Learn Hardcore Chinese: hěnduō xuéshēng dōu hěn xiànmù tā de shēnghuó.

很多 tells you how many students there are: many students.
都 tells you that within that group, the statement applies to every member: they all (each of them) feel this way.

So:

很多学生很羡慕她的生活。
= Many students envy her life. (Some of the many, not necessarily all.)
很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。
= Many students all envy her life. (There’s a large group, and within that group, basically each one does.)

In English, we normally would just say “Many students envy her life,” but in Chinese it’s very natural to combine a quantity word like 很多 with 都 to mean “a lot of them, and within that set, each one.”

Can I leave out 都 and just say 很多学生很羡慕她的生活? What changes?

Yes, you can omit 都:

很多学生很羡慕她的生活。 is grammatically correct.

The nuance:

With 都: emphasizes that the statement applies to every member of that group. It makes it sound more “unanimous” or “across the board.”
Without 都: simply states that many students envy her life, without highlighting the idea of “each of them.”

Both are common; 都 just adds that extra sense of “all of them (in that group).”

Why is there a 很 before 羡慕? Isn’t 羡慕 already a verb meaning “to envy”?

In this sentence, 很 (hěn) works as a degree adverb meaning “very” or “quite”:

羡慕 = to envy / to admire
很羡慕 = really/envy a lot / quite envy

So:

很多学生羡慕她的生活。
= Many students envy her life.
很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。
= Many students all really envy her life.

Unlike with simple adjectives (e.g. 很高, 很漂亮), where 很 can sometimes function mainly as a “linking word” to make the sentence sound natural, here it does add clear intensity: they envy her a lot, not just neutrally.

Could I say 很多学生都羡慕她的生活 without 很? Is that okay?

Yes, 很多学生都羡慕她的生活。 is also correct.

The difference in feel:

都羡慕: a neutral statement of fact: they envy her.
都很羡慕: slightly stronger: they really envy her.

So 很 is not required grammatically, but it adds emotional degree.

Why is it 她的生活 and not just 她生活?

In Chinese, when a pronoun (like 我, 你, 他/她) modifies a noun, it normally takes 的:

她的生活 = her life / lifestyle
他的书 = his book
我的朋友 = my friend

The pattern is:

[Possessor] + 的 + [Thing]

Leaving out 的 after a pronoun is uncommon and usually only happens in limited, set expressions (like 我家, 他妈, 你们班) or in a more colloquial, intimate tone.

So 她生活 is not natural here; 她的生活 is the normal form.

Why is there no plural marker 们 after 学生? Shouldn’t it be 学生们 for “students”?

Chinese usually doesn’t have to mark plural on nouns when it’s obvious from context:

很多学生 already tells you the noun is plural (“many students”).
学生 by itself can mean either “student” or “students,” depending on context.

学生们 is used when you mean a specific group of students, often in a context like a teacher addressing their own class:

老师对学生们说……
The teacher said to the students…

Here, the sentence is speaking in general about “many students,” so 学生 without 们 is more natural.

How exactly does 都 work here? Where does it have to go in the sentence?

都 (dōu) is placed after the subject (or the group it refers to) and before the verb phrase.

Pattern:

[Group / subject] + 都 + [verb / adjective phrase]

In this sentence:

Group: 很多学生
都: 都
Verb phrase: 很羡慕她的生活

So you get:

很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。

You cannot move 都 to the very end:

✗ 很多学生很羡慕她的生活都。 (wrong)

Common similar structures:

我们都喜欢吃中国菜。
他们都很忙。
这些人都知道。

Is 羡慕 positive, negative, or neutral? Is it like “jealous” or “admiring”?

羡慕 (xiànmù) is usually neutral to slightly positive. It means:

to envy (in a way that can include admiration)
to admire someone’s good situation and wish you had it too

It does not necessarily carry the strong negative or resentful feeling that English “jealous” can have.

For stronger, more negative jealousy, Chinese might use:

嫉妒 (jídù) = to be jealous, to resent someone for having something

So:

我很羡慕她的生活。
= I really admire / envy her life (I wish I had it too, not necessarily in a nasty way).
他很嫉妒她的成功。
= He is very jealous of her success (often with a negative tone).

What’s the difference between 生活, 生命, and 人生? Why is 生活 used here?

These three words all relate to “life,” but they are used differently:

生活 (shēnghuó)
- “Daily life,” “way of living,” “lifestyle,” “living conditions.”
- Focuses on how you live: your routine, environment, quality of life.
- 她的生活 = her life / lifestyle (how she lives day to day).
生命 (shēngmìng)
- Biological “life” (as opposed to death), existence as a living thing.
- Used in contexts like 生命安全 (life safety), 拯救生命 (save lives).
人生 (rénshēng)
- One’s “life” in a philosophical, whole-life sense: life journey, life experience.
- E.g. 人生很短 (life is short), 人生目标 (life goals).

In this sentence, we’re talking about how she lives (her lifestyle, what her days look like), so 生活 is the right choice.

How do we know whether this sentence is in the present, past, or future tense? There’s no tense marker.

Chinese does not use verb forms for tense the way English does. It usually relies on:

Time words (昨天, 现在, 明天, 以前, etc.)
Aspect particles (了, 过, 着)
Context

Here, 很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。 can mean:

Many students (currently) envy her life.
Many students (at that time) envied her life.
Many students (in general) envy her life.

The specific time frame would come from context or added time words:

昨天，很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。 (past)
现在，很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。 (present)

Could I say 她的生活，很多学生都很羡慕。 instead? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is also correct. It becomes a topic–comment structure:

Topic: 她的生活 (her life)
Comment: 很多学生都很羡慕 (many students all really envy it)

So:

很多学生都很羡慕她的生活。
= Subject-first, more like “Many students all really envy her life.”
她的生活，很多学生都很羡慕。
= Topic-comment, “As for her life, many students all really envy (it).”

Both are natural. The first is more neutral; the second gives a bit more emphasis to her life as the main thing being talked about.

Is 很多 the same as 许多? Could I say 许多学生都很羡慕她的生活 instead?

很多 (hěn duō) and 许多 (xǔduō) are very similar; both mean “many / a lot of.”

很多: extremely common in everyday spoken Chinese and written Chinese.
许多: a bit more formal or literary, but still quite common.

You can say:

许多学生都很羡慕她的生活。

It means essentially the same thing. In casual speech, 很多 is more frequent; in writing or slightly more formal contexts, 许多 feels very natural.