Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒ juéde bǎohù huánjìng duì dàjiā dōu hěn zhòngyào. - I think protecting the environment is very important for everyone.

In Chinese grammar terms, 保护环境 is the subject/topic, 对大家 is a prepositional phrase (indicating for whom), and 很重要 is the adjectival predicate (“very important”), with 都 adding the sense of “all”.

So the pattern is:

[Subject] + 对 + [affected people/thing] + 很 + [adjective]
保护环境 + 对大家 + 很重要
“Protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”

Why is there no word like “is” in the Chinese sentence?

Chinese usually doesn’t need a separate “to be” verb (like is/are) before adjectives.

In English: is important → “to be” + adjective
In Chinese: just 很重要 → degree adverb + adjective

So:

保护环境对大家都很重要。
Literally: “Protect environment, toward everyone, all very important.”

The adjective 重要 itself acts like a verb (“to be important”). The 很 is a degree word, not “is”. In most cases with adjectives as predicates, you simply do:

Subject + 很 + Adjective
这个问题很重要。 – “This question is important.”

Why do we need 很 before 重要? Can I say …对大家都重要 instead?

很 literally means “very”, but in this kind of sentence it often acts as a link between the subject and the adjective, and doesn’t always sound as strong as English “very”.

Traditional explanation:
If you say A 很 adj, it’s a neutral description (“A is adj”).
If you say A adj without a degree word, it often sounds like an emphatic comparison (“A is really adj (as opposed to not adj)”).

So:

对大家都很重要。 – natural and neutral: “is (very) important for everyone.”
对大家都重要。 – grammatically possible, but in many situations it can sound more emphatic or contrastive, or just a bit abrupt/unnatural for learners.

In everyday speech, native speakers sometimes drop 很 in casual contexts, but as a learner it’s safer and more natural to keep 很 after a subject before an adjective:

Subject + 很 + Adjective
这本书很有意思。 – “This book is interesting.”

What exactly does 觉得 mean, and how is it different from 想 and 认为?

觉得 means “to feel / to think” in the sense of a personal opinion or impression.

我觉得… – “I think / I feel that…” (quite neutral, very common in speech)

Compared with other verbs:

想
- Core meaning: “to think / to want / to miss”
- As “think”, it often has a sense of “to consider / to plan / to want to do something”.
- 我想去中国。 – “I want to go to China.”
- 我在想一个问题。 – “I’m thinking about a question.”
Using 我想保护环境对大家都很重要 is understandable, but it slightly shifts the feeling to “I suppose / I reckon / I’m thinking that…”, and is less natural than 我觉得 in this opinion statement.
认为
- More formal, often used in written or serious spoken language.
- Stronger, more reasoned judgement: “to hold the view that / to consider that”.
- 我认为保护环境非常重要。 – “I consider protecting the environment extremely important.”

So in this sentence, 我觉得… is the most natural, everyday way to say “I think that…”.

What does 对 do in this sentence? Why use 对 here?

Here 对 introduces the group affected by the importance:

A 对 B 很重要
“A is very important to/for B.”

So:

保护环境对大家都很重要。
“Protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”

In this pattern, 对 is similar to English “to/for” in phrases like:

“important to me”
“important for society”

More examples:

这个决定对公司很重要。
“This decision is very important for the company.”
睡觉对身体健康很重要。
“Sleep is very important for (one’s) health.”

So 对 marks the “target” or “receiver” of that importance.

Can I use 给 or 为 instead of 对 here?

In this exact pattern, 对 is the natural choice. The direct replacements sound unnatural or wrong:

✗ 保护环境给大家都很重要。 – incorrect in standard Mandarin.
✗ 保护环境为大家都很重要。 – unnatural; 为 doesn’t work like this.

However, 给 and 为 can be used in related but different structures:

为大家保护环境很重要。
Literally “It is very important to protect the environment for everyone / on everyone’s behalf.”
But this put 为大家 as part of the verb phrase “protect (for everyone) the environment”, not as “important to everyone”.
给大家带来好处。 – “bring benefits to everyone.”
Here 给 marks the recipient of an action, not the target of “important”.

For “X is important for Y”, the standard and most natural pattern is:

X 对 Y 很重要。

What does 大家都 mean together? Why is 都 after 大家?

大家 means “everyone / everybody”.
都 means “all / both / all of them”.

When you put them together:

大家都… – “everyone all …”, effectively “everyone (all of them) …”

In 对大家都很重要, 都 is placed after 大家, the word it refers to:

对大家都很重要 – “is very important to all (of) everyone.”

The placement rule:

都 normally comes after the subject/pronoun it quantifies:
- 我们都觉得… – “We all think…”
- 他们都来了。 – “They all came.”
- 孩子们都很开心。 – “The children are all happy.”

Here, the logical subject is 保护环境; 大家都 is part of the 对大家都 phrase, indicating “to everyone (all of us)”. You can think of it as:

对 + 大家都 + 很重要
“to everyone (all), very important”

Is 都 really necessary here? What changes if I remove it?

