Learn Hardcore Chinese: Guò Chūnjié de shíhou, tā jiāli de qìfen tèbié wēnnuǎn. - During Spring Festival, the atmosphere in her home is especially warm.

春节的时候 – “during Spring Festival”, a bit more neutral.
过春节的时候 – “when (they) are celebrating Spring Festival”, emphasizing the period of celebration / activities.

So:

春节的时候，她家里的氣氛特别温暖。
= During Spring Festival, the atmosphere at her home is especially warm.
过春节的时候，她家里的氣氛特别温暖。
= During the time when they celebrate Spring Festival, the atmosphere at her home is especially warm. (Focus on celebrating.)

In everyday speech, both are natural; 过春节的时候 subtly highlights the festivities.

What is the function of 的时候 (de shíhou) here? Could we just say 过春节时 instead?

的时候 is a very common way to express “when / at the time of …”.

Structure:

[event / action] + 的时候 = “when … / at the time of …”

In this sentence:

过春节 – celebrating Spring Festival
过春节的时候 – “when (they are) celebrating Spring Festival”

You can say:

过春节时，她家里的氣氛特别温暖。

时 is a more formal / written and slightly more concise version of 时候. In daily speech, 的时候 is more natural; in writing (essays, articles), 时 is also common.

So:

Spoken / neutral: 过春节的时候 …
Slightly more formal / written: 过春节时 …

Why is there a 的 after 春节 and another 的 after 家里? What are those 的 doing?

In both cases, 的 is the structural particle that links a modifier to what it modifies.

过春节的时候
- 过春节 = celebrating Spring Festival (verbal phrase)
- 时候 = time / moment
- 过春节的时候 = “the time of celebrating Spring Festival”
  Here 的 connects the “action” (过春节) to the noun 时候.
家里的氣氛
- 家里 = inside the home / at home
- 氣氛 = atmosphere
- 家里的氣氛 = “the atmosphere in the home”
  Here 的 connects the place (家里) to the noun 氣氛.

So in both cases, 的 functions like “of / ’s” in English, turning what comes before it into an attributive (modifier) of what comes after.

Why 家里 (jiāli) and not just 家 (jiā)? What is the difference between 她家 and 她家里?

Both are common, but they highlight slightly different things:

她家
Literally “her home / her family / her household”.
It can refer to:
- her physical home, or
- her family as a unit.
她家里
Literally “inside her home / in her home”.
里 focuses on the inside / interior of a place.

In 她家里的氣氛特别温暖:

她家里的氣氛 = “the atmosphere inside her home / in her household”

You could also say:

过春节的时候，她家的氣氛特别温暖。

That is also natural. 家里 just makes the “inside the home” sense more explicit and vivid, like you’re picturing the interior of the house.

Why is there a 的 after 家里 but not 在她家里? Could we say 在她家里的氣氛?

The phrase in the sentence is:

她家里的氣氛 – “the atmosphere in her home”

Structure:

她家里 (her home, inside) + 的
- 氣氛 (atmosphere)

You can add 在 for a slightly different structure:

在她家里，氣氛特别温暖。
“At her home, the atmosphere is especially warm.”

But 在她家里的氣氛 is unusual because:

在 + place normally starts a location phrase (在她家里 = “at her home”) that modifies an action/state:
- 在她家里，大家吃饭。 – At her home, everybody eats.
- 在她家里很热闹。 – It’s lively at her home.

Turning 在她家里 into an attributive with 的 is not typical. So:

她家里的氣氛 – good
在她家里的氣氛 – generally avoid; sounds awkward.

Could we change the word order and say: 她家里的氣氛过春节的时候特别温暖。?

That word order is unnatural.

In Chinese, time expressions like 过春节的时候 usually go:

At the beginning of the sentence, or
Right before the verb / predicate.

