Breakdown of jīntiān jiāotōng zhème yōngjǐ, wǒ bù xiǎng kāichē.
我wǒ
I
不bù
not
今天jīntiān
today
想xiǎng
to want to
Questions & Answers about jīntiān jiāotōng zhème yōngjǐ, wǒ bù xiǎng kāichē.
Why is there no verb like “to be” in 今天交通这么拥挤? In English we’d say “The traffic is so crowded today.”
In Chinese, adjectives can directly function as predicates without using 是.
So:
- 今天交通这么拥挤
- literally: “Today traffic so crowded”
- understood as: “The traffic is so crowded today.”
If you added 是 here (✗ 今天交通是这么拥挤), it would sound unnatural.
是 is usually used to link nouns or pronouns, e.g.:
- 他是老师。 – He is a teacher.
- 今天是星期五。 – Today is Friday.
When an adjective like 拥挤 (crowded), 贵 (expensive), 冷 (cold) describes something, you normally don’t use 是 before it:
- 今天交通很拥挤。 – The traffic is very crowded today.
- 天气很冷。 – The weather is cold.
What exactly does 这么 mean here, and how is it different from 很?
Here 这么 means “so / this (much) / like this” and expresses a strong degree of the adjective 拥挤:
- 这么拥挤 – “so crowded / this crowded”
Compared with 很:
- 很拥挤 – “very crowded” (a fairly neutral “very”)
- 这么拥挤 – “so crowded (like this, to this extent)”
Often implies surprise, complaint, or emphasis.
So:
- 今天交通这么拥挤 feels like: “The traffic is so crowded today!” (complaining tone).
- 今天交通很拥挤 is more neutral: “The traffic is very crowded today.”