Learn Hardcore Chinese: zhè jiā fàndiàn hěn dà, lǐmiàn yě hěn ānjìng. - This restaurant is very big, and it’s also very quiet inside.

In speech and everyday writing, 很 (hěn) before adjectives like 大 or 安静 often does not strongly mean “very”. Instead, it works like a link between the subject and the adjective.

这家饭店很大。
Literally: “This restaurant very big.”
Natural meaning: “This restaurant is big.”

Chinese usually doesn’t say:

✗ 这家饭店大。 (This can sound abrupt, like a contrast: “As for this restaurant, (it’s) big.”)

So:

With 很: sounds like a normal description, often translated just as “is big / is quiet.”
Without 很: can sound like you’re contrasting or emphasizing.

When you really want to mean “very”, you use context, tone, or stronger words (like 非常 fēicháng, 特别 tèbié).
In beginner texts, 很 is often just taught as “very”, but in sentences like this, it’s mainly a “linking adverb” used before adjectives.

Why don’t we use 是 (shì) here, like 这家饭店是很大?

With adjectives as predicates (big, small, quiet, busy, etc.), Chinese normally does not use 是.

Standard pattern:
- Subject + (很) + Adjective
- 这家饭店很大。 – The restaurant is big.
- 里面很安静。 – Inside (it) is quiet.

If you say 是 before an adjective:

这家饭店是很大
This is possible, but it usually sounds like emphasis / contrast, e.g.:
- “The restaurant is big (but …).”

So for basic descriptive sentences, especially at your level, use:

Subject + 很 + Adjective
and don’t add 是 in between.

What exactly does 饭店 (fàndiàn) mean here? Restaurant or hotel?

饭店 (fàndiàn) can mean restaurant or hotel, depending on context and region.

In modern Mainland Chinese, especially in everyday speech:
- 饭店 = often a restaurant, sometimes a restaurant inside a hotel, or a hotel with a restaurant.
In some contexts / older usage:
- 饭店 can clearly mean hotel (especially larger, more formal ones).

If your textbook glosses it as “restaurant,” you can safely treat it as “restaurant” here.
To be more specific, Chinese also has:

餐厅 (cāntīng) – dining hall / restaurant
酒店 (jiǔdiàn) – (usually) hotel, often nicer ones

What’s the difference between 里 (lǐ) and 里面 (lǐmiàn)? And why is it just 里面也很安静, not 在里面也很安静?

里 and 里面 both mean roughly “inside”.

里 – shorter, a bit more general
里面 – a bit more specific/emphatic: “inside / the inside part”

In this sentence:

里面也很安静。
Literally: “Inside also very quiet.”

You can think of 里面 here as the topic/subject:

(这家饭店) 里面也很安静。
“(In this restaurant,) inside is also quiet.”

About 在里面:

在里面 = “to be (located) inside”
If you say:
- 在里面也很安静。
  That sounds incomplete, like: “(Something) is also quiet when (it is) inside.”

Here we just want to state a property of the inside area, so 里面也很安静 is natural and complete without 在.
You could also say:

这家饭店里面也很安静。
which is totally fine and explicit: “Inside this restaurant, it is also quiet.”

Why is 也 (yě) placed before 很安静 and not somewhere else?

也 (yě) usually goes right before the part it modifies, typically before the verb or adjective phrase.

Pattern:

Subject / topic + 也 + (很) + Adjective
里面也很安静。
= “Inside is also very quiet.”

If you move 也:

✗ 里面很也安静 – incorrect word order.
✗ 也里面很安静 – also unnatural.

So the standard position is:

(Subject/topic) + 也 + Predicate
→ 里面也很安静

Could we say “这家饭店很大，也很安静” instead? How is that different from “这家饭店很大，里面也很安静”?

Both are grammatical but the focus is slightly different.

这家饭店很大，也很安静。
- “This restaurant is big and also quiet.”
- Both big and quiet are treated as properties of the restaurant as a whole.
这家饭店很大，里面也很安静。
- “This restaurant is big; inside it is also quiet.”
- First you describe the overall size, then you specifically talk about the inside area.
- It slightly emphasizes that the interior environment is quiet, not just that the restaurant (in some general sense) has this quality.

In many real-life situations, they would mean almost the same, but the original sentence draws attention to the inside space.

Can 安静 (ānjìng) be both an adjective and a verb? What is it here?

Yes. 安静 can function as:

Adjective: quiet, peaceful
- 图书馆很安静。 – The library is quiet.
Verb: to become quiet / to quiet down
- 请安静！ – Please be quiet!
- 大家安静下来。 – Everyone quieted down.

In 里面也很安静, it’s functioning as an adjective:

“Inside is very quiet.”

The pattern is (Location) + 很 + Adjective (静/安静/干净 etc.), not an action verb.

Could we use 还 (hái) instead of 也 (yě) here, like 里面还很安静?

You can, but the nuance changes.

也 (yě) – “also, too”
→ adds another fact of the same type.
- 里面也很安静。
  “Inside is also quiet (in addition to being big).”
还 (hái) – “still; also; even; in addition”
Often implies “on top of that, and even…”, sometimes suggesting something extra or slightly surprising.
- 里面还很安静。
  Can feel like:
  - “And what’s more, inside is (still / even) quiet.”
    or “It’s big, and on top of that, it’s also quiet.”

In simple descriptions, 也 is the more neutral, straight “also/too”.
还 adds a bit more sense of “in addition / furthermore / surprisingly also…”.

Why is there a comma ， instead of a period between the two parts?

Chinese often uses a comma between two related short clauses where English might use either:

a comma,
“and”, or
a full stop.

Here:

这家饭店很大，里面也很安静。

The two clauses describe two related aspects of the same place:

It’s big.
Its inside is also quiet.

They’re closely connected, so a comma is natural. You could also write them as two sentences:

这家饭店很大。里面也很安静。

Both are grammatically correct; the original just feels a bit more flowing and connected.