Good options:

过春节的时候，她家里的氣氛特别温暖。
她家里的氣氛在过春节的时候特别温暖。

But 她家里的氣氛过春节的时候特别温暖 puts the time phrase in the middle without a preposition like 在, which feels grammatically broken.

If you want the time phrase after the subject phrase, add 在:

她家里的氣氛在过春节的时候特别温暖。

What is the difference between 特别 (tèbié) and 很 (hěn) here? Could we say 很温暖 instead of 特别温暖?

Yes, you can say 很温暖, but the nuance changes:

很温暖 – “very warm”, ordinary degree; also often just functions as a neutral link between subject and adjective.
特别温暖 – “especially warm / unusually warm”, stronger emphasis.

特别:

literally “special; especially”
degree adverb: 特别 + adjective

So:

她家里的氣氛很温暖。 – The atmosphere at her home is (very) warm.
她家里的氣氛特别温暖。 – The atmosphere at her home is especially warm (more than usual / more than elsewhere).

In this sentence, 特别 helps convey a stronger, more emotionally marked warmth around Spring Festival.

What is the nuance of 温暖 (wēnnuǎn)? How is it different from 热 (rè) or 暖和 (nuǎnhuo)?

All relate to warmth, but with different focus:

热 – hot (often physically hot, sometimes metaphorically for “popular”)
- 今天很热。 – It’s hot today.
暖和 – warm (often used for comfortable physical warmth)
- 屋子里很暖和。 – It’s nice and warm in the room.
温暖 – warm in both physical and especially emotional sense:
- 温暖的阳光 – warm sunlight
- 温暖的笑容 – warm smile
- 家的温暖 – the warmth of home (emotional)

In 氣氛特别温暖, 温暖 strongly suggests an emotionally warm, cozy, loving atmosphere, not just temperature.

How do you pronounce 氣氛 and what does it literally mean? Is it only used for “emotional atmosphere”?

氣氛 is pronounced qìfèn (4th tone on 分).

Meaning:

氣 – air, energy, “mood” in some contexts
氛 – atmosphere (as in “air around”)

Together, 氣氛 means “atmosphere” in the sense of:

the overall feeling / vibe in a place or situation.

Examples:

节日的氣氛 – festive atmosphere
紧张的氣氛 – tense atmosphere
浪漫的氣氛 – romantic atmosphere

It can describe:

emotional / social atmosphere (most common), and
more general “vibe” of a place or event.

Common measure word: 种 or 个

一种温暖的氣氛 – a warm kind of atmosphere
家的氣氛 – the family/home atmosphere (no measure word here because it’s modified directly).

Why is it 她家里 instead of 她的家里? When do you omit 的 with 她的?

For family members, close relationships, and one’s own home, Chinese often omit 的 when it’s clear whose it is and the phrase is short and familiar.

So:

她家 = 她的家
她妈妈 = 她的妈妈
我家 = 我的家
我哥哥 = 我的哥哥

In this sentence, 她家里 is very natural and idiomatic.
她的家里 is not wrong, but it sounds more formal or emphatic, and is less common here.

General rule of thumb:

Short, close relationships or “home”: often drop 的
Longer, more complex noun phrases: keep 的

Example:

她日本的老板 – Here you usually need 的 to avoid confusion.

Is 过春节的时候，她家里的氣氛特别温暖。 talking about a specific past event or a general habit?

By itself, the sentence is ambiguous in a natural way, similar to English “During Spring Festival, the atmosphere at her home is especially warm.”

It can mean:

A general, repeated situation
Every year when they celebrate Spring Festival, her home feels especially warm.
A specific past occasion
On that Spring Festival they celebrated, the atmosphere at her home was especially warm.

Chinese often leaves this to context. There is no explicit past-marker (了) or habitual word (每年, “every year”), so you infer it from surrounding sentences. If you want to make it clearly habitual, you could say:

每年过春节的时候，她家里的氣氛都特别温暖。
“Every year during Spring Festival, the atmosphere at her home is especially warm.”