Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā juéde huíshōu sùliào duì huánjìng bǎohù hěn zhòngyào. - He thinks recycling plastic is very important for environmental protection.

觉得 – “feel / think”
- Common, neutral, slightly subjective.
- 他觉得回收塑料很重要。
  “He feels/thinks recycling plastic is important.”
想 – “want / intend / think”
- Can mean “to think” but also “to want”.
- As “to think,” it’s more about mental activity, not necessarily an opinion statement:
  - 我在想这个问题。 “I’m thinking about this problem.”
- As “to want”:
  - 我想喝水。 “I want to drink water.”
认为 – “to consider / to hold the view that”
- More formal and rational, like giving a reasoned opinion:
  - 他认为回收塑料对环境保护很重要。
    “He considers/believes that recycling plastic is very important for environmental protection.”
以为 – “to think (but be mistaken)”
- Usually implies the thought is wrong or turns out to be wrong:
  - 我以为他不来了。 “I thought he wasn’t coming (but I was wrong).”

So 他觉得… is like casual “He thinks / He feels…”, without the strong “I’ve reasoned this out” tone of 认为, and without the “I was mistaken” nuance of 以为.

In English we say “He thinks that recycling plastic is very important…”. Where is the word “that” in the Chinese sentence? Is there a word for it?

Chinese usually does not use a separate word like English “that” to introduce a clause.

Structure here is:

他觉得 [回收塑料对环境保护很重要]
“He thinks [recycling plastic is very important for environmental protection].”

The part in brackets is just a full sentence used as the object of 觉得. There is no mandatory linking word like “that”.

You might see a pause or comma in writing or speech:

他觉得，回收塑料对环境保护很重要。
(comma shows the structure, but there is still no “that”-word)

So: there’s no hidden word for “that” here; Chinese simply allows a whole clause to follow 觉得 directly.

Why is there no verb like “to be” in “回收塑料对环境保护很重要”? Where is the equivalent of “is”?

Chinese often doesn’t need a separate “to be” verb when the predicate is an adjective.

Pattern:

Subject + (degree word) + Adjective

In this sentence:

Subject: 回收塑料 (“recycling plastic”)
Prepositional phrase: 对环境保护 (“for environmental protection”)
Predicate adjective: 很重要 (“very important”)

So the structure is:

回收塑料　对环境保护　很重要。
Recycling plastic (for environmental protection) very important.

There is no 是 here because:

With adjectives as predicates, Chinese normally does not say:
✗ 回收塑料对环境保护是很重要。 (unnatural)
Instead it uses the adjective directly:
✓ 回收塑料对环境保护很重要。

You can say …是很重要的 in some emphatic or more formal contexts:

回收塑料对环境保护是很重要的。
This adds emphasis and a slightly more “statement-like” tone, but the simple 没有是 form is the neutral default.

Does 很 (hěn) in 很重要 really mean “very” here, or is it just a grammatical link?

In everyday Chinese, 很 before an adjective like 重要 often has two roles at once:

Grammatical:
It makes the sentence sound natural.
- 回收塑料对环境保护重要。
  This is possible, but can sound a bit abrupt or contrastive (“important vs. not important”).
- 回收塑料对环境保护很重要。
  This sounds like a normal, neutral statement.
Meaning:
It often still carries some degree sense like “quite / very”, though in casual speech it may be weaker than English “very”.

So 很重要 usually means something like “(quite) important / very important”, but the “very” is not always strongly emphasized—it’s part grammatical smoothing, part degree.

What is the function of 对 (duì) in 对环境保护很重要? Can I leave it out?

Here 对 is a preposition roughly meaning “for / to / with regard to”.

A very common pattern is:

A 对 B 很/不/非常 + Adjective
= A is (Adj) for/to B.

Examples:

回收塑料对环境保护很重要。
“Recycling plastic is very important for environmental protection.”
这件事对我很重要。
“This matter is very important to me.”

If you omit 对环境保护 entirely:

回收塑料很重要。
“Recycling plastic is very important.” (important in general)

That’s fine, but you lose the explicit “for environmental protection” part.

If you keep 环境保护 but drop 对, the result is ungrammatical:

✗ 回收塑料环境保护很重要。 (wrong word order / missing relation)

So:

You may omit the whole phrase 对环境保护 if the context is clear.
You cannot just delete 对 and keep 环境保护 in the same position.

Another related pattern is:

对环境保护来说，回收塑料很重要。
“As far as environmental protection is concerned, recycling plastic is very important.”
Here 对…来说 = “for / from the perspective of”.

