<p>Both work here but are subtly different, in many situations they are not interchangable. (It helps me to remember that in most of chinese they are pronounced completely differently, and the mixing up of the three &quot;de&quot; is completely a modern mandarin problem).</p>
<p>Difference is something like &quot;He is so sad he began to sob.&quot; vs &quot;He started very sadly sobbing.&quot;</p>
<p>So, in this situation they are almost the same in meaning.  They are different structures though (◐‿◑)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-01T22:49:25.607Z
2023-10-01T22:49:25.607Z
zagrycha
<p>Both OK.</p>
<p>Something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>他很難過得哭起來了 = 他很难过,所以哭了.</p>
</li>
<li><p>他很難過地哭起來了 = 他哭得很难过.</p>
</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-01T15:08:32.867Z
2023-10-01T15:08:32.867Z
Pedroski
<p>I'll add one remark here. Notice the original question is about &quot;很難過得哭起來&quot; vs &quot;很難過地哭起來&quot;. If we drop 很 in both phrases then as others have remarked both are grammatical. However, if an adjective has already been modified by a degree adverb like 很, then it normally cannot be modified by another degree complement (程度补语) such as &quot;得哭了起来&quot;. This would be considered redundancy. Hence only &quot;很難過地哭起來&quot; is grammatical, while &quot;很難過得哭起來&quot; feels completely unnatural to me.</p>
<p>To confirm this we can compare the occurrences of these phrases in corpus. I will use the BCC corpus literary text database.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%9C%B0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">很难过地</a> -- 18 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%BE%97" rel="nofollow noreferrer">很难过得</a> -- 0 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E6%9C%89%E7%82%B9%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%9C%B0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">有点难过地</a> -- 3 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E6%9C%89%E7%82%B9%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%BE%97" rel="nofollow noreferrer">有点难过得</a> -- 0 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%8D%81%E5%88%86%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%9C%B0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">十分难过地</a> -- 4 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%8D%81%E5%88%86%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%BE%97" rel="nofollow noreferrer">十分难过得</a> -- 0 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E5%BC%80%E5%BF%83%E5%9C%B0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">很开心地</a> -- 19 hits</li>
<li><a href="https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E5%BC%80%E5%BF%83%E5%BE%97" rel="nofollow noreferrer">很开心得</a> -- 0 hits</li>
</ul>
<p>You can clearly see that while (degree adverb) + (adjective) + 地 is often used to modify verbs, the pattern (degree adverb) + (adjective) + 得 + (degree complement) is almost never used.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-12T05:21:45.527Z
how come you know so much chinese?
ronald christenkkson
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-12T05:18:49.630Z
2023-12-12T05:18:49.630Z
user2249675
<p>I've made a few modifications to the sentence to show the differences between the two.</p>
<ol>
<li>sense/act + 得 + outcome</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>他難過&quot;得&quot;哭了起來&quot; = He <strong>felt bad</strong> and started to cry. (&quot;哭了起來&quot; is a result of the feeling &quot;難過&quot;.)</li>
</ul>
<ol start="2">
<li>adj + 地 + v (note: &quot;adj + 地&quot; = &quot;adverb&quot;)</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>他&quot;難過地&quot;哭起來了 = He started to cry <strong>sadly</strong>. (&quot;難過地&quot; is an adverb that modifies the verb &quot;哭&quot;.)</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-02T02:44:10.390Z
2023-10-02T02:44:10.390Z
r13
<ol>
<li><p>他很難過<strong>得</strong>哭起來了</p>
</li>
<li><p>他很難過<strong>地</strong>哭起來了</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Which one is correct? 1 makes sense because 得 is describing the extent of how 難過 he is, but 2 also seems to make sense because 地 is just before the verb 哭. So I'm really confused about this. Thanks.</p>

<grammar><word-choice><difference><sentence-structure>
Difference between 地 and 得 in 他很難過[得/地]哭起來了
# Difference between 地 and 得 in 他很難過[得/地]哭起來了

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-10-01)

1. 他很難過**得**哭起來了
2. 他很難過**地**哭起來了

Which one is correct? 1 makes sense because 得 is describing the extent of how 難過 he is, but 2 also seems to make sense because 地 is just before the verb 哭. So I'm really confused about this. Thanks.

**Tags:** grammar, word-choice, difference, sentence-structure

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-10-02. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

I've made a few modifications to the sentence to show the differences between the two.

1. sense/act + 得 + outcome

* 他難過"得"哭了起來" = He **felt bad** and started to cry. ("哭了起來" is a result of the feeling "難過".)

2. adj + 地 + v (note: "adj + 地" = "adverb")

* 他"難過地"哭起來了 = He started to cry **sadly**. ("難過地" is an adverb that modifies the verb "哭".)


---

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-10-01. Score: 1

Both work here but are subtly different, in many situations they are not interchangable. (It helps me to remember that in most of chinese they are pronounced completely differently, and the mixing up of the three "de" is completely a modern mandarin problem).

Difference is something like "He is so sad he began to sob." vs "He started very sadly sobbing."

So, in this situation they are almost the same in meaning. They are different structures though (◐‿◑)


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-10-01. Score: 0

Both OK.

Something like this:

1. 他很難過得哭起來了 = 他很难过,所以哭了.
2. 他很難過地哭起來了 = 他哭得很难过.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-12-12. Score: 0

I'll add one remark here. Notice the original question is about "很難過得哭起來" vs "很難過地哭起來". If we drop 很 in both phrases then as others have remarked both are grammatical. However, if an adjective has already been modified by a degree adverb like 很, then it normally cannot be modified by another degree complement (程度补语) such as "得哭了起来". This would be considered redundancy. Hence only "很難過地哭起來" is grammatical, while "很難過得哭起來" feels completely unnatural to me.

To confirm this we can compare the occurrences of these phrases in corpus. I will use the BCC corpus literary text database.

* [很难过地](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%9C%B0) -- 18 hits
* [很难过得](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%BE%97) -- 0 hits
* [有点难过地](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E6%9C%89%E7%82%B9%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%9C%B0) -- 3 hits
* [有点难过得](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E6%9C%89%E7%82%B9%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%BE%97) -- 0 hits
* [十分难过地](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%8D%81%E5%88%86%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%9C%B0) -- 4 hits
* [十分难过得](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%8D%81%E5%88%86%E9%9A%BE%E8%BF%87%E5%BE%97) -- 0 hits
* [很开心地](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E5%BC%80%E5%BF%83%E5%9C%B0) -- 19 hits
* [很开心得](https://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%BE%88%E5%BC%80%E5%BF%83%E5%BE%97) -- 0 hits

You can clearly see that while (degree adverb) + (adjective) + 地 is often used to modify verbs, the pattern (degree adverb) + (adjective) + 得 + (degree complement) is almost never used.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: how come you know so much chinese?  

---

