Learn Hardcore Chinese: Hěnduō jiāzhǎng guānxīn háizi de chéngjì, yě guānxīn tāmen zài sùshè lǐ de shēnghuó. - Many parents care about their children’s grades and also about their life in the dorm.

In this sentence, 很多家长 = “many parents” / “a lot of parents”.
You don’t normally think of 很多 here as “very many”; it’s just the natural way to say “many” before a noun.
Structure: 很多 + noun
- 很多人 – many people
- 很多学生 – many students

So 很多家长 is a normal noun phrase; you don’t need another measure word between 很多 and 家长.

Why isn’t there a plural marker like 们 on 家长 and 孩子?

Chinese usually does not mark plural on nouns the way English does.

家长 by itself can mean “parent(s)”, and context (like 很多) shows it is plural.
孩子 can mean “child” or “children”, depending on context.

You mainly add 们 to pronouns and some human nouns when you want to emphasize “this group”:

他们 – they / them
孩子们 – the children (as a specific group)

Here, 很多家长 and 孩子 are clearly plural from context, so 们 is not necessary and would often sound less natural in this sentence.

Why does the sentence switch from 孩子 to 她们? Do 孩子 and 她们 refer to the same people?

Yes. In context, 她们 refers back to the 孩子 mentioned earlier.

The logic is:

First clause: 很多家长关心孩子的成绩 – Many parents care about their children’s grades.
Second clause: 也关心她们在宿舍里的生活 – (they) also care about their life in the dormitory.

Instead of repeating 孩子, Chinese often uses a pronoun to avoid repetition. So 她们 = “those children” (here, specifically girls – see the next question). This is similar to English going from “children” to “they/them” in the next clause.

Why is it 她们 (tāmen) and not 他们 (tāmen)?

In writing, Chinese distinguishes:

他们 – “they” for mixed-gender or all-male groups
她们 – “they” for all-female groups

They are pronounced the same (both tāmen) but written differently.

Using 她们 implies that the children being talked about are all girls (e.g., a girls’ dorm, female students). If it were a mixed group or not specifically female, you would normally write 他们 instead.

How does 关心 (guānxīn) work grammatically? Is it a verb like “care about”?

Yes. In this sentence, 关心 is a verb meaning “to care about / to be concerned about”, and it directly takes an object.

Patterns:

关心 + noun
- 关心孩子 – care about the children
- 关心孩子的成绩 – care about the children’s grades
- 关心她们在宿舍里的生活 – care about their life in the dorm

You might also see 对…很关心:

家长对孩子很关心。 – Parents care a lot about their children.

But here, the sentence uses the simpler pattern [subject] + 关心 + [object].

Why is 关心 repeated? Could you say 很多家长关心孩子的成绩，也她们在宿舍里的生活 and drop the second 关心?

The second 关心 cannot be dropped here.

In Chinese, when you use 也 (“also”), you typically keep the verb:

他们喜欢打篮球，也喜欢踢足球。
They like playing basketball and also like playing football.

If you remove the second 关心, you get:

很多家长关心孩子的成绩，也她们在宿舍里的生活。 – ungrammatical, because 也 must modify a verb or verb phrase, but there is no verb before 她们.

So you need:
很多家长关心孩子的成绩，也关心她们在宿舍里的生活。

What is the function of 的 (de) in 孩子的成绩 and 在宿舍里的生活?

In both places, 的 links a modifier to a noun, similar to ’s or “of” or a relative clause in English.

孩子的成绩
- 孩子 (children) + 的
  - 成绩 (grades)
- = “the children’s grades”
在宿舍里的生活
- 在宿舍里 (in the dorm) + 的
  - 生活 (life)
- = “life (that is) in the dorm”

So the pattern is:

[modifier] + 的 + [noun]

Where the modifier can be:

a noun: 孩子的成绩 – children’s grades
a whole phrase: 在宿舍里的生活 – life in the dorm

Why is the phrase 她们在宿舍里的生活 ordered that way? Why isn’t it something like 她们的在宿舍里生活?

她们在宿舍里的生活 uses the normal Chinese pattern:

[who/what] + [where] + 的 + [noun]

Breakdown:

她们 – they
在宿舍里 – (living) in the dorm
的生活 – life

So it literally feels like “their life which is in the dorm.”

We cannot say 她们的在宿舍里生活 because:

在宿舍里生活 is a verb phrase (“to live in the dorm”), and you don’t usually attach 的 right after a pronoun to a whole verb phrase like that to form a noun here.
The correct way is to turn the location phrase 在宿舍里 into a modifier of 生活 with 的: 在宿舍里的生活.

Then adding 她们 in front tells you whose life it is: 她们在宿舍里的生活.

Why do we have 里 (lǐ) after 宿舍 (sùshè)? What’s the difference between 在宿舍 and 在宿舍里?

里 means “inside” or “in”.

在宿舍 – at the dorm / in the dorm (already often understood as “in”)
在宿舍里 – more explicitly “inside the dorm”

In many cases, 在宿舍 and 在宿舍里 are interchangeable, with 在宿舍里 sounding a bit more visibly “inside” or slightly more complete/natural in this kind of phrase.

You could say:

也关心她们在宿舍生活。 – also care about their life living in the dorm
也关心她们在宿舍里的生活。 – also care about their life in the dorm (more common pattern with 里…的生活)

Both are possible, but 在宿舍里的生活 is a very typical, idiomatic structure.

Where should 也 (yě) go in this sentence? Could it be moved, and would that change the meaning?

In this type of sentence, 也 normally goes right before the verb it modifies.

很多家长关心孩子的成绩，也关心她们在宿舍里的生活。
Here, 也 modifies 关心 in the second clause.

Other possible positions:

很多家长也关心孩子的成绩，也关心她们在宿舍里的生活。
- Emphasizes that “many parents also care…” (maybe in contrast to some group that does not care).
很多家长关心孩子的成绩，也关心她们在宿舍里的生活。 (original)
- Contrast is between what they care about: grades and also dorm life.

So moving 也 changes what is being contrasted or emphasized, but in all cases it must appear before the verb it applies to.

Why is there no 是 (shì) in this sentence? In English we say “are concerned,” but Chinese doesn’t use 是 here.

Chinese doesn’t use 是 in all the places where English uses “to be.”

Here, 关心 is a full verb, not an adjective:

English: “Parents are concerned about …” (linking verb “are” + adjective “concerned”)
Chinese: 家长关心… – “Parents care about…” (normal verb)

Since 关心 already functions as the main verb, you must not add 是:

✅ 很多家长关心孩子的成绩。
❌ 很多家长是关心孩子的成绩。 (wrong in this meaning; would sound like “they are the ones who care about…” in a different construction)

So no 是 is needed or appropriate here.

What exactly does 成绩 (chéngjì) mean? Is it just “grades,” or something broader?

成绩 generally means “results, achievements, performance,” often in an academic or test context.

In school/university settings, 成绩 usually corresponds to “grades” or “results”:

考试成绩 – exam results
学习成绩 – academic performance

In this sentence, 孩子的成绩 very naturally means “the children’s grades / academic performance.”

If you specifically want “score/points,” you might use 分数, but 成绩 is broader and more about the overall result or performance.