to rest quietly at home tonight.
今天晚上我们会在家安静地休息。
→ We will end up resting quietly at home tonight (I’m sure / I predict that’s what will happen).

For expressing your own plan, 要 is usually more straightforward.

What exactly does 家 mean here? Is it “home” or “house”? Could I say 在我家 or 在家里 instead?

In this sentence, 家 means “home” as a general location:

在家 = at home (not out somewhere)

You can modify it in different ways:

在家
- Neutral: at home (speaker’s home, by default).
在我家
- More specific: at my home / at my place.
- Example:
  - 今天晚上我们要在我家安静地休息。
    → Tonight we’re going to rest quietly at my place.
在家里
- Literally “inside (the) home”; still basically “at home”, sometimes with a slight emphasis on being indoors / inside.
- Example:
  - 今天晚上我们要在家里安静地休息。
    → Tonight we’re going to rest quietly at home (inside).

All of these are grammatically correct. The original 在家 is the most neutral and common way to express “at home” in this kind of sentence.