Learn Hardcore Chinese: xiànzài wǒ zhǐ xiǎng zài fángjiān lǐ ānjìng de xiūxi. - Right now I just want to rest quietly in my room.

Both are natural.
Putting 现在 at the very beginning emphasizes the time frame (“at this moment”). Putting it after 我 makes it sound a bit more neutral. You normally would not put 现在 at the very end of this sentence.

What exactly does 只 do here? Is it like “just” or “only”, and where can it go?

只 is an adverb meaning “only / just”, limiting what follows it.

In this sentence:

只 is placed before 想, so it means “only want to / just want to”.
It emphasizes that this is the only thing the speaker wants to do now.

Typical pattern: 只 + Verb or 只 + 想 + Verb.

If you move it:

我只在房间里安静地休息 → “The only place I rest quietly is in the room.” (now 只 limits the location, not the wanting)
我在房间里只想安静地休息 → still understandable, but the most common is 我只想… in this sentence.

What does 想 mean here? Is it “to think”, “to want”, or “to feel like”? Could I use 要 instead?

想 has several meanings, but here it means “to want to / to feel like (doing something)”, in a relatively soft, personal way.

我只想在房间里安静地休息。
→ “I just want to rest quietly in my room.”

If you used 要:

我只要在房间里安静地休息。 – sounds odd in this context.
我现在只要休息。 – can mean “The only thing I need now is rest”, but 要 often sounds stronger / more determined or about requirements.

For a gentle “I’d like to / I feel like”, 想 is the natural choice. 要 can sound like a demand or a plan, depending on context.

How does 在房间里 work? Why do we need both 在 and 里?

在 marks the location of an action.
里 means “inside”.

So:

在房间里 literally = “at (the) room inside” → “in the room”.

Patterns:

在 + place + (里/上/下/旁边…) + Verb
在房间里休息 → rest in the room.
在家里看电视 → watch TV at home.

You could say 在房间 (without 里) and people would still understand, but 在房间里 is more natural and clearly emphasizes inside the room.

What’s the difference between 房间 and 房间里?

房间 = “room” (the place itself, as a noun).
房间里 = “inside the room”.

When describing where an action happens, Chinese usually uses a location word such as 里, 外, 上, 下 etc.

So:

我在房间。 – colloquially okay, but feels a bit incomplete.
我在房间里。 – more standard: “I’m in the room.”

In this sentence, 在房间里安静地休息 clearly means “rest quietly inside the room.”

What does the particle 地 do after 安静? Why not just 安静休息?

地 is a structural particle used to turn an adjective (or some other word) into something that modifies a verb, similar to an English adverb.

Pattern:

Adjective + 地 + Verb
安静地休息 → “rest quietly”.

Without 地:

安静休息 is sometimes heard in casual speech or headlines, but grammatically 安静地休息 is more standard.
Without 地, 安静休息 can be read as two verbs in a row (“be quiet and rest”), which is slightly different.

What’s the difference between 安静地休息 and just 休息? Does 安静 mean “be quiet” or “quietly”?

休息 by itself = “rest / take a break”.
安静地休息 = “rest quietly / rest in a calm, quiet way”.

安静 by itself is typically an adjective: “quiet, peaceful”.
With 地 before a verb, it becomes an adverb-like modifier: “quietly”.

So:

安静！ – “Be quiet!”
安静的房间 – “a quiet room” (adjective + 的
- noun)
安静地休息 – “to rest quietly” (adjective + 地
- verb)

Here it describes how the resting is done.

Why is there no 是 in “安静地休息”? Why not something like 是安静地休息?

是 is a copula (linking verb) used mainly in patterns like:

A 是 B → “A is B.”
e.g. 他是老师。 – “He is a teacher.”

In 安静地休息, we don’t have “A is B”; we have an action plus a modifier:

休息 = the verb (to rest)
安静地 = how the action is carried out (quietly)

So you cannot insert 是 there. It would break the structure and sound ungrammatical. Think of 安静地休息 as one verb phrase: “to rest quietly.”

Could I drop 我 and just say: 现在只想在房间里安静地休息。?

Yes, in many contexts you can omit 我 if it’s clear you’re talking about yourself.

Chinese often omits the subject when it’s obvious from context, especially in conversation:

累死了，现在只想在房间里安静地休息。
→ “I’m exhausted; now (I) just want to rest quietly in my room.”

However, if it’s the first sentence of a conversation or you need to be very clear about who wants to rest, keeping 我 is better:
现在我只想在房间里安静地休息。

Why is there no word like “to” before 休息 (as in “want to rest”)?

Chinese doesn’t need a separate word like English “to” before verbs in this kind of structure.

Pattern:

想 + Verb → “want to do (Verb)”
只想休息 → “only want to rest”

Some common examples:

想吃 – want to eat
想睡觉 – want to sleep
想看书 – want to read

So 想休息 already means “want to rest”; there is no extra “to”-word in between.

Can I change the order to 现在我只想安静地在房间里休息? Is that still correct?

Yes, 现在我只想安静地在房间里休息 is grammatically correct and understandable.

Original: 现在我只想在房间里安静地休息。
→ [Time] [Subject] [only-want] [place] [manner] [verb]
Alternative: 现在我只想安静地在房间里休息。
→ [Time] [Subject] [only-want] [manner] [place] [verb]

Both are fine.
The original order (在房间里安静地休息) is more typical: place comes before manner in many textbooks and natural speech, but Chinese word order is somewhat flexible with adverbials like place and manner.

Is 休息 a verb or a noun here? How is it usually used?

In this sentence 休息 is a verb, meaning “to rest / to take a break”.

It can also be used as a noun in some contexts, but often it behaves like a verb:

我想休息。 – “I want to rest.”
休息一下。 – “Rest a bit / take a short break.”
休息时间 – “break time” (here it’s part of a noun phrase).

In 安静地休息, it’s clearly the main action: “(to) rest quietly.”

How do we know this is happening “right now” and not in the past or future? There’s no tense marker like 了.

Chinese doesn’t mark tense the same way English does; it relies heavily on time words and context.

Here, 现在 (“now”) sets the time frame. That’s enough to interpret it as present:

现在我只想在房间里安静地休息。
→ “Right now, I only want to rest quietly in my room.”

If you wanted to emphasize an ongoing action, you could say:

现在我在房间里安静地休息。 – “Right now I am resting quietly in my room.”
现在我正在房间里安静地休息。 – even stronger sense of “in the middle of doing it.”

But with 想, it’s already clearly about a current desire.