What’s the difference between 环境保护 and 保护环境? Are they interchangeable in this sentence?

Both include the same elements (环境 = environment, 保护 = protect / protection), but the grammar and feel differ:

保护环境 – verb + object (“to protect the environment”)
- Used when describing an action:
  - 我们要保护环境。
    “We must protect the environment.”
环境保护 – noun phrase / compound noun (“environmental protection”)
- Used more as a concept or field/topic, and often sounds more formal:
  - 环境保护很重要。
    “Environmental protection is important.”

In this sentence, you can say:

回收塑料对环境保护很重要。
回收塑料对保护环境很重要。

Both are correct and natural:

环境保护 sounds like “for the cause/goal of environmental protection (as a concept).”
保护环境 sounds like “for the action of protecting the environment.”

In many contexts they are practically interchangeable; 环境保护 is just a bit more “noun-like” and formal.

Is 回收 (huíshōu) a verb or a noun here? How does 回收塑料 work grammatically?

In this sentence, 回收 is functioning as a verb, meaning “to recycle / to reclaim”.

回收塑料 = “to recycle plastic” / “recycling plastic”

Grammatically:

回收 (verb) + 塑料 (noun object)
= a verb–object phrase.

Chinese often lets a verb–object phrase act as a subject (or topic) of the sentence:

回收塑料对环境保护很重要。
“Recycling plastic is very important for environmental protection.”
- Subject: 回收塑料
- Predicate: 对环境保护很重要

Other examples:

学汉语很有意思。
“Studying Chinese is very interesting.”
吃早饭对身体很好。
“Eating breakfast is very good for (your) health.”

So 回收塑料 is a verbal phrase functioning as the subject.

Why doesn’t 塑料 (sùliào) have a plural marker or a measure word here? How would I say “recycle plastic bottles” instead?

Chinese nouns normally:

Do not take plural “-s” endings, and
Only use measure words (classifiers) when a number or quantity word is specified.

Here 塑料 refers to “plastic (material)” in general, like an uncountable mass noun in English:

回收塑料 = “recycle plastic (as a material)”

No measure word is needed because we’re not counting units.

To say “plastic bottles”:

塑料瓶 (sùliào píng) = plastic bottles (type)
If you specify a number, add a measure word, e.g.:
- 一个塑料瓶 – one plastic bottle
- 几个塑料瓶 – a few plastic bottles
- 一些塑料瓶 – some plastic bottles

Example sentence:

他觉得回收塑料瓶对环境保护很重要。
“He thinks recycling plastic bottles is very important for environmental protection.”

Can I change the word order, like 他觉得对环境保护回收塑料很重要 or 他觉得对环境保护很重要回收塑料?

Those word orders are unnatural or wrong.

The normal structure is:

Subject (what is important):
- 回收塑料
Prepositional phrase with 对 (who/what it is important for/to):
- 对环境保护
Adjective predicate:
- 很重要

So the natural order is:

他觉得 回收塑料对环境保护很重要。

Alternative correct patterns include:

对环境保护来说，回收塑料很重要。
(“As far as environmental protection is concerned, recycling plastic is important.”)
他觉得回收塑料很重要，对环境保护特别有帮助。
(Rephrased, not the same grammar)

But these “shuffled” orders are wrong:

✗ 他觉得对环境保护回收塑料很重要。
✗ 他觉得对环境保护很重要回收塑料。

In general:

Subject comes first,
对 + Noun comes before the adjective it modifies,
You normally don’t separate 很重要 and its subject with extra material.

Could I just say 他觉得回收塑料很重要 and leave out 对环境保护? Would the meaning change?

Yes, you can say:

他觉得回收塑料很重要。

This is perfectly correct and means:

“He thinks recycling plastic is very important (in general).”

By removing 对环境保护, you make the sentence more general. It no longer explicitly says for environmental protection, though listeners will often infer that from context.

So:

With 对环境保护: explicitly “for environmental protection”.
Without it: simply “is important” (the basis of importance is left implicit).

他 (tā) is written “he” in English translation. How would I know from the spoken sentence whether it means “he” or “she”?

In spoken Mandarin, 他 (he), 她 (she), and 它 (it) are all pronounced the same: tā (first tone).

他 – he (written with the “person” radical)
她 – she (written with the “female” radical)
它 – it (often used for things/animals)

When you hear the sentence:

他觉得回收塑料对环境保护很重要。

you only hear tā, so it could mean he or she (or “that person”) depending on context. Only the writing distinguishes 他 vs 她 vs 它.

So in conversation, you rely on who you are talking about, not on pronunciation, to know the gender.