Breakdown of Tā de lǐxiǎng shì dāng zuòjiā, suǒyǐ hěn xǐhuan dú xiǎoshuō.
是shì
to be
很hěn
very
的de
possessive particle
她tā
she
Questions & Answers about Tā de lǐxiǎng shì dāng zuòjiā, suǒyǐ hěn xǐhuan dú xiǎoshuō.
Why do we need 的 after 她? Can we say 她理想是当作家 without 的?
的 marks possession here, so 她的理想 literally means her ideal / her dream.
The pattern is:
Without 的, 她理想 sounds wrong in standard Mandarin; you almost always need 的 between a pronoun and a regular noun like this.
(There are some fixed expressions without 的 like 我妈, 他哥, mostly with close family terms, but 理想 is not one of those.)
What exactly does 理想 (lǐxiǎng) mean? How is it different from 梦想 (mèngxiǎng) or 梦想当作家?
理想 means an ideal / aspiration / goal you seriously hope to realize. It often sounds a bit more rational or realistic.
梦想 literally has dream in it and can feel more emotional or romantic, sometimes less realistic.
- 她的理想是当作家 = Her aspiration/goal is to be a writer.
- 她的梦想是当作家 = Her dream is to be a writer (more emotional, story-like).
Both are correct; the nuance is mostly about how “serious vs dreamy” you want to sound.
Why do we have both 是 and 当 in 她的理想是当作家? Isn’t one “to be” enough?