You can say either:

保护环境对大家都很重要。
保护环境对大家很重要。

Both are acceptable and understandable.

Nuance:

With 都: it slightly emphasizes the “all without exception” idea:
- “Protecting the environment is very important for everyone (each and every one of us).”
Without 都: still means “for everyone”, because 大家 already means “everyone”; it just feels a bit less emphatic.

In many real-life situations, the difference is small. Using 大家都 is very common and sounds natural and slightly more emphatic.

Is 保护环境 a verb or a noun here? Why doesn’t it use something like “-ing” or 的?

Grammatically, 保护 is a verb (“to protect”), and 环境 is its object (“environment”). Together 保护环境 is a verb-object phrase.

But in this sentence, 保护环境 functions like an English gerund/noun phrase “protecting the environment”.

Chinese often uses a bare verb(-object) phrase where English would use “-ing” or “to …”:

抽烟对身体不好。 – “Smoking is bad for your health.”
喝水对皮肤好。 – “Drinking water is good for your skin.”
学习汉语对工作很有帮助。 – “Studying Chinese is very helpful for (your) work.”

You can turn it more explicitly into a noun phrase by adding 的, for example:

保护环境的行为对大家都很重要。
“Actions of protecting the environment are very important for everyone.”

But in everyday speech, short forms like 保护环境对大家都很重要 are more natural and fluent.

Why don’t we say 是 somewhere, like 保护环境是对大家很重要的?

You can make a sentence like:

保护环境是对大家很重要的。

This is grammatically possible, but:

It sounds more formal or written.
The pattern 是…的 often adds emphasis or explanatory/narrative “it is/was … that…” feeling.
In modern everyday speech, people usually don’t insert 是 when an adjective predicate already works fine.

The simplest, most natural spoken form is:

保护环境对大家都很重要。

If you want a more formally balanced version, you could also say:

对大家来说，保护环境是很重要的。
“For everyone, protecting the environment is very important.”

But for general use, the original is already perfect and idiomatic.

Can I change the word order to 我觉得对大家保护环境都很重要?

That word order is not natural and is usually considered incorrect.

The standard pattern is:

A 对 B 很 adj – “A is very adj to/for B.”

So here:

A = 保护环境
B = 大家

If you move 对大家 in front of 保护环境, you break that clear pattern and make the sentence confusing; it sounds like “toward everyone, protecting the environment is all very important” but the grammar no longer follows a common template.

Correct options:

我觉得保护环境对大家都很重要。 – most natural.
在我看来，保护环境对大家都很重要。 – “In my view, protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”
我觉得，对大家来说，保护环境都很重要。 – possible, but with a slight pause after 我觉得.

Keep 保护环境 (the “thing that is important”) before 对大家 (the group for whom it’s important).

Does 环境 only mean “the natural environment,” or can it mean other kinds of environment too?

环境 is a general word meaning “environment” or “surroundings”. It can refer to:

Natural environment:
- 保护环境 – “protect the (natural) environment”
- 环境污染 – “environmental pollution”
Surroundings / setting:
- 学习环境 – “learning environment”
- 工作环境 – “work environment”
Social / living environment:
- 生活环境 – “living environment”
- 成长环境 – “the environment in which someone grows up”

In the sentence 保护环境对大家都很重要, most readers will first think of the natural environment, but depending on context it could also be understood more broadly as our overall living environment.

How do we know this sentence is present tense (“is important”) and not past or future?

Chinese verbs and adjectives usually do not change form for tense. There is no direct equivalent of English -ed, -s, -will, etc.

Time is understood from:

Context
Time words (昨天, 现在, 明天, 将来, etc.)
Aspect particles (了, 过, 着) when needed

Here, there are no time markers, and the statement is a general truth, so it’s interpreted like English simple present:

“Protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”

You could make time explicit if needed:

现在保护环境对大家都很重要。
“Right now, protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”
将来保护环境对大家会更重要。
“In the future, protecting the environment will be even more important for everyone.”

Can I leave out 我觉得 and just say 保护环境对大家都很重要?

Yes.

保护环境对大家都很重要。
“Protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”

This becomes a direct statement of fact, rather than “I think that…”. Adding 我觉得 makes it explicitly your personal opinion:

我觉得保护环境对大家都很重要。
“I think protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”

Both are correct; which one you choose depends on whether you want to mark it as your viewpoint or as a general assertion.

Are there other common ways to express “I think protecting the environment is very important for everyone” in Chinese?

Yes, several alternatives with slightly different tone:

我认为保护环境对大家都很重要。
More formal/serious: “I consider protecting the environment very important for everyone.”
在我看来，保护环境对大家都很重要。
“In my view, protecting the environment is very important for everyone.”
Sounds thoughtful, slightly formal but common in speech.
我觉得保护环境对我们每个人都很重要。
“I think protecting the environment is very important for each one of us.”
Emphasizes each individual by 我们每个人.

All of these follow similar grammar to the original sentence and are good to know as